Resilience sector insights - People

As it becomes increasingly important for organisations to attract and retain the right employees, as well as embracing automation and AI to remain competitive – how can businesses prepare for the challenges ahead and identify upcoming opportunities?

Resilience: a strategic imperative

We see resilience as a strategic imperative to ensure the sustainability of your organisation and drive stakeholder value. Resilience is more than just the ability to absorb and recover from disruptive events. We say resilience is the capacity to remain relevant, competitive and drive value for your stakeholders in these everchanging times.

Organisations operate in a constantly changing environment and need to prepare and plan for a wide range of strategic and operational risks and opportunities and respond quickly to crises. Building resilience is an imperative for all organisations and requires an effective combination of risk management and strategic agility.

We offer a wide breadth of services for a large range of clients across industry sectors. Through conversations across leaders within these services, we’re looking to offer sector insights to demonstrate how strategic resilience plays a major role across all areas of your business.

We spoke with Alan Frost, Partner within the Management Consulting team

What is our People offering in a nutshell?

We use the power of data to provide insights into the efficiency and productivity improvement opportunities for clients, which enhances the profitability of the company, but also the employee value proposition to the worker.

Organisations hold a whole raft of information about their people, but this is not always organised or connected and therefore is not providing visibility of the value and challenges people are adding.

What are our clients’ short-term (0-12 months) risks and opportunities around People?

With a slowdown in the economy, more competition between candidates for roles, and a potential change in Government, businesses need to have a clear people agenda to attract the right employees.

Conversely, to retain good talent, they will need to invest in future skills in the workforce. Married with this are cost of living concerns, career progression and changing motivations of individuals in the workforce.

Understanding all these pressures and the levers you can pull to get on top of them will build resilience through an engaged, motivated, and productive workforce.

What are our clients’ medium-term (3-5 years) risks and opportunities around People?

Investing in our people is the greatest investment a business can make and will do more than anything else to sustain an organisation through the ups and downs of business. Learning and development will support your people to grow and develop as your organisation navigates the challenges of today and the future, whatever it brings.

Specifically, upskilling in technical and soft skills areas to stay abreast of changing trends in industry, whilst cognisant of a fluid and more flexible working culture.

What are the longer-term considerations?

What do we need/want our staff to deliver, and how will we determine this? How can automation and AI improve the effectiveness and engagement with our people, and what do we need to prepare the business and our workforce for this.

Additionally, the gig economy can be utilised in a more effective manner; buying in skills as and when needed, to supplement your core full time workforce, based on specific packages of work.

And finally, developing a mindset which places greater value on delivery of results, not attendance in the office and the negative presenteeism culture. 

How can we help our clients?

We can help you to uncover and understand the raft of data you hold about your people, and through our HR analytics tool we can help unlock areas of success and weakness, aligned to key performance metrics, placing a financial cost and reward on improvement areas.

Furthermore, our culture compass has demonstrably supported organisations, and can also help you to understand cultural reviews. Our 'Culture Compass' is a proprietary tool used to assess organisational culture. It is used as the underlying conceptual framework in all phases of the project. The Compass has been developed and refined over many years, utilising guidance from the FRC, FCA, ISOs, UNGPs, thought leadership and our practical experience. By exploring the six dimensions and the variables within them, it allows us to quickly and rigorously identify both risks and opportunities for cultural change.

When the culture is in sync with the strategy, it creates a shared sense of purpose and direction, fostering a cohesive and motivated workforce. By embracing a culture that embraces innovation, collaboration, and adaptability, employees are more likely to embrace strategic initiatives, take ownership, and contribute their best efforts. An organisational culture that supports strategy serves as a powerful catalyst for achieving business goals, driving growth, and maintaining a competitive edge in today's dynamic business environment.

Our approach seeks to delve into the very fabric of your organisation, examining the values, beliefs, and behaviours that define your organisational culture. By conducting a comprehensive review, we aim to identify areas of strength, areas for improvement, and provide actionable recommendations to enhance your company's culture.

In addition to this, we can help you assess key skills in the workforce, aligned to your strategic objectives, and advise on future skill requirements, leveraging the apprenticeship levy.

National Resilience Contact – Dan Breger, Associate Director, Management Consulting

National Management Consulting Contact – Alan Frost, Partner, Management Consulting