In the early evening hours of December 31, 2020, I gathered around a fire pit with my wife, children, and dear friends from around the neighborhood. When we made a toast, I said, “Good riddance, 2020.” The stress, the trauma, and the uncertainty of what was probably the most anxiety-inducing year of our lifetime was ending, and, on the horizon, a 2021 filled with hope and optimism.
Just a couple of months later, I stood in line in the upper concourse of Gillette Stadium (home of my beloved New England Patriots) and awaited the first of my (now) three jabs of the groundbreaking Moderna vaccine. To me, it wasn’t just a vaccine, but rather a representation of how we could collectively move forward from everything that pushed us to our emotional limits in the year that was 2020. Of course, we know what happened next:
- The biggest vaccination campaign in our lifetime kicked off in early 2021 and provided the world with some measures of optimism entering the spring and summer months.
- The Delta variant upended some (or most) of those “hot vax summer” plans and caused COVID cases to surge across the world.
- Talented professionals began leaving their roles in droves, kicking off what is still referred to as “The Great Resignation,” although should now be considered “The Talent Revolution.”
- More focus than ever before was placed on DE&I, empathy-driven business leadership, and the shift to remote and hybrid work.
- Vaccine mandates became sources of political, business, and social disagreements.
- Another coronavirus variant, Omicron, proved to be the most transmissible of all variants to date and is now responsible for hundreds of daily cases in the United States alone.
We’re about to enter the third full year of a global pandemic. We’re still dealing with large swaths of the workforce voluntarily resigning and leaving their jobs. We’re fighting a battle for equity and inclusion. We’re feeling the ramifications of extreme staffing shortages. We’re continuing to battle for true workplace and workforce flexibility. We’re continuing to feel, hear, and see the exhaustion in the essential workforce community. And we’re still experiencing (even at this point) blow-back to the benefits of remote and hybrid work.
All true. All true. However…
We have the most innovative tools ever designed to better manage talent and talent engagement. We know that empathy is the heart and soul of the best mode of business leadership. We understand what we need to do to solve staffing shortage issues. We have the ability to open our minds and hearts to do the right thing. We have the ability to build digital workplaces and digital workspaces. We know that a diverse talent community is the deepest talent community. We know that the extended workforce represents nearly half of all global talent for a very good reason. And we have access to solutions that can provide next-level, AI-fueled data to help us make better business decisions.
The phrase “work optimization” is frequently used in our industry (and here on the Future of Work Exchange) to describe the essential goals of the Future of Work movement: get work done in the most effective way(s) possible. And as the calendar flips to another year, I believe we should take those ideas a step further.
Let’s optimize 2022. Entirely.
That’s right…let’s optimize everything about the year ahead. Let’s look at our talent, how we acquire that talent, how we manage that talent, how we treat that talent, and optimize it all. Let’s optimize the use of technology and automation. Let’s review the ways we manage our staff and the benefits we offer them. Let’s take a long, hard look at just how truly diverse our workforce actually is. Let’s continue to lean on remote and hybrid workspaces to boost both safety and productivity. Let’s take that great leap and get closer to being a truly “digital enterprise.” Let’s rethink how technology aids talent engagement. Let’s enable our hiring managers, talent acquisition leaders, and other stakeholders with real-time, AI-fueled total talent intelligence that can revolutionize workforce decision-making.
Let’s focus on how we enable our workers to prosper. Let’s think about the human side of business and how we can improve the emotional connections between leadership and the workforce. Let’s prioritize employee wellbeing and mental health. Let’s take a new approach to enterprise operations and ensure we are embracing change, progression, and evolution.
Let’s make 2022 a time to thrive. Let’s optimize the year ahead and push the Future of Work movement into a new stratosphere.
