Thursday, January 14, 2016

Three Characteristics of Digital Workforce

Digitalization has erased the line between business brand and talent brand, as they are two sides of the same coin now.


Digital organizations are always on, interdependent and hyperconnected, people are always the most important asset in any organization before, today, and future. However, compared to a traditional industrial workforce, the digital workforce is a new breed -it's the super-connected generation with a multitude of varieties - multi-generations, multi-cultures, and multi-devices. More specifically, what are the new characteristics of the digital workforce??


Growth Mindset: Digital is the age of information abundance with clicks away knowledge, it means the shortened knowledge life cycle and fierce talent competitions. In the industrial era, fixed mindsets are okay to survive because the business and world are slow to change and considerably static. However, at the age of digitalization with increasing velocity and rapid changes, growth, and accelerated mind is a strategic imperative to enjoys new thinking and adapt to such new normals. As changes are expedited for both individual and business, neither business nor life is linear these days, the capabilities to adapt to unpredictable, ride above the learning curve are critical to making continuous improvement and smooth digital transformation.  At the organizational level, the digital business environment is dynamic and uncertain, growth and innovation are heavily dependent on having the right people with a growth mind in the right places at the right time. Therefore, it’s also strategic to build a positive environment with the culture of learning, where people can develop and learn more rapidly and dare to be different. That is the power of the digital workforce.


Connect-wise: Digital also means hyperconnectivity. Social platforms provide unprecedented opportunities for people all over the world to share, brainstorm, and co-create knowledge. Driven by strategic necessity, digital technologies, and cultural progress, the digital workforce today are divergent in many ways, share a natural affinity for new perspectives, innovations, and collective wisdom. However, being connect-wise also means to discern the trend from fads, seek business values before taking business initiatives, the goal of such business connectivity is to unify the best of the best, shift the old way of thinking, and accelerate innovation via broad-based communication and collaboration.


Change/innovation capability: Either at the individual or organizational level, change capability becomes a key differentiator between digital leaders and laggards. Develop change capability in those who’ll help drive and deliver changes, also, consider the capability or ability of those impacted by the change to handle its impacts. That being said, recognize your change agents and change champions, because they will serve the organization with more energy and determination. But also identify the “change resistors,” if someone is “resisting” change, what’s that all about? Are they perhaps only get used to “certainty,” or “stability,” or is there something else? Or they may just try to alert sponsors to poorly thought-out change plans, and they have better ideas? Change is not for its own sake, People work best and remain engaged and satisfied when work empowers and enables them to be fully who they are. Therefore, it’s critical to build up transformative workforces with the collective capability to adapt to changes.

Digital organizations today need to redefine themselves where talent can develop and learn more rapidly than anywhere else. Digitalization has erased the line between business brand and talent brand, as they are two sides of the same coin now. So businesses must be alert to the digital dynamic environment, adapt their workforce planning and development strategies to ensure their digital workforce is engaged, innovative, and transformative.


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