Employment Trends – Organizational Environment and Organizational Efficacy

Friday, February 08, 2013

In January, 2013, Sodexo, Inc., a provider of integrated food and facilities management services in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, released its “Workplace Trends Report: 12 Key Issues and Solutions for Business Leaders”. Sodexo surveyed C-Suite level leaders in a wide range of business sectors as to their perception of are the “key drivers of success and essential to individual and organizational performance”. According to Sodexo’s analysis it is as simple as “people centric”.

Of the 12 key issues, a number of them have a familiar ring to them:

1. The Built Environment’s Crucial Role in Organization Performance

“… environmental changes can strongly support employers’ efforts to improve

employees’ health behaviors.”

2. Superstar Recruitment - The Power of Community

“… increased use of social media, especially as it relates to recruitment and employment branding.”

3. Inspiring A Connection To People, Community, & Brand through CSR

“… the most talented candidates today are often seeking more than a paycheck.”

4. The Contemporary View of Inclusion & Its Effect on Psychological Health

“… key component of a psychologically healthy workplace is having an atmosphere of diversity and inclusion.”

5. 21St Century Mentoring

“… today’s mentoring is focused on removing the barriers between people and engaging them in rich learning and teaching opportunities in a broad, networked manner …”

6. Thriving in The Cloud

“The “cloud” makes access to information available from anywhere at anytime, so that workers are no longer hostage to desktops or networked devices.”

7. Ushering in The New Era of Recognition

“… based on the knowledge that the more people feel included in the formative stages of your incentive and reward program, the higher the degree of their involvement …”

8. Facilities Management: A Strategy, Not A Tactic

“FM is not about managing facilities per se; rather, it is about enabling the workforce to be productive and engaged, and to produce value for the organization.”

9. Data Reporting OUT; Predictive Modeling IN

“… human capital risk management focuses on strategic connections among critical data elements that comprise an organization’s human capital management efforts, with specific focus on those connections that influence job performance.”

10. International Design & Construction; A Shifting Paradigm

“… the local culture is the factor that the largest share of firms takes into account when they are preparing to enter a foreign business market.”

11. The Changing Office…Literally

“Workspaces are more versatile to suit not only the work performed but also the personal preferences of the individual doing it.”

12. Integration as THE Solution

“… today’s working generation[s] are more complex and dynamic than ever, and creating efficient, effective, and flexible work environments that take into account total well-being has become critical.”

It is hard to miss the “people centric” thread woven into this analysis by the authors, Rachel S. Permuth PhD, MSPH, Sr. Director, Workplace Research, Sodexo, Kevin Rettle, FMP, Director of FM/CRE Market Research & Insights, Sodexo, and Rebecca Scott, MPH, Research Fellow, Sodexo.

In this era of “more with less”, it is clearly apparent that the who, what, where, when, and how an organization manages the risk profile its “human capital”, i.e., people; is critical to the sustainability or the organization and creating value for all of it stakeholders.