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2021 Deloitte South Africa Human Capital Trends
The social enterprise
in a world disrupted
Leading the shift from survive to thrive
1
2021 DELOITTE SOUTH AFRICA HUMAN CAPITAL TRENDS
The social enterprise in a world disrupted: Leading the shift from survive to thrive
All views expressed in this publication are those of the contributors. They should not be attributed to Deloitte Consulting, its directors,
employees, parent company or affiliates. Deloitte Consulting is not endorsing the views of the contributing companies or their
representatives and nothing in this publication should be construed otherwise
2021 Deloitte South Africa Human Capital Trends
Contents
Foreword ............................................................................................................................................. 4
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 7
Diving Deepr: Five workforce trends to watch in 2021 ................................................................................ 2
Designing work for well-being ............................................................................................... 4
Beyond reskilling .................................................................................................................. 10
Governing workforce strategies ........................................................................................... 20
A memo to HR ...................................................................................................................... 26
Leading forward .................................................................................................................... 35
Appendix: Survey demographics ....................................................................................................... 43
End Notes .......................................................................................................................................... 48
About the authors ............................................................................................................................. 49
External contributors ........................................................................................................................ 52
Contacts............................................................................................................................................. 53
3
The social enterprise in a world disrupted: Leading the shift from survive to thrive
Foreword
I
n our 2020 South Africa human capital trends For this year’s report we partnered with some of
report entitled The Social Enterprise at work: our own South African CHROs and included their
Paradox as a path forward, we challenged contributions. Our engagements with the CHROs
organisations to re-examine whether humanity provided real experiences and unique insights into
and technology were truly in conflict and consider their organisations and understanding how they
how it is possible to resolve the seeming paradox operate as true social enterprises. Thank you for
of finding ways to remain distinctly human in a sharing your experiences and insights:
technology-driven world. During 2020, we have • Tswelopele Kodisang
seen how the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated Group People Officer: Discovery
the speed and scale of shifting to leveraging • Jeanett Modise
technologies practically for humans to engage, Chief Executive Group Human
collaborate and operate as a true social enterprise. Resources: Sanlam Group
• Bertina Engelbrecht
The world has changed – and so has our approach Group HR Director: Clicks Group
to Deloitte’s South Africa human capital trends • Matimba Mbungela
research. Our 2021 report focuses on Chief Human Resources Officer:
understanding what characteristics can support Vodacom Group
organisations in their shift from survive to thrive • Dr. Liziwe Masoga
by revisiting a subset of key trends from the 2020 Chief HR Officer: Massmart
research, as well as critical strategies to help
leaders prepare for – and thrive – in the face of
We hope that our readers find our 2021 South
future disruptions.
Africa Human Capital Trends Report titled: The
social enterprise in a world disrupted: Leading the
shift from survive to thrive, insightful as we shift
from survive to thrive.
Pam Maharaj
Director: Human Capital Leader Africa
pammaharaj@deloitte.co.za
+27 (0)82 458 2518
Fortune Gamanya
Associate Director: Human Capital
fgamanya@deloitte.co.za
+27 (0)73 465 6615
2021 Deloitte South Africa Human Capital Trends
INTRODUCTION
The social enterprise in a world disrupted
5
The social enterprise in a world disrupted: Leading the shift from survive to thrive
2021 Deloitte South Africa Human Capital Trends
Introduction
The social enterprise in a world disrupted
MAKING THE SHIFT FROM “SURVIVE TO THRIVE” DEPENDS ON AN
ORGANISATION BECOMING DISTINCTLY HUMAN AT ITS CORE—A
DIFFERENT WAY OF BEING THAT APPROACHES EVERY QUESTION, EVERY
ISSUE, AND EVERY DECISION FROM A HUMAN ANGLE FIRST.
I
N 2020, COVID-19 forced organisations the world imposes; it’s about doing what’s
around the world to enact radically new ways necessary to succeed today.
of working and operating amid the pandemic’s The pursuit of thriving, in contrast, orients
human and economic impacts. Organisations had organisations toward welcoming each new reality
to respond to a sudden, unforeseen crisis whose and using it to reimagine norms and assumptions
rapidly changing nature confounded efforts to in ways that were not possible before. A thrive
predict and plan for events. The pandemic brought mindset recognises that disruption is continuous
into sharp relief the pitfalls of strategies that rather than episodic and embraces disruption as a
envision moving from point A to point B on a static catalyst to drive the organisation forward.
path, and that assume that one has years, not Organisations with a thrive mindset aim to create
months or weeks, in which to rethink outdated new realities that they choose for themselves; it’s
views and establish a new set of truths. As we all about doing what’s possible, not just to succeed
learned the hard way, in an environment that can today, but also to dominate tomorrow.
shift from moment to moment, the paths and time
frames to achieving one’s goals must shift as well.
It is our view that the shift from survive to thrive
depends on an organisation becoming—and
Having a plan to deal with the unexpected, as remaining—distinctly human at its core. This is not
important as it is, isn’t all organisations need in just a different way of thinking and acting. It is a
such an environment. Even more necessary is to different way of being, one that approaches every
make a fundamental mindset shift: from a focus on question, every issue, and every decision from a
surviving to the pursuit of thriving. human angle first. This is a mandate for growth.
In a world of perpetual disruption, a focus on Today’s environment of extreme dynamism calls
surviving restricts one’s aspirations to accepting for a degree of courage, judgment, and flexibility
each new reality and working within it to that only humans and teams led by humans can
accomplish what an organisation has always done. bring. A predictable world can be effectively dealt
with by algorithms and equations. A messy world
A survival mindset views disruptions as point-in- cannot, even in an age of increasingly intelligent
time crises to be addressed with the expectation machines.
that the organisation will revert to “business as
usual” once the crises are over. Organisations with Being distinctly human at the core is the essence of
a survival mindset aim to deal with the reality that what it means to be a social enterprise. To combine
revenue growth and profit-making with respect
7
The social enterprise in a world disrupted: Leading the shift from survive to thrive
and support for its environment and stakeholder importance of organising work to facilitate rapid
network, an organisation needs to ground itself in decision-making and nearly three times more
a set of human principles: purpose and meaning, ready to leverage worker adaptability and mobility
ethics and fairness, growth and passion, to navigate future disruptions.
collaboration and relationships, and transparency While it may not be obvious, these last findings
and openness. highlight that organisational preparedness hinges
on the ability to bring human strengths such as
decision-making and adaptability to the fore, not
just during a point-in-time crisis, but continually.
Preparedness stems from a
It means perpetually cultivating resilience,
“thrive” mindset courage, judgment, and flexibility in order to
navigate a turbulent reality. And it means taking
the creativity unleashed by the need to survive a
In the 2021 Deloitte South Africa Human Capital
crisis—the creativity that is a hallmark of being
Trends report, we set out to understand what
human—and using it to reinvent the organization
characteristics can support organisations in the
and its future. COVID-19 proved that people and
shift from survive to thrive. We started our
organisations are capable of tremendous growth
exploration by asking a paradoxical question: How
under the pressure of a crisis. The challenge for
can organisations position themselves to thrive
many will be to sustain that momentum to
when they are focused on making the changes
discover new ways to thrive in the long term, even
necessary to survive?
as disruption constantly resets the path forward.
To find out, we surveyed South African
professionals occupying roles as Board Members, Elevating the “human” in
C-Suite, Executives including CHROs and Senior human capital
Management across various industries and sectors.
We asked them about their experiences since the
pandemic began, seeking to understand how the In contrast to the idea that disruption can be a
crisis affected the way they viewed organisational catalyst for reinvention, many human capital
preparedness, the challenges and opportunities topics, and particularly those we’re exploring in
they expected to face in future disruptions, and more depth in this report, have traditionally been
their plans for approaching work transformation approached through discrete programmes and
strategies moving forward. initiatives. As organisations make the shift from
survive to thrive, these solutions need to become
Adding to these experiences, we interviewed a dynamic so that they can better support the human
number of South African CHROs to understand strengths that enable the broader organisation to
their specific experiences over the last year and flourish. In the following chapters, we dive deeper
have included their insights in this year’s report. into five topics we wrote about in our 2020
Deloitte South Africa Human Capital Trends
From this research, we learned that the
report to further explore how organisations can
organisations that were best prepared for the
bring out the human strengths that make
COVID-19 crisis were already adopting a “thrive”
organisational thriving possible:
mindset of using disruption as an opportunity to
propel the organisation forward. The 15% of
executives who said that their organisation was • Integrating workers’ physical, mental,
“very prepared” for the pandemic were 2.2 times financial, and social health into the
more likely to pivot investments for changing design of work itself rather than
business demands. The “very prepared” group was addressing well-being with adjacent
also twice as likely to use technology to transform programmes. Embedding well-being into
work. And most importantly, those who were “very work design helps workers experience well-
prepared” were twice as likely to recognise the
2021 Deloitte South Africa Human Capital Trends
being while they do their work, not just when • Developing and acting on forward-
they’re away from it. looking insights using real-time data to
harness workforce potential.
Understanding the workforce is the first step
• Capitalising on worker agency and
to aligning their behaviour with organisational
choice as the means to drive learning,
objectives in ways that recognise workers’
adaptability, and impact. Giving workers
needs, develop their capabilities, and respect
more control over what work they do and
their values and those of the organisation.
what learning experiences to pursue can
increase their engagement because it allows
them to focus their efforts on things that truly • Shifting HR’s role from standardising
matter to them. and enforcing workforce policies to a
new responsibility of re-architecting
• Creating teams and superteams that
work across the enterprise. For an
use technology to enhance natural
organisation to truly become human at its
human ways of working. The thoughtful
core, HR must take the lead in embedding
use of technology makes it possible to change
human considerations into every aspect of
the nature of work so that it makes the most of
work, collaborating with business and other
people’s distinctly human capabilities.
functional leaders to reimagine the what, why,
who, and how of work across the entire
organisation.
3
The social enterprise in a world disrupted: Leading the shift from survive to thrive
DIVING DEEPER
Five workforce trends to watch in 20212021 Deloitte South Africa Human Capital Trends 3
The social enterprise in a world disrupted: Leading the shift from survive to thrive
Designing work for well-being
The end of work/life balance
WHILE EXECUTIVES HAVE LONG RECOGNISED THAT WELL-BEING IS IMPORTANT, THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
BROUGHT HOME HOW SIGNIFICANT IT REALLY IS. ORGANISATIONS SUDDENLY FOUND THEMSELVES CALLED
UPON TO PRIORITISE WORKERS’ PHYSICAL AND MENTAL WELL-BEING AS A MATTER OF SURVIVAL, AS PROTECTING
THEIR HEALTH AND ALLEVIATING THEIR STRESS BECAME CRITICAL TO OPERATIONS. WORK AND LIFE, HEALTH,
SAFETY, AND WELL-BEING BECAME INSEPARABLE. RECOGNISING THE INEXTRICABLE LINK AMONG OUR WELL-
BEING, OUR WORK, AND OUR LIVES HAS LED MORE ORGANISATIONS TO THINK DEEPLY ABOUT WAYS THEY CAN
DESIGN WELL-BEING INTO WORK ITSELF SO THAT BOTH WORKERS AND THE ORGANISATION CAN THRIVE MOVING
FORWARD.
Shifting realities
Well-being was rising on the organisational agenda workers healthy: moving workers into remote
even before the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, well- work arrangements, implementing testing and
being was the top-ranked trend for importance in contact tracing strategies for onsite workers, and
our 2020 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends establishing new programmes for emergency
study, with 80% of our nearly 9,000 survey medical leave, childcare and eldercare support,
respondents identifying it as important or very and physical, mental, and financial health.
important to their organisation’s success. Against
that backdrop, when COVID-19 took hold, the As the pandemic went on, well-being remained
crisis cast new light on the importance of well- paramount in organisational leaders’ minds.
being and made us acutely aware of the Conversations about the toll of social isolation and
consequences when well-being is put at risk. economic recession on workers’ mental and
Organisations took quick action to redirect emotional health entered the public dialogue and
resources towards making work safe and keeping keeping workers physically healthy and safe2021 Deloitte South Africa Human Capital Trends
continued to be a top priority. Some organisations us that their organisation’s shift to remote work
took extraordinary measures to safeguard worker had a positive impact on well-being. However, the
well-being: Delta Air Lines, for example, allowed sustainability of remote ways of working continues
5,000 workers at higher risk for COVID-19 to stay to come into question as many parts of the world
at home during the pandemic, with full pay and faced a second wave of COVID-19–related
medical benefits.1 lockdowns. ‘
The importance of work design in supporting
In August 2020, Jen Fisher, Deloitte US’s chief
remote work arrangements going forward has
well-being officer, posted a LinkedIn message that
come to the fore at many organisations. When we
asked leaders to share the strategies and practices
asked surveyed executives what factors were most
they were piloting to influence well-being in their
important to sustaining remote work, they
organisations. The post, which garnered more than
overwhelmingly chose options related to the
500 reactions and 200 comments in a few days,
design of work (figure 1). Programmes adjacent to
revealed an expanding organisational focus on
work, such as enhanced corporate benefits and
well-being. Leaders of organisations, large and
new well-being resources, fell to the back of the list
small said that they were tailoring their well-being
as executives prioritised actions such as providing
efforts to various worker segments’ needs instead
digital collaboration platforms, enabling worker
of taking a one-size-fits-all approach; finding new
choice, and changing scheduling and meeting
ways to allow workers to disconnect and recharge
norms, all of which directly embed well-being into
organisation-wide; and focusing on equipping
the way work gets done.
workers with the mental, emotional, and social
skills needed to not just cope, but adapt and thrive.
What was most exciting to us in the reactions to OUR HYPOTHESIS
Fisher’s post, however, were the examples of
organisations designing well-being into work itself. COVID-19 has reminded us of the dual
We heard from organisations that were imperatives of worker well-being and work
complementing well-being programmes adjacent transformation, but executives are still
to work with efforts to embed well-being into the missing the importance of connecting the
work. Some organisations were focusing on two. Organisations that integrate well-being
building digital wellness and productivity, while into the design of work at the individual,
others were managing capacity at both the team, and organisational levels will build a
individual and team levels, and still others were sustainable future where workers can feel
encouraging job crafting—giving individuals and perform at their best.
autonomy to make meaningful decisions about
what and how they contribute to the organisation.
One example of such actions is Starbucks’ The importance of work design in supporting
approach to designing its partners’ (baristas’) remote work arrangements going forward has
work: A partner can expect their work schedule to come to the fore at many organisations.
be posted two weeks in advance, and if a partner
When we asked surveyed executives what factors
has more than an hour-long commute, Starbucks
were most important to sustaining remote work,
works to transfer them to a closer store.
the overwhelmingly chose options related to the
design of work (figure 1).
Our 2021 perspective
Seven in ten executives responding to the 2021
Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends survey told
5The social enterprise in a world disrupted: Leading the shift from survive to thrive
South African executives highlighted an even evident that not all employees’ home setups are as
stronger preference for allowing for personal conducive to work from home as may be in other
choice in determining how work gets done parts of the world, with some workers being more
compared to their global counterparts. South reliant on office connectivity and workspaces. This
African executives also rated providing home was especially evident in the younger or junior
access to internet and needed technologies higher workforce. Consequently, some employees have
than global executives, indicating the importance found that ergonomic challenges in their home
of assisting employees with the necessary workspaces affected their physical health, and
infrastructure to work effectively and productively some, experienced more stress due to connectivity
at home. From a South African perspective, it was difficulties.
Workers told us that the top three objectives
of work transformation should be improving
the customer experience, reducing cost, and
increasing innovation.
FIGURE 1:
The top factors in making remote work sustainable were related to
work design
What are the most important factors in making remote/virtual work sustainable?
Allowing for personal choice in determining how work gets done
75.00%
Providing home access to the internet and needed technologies
58.33%
Introducing digital collaboration platforms
33.33%
Providing enhanced corporate benefits (e.g., family care support and resources)
8.33%
Investing in team leader training
8.33%
Establishing new scheduling and meeting norms
8.33%2021 Deloitte South Africa Human Capital Trends
FIGURE 2
Workers prioritise transforming work for well-being more highly
than executives
What are the most important outcomes you hope to achieve in your work transformation efforts in the
next one to three years?
Rank Senior executives Individual workers
1 To improve the customer experience To improve the customer experience
2 To increase innovation To reduce cost
3 To grow market share To increase innovation
4 To do new work To increase capacity
5 To increase capacity To improve worker well-being
6 To reduce cost To grow market share
7 To increase social impact To do new work
8 To improve worker well-being To increase social impact
9 To improve quality To improve quality
Note: n=28 (Senior executives), n=15 (Individual workers)
Source: The 2021 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends survey.
That said, we also found a continuing disconnect From a South African perspective, the picture
between employers and workers when it comes to looks slightly different. South African executives
prioritising well-being in work transformation agreed with global executives on deprioritising
efforts. We asked both senior business and HR improving worker wellbeing to second last
executives and individual workers to answer the importance. However, South African workers
same question: “What are the most important rather prioritised improving customer experience,
outcomes you hope to achieve in your work reducing cost, increasing innovation, and
transformation efforts in the next one to three increasing capacity above improving worker
years?” Workers told us that the top three wellbeing. Ironically, both employees and
objectives of work transformation should be executives will need to reprioritise improving
improving quality, increasing innovation, and worker wellbeing to achieve their current
improving worker well-being (figure 2). But identified priorities, as holistically well employees
improving well-being was the second-to-last are far more able to creatively problem-solve, look
outcome identified by executives, with only after their customers and to grow market share.
“increasing social impact” receiving fewer votes. In
a world where organisations are increasingly Globally, HR executives were slightly more
expected to deliver impact beyond shareholders to deliberate than non-HR executives about focusing
all stakeholders, executives who deprioritise well- on well-being as an important outcome of work
being as a goal of work transformation are missing transformation, with 20% of HR executives
a huge opportunity. selecting it as a priority compared to 15% of non-
Globally, workers told us that the top three HR executives. Similarly, in South Africa, HR
objectives of work transformation should be executives were also slightly more deliberate in
improving quality, increasing innovation, and prioritising well-being than non-HR executives as
improving worker well-being. an important outcome of work transformation.
7The social enterprise in a world disrupted: Leading the shift from survive to thrive
However, the percentage gap is smaller, for HR
Emerging priorities
executives prioritising improving worker well-
being at 22% and non-HR executives at 20%. This
could be due to executives coming to learn the Organisations looking to build well-being into
importance of well-being. work should consider actions, policies, and
But designing well-being into work cannot be done mandates at three levels—individual, team, and
by HR alone. The incorporation of well-being into organisational:
work must be done symphonically, championed by • Individual: Workers should take the
leaders at every level and in every function if it is initiative in setting their own boundaries and
to make a meaningful difference. making their well-being needs understood.
One especially important stakeholder for HR to They should influence the prioritisation and
involve is the organisation’s technology leader. design of well-being by participating in the
Technology and work today are inextricably development of flexible and responsive
policies and practices that balance individual
intertwined, with humans and machines
needs with those of the team and the
partnering in ways previously unimaginable to
organisation.
accelerate work outputs and achieve new
outcomes. As technology becomes ingrained in • Team: The power of teams comes from their
every aspect of how people work, technology ability to connect people with each other to
leaders will face a growing responsibility to work unleash their collective capabilities. Tapping
with HR and the business to ensure that those into those capabilities requires team members
technologies, and the workflows and processes to understand and honour each individual’s
that complement them, are designed and executed well-being needs to create an environment in
which the team can perform at its best.
in a way that promotes worker well-being.3 ** For
example, the “right to disconnect” concept, which
• Organisational: Leaders have a
prompted a 2017 French law limiting the extent to responsibility not only to invest in and
which workers can be required to answer phone promote well-being, but also to commit to it
calls and emails during nonwork hours, recognises by designing well-being into work and making
that 24/7 access to emails and texts encourages an well-being a consideration as important as any
expectation of being “always on” that can other factor that affects the bottom line.
compromise worker well-being.4 An innovative
By reinforcing their efforts across all three levels,
example of how technology can help counteract
organisations can harness well-being to drive
this problem is Daimler AG’s optional email
improved outcomes in areas such as customer
functionality, “Mail on Holiday,” that
satisfaction, organisational brand and reputation,
automatically deletes incoming messages while
innovation, and adaptability.
people are taking time off. During that time, the
Organisations should also consider the
system sends autoreplies that suggest alternative
environments in which they’re designing work, as
people to contact or prompt the sender to get back
work increasingly crosses cultures, geographies,
in touch when the worker returns.5
functions, and physical and virtual workspaces.
Technology leaders can take the imperative to
The suggestions below offer a starting point for
design enabling technologies for well-being one
leaders to think through what changes they can
step further by introducing new technologies to
make in five environments across the three levels:
boost workers’ health, performance, and quality of
life. Such technologies could include “emo tech” to
• Cultural: Building well-being into social
help people develop self-awareness and emotional
behaviours and norms
regulation; “collaboration, presence, and trust • Relational: Fostering well-being in
tech” to help people build deeper group relationships among colleagues
connections; and “well tech” that helps people • Operational: Including well-being in
maintain and optimise health and cognition to management policies, processes, and
support general well-being.6 Technologies such as programmes
• Physical: Designing the physical workspace
these can improve well-being by allowing workers
to facilitate well-being
to better eliminate distractions, ease anxieties, • Virtual: Designing new technologies and
connect with others, build presence and trust, and virtual workspaces for well-being
learn faster.2021 Deloitte South Africa Human Capital Trends
FIGURE 3
Organisations can take a variety of actions to integrate well-being
into work
Organisational Team Individual
Cultural Model well-being
behaviours such as taking
Be proactive and vocal
Building well-being into micro-breaks or only making
about well-being needs
social behaviours and certain meetings video-
norms focused
Form teams based on
Relational worker preferences, Check in frequently,
working styles, and proactively, and consistently
Fostering well-being in personal needs with colleagues on their well-
relationships among being needs and preferences
colleagues
Embed well-being criteria in
Operational work scheduling,
Enable team agency and
performance management
Including well-being in choice by allowing teams to
processes, leadership
management policies, adopt well-being practices
evaluations, and rewards and
processes, and programs best suited to them
recognition programs
Physical
Design work environments Leverage physical
Designing the physical to support workers’ workspaces that
workspace to facilitate physical, mental, and promote team
well-being emotional health needs collaboration and
performance
Use new technologies, like
Virtual virtual reality, to train team Leverage wearable
members to navigate stressful technologies and apps to
Designing new situations (e.g., interacting help master distractions,
technologies and virtual with a frustrated customer) increase mindfulness, and
reduce anxiety
workspaces for well-being
Source: Deloitte Analysis
adapt in tandem. It’s no longer about achieving
There are a variety of actions organisations can work/life balance; the pandemic has shown us that
take to integrate well-being into work (figure 3). well-being is not about balancing work with life
but integrating them. When an organisation can
The design of well-being into work is a practice successfully design well-being into work, well-
that must be developed, strengthened, and flexed being becomes indistinguishable from work itself,
over time to be effective. As work itself changes at embedded across all organisational levels and
a rapid pace, the ways that an organisation environments to not only drive and sustain human
supports individual and team well-being must performance, but also human potential.
9Beyond reskilling
Unleashing worker potential
DURING COVID-19, LEADERS CALLED UPON WORKERS TO EXPAND THEIR ROLES TO WHATEVER NEEDED TO BE
DONE-AND WORKERS ROSE TO THE CHALLENGE, IDENTIFYING CRITICAL NEEDS AND DEPLOYING THEIR
CAPABILITES AGAINST THESE FROM THE BOTTOM UP. THE GROWING PREVALENCE OF WORKER AGENCY AND
CHOICE DURING THE PANDEMIC SHOWED THAT, WHEN GIVEN THE CHANCE TO ALIGN THEIR INTERESTS AND
PASSIONS WITH ORGANISATIONAL NEEDS, WORKERS CAN FULFILL THEIR POTENTIAL IN WAYS THAT LEADERS
MAY NEVER HAVE KNOWN THEY COULD, POSITIONING THE ORGANISATION TO THRIVE IN THE LONG-TERM.
ADDITIONALLY, ENABLING WORKERS TO DEVELOP DIGITAL FLUENCY CAPABILITIES CAN INCREASE WORKER
POTENTIAL AND ABILITY TO NAVIGATE THE NEW COMPLEXITIES.
Shifting realities enable workers to build digital fluency capability
and respond to fast changing contexts. Then,
organisations were faced with a pandemic that
Last year, we called on organisations to employ a accentuated the scale of the impact
workforce development approach that considers
disruption can have on organisations and the
both the dynamic nature of jobs and the equally
workforce. During the COVID-19 crisis,
dynamic potential of workers to reinvent
organisations did not have time to rewrite job
themselves. Even before COVID-19, it was clear
descriptions or meticulously map skills
that workforce development approaches that
requirements; they were forced to make real-
focused too narrowly on skills would not help
time decisions and to redeploy workers to the
organisations, workers, and leaders build the
areas where they were needed the most, and
resilience required to navigate perpetual change.
where they had the capabilities, interest, and
Furthermore, whilst focusing on diversifying
passion to contribute. In short, 2020 has helped
skills, the importance of cultivating enduring
us understand the importance of worker
human capabilities (also sometimes referred to
potential and choice.
as ‘soft skills’) shifted to a key priority in order toAs author Natalie Nixon puts it, “The opposite of
OUR HYPOTHESIS: EMPOWERING
reactive might not be ‘proactive’ but instead
‘creative.’”7 We are seeing an explosion of WORKERS WITH AGENCY AND
creativity and the power of worker potential CHOICE CREATES MORE VALUE
during the COVID-19 pandemic. Automotive THAN OVERLY PRESCRIPTIVE
workers used 3D scanners and computer
APPROACHES
simulations to retool their assembly lines to
manufacture ventilators for COVID-19 patients.8 Organisations that afford workers the agency
Beverage companies partnered with government and choice to explore passion areas will be
organisations to clear administrative hurdles in able to more quickly and effectively activate
order to rapidly produce and distribute hand workers around emerging business priorities
sanitiser.9 And clothing manufacturers adapted than organisations that take a prescriptive
production lines to make much needed surgical approach to filling skills needs.
garments.10
In the months of extended crisis recovery,
executives have reflected on the challenging road Our 2021 perspective
ahead as they attempt to prepare their
businesses and ecosystems for an era of In our view, the most important way that
continuous disruption. That preparedness organisations can unleash workers’ potential is
depends on workforce potential. In the 2021 to empower them with agency and choice over
Deloitte South Africa Human Capital Trends what they do. We’ve lived in a world where we
survey, executives identified “the ability of their assumed organisations knew best what skills
people to adapt, reskill, and assume new roles” workers needed to bring to the table. But the
as the top-ranked item to navigate future pandemic taught us that potential comes to
disruptions, with 77% selecting it as the most fuller fruition when workers are allowed to take
important or second most important factor. A more initiative. Workforce potential is not about
further 54% of South African executives (13% what workers were recruited to do, or what they
higher than the 41% of the global trends results) are certified to do, or even what organisations or
indicated that building workforce capability leaders want them to do next. It’s about giving
through upskilling, reskilling, and mobility is workers more freedom to choose how they can
one of the most important actions they are best help tackle critical business problems as
taking to transform work. Yet only 14% say their organisations and ecosystems evolve.
workers are very ready to adapt, reskill, and
Tswelopele Kodisang, Chief People Officer at
assume new roles. Furthermore, only 11% of
Discovery explained how the organisation has
executives indicated that building workforce
experienced increased levels of productivity and
skills and capabilities was a focused area where
an unexpected demonstration of innovation as
their HR businesses made an impact during the
workers responded to opportunities and
first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, reflecting
challenges facing the financial services and
the urgency of shifting the focus on preparing
insurance industry during the pandemic11.
workers and providing platforms and support to
effectively reskill workers. These focus areas
One way to give workers more agency and choice
would need to include both skills and enduring
in what they do is through “opportunity—or
human capabilities to support connecting people
talent— marketplaces.” These marketplaces are
and enabling innovation effectively. For optimal
platforms that make visible and communicate to
digital fluency, workers need to demonstrate
workers defined opportunities for professional
capability powered by the right mindset, key
development, training, mentorship, project
attributes and the ability to manage complexity
participation, networking, promotion, diversity,
in order to facilitate the next level of value
and inclusion.12 They’re designed to provide
creation in a digitally disrupted, innovative
workers with choice by helping them match their
world.
interests, passions, and capabilities against
current and future business and project
11demands. Such “passion projects” give workers
new development experiences and opportunities
to learn in the flow of work, further enhancing
the skills they bring to the organisation.
Opportunity marketplaces benefit organisations
in several ways. By giving workers the chance to
volunteer for work they prefer and value, they
bring to light valuable information about
workers’ interests, passions, and capabilities that
may otherwise remain hidden. This, in turn,
allows the organisation to more quickly identify
and redeploy workers against critical business
priorities. At the same time, workers who can do
what matters to them become more motivated
and more engaged.
Jeanette Modise, Chief Executive Human
Resources at Sanlam echoed this sentiment and
explained how introducing an internal talent new skills which enhance digital fluency
marketplace will reduce the pressure of solely capability.
relying on advanced talent acquisition strategies
in a highly competitive market and to position
Internal mobility job marketplaces also assist
them to utilise their very own talent. She further
employees to easily discover the next chapter of
highlighted the additional benefits of focusing their careers within their own organisation,
on growing skills that can be utilised across guided by a powerful AI algorithm that provides
enterprises, that “it helps to position us to create personalised recommendations based on skills,
more challenging experiences for our employees
experience and career aspirations. Inevitable
to grow and learn and at the same time assist
organisational benefits include improving
them with navigating non-linear but fulfilling employee retention and reducing time and costs
careers. It provides us with the opportunity to associated with recruitment and onboarding
mobilise our talent across the business and
investments.
eliminates unnecessary duplication.”13
The aim is to connect employees to projects
Kodisang, further described how their learning
outside of their job descriptions that leverage
opportunities have been evolving from a
their skills and align with their goals. Through
Learning Management System (LMS) platform
this process organisational agility is improved,
through to adding additional layers such as on hidden talent is being unlocked and employee
demand learning driven by individuals’ choice, engagement increased. This is also where
allowing employees to self-select learning that is
workers can benefit from incorporating ‘soft
of interest and relevance to them. The
skills’ such as collaboration, empathy,
organisation has always viewed skills as influencing others, creativity and resilience.
something that is fluid and never overinvested in
static competency frameworks and job
Capturing the insights that worker choice can
descriptions which tend to box people, rather the
help uncover requires a shift in frame from
organisation allows workers to respond to
looking for gaps to sensing for evolving patterns
opportunities. Kodisang elaborated how “People
and possibilities. To that end, a variety of
have put their hands up. Hierarchy has been
vendors are employing new approaches to skills
thrown out. It has been about passion, energy,
graphs and skills engines that break previous,
capability and collaboration.”14 This perspective
limited understandings of skills adjacencies.
has yielded much fruit during the pandemic,
Vendors from across a converging set of
enabling learning agility and timely adoption ofworkforce technology domains, such as Gloat, understanding of its workforce’s skills and
Degreed, Eightfold, Faethm, Ibbaka, ProFinda, capabilities, especially in light of technology-
and Pymetrics, are focused less on a top-down driven change. To clarify how roles and skills
inventorying of skills and more on helping were changing as technology evolves, the
organisations reimagine the relationships organisation invested in a forward-looking
between skills, positions, teams, and industries analytics platform, Faethm, that uses artificial
to seize opportunities presented by the future of intelligence (AI) to model emerging
work and help workers reach their potential. technologies’ impact on any economy, industry,
organisation, or job. During the pandemic, this
Modise reported that Sanlam realised these platform has been key in guiding some decisions
shifts in how they cultivate talent start with on work flexibility ranges. In the future, the
culture and leadership. To this end they organisation plans to use the insights from this
deployed a survey to not only provide employees tool to guide day-to-day learning investments
with the opportunity to share how they perceive and, ultimately, support worker career
their culture but also how they envision their progression. This analytics-driven approach has
desired culture which culminated to their key moved Mastercard beyond the traditional
value driver, “Winning as One”. This was then approach of identifying employee profiles from
followed by a process to evolve leadership and the top down and matching them with training
provide platforms where the desired behaviours needs. Instead, the technology infers employee
could be applied, which is often the most profiles from the bottom up by analysing
difficult part. “It is one thing to have amazing multiple large-scale data sets from many
programmes but something else to ensure the systems and sources (such as performance
application thereof,’’ Modise contended. The management, job descriptions, learning
organisation has made every effort to enable management systems, and career
learning and the key components they conversations). This allows Mastercard to more
considered were to partner with an external accurately understand its workers’ skills to
training institution to build online learning identify organisation-wide strengths and
opportunities that are linked to their development areas.
overarching strategy, provide masterclasses and
thought leadership, and design interactive The deeper understanding of workers resulting
learning opportunities where employees from from worker choice can help organisations break
various functions can form part of free of the constraints of traditional workforce
teams/workstreams to co-create solutions for planning models. Historically, workforce
real-time business issues. This strategy provided planning relied on competency frameworks,
an environment which ignited innovation, static job descriptions, and linear career paths to
collaboration, continuous learning and define & organise work and the workforce.
application of new skills. Furthermore, Modise Efforts to prepare for the future have largely
elaborated that “This allowed our people to taken the form of a supply chain–inspired focus
share input on what, how and where work gets on pipelines for critical roles, with conversations
done to yield maximum impact. This in turn led about hot skills, skills gaps, and skills
to creating ownership amongst team members adjacencies dominating conversations around
and translated into execution. We might not talent. But those conversations often lose sight
have all the answers, but we are learning- it is of the latent potential within the workforce—and
challenging but exciting at the same time.”15 the value they can create when their potential is
understood and harnessed. For instance, during
Payments technology company Mastercard the pandemic, Scandinavian Airlines recognised
exemplifies how a deeper understanding of that its cabin staff members could be well suited
worker potential can help inform workforce for roles in health care due to their basic medical
planning and development efforts. Following a training and experience dealing with people in
period of rapid and extensive growth, difficult situations. The organisation created a
Mastercard business and HR leaders realised programme to retrain laid-off cabin staff as
that the organisation needed a clear assistant nurses to meet rising health care staff
13needs during COVID-19. To date, this
programme has helped place more than 300
cabin attendants and people with equivalent
CENTRE WORKFORCE PLANNING ON
experience from other sectors in Sweden’s health POTENTIAL
care system, fulfilling an important social need.16
• Shift workforce planning approaches away
from a reliance on top-down mandates,
Giving workers a voice in what they do also helps providing more agency to workers
organisations act more dynamically and in real themselves. Empower workers to reimagine
time. Top-down approaches based on identifying why, what, how, and where work gets done.
business needs and then finding or developing • Consider AI-enabled technologies that can
the skills to put against them will always be help make sense of unstructured data from
slower than approaches that allow workers to inside and outside the organisation and
self-select based on their interests and abilities. surface latent patterns such as the inferred
The challenge here is to put guardrails in place presence of one skill based on the presence
that channel workers’ interests and abilities of others. It’s important to ensure that such
toward the good of the organisation, allowing new AI tools are integrated into the strategy
choice not for its own sake but because what is and that the implications of their
chosen helps the organisation grow and thrive. deployment are understood and accepted by
Organisations that figure this out can benefit all stakeholders. They will struggle to get
from the increased agility and resilience to traction if their value is not acknowledged
change that are critical to navigating constant and demonstrated.
disruption.
DRIVE TOWARD REAL-TIME, DYNAMIC
Emerging priorities
ACTION
• Gather and act on workforce data that
The success of work transformation depends on
provides a real-time view of workers’ skills
an organisation’s ability to unlock human
across the entire talent ecosystem. Ask
potential to define and deliver new outcomes.
forward-looking questions about workers’
Organisations that want to unlock human
desired future directions rather than
potential should consider actions in the
tracking prescriptive metrics such as hours
following areas:
spent in training or credentials earned and
use the answers to encourage workers to
SHIFT THE SUPPLY AND DEMAND make learning choices that benefit both
EQUATION themselves and the organisation. In this way
one puts existing skills to work and develop
• Build talent marketplaces that actively
new skills to enable organisations and talent
address both sides of the workforce supply
to grow in the same direction.
and demand equation. Marketplaces can
• Remember that teams are becoming the
expose business and project needs to
driving unit of organisational performance.
workers and can expose workforce skills and
Teams will be able to learn and adapt faster
capabilities to the organisation.
than individual workers alone, since teams
• Design roles to assume ongoing reinvention
of motivated individuals will challenge each
and include excess capacity earmarked for
other to come up with better, more creative
it. Cultivate worker passions to solve unseen
ideas.17
and future problems. Reward workers who
identify critical gaps and reinvent
themselves to fill them. New vendors such
as Learn In can help provide time, not just
money, allowing workers to engage in
lifelong learning while limiting the typical
opportunity costs.PRIORITISE CULITVATING ENDURING the secret sauce to Discovery’s success and
impact, and how it continues to shape the
HUMAN CAPABILITIES
way they engage with their talent, from
Besides the technical knowledge or expertise acquisition through to learning and
needed to achieve work outcomes within a development and retention.
specific context, there is also a need to embrace,
nurture, and cultivate enduring human The year 2020 witnessed an amazing display of
capabilities which is independent of context. workforce adaptability. Extraordinary
These human attributes need to be developed by circumstances and challenges uncovered the
providing experience and practice to ensure potential of workers and teams when confronted
organisations enhance emotional intelligence, with new, changing, and dramatic business and
teaming, social intelligence and adaptive organisational problems and priorities. We saw
thinking. that the workforce can adapt more dramatically
than many would have expected when faced with
new challenges. Going forward, the power of
CAPATILISE ON CULTURE
agency and choice, enabled by opportunity and
CONNECTEDNESS talent marketplaces, can quickly connect
• Not only will there be a need for promoting changing work priorities with workers’ skills,
creativity and innovation but also experiences, and—importantly—their interests.
capitalising the integrative platform that 2020 also highlighted how little organisations
cross functional and multi-disciplinary actually know about their workforces—their
teams create which can serve to deepen skills and capabilities now and the capacity for
connections, drive shared purpose and ongoing reinvention. The challenge for
foster an inclusive and widely adopted organisations now is to develop strategies and
culture. programmes for workforce development and
• Tswelopele Kodisang, Chief People Officer deployment as dynamic and adaptable as the
shared that indeed their culture had been business problems we are trying to solve.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Jeanett Modise (Sanlam) and Tswelopele Kodisang (Discovery).
15Superteams
Where work happens
THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC NOT ONLY RADICALLY CHALLENGED OUR UNDERSTANDING OF WHERE WORK GETS
DONE, IT ALSO CHALLENGED TEAMS IN HOW THEY WORK TOGETHER WHEN THEY ARE SEPARATED.
MANAGERS WERE CHALLENGED IN HOW THEY DELEGATE WORK AND MONITOR PROGRESS, WHILST TEAMS
WERE CHALLENGED IN HOW T1Y WORK TOGETHER WHILST WORKING REMOTELY.
Shifting Realities
capabilities to pursue outcomes at a speed and
scale not otherwise possible.19
In early 2020, the escalating COVID-19
pandemic forced organisational leaders to With the abrupt shift to remote (and virtual)
quickly reset business and workforce priorities. working, this connection to and collaboration
The pandemic’s scale and severity forced with digital colleagues has never felt so real.
organisations to challenge their views about
what work was essential to deliver to their Our 2021 perspective
customers, shareholders, and stakeholders
during a prolonged period of heightened
uncertainty. To rapidly reorient their goals and Moving past organisations’ immediate need for
operations, we saw organisations turn to teams digital collaboration brought upon us by COVID-
and teaming as the go-to unit for organisational 19 and remote work, organisations are
performance. increasingly realising the broader purpose of
team reconfiguration: Achieving value for the
Teams, newly forming, growing, and organisation. Value may be achieved regardless
reconfiguring, were supercharging organisations’ of location. Essentially meaning that teams must
ability to pivot and get work done amid be arranged around work, and not the other way
turbulent and demanding conditions. Teams can around. In our Human Capital Trends survey for
learn and adapt faster than individual workers 2021, 41 percent of respondents indicated that
alone, since teams of motivated individuals will the most important actions which their
challenge each other to come up with better, organisations are taking, or will take, are to
more creative ideas.18 As the world emerges from restructure their organisations to support new
the pandemic, organisations have an opportunity work outcomes (i.e. driving new value) and 75
to use what they have learned to multiply the percent of respondents indicated that their
value of teams even further. The next frontier in organisations are reimagining work.
teaming is superteams: combinations of people
and technology leveraging their complementaryUnfortunately, this priority of restructuring does percent response on building portfolios of
not accentuate superteams, with only a 15.38 humans and machines working together.
FIGURE 1
Both human capability and technological capability are critical to
transforming work
What are the most important actions you are taking or will take to transform work?
Building workforce capability through upskilling, reskilling, and mobility
53.85%
Restructuring the organisation to support new work outcomes
41.03%
Building an organisational culture that celebrates growth,
adaptability, and resilience 38.46%
Implementing new technologies
28.21%
Establishing new work practices, policies, and incentives
20.51%
Building portfolios of humans and machines working together
15.38%
FIGURE 2
How were you thinking about work How are you thinking about work
transformation prior to the COVID-19 pandemic? transformation in the next 1 – 3 years?
2.50% 2.50%
5.00%
25.00% 27.50%
17.50%
75.00%
45.00%
We are not transforming work Optimising work Redesigning work Reimagining work
Note: 2021 survey n=43 South African respondents
Source: 2021 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends Survey
17Where the global response on the top three In our 2020 South African Human Capital
factors identified as important in transforming trends report, we introduced the graph in Figure
work has been organisational culture, workforce 3 above, which shows how organisations should
capability, and technology, South Africans’ use AI technologies beyond automation and
priority of implementing new technologies (an augmentation, to ultimately affect the next level
important factor in assembling superteams) only of collaboration between humans and
came in at fourth place. Yet, in the South African technologies.20 What we want to emphasise and
context, this is not cause for despair, as even highlight in this report, is the need to ensure the
though new technologies may not be right behaviours are in place for collaborative
implemented, we should not disregard the role teaming by using existing collaboration
that existing technologies (whether it be cloud- technologies as building blocks to ultimately
based software or collaboration platforms) play effect collaboration through human and AI
within effective superteams. teaming, as well as hybrid and virtual teaming.
Many, if not most, organisations found
In our 2020 South African Human Capital themselves transitioning to collaboration
trends report, we saw that only 22 percent of platforms almost overnight when the pandemic
respondents were ready to redesign jobs to effected nation-wide lockdowns. However, the
integrate AI technology. The concept of having use of collaboration platforms does not
artificial colleagues may still seem foreign, but automatically mean effective collaborative
what we have witnessed through this pandemic, teaming. Virtual teaming requires trust,
is the massive uptake in digital enablers to psychological safety, and autonomy.
perform work. We have been witnessing teams Collaborative virtual teaming requires clarity
becoming increasingly more comfortable with around expected work outcomes, shared
using collaboration platforms, cloud-based disciplines for virtual synchronous collaboration,
platforms, chatbots, etc. This may not be freedom to work asynchronously, and overall
classified as artificial intelligence just yet, but it new ways of working (including new ways of
should not be disregarded that this uptake is a monitoring work, tracking performance,
shift in the right direction. measuring productivity, coaching people,
delegating work, and communicating).
Putting AI on teams can allow organisations to both
transform the nature of outputs and free up capacity
among the workforce
During the COVID pandemic, hybrid work
models and hybrid workforce strategies started
Transformation of outputs
to emerge as likely trends to remain and become
the new way of work for the digital economy.
Meaning Initially this was in the context of bringing some
workers back to the offices whilst some worked
Superteams remotely from home as nation-wide lockdowns
Collaboration
eased. However, many organisations and
employees expressed the benefits of enabling
hybrid work, i.e. some work being done onsite
and in-person, some work being done remotely,
Value
Superjobs and some work being done virtually. Hybrid
Augmentation
work and virtual teaming both require the same
fundamentals, namely a shared understanding of
the work to be done and work designed as
outcomes rather than individual tasks and
Automation processes, thereby placing the focus on the
Substitution outcome to be achieved as opposed to ensuring
Cost
everybody is working at the same time and at the
Freed capacity same place.
Source: Deloitte analysis
Figure 3: Superteams as the epitome of collaboration
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