Leaving People ‘Net Better Off’ With Workday
Embrace HR Transformation with Accenture and Workday
It’s no secret that this year, things are different.
Conversations with our clients have taken on a new and different meaning. While timeliness, quality and value are all still important, platitudes around employee experience are now replaced with deeper meaning and relevancy. Clients are pushing for a faster ‘insight to action’ cycle, in order to drive meaningful and measurable caring and support to their workers across the globe.
The HR profession has reached a unique and pivotal time. The ‘never normal’ has thrust people aspects of the business to be front and center on the C-suite agenda. CHROs can rewrite their mission to focus on the care and resiliency of human workers.
The CHRO as Catalyst for Culture Change
According to our 2020 COVID-19 Workforce Pulse Survey[1], 69 percent expect that companies will build back better to behave more responsibly and equitably than before, and 67 percent say that COVID-19 has strengthened the need for greater business involvement in improving social and environmental outcomes. Meanwhile, in the past six months, the number of CxOs who have fully embraced the responsibility to support people’s holistic needs has increased from 35 to more than 50 percent. To change company culture, CEOs are turning to the CHRO to lead the way.
The challenges of 2020 have brought this message to the fore, emphasizing the importance of protecting and supporting the organization’s most important stakeholders — its people. Architecting a culture that leaves people ‘net better off’ lifts your business and helps elevate the broader community. It’s not just the right thing to do, it’s good for business. According to recent Accenture research, even in difficult times, companies that leave their people better off can see modest revenue growth of 5 percent[2], and in more stable times, even greater financial gain is possible.
Accenture’s ‘Net Better Off’ Model
Our research shows that, by meeting six fundamental human needs through work, companies can unlock their people’s full potential, which may unlock business potential. Those needs are: Emotional and Mental, Relational, Physical, Financial, Purposeful and Employable.
But what helps to improve and sustain high net better off scores? Our research revealed that there are five practices that, when taken together, form a sweet spot for investment — paying dividends for both individuals and the organization:
- Enable continuous learning
- Listen to what your people need at the front lines
- Use technology to enable flexible and more creative work
- Champion workforce well-being and equality
- Set and share people metrics
While it is true that modern HR leaders can be the architects of these practices, we found that they are developed and championed with input from individuals throughout the organization. The entire C-suite must collaborate to deploy these practices and ensure they remain vibrant.
Helping You Find Your Sweet Spot with Workday
Modern HR leaders know that they have an imperative to redefine the role of HR and its mission to the organization. Their focus has shifted from expecting people to be worthy of their organization to making their organization worthy of inspiring the best individuals, which engenders a higher level of trust. Fortunately, organizations with Workday have the digital foundation to make workers net better off. Through solutions like Workday Prism Analytics, where organizations can define and measure net better off, to Workday Skills Cloud, where organizations can meaningfully grow worker relevancy for today and tomorrow, and to Workday Adaptive Planning, where organizations can comprehensively develop workforce plans that seamlessly integrate with business plans, Workday facilitates how and where organizations can make investments to help make workers net better off in all five sweet spot practices.
Ensuring your people are net better off is more critical now than ever. Accenture’s long-standing partnership with Workday has enabled us to discover the best ways to use the system to balance the five sweet spots, redefining the way our clients and their teams plan, execute and analyze. We believe the key to unlocking value through HR is seeing it as an ongoing journey of innovation and agility, providing meaningful services to the workforce. The potential of people and entire organizations can change when they are sufficiently supported with the right data and services, so give your people the power to change things.
Learn more about how Accenture and Workday are helping HR organizations leave their workers net better off in this perspective.
[1] Accenture Research COVID-19 Workforce Pulse Survey, collected a total of 5 waves from April — July 2020
[2] This figure is estimated from S&P Capital IQ consensus forecast (as of August 31, 2020) on a sample of more than 1000 of the largest global companies.
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