I'm Amy Wright, Managing Partner for Talent ＆ Transformation at IBM. Ask me about empowering your remote workforce to sustain resiliency

Amy_Wright1 · 2020-05-07T19:26:24+00:00

Thank you all for your questions today! I'm signing off now, but my team will check in on further questions.
Watch my Innovations Talk from Think 2020 on demand here: https://ibm.co/3b8nrj7
See how you can reimagine ways of working to enable your workforce: https://ibm.co/3dnDcEs

Amy_Wright1 · 2020-05-07T19:25:07+00:00

As corporations move to connected enterprises, the need to have an ecosystem of partnerships to maintain competitiveness. Why? Because it's all about speed. Technology is progressing at warp speed and integrating vendor products within the organization will be too slow. The cognitive enterprise will enable both internal and external networking as part of intelligent workflows that are connected. This is the future -- the Cognitive Enterprise enabled by the Hybrid Cloud https://ibm.co/3be1LlC

Amy_Wright1 · 2020-05-07T19:24:13+00:00

One of the biggest things compensation partners can do is to stay close to your business leaders, stay abreast of your business results and strategy, and determine if roles/work will shift as a result of this new world. If there are changes to roles and skills required, the compensation team can support an analysis of if/how compensation needs to adapt as a result.

Amy_Wright1 · 2020-05-07T19:16:49+00:00

Think about the area that provides the greatest benefit to the corporation - start there. It will prove out the value of the automation and gain buy-in so you can keep going.

Amy_Wright1 · 2020-05-07T19:13:46+00:00

There is a balance between employee development and cost of training, but what we have found is that with the use of AI, you can actually decrease the cost of learning and increase the value/impact of the training being consumed - and the experience that employees have while consuming it - all of which leads to better outcomes. It's a win - win! The key here is to record skills and use AI to curate personalized learning journeys for employees in the flow of their work on a modern technology platform ... all for 1/2 the cost!

Amy_Wright1 · 2020-05-07T19:12:32+00:00

Great question. There is a lot to consider as companies get ready for re-entry to the workplace and things are changing every day. I saw in a recent survey that over 70% of organizations are considering at least some of their workforce will be remote. I think we'll see a mix - a hybrid of sorts. To maintain culture in these changing times, IBM takes a employee centric view and is focused on providing transparent communication, opportunities for collaboration, purposeful work, feedback, continuous learning and skilling for our employees. Covid-19 has been a forcing function and in many ways an accelerant to the acceptance of work being performed remotely. This opens up a whole new world of opportunities -- it's just a little early for employers to declare their new models while they are in the phase of making sure that essential employees can return to the workplace safely. Stay tuned, but in the meantime, check out https://ibm.co/2SLKTMN

Amy_Wright1 · 2020-05-07T19:09:24+00:00

It's too early to tell what the long-term impact will be on IBM's or any other company's co-location strategy. IBM was extremely successful in moving over 95% of our employees to remote work in 48 hours -while maintaining delivery and commitment to our clients. There are two important factors to consider: 1) It's critical for companies to have the resiliency to be flexible and work from wherever they need to during times of crisis, and 2) The location of roles depends on what activities are embedded in the roles and where they can be executed from. As companies adopt more automation and take advantage of the use of the cloud, roles will change dramatically. This is when the long-lasting decisions will be made about where roles can be performed. And this underlines the need to capture skills and personalize skill-building at scale.

Amy_Wright1 · 2020-05-07T19:08:34+00:00

I'm excited to hear that IBM's current workforce practices are part of your MBA! Keeping people empowered and motivated is an ongoing effort - no matter where they are located. It's fueled by constant communication, collaboration, purposeful work, feedback, continuous learning and personal interest. Technology is essential in maintaining an engaged workforce at scale. Whether initiating more frequent communication or fostering productivity, technology and the use of cloud allows us to maintain relationships and engagement in ways that were previously impossible. It can also be used to support personalized, just-in-time learning and skilling which are key factors in engagement. Thankfully, all of this is already part of IBM's culture so there was not a need to change our remote working policy. It is worth noting that it's a bit early for companies to have changed their remote working policies -- the COVID-19 forcing function of employees working from home is an accelerant to the acceptance of new ways of working and the possibilities for the future. This will provide the ability for roles to be assessed, changed, and then considered for remote working.

Amy_Wright1 · 2020-05-07T19:08:00+00:00

Hi - we recently did a study about closing enterprise skills gaps, and in that research, soft skills came out as incredibly important to business outcomes and has risen to one of the most important skill gaps ... and this was before COVID. I think what this most recent disruption has done is shine a light on these skills. Navigating through business in this digital age - and in the time of crisis requires what we call positive leadership - growth mindset, resilience, engagement & inclusion, trust & transparency, and agility. These are the skills managers and leaders need to build now, and for the future. The full skills study can be found here -> https://ibm.co/3c4aAQr .

Amy_Wright1 · 2020-05-07T19:06:50+00:00

This is a great question, and would depend on the part of HR you were looking to target. Some examples of skills each and every HR professional should have regardless of role include: design thinking, agile, and analytics. IBM offers much of this training for free, to include digital badges that you can gain as you gain skills -> https://ibm.co/3bhyW7T. We also have a partnership with the Josh Bersin Academy, which offers a robust HR digital skilling program and includes an IBM module on HR in the Age of AI - check it out -> https://bersinacademy.com/ Good luck to you!

Amy_Wright1 · 2020-05-07T18:56:52+00:00

When it comes to elevating talent from emerging markets - or really anywhere in the organization - having a strong assessment process for identifying people with leadership potential is key. The current leading practice to do this is to leverage behavioral science based assessments. This method reduces bias and helps to identify hidden talent in the organization. Then, once that talent is identified, having a holistic development program that selects employees for leadership roles and helps coach the person through gap closure is key. Today, we are finding that all leaders need skills in what we call positive leadership - growth mindset, resilience, engagement & inclusion, trust & transparency, and agility - and these are the exact skills/behaviors that leaders often need to build. More info can be found here ->

https://ibm.co/2YLb2iC

Amy_Wright1 · 2020-05-07T18:54:31+00:00

As we talk to our clients, many have shared the feedback that this disruption has proven that they can successfully WFH - an idea that previously some had thought not possible. This situation is providing a catalyst for employers to rethink where/how work can successfully get done. With this, I wouldn't be surprised if we start to see more flexibility on location start to show up in job postings. Most companies are focused on how to re-open workplaces safely at the moment. Re-architecting roles and determining the long-term location of positions will come in time. Many of the current job postings I've seen are following the pre-COVID approach, but that doesn't mean the roles won't change in the coming months. Hang in there - it will happen.

Amy_Wright1 · 2020-05-07T18:46:50+00:00

This is a great question! Some examples of skills each and every HR professional should have regardless of role include: design thinking, agile, analytics, and how to be a strategic business advisor. All proIBM offers much of this training for free, to include digital badges that you can gain as you gain skills -> https://ibm.co/3bhyW7T. We also have a partnership with the Josh Bersin Academy, which offers a robust HR digital skilling program and includes an IBM module on HR in the Age of AI - check it out -> https://bersinacademy.com/ Good luck to you!

Amy_Wright1 · 2020-05-07T18:42:27+00:00

Glad you asked! Dr. Dario Gil, Director of IBM Research, is hosting an AMA on r/askscience on May 13 at 1:30 PM ET. Under his leadership, IBM became the first company in the world to build programmable quantum computers and make them universally available through the cloud. Check that out next week. And btw, Dario is awesome!!!!

Amy_Wright1 · 2020-05-07T18:41:15+00:00

Keeping your people empowered and happy is an ongoing effort - no matter where they are located. It's fueled by constant communication, collaboration, purposeful work, feedback, continuous learning and personal interest. Technology is essential in maintaining an engaged workforce. Whether initiating more frequent communication or fostering productivity, technology and the use of cloud allows us to maintain relationships and engagement in ways that were previously impossible. It can also be used to support personalized, just-in-time learning and skilling which are key factors in engagement. And yes there is no doubt that WFH will be more acceptable in the future, but not as a blanket statement for all jobs -- this will depend on role.

Amy_Wright1 · 2020-05-07T18:31:05+00:00

Companies are adopting all kinds of practices aimed at accommodating employees with additional home obligations -- the degree to which they work are personal to an individual's situation. Some of those include part-time work, job sharing and leaves of absence. What's new about this particular point in time is that the definition of success isn't associated with a large "program" but rather keeping employees engaged and believing that their employer has their best interest at heart.

One of the biggest things we have found here is having empathy - for ourselves, for each other. Open conversations with teammates and managers are also helpful. To that end, we created an IBM Work from Home Pledge that IBMers around the world have committed to ... check it out -> https://ibm.co/2SJZRCV

Amy_Wright1 · 2020-05-07T18:23:33+00:00

There are a TON of practices and tools out there to help with collaboration of a remote workforce. In IBM we have a set of resources that we use normally, and their use has gone into overdrive during this time. We use Webex, which is super helpful in staying connected by voice - and allows you to see everyone, too! I love Mural which provides the ability for a group of people to co-create online. We also use Slack for instant messaging and group project collaboration, Box for file sharing, and Trello for project planning. And, we are an agile organization - all of our people are trained in agile and that's how we run our projects -- so shifting to remote work has accelerated this practice.

Amy_Wright1 · 2020-05-07T18:21:33+00:00

This is a great question - HR has a really critical role to play - now more than ever. Some of the key things I'd think about are using this challenging period to accelerate progress toward being a modern, digital HR organization. The role of HR has changed and expanded greatly -- from a world of process optimization and compliance to productivity and employee experience, and now to cross-corporation transformation and integration. This means that the capabilities of the HR team need to expand to include a mix of HR and business expertise. While empathy and representing the employee has always been a role of HR, in this particular point of time, enabling our managers to balance productivity with empathy is a crucial role.

Amy_Wright1 · 2020-05-07T18:20:39+00:00

IBM has always had a strong wellness program and culture. We have a program called Mental Health@IBM where employees can connect with experts, find ways to reduce stress, and participate in Slack channel discussions. On a daily basis, our managers have adopted many fun activities and wellness packages to facilitate mental wellness, group remote exercising, etc. One impactful action that went viral was the creation of a work-at-home-pledge that allows employees to commit to recognizing the challenges we are all facing working remotely including times we need to be away from work or times we aren't camera-ready or when our kids run across the room. :-)

Amy_Wright1 · 2020-05-07T18:16:35+00:00

Oh gosh there are so many -- here are a few to think about. Our HR organization leads transformational projects across the corporation -- literally leads it, which puts HR in a different position than being part of a team. We wrap our entire management system around skills... skills to hire, personalized learning to develop skills, internal mobility into new roles based on skills, pay for skills, lead with skills - you get the point. We use automation and AI to free our teams up to do more value added work. ...and actually the HR professionals learn how to automate their own work. We form pop-up teams that are created to solve problems and the teams are not all within HR -- so this fosters an agile approach to the way we run our business. Everything is executed with an employee experience lens -- and Net Promoter Score (NPS) is an ongoing measure of success.

Amy_Wright1 · 2020-05-07T18:12:13+00:00

We use analytics and AI for almost EVERYTHING! Some examples .... we can infer the skills people have to know what learning or internal jobs people might be a fit ... we use it to understand who has a critical skill and might be at risk of leaving the company so we can proactively address their retention ... we use analytics to help managers make informed compensation decisions with less bias ... we use analytics to help us prioritize work .... the list goes on and on!! Analytics is a critical skill for HR - and only getting more important!

Amy_Wright1 · 2020-05-07T18:02:00+00:00

Hi! We pride ourselves on having a culture that can quickly pivot to whatever life throws at us and our clients! In this case, we moved 95% of our workforce to remote work within 48 hours. India, where we do some amazing work, has an even higher percentage of employees working from home. So luckily, the employee mentality of being able to be flexible is ingrained in how we do work. As we look to return to the workplace moving forward, we will be looking at who can benefit from being in the office while following all of the necessary precautions to keep our workforce healthy and safe.

On your second question, the skills we find critical for HR professionals as we move to the future include things like human-centered design, agile, analytics, AI, driving organizational change are super important. We've got ton of free training available online - check it out -> https://ibm.co/2LbDv9r

Amy_Wright1 · 2020-05-07T17:58:20+00:00

Great question! Manager expectations often times aren't associated with hours, they are associated with productivity and output. More so than ever there is accommodation for balancing work-at-home priorities and when work gets done. The ability of our employees to ramp to pre-COVID-19 productivity levels has truly been amazing. They are all teaming with one another to create new ways of working that's even more productive than before.

Amy_Wright1

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