During the first quarter of 2021, the health emergency due to COVID-19 initiated the reorganization and breakdown of many schemes in the way of working in companies worldwide, both in essential and non-essential sectors.
For example, teleworking became a common denominator for the activities that allowed it, but that was only one of the challenges for the areas of human talent management, just as face-to-face interviews migrated to a digital model, which it has been able to be more efficient thanks to technology.
In this regard, Alberto Alesi, ManpowerGroup General Director for Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America, stated that organizations must become much more humane, from the change in their paradigms to response times to events such as the pandemic. This according to various studies carried out by the firm.
“When I refer to the term ‘human’, it is because the issue of the pandemic put the safety of employees and workers first and, somehow, that is going to continue to be exposed. Organizations will continue to evolve in the care and well-being of each of the internal talent components ”, stated Alesi.
Therefore, he added, they will have to work hard on the implementation of training and development programs, as well as on balancing the hours that have even lengthened while people work from home, in addition to complying with hygiene and safety protocols. so that people who so wish can return to their offices.
In this sense, according to the results of a survey carried out by ManpowerGroup, the vast majority of workers do not want to lose the flexibility they gained from companies in their respective functions and prefer hybrid models, attending once or twice a week to their corporate headquarters.
Similarly, Alesi explained, the offices will become areas of socialization in this adaptation process derived from the pandemic, so it is essential to create and promote a more inclusive and diverse environment that leads organizations to be more productive. For this to be possible, leadership also has to evolve.
“Leaders who worked in a transactional way, only oriented towards results, are going to have to transform themselves to be more empathetic and humble. They must generate confidence in their teams so that they work in a calmer way and much more focused on their own initiative. We cannot continue with traditional leaderships that do not allow us to exploit the talents that each of the collaborators has ”, explained the manager.
And while distance leadership is one of the great challenges for organizations, it is also a window of opportunity in regions such as Latin America. According to figures published by ManpowerGroup, “teleworking well managed can increase productivity by up to 27%.”
At the same time, workers must stay updated, be constantly learning to acquire new skills such as empathy, communication, prioritization, analytical thinking, problem solving, resilience, among others.
All this also implies a challenge for the Human Resources areas, both in terms of staff retention and development, as well as attraction and recruitment.
Therefore, Alesi indicated, the biggest challenge is that Human Resources departments are ceasing to be consumers of talent, given what implies a clear shortage, to become creators of it.
“Studies that are available on our website show that development and training budgets have grown exponentially in the world’s leading organizations. They have understood that part of the challenge is that the workers are requesting that they be constantly updated, so that they can continue to be employable over time ”, he assured.
Similarly, he stated that ManpowerGroup offers specialized services, through its Manpower, Talent Solutions and Experis brands, to support organizations in all this change they are experiencing.
Likewise, they offer e-learning programs for talent to develop skills that are being highly demanded and the firm can even take charge of the entire Human Resources cycle, which ranges from attracting talent to outplacement programs for its clients.
“ManpowerGroup has a footprint in Mexico for more than 50 years and we will continue to offer our clients top-of-the-line tools so that they continue to be successful in achieving their business objectives. We will remain the leading company in talent management and specialized services with each and every one of them ”, Alberto Alesi concluded.
