TOPICS

CONTEXTUALIZED LEARNING

Workforce Transformation

AUTHORED BY:

RABAB HAIDER | KNOLSKAPE EDITORIAL TEAM

What is Workforce Transformation?

Workforce transformation is the process by which organizations empower their employees to adapt to evolution in the industry and become ready for the professional demands in terms of skills, tools, and mindset. This process involves curating hiring and employee development processes to align employees’ skills and mindset with the needs of their role, domain, and organization at large.

Workforce transformation has many components, including strategic hiring practices, upskilling employees, upgrading systems and processes, reworking existing roles, etc.

Organizations must incorporate workforce transformation-related goals into their L&D initiatives. This provides employees with holistic opportunities for growth to excel in their jobs while learning new ways to improve their overall well-being.

Types Of Workforce Transformation

There are three types of workforce transformation, which differ based on the scope of change.

| Culture

One key area of workforce transformation is the redesign or enhancement of the culture of an organization. This is often the starting point of workforce transformation, allowing business leaders to work toward big-picture goals through employee development and team restructuring.

Contrary to the belief that significant organizational change is the only path to cultural development, incremental adjustments can also yield positive results. By making small, purposeful changes, businesses can steadily progress towards their goals and ensure long-term success. Additionally, a successful cultural transformation process involves identifying the prevailing culture and understanding its impact on the organization’s operations. 

| Leadership

Another area of focus in workforce transformation is leadership. This involves brushing up on leadership strategies, improving communication skills, or software training. Over the past years, it has become increasingly apparent that positive employee experience and overall success depend on fostering transparency, collaboration, and empowerment between employees and higher-ups.

| Digital

Digital transformation involves changing the technology and information systems used by an organization’s employee base. This means incorporating new software platforms and eliminating outdated or superfluous ones as necessary. Digital transformation gives employees the tools to succeed and align with their company’s mission or values.

| Organizational Readiness

Organization readiness refers to an organization’s ability to effectively implement and adapt to changes, such as new strategies, technologies, processes, or structures. It reflects how prepared the organization is to handle transformations and innovations while ensuring minimal disruption to ongoing operations. 82% improvement in employee retention can be achieved through better onboarding.

| Domain Readiness

According to a survey done by Michael Page, 43% of employees are taking on responsibilities outside their defined roles as cross-domain knowledge becomes imperative for success. Domain readiness refers to the preparedness of an organization, team, or individual within a specific area of expertise or field (a “domain”) to adopt or implement new strategies, technologies, or changes. It assesses the knowledge, skills, tools, and resources necessary to effectively perform in that domain, particularly when new initiatives are introduced.

| Role Readiness

Role readiness refers to an individual’s preparedness to effectively perform the responsibilities and tasks associated with a specific role within an organization. It focuses on the person’s skills, knowledge, and mindset required to successfully fulfill their job duties, particularly in the face of changes such as new technologies, processes, or organizational structures.

Challenges of Workforce Transformation

While workforce transformation is imperative, it also poses many challenges, which can include the following.

#01 | The overwhelming scale of the project

Overhauling an entire company’s workforce can be a massive challenge. That’s why it’s recommended to break it into small pieces and identify replicable processes to reduce the scale of the work.

Starting by identifying specific skills or business units to transform and carefully tracking and measuring the process and results throughout can help build the business case for a broader transformation. Plus, it provides an opportunity to identify company-specific challenges and best practices.

#02 | Lack of relevant data

Many organizations lack robust data on their own employees. Without that information, it’s impossible to know how to focus your skill-building efforts. Companies without strong metrics in place should consider investing in people analytics capabilities such as surveys and related tools. For Philip Morris International, detailed online assessments (especially for key leaders) were central to a successful transformation effort.

#03 | Need for organizational buy-in

Any large-scale transformation efforts can understandably cause employees anxiety. That’s why you should prioritize strong leadership and clear communication. This will ensure your workforce understands that these development efforts are meant for growth rather than to become a threat to their employment. Most employees are eager to develop their own skills; it’s simply a matter of effectively sharing goals and processes so that they understand what’s to come.

Benefits of Workforce Transformation

During Covid, the pace of change increased greatly, ushering in a massive wave of transformation in businesses across the world. This massive disruption has made the benefits of workforce transformation abundantly clear. 

| Promotes a digital culture

Incorporating new, useful, and appropriate digital technologies into business operations allows employees to work more efficiently and contribute to the goals of workplace transformation more substantially. It also allows for more transparency and collaboration by moving organizational documents and communications to more centralized locations in the cloud.

| Allows for more flexibility

Transformation of workplace technology and leadership approaches allow employees to do their jobs in the best way. This improves employee experience and engagement by promoting better work-life balance and making the work more enjoyable. Furthermore, this flexibility translates to agility, enhancing employees’ ability to adapt and excel when new challenges arise.

| Reduces operational costs

The digital aspects of workforce transformation allow organizations to reduce operational costs by decreasing the need for frequent in-person meetings, shifting document storage solutions to the cloud, and eliminating software redundancies and excessive software subscriptions. Company dollars go much further when tasks are completed more efficiently, and progress is expedited.

| Boosts employee experience

Employee experience is a key factor in workforce productivity and success. Through workforce transformation, employees are empowered to collaborate positively with their peers, improve their work-life balance, and complete tasks using appropriate and efficient digital solutions. These aspects, combined with a positive organizational culture, boost employee engagement and performance.

| Improves employee retention

Employees are more likely to remain with an organization when they feel engaged and empowered to grow. Workforce transformation does just that. With this transformation, team members are provided with appropriate tools and support to be successful, making them less likely to look for opportunities elsewhere. 

Where to Start-off with Workforce Transformation?

Knowing where and how to start the workforce transformation exercise is a major challenge. So, we’ve got a few best practices to guide you on your organization’s journey.

| Disclaimer: Your precise approach will depend on the nature of your business, the unique challenges you’re facing, and numerous other factors. So, there’s no standard step-by-step guide you can follow but following is what we can suggest as some best practices.)‍

| Conduct a Skills Assessment.

Without knowing what skills you have in your workforce, it’s impossible to know what gaps exist. Consider using a multi-faceted approach to measuring employee skills, including looking at existing job descriptions and performance reviews, talking to managers, and surveying employees themselves. It’s important to regularly reassess skills, as they can change rapidly with employee turnover and as employees grow and develop.

| Recognize the Need for Workforce Transformation

The first step is to recognize the need for – and value of – workforce transformation.

Sometimes, this might be triggered by business problems like employee turnover, low productivity, or falling customer satisfaction. Alternatively, the catalyst could be transformative technology or industry disruption, or you might just recognize that times are changing, and you need to change with them.

| Foster Transformational Mindset

To participate wholeheartedly in a transformation of this sort, employees need more than a strategic direction and incentives. They need to be excited about the future and inspired to opt in. You have to speak to their emotions — in particular, to their deep wish to see a connection between their own activities and the larger purpose of the enterprise.

| Create a Plan for Skills Development

While some organizations immediately turn to hiring to fill skills gaps, more than half (53%) of leaders prefer reskilling and upskilling existing staff due to its cost savings and cultural benefits, according to McKinsey & Company. A number of strategies can help build employees’ skills, including:

External training programs (like those offered by KNOLSKAPE)

Company-led (internal) training programs

Mentorship opportunities

| Design Toolset Around the Plan

Designing a toolset around a workforce transformation plan involves creating a collection of tools, resources, and technologies that support employees in successfully transitioning through the changes. This toolset should be tailored to address the specific needs of the organization and the transformation goals while enhancing employee capabilities and engagement.

| Focus on Employee Experience

The success of workforce transformation depends largely on the engagement and buy-in of employees. While workforce transformation does result in a more positive employee experience in the long run, opportunities to improve engagement must be taken throughout the transformation process. As employee experience improves, employees feel more optimistic about their time working and more closely connected to the organization’s mission and values. 

To accomplish this, transformation leaders should provide wellness resources and information and find opportunities for personal connection, trust, and flexibility. Overall, the experience of workforce transformation should be positive for the employees. 

| Measure and Adapt

Like with any organizational effort, it’s essential to set and track success metrics. Regularly check in to ensure your transformation strategies are effectively deliver new skills and meet company needs. Since workforce transformation aims to adapt to new demands, regularly reassessing the match between employee skills and company needs is essential. 

GSK Pharmaceuticals’ Bengaluru Office Leveraged
KNOLSKAPE’s Solutions for Leadership ‘Booster Shot’

GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (GSK) is one of the largest pharmaceutical and healthcare companies in the world, headquartered in Brentford, London. GSK’s product portfolio consists of prescription medicines, vaccines, and other healthcare products.

| Challenge

The existing learning methodology at GSK did not justify their learning philosophy. Instead, it:
Provided an overload of theory and information,
Was unable to provide learners with immediate and actionable feedback, and
Did not actively engage learners, resulting in low knowledge retention, and skill development.
A dispersed and constantly traveling learner base posed a challenge for the learning team to schedule learning journeys, and enable sustained learning and engagement
To develop the employees holistically, GSK needed an integrated solution that could develop behavioral competencies as well as technical/scientific knowledge of the learner groups

| Solution

GSK approached KNOLSKAPE to deliver the learning journey for their GCC in India. KNOLSKAPE proposed a developmental design that promised behavioral competency development which:

was easily scalable,
provided a simulated environment for safe learning, and
blended classroom interventions with virtual videos and mobile based learning, to ensure continuous engagement

The design also provided gamified LMS and Mobile platforms to integrate process specific content, provided by GSK.

| Impact

Some of the many impacts noticed by the organization’s GCC are listed below:

The new solution provided by KNOLSKAPE helped GSK implement their 70:20:10 learning philosophy, as the design ensured experiential, hands-on learning through simulations; social learning through gamified platforms, and formal learning through classroom workshops and mobile learning
Positive, high feedback scores indicated high levels of engagement for learners
Actions taken during simulations elicited immediate feedback, highlighting and providing learners with the opportunity to reflect on the impact of their actions, and mending learner behavior

| Read the detailed case study here.

Start Your Workforce Transformation with KNOLSKAPE

At KNOLSKAPE, we help organizations and leaders become future-ready through experiential learning. With a diverse range of award-winning Simulation Courses and Experiential Journeys in areas such as Culture, Digital Transformation, and Leadership, we enable CXOs, Managers, and Individual Contributors to keep up with the pace of innovation and adapt to change.

KNOLSKAPE has emerged as a global pioneer in hyper-contextualized learning by leveraging its custom simulation building capability, “Genie”. Moreover, our AI/NLP powered Nano-simulations are serving the clients as versatile micro-learning tools crafted to address a wide spectrum of nuanced learning needs. These customized programs are designed to equip learners with practical skills and knowledge that can be immediately applied in their roles, leading to improved performance and better business outcomes.

At KNOLSKAPE, we help organizations and leaders become future-ready through experiential learning. With a diverse range of award-winning Simulation Courses and Experiential Journeys in areas such as Culture, Digital Transformation, and Leadership, we empower individuals, teams, and groups with Role-readiness, Domain-readiness, and Organizational-readiness. We partner with global brands to support them in keeping up with the modern work, workforce, and workplace dynamics.

KNOLSKAPE has emerged as a global pioneer in hyper-contextualized learning and our AI-powered simulations are serving the clients as versatile tools crafted to address a wide spectrum of nuanced learning needs. We have collaborated with 450+ leading organizations globally to provide learning and development opportunities to 500,000+ learners every year.

KNOLSKAPE is a certified Great Place to Work® organization that delivers robust transformative experiences for the modern learner and the modern workplace. KNOLSKAPE is a 150+ strong team with offices in Singapore, India, Malaysia, UK, and USA serving a rapidly growing global client base across industries.