Organisations today are judged for more than their success as a business, according to Deloitte's new report
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The world of work is changing to become more personalised and connected, with formal hierarchies breaking down and being replaced by networks of teams, according to Deloitte’s new report Human Capital Trends 2018: The rise of the social enterprise
It also highlights a profound shift facing business leaders in Australia and around the world: the rapid rise of what Deloitte calls the social enterprise.
The report has surveyed more than 11,000 HR and business leaders around the world and is the largest longitudinal survey of its kind.
Indeed, David Brown, Deloitte Human Capital Leader said that there are several major changes happening in the world of business.
“Society’s expectations of business are changing. The focus is now clearly on business’ role in society as a driver of change, just look at the role they played in the marriage equality debate in Australia late last year,” said Brown.
“In the past we have measured business performance on financials and the quality of products or services.”
Brown added that social capital is just as important as human, financial and physical capital.
“Companies’ reputation, relevance, and bottom-lines increasingly hinge on their ability to act as good citizens and influence pressing public issues,” he said.
“With increased transparency and social awareness, business focus is shifting towards stronger relationships with employees, customers and communities. Organisations today are judged for more than their success as a business.
“They’re now being held responsible for their impact on society at large – their role as a social enterprise.”
The report also found that in preparing for the workforce of the future, 90% of Australian businesses jointly ranked a connected workplace and C-suite collaboration as their top priorities.
However, only 38% and 43% respectively indicated a readiness to tackle these challenges.
“Australian businesses are clearly prioritising connectivity and collaboration but the scale of the challenge and the pace at which change is occurring is perhaps making businesses feel underprepared,” said Brown.
“Being disconnected geographically from the rest of the world can instil a need and necessity to find ways of connecting socially, the importance of which has now filtered through to the workplace.”
Brown added that communication tools traditionally used for social purposes being embraced in the workplace and the lines between personal and business identities blurring.
“The more connected an organisation is, the more important what it is saying becomes,” he said.
“Employees want their workplaces to represent them and their values externally, as much as their own profile and social media presence does.”
According to Deloitte, the 10 human capital trends for 2018 are:
Indeed, 40% of Australian respondents say they expect face-to-face meetings and phone calls (31%) will decrease in the near future. To replace them, 68% predict an increase in instant messaging and 79% an increase in online collaboration platforms.
The greatest opportunity is not just to redesign jobs or automate routine work, but to fundamentally re-think ‘how work works’ to benefit employers, teams and individuals (just 5% of Australian respondents say they are doing this).