If we take the results of different Global and national surveys on Enterprise Risk Management, “War for Talent” is more and more situated in the top 5 of the risks, all sectors combined.
- In Belgium: following the results of a survey on 3.000 employees by Acerta and Stepstone, 37% of them intend to make a career switch in the coming 12 months.
- 45% of the working population sent out an application during the last 6 months.
- One out of five envisages a completely different function in another sector.
The higher turnover of the employees’ population, the fast increase of the digitalization, remote working and the Covid crisis are the accelerators and huge influencers of the evolution of this Top Risk.
And the risk will increase in the coming months in parallel with the installation of the “new normal” work landscape.
As Risk Managers, how can we contribute – in close collaboration with HR – to understand and manage this risk, to create opportunity?
Moreover: How do we care for our employees? Or in Risk Management Terms – how does wellbeing enter into the Duty of Care obligations we have to comply with?
But first of all: How do WE feel as an employee in this context? How have we personally been impacted by the huge change that was forced upon us? If we want to understand the above questions and deal with those challenges as risk managers, we must be willing to take a closer look at how we are experiencing the current situation ourselves.
An insight in our own mindset can help us to better understand our colleagues, our management, our peers, so we may be able to better highlight the risks and the opportunities in the coming Talent War and help shape a work environment where wellbeing is considered part of the new normal.”
Two specialists in the field were invited to help us understand how change affects our wellbeing and performance.
Prof dr Lode Godderis is professor at the Centre for Environment and Health of the University of Leuven. He is also CEO at IDEWE (idewe.be), a Belgian External Service for Prevention and Protection at Work. He investigates the impact of work on health by unravelling the underlying mechanism and also the reverse how health can affect work (dis)ability. He is member of the expert group that advices the Belgian government on the measures and exit strategy in the Covid-19 crisis.
Evelien Rombaut is an organizational psychologist working at the KIR-department (Knowledge, Information & Research) of IDEWE (idewe.be), a Belgian External Service for Prevention and Protection at Work. She is also a PhD student at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and KU Leuven, currently studying how and why organizational changes affect employee well-being. Based on the results of her scientific studies she is developing an e-tool for IDEWE that aims to protect and improve the well-being of employees during organizational changes.
Evelien gave us the theoretical framework of the impact of change on the work place and Lode zoomed in on the specific problems – and opportunities – of telework.
There was lively interaction between participants and speakers, leading up to the useful take-aways, such as:
- Go for a walk before you start work and once you’ve finished (as if you were commuting to your work place);
- Schedule your meetings with at least 15 minutes break in between or schedule them on 2 days and keep the other 3 days free of meetings;
- Make sure to “check in” and “check out” of a digital meeting, making sure everyone is aligned;
- Take time for informal contacts;
- Communicate clearly;
- Stay connected with your employees and colleagues;
- Get dressed for work;
- Organise a “wake-up” call;
- Have a “coffee break” to catch up on personal issues;
- Set up some “rules” about telework with your partner and housemates;
- Watch your time spent on work;
- Protect your work/life balance.
Thank you to all participants for having shared their story. This leads to real knowledge-sharing, which is the aim of the BELRIM exchanges.
