How to increase your chances of survival

In 2024, 45% of CEOs believe their business will not be viable in ten years’ time if it stays on its current path (PwC).

What can organisations do to stay in the viable 55%? 

My recent conversations with executives suggest that there are few clear answers. Organisations are struggling to reinvent themselves, retain talent, successfully adopt AI, hold a hybrid workforce together and boost productivity to keep pace with the competition. These issues are intertwined, and few leaders have the perspective to tackle them effectively.

In response, this month’s Acumen zooms out to look at the big picture. What are the key shifts coming to work and organisations in 2024, and what do they mean for you?

CADENCE CURATION

Watch: Josh Bersin’s 2024 Predictions – What’s Coming for the Workforce, Organizations, and HR | 1-hour webinar 

OR Read: HR Predictions for 2024: The Global Search For Productivity | 6-minute read

Josh Bersin is a leading thinker on talent, learning and HR trends. This one-hour webinar is pure gold for anyone wanting to deep-dive into the major changes coming to organisations in 2024 and beyond.

Key takeaways:

• Many C-level leaders are still operating in what Bersin calls the Industrial Age — hiring to grow, then laying people off when things slow down. To survive, they need to switch strategy to hoarding talent, investing in productivity, and redeveloping and redeploying people for growth. 
• Successful companies in 2024 will be even more focused on building employee retention through talent marketplaces, coaching, skills-based development, job redesign and learning in the flow of work.
• Going forward, productivity is paramount. CEOs looking for revenue growth, market share, profitability and sustainability need to automate fast and double down on productivity to compensate for hiring challenges.

CADENCE TOOLKIT

For Josh Bersin, productivity is the new driver for organisations looking to reinvent faster than the competition. Bersin terms this new strategy ‘The Productivity Advantage’. 

Use these four areas of reflection to explore how you could implement the Productivity Advantage in your company.

1. Where are our inefficiencies?
How much time do you estimate is spent on inefficient activities and processes within your organisation? Which of them are good candidates for optimisation? Examples could be email overload, lengthy procurement procedures, information-sharing meetings and hiring processes.

2. Where are our opportunities for AI and automation?
What are the areas within your organisation where finding information quickly, identifying trends, training employees, and streamlining documentation and workflows could have the most impact on productivity?

3. How can we grow without hiring?
What internal development initiatives, retooling efforts or automation projects can you use to support your growth without relying on external recruitment?

4. Where is our inertia and resistance?
What barriers to change and innovation are you currently facing? How can you simplify processes, reduce unnecessary meetings and clarify decision-making to accelerate change and reinvention?

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

What’s the elephant in the (meeting) room that you need to address this month? A warning against 2024 becoming a year of magical thinking!