"Workforce management is human capital management. We believe in creating a culture that spurs innovative solutions. How do you do that? Empower your workforce through choice of work, autonomy to work without unnecessary constraints, and support through shared problem solving. Simply put: Choice, Freedom and Encouragement."

-TECKpert Workforce Manager, Ivana Castro, MPA, SHRM-CP

Before you can empower your workforce, you have to build it. In the future, how you build the human force of your company is a foundational decision.

Choice

Humans make decisions; fight or flight, yes or no, this or that - and largely machines can now make these same decisions if they are fed enough data. But decision-making is a reactive process - not just situationally reactive - emotionally and culturally reactive. Both human decisions and machine decisions benefit humans. If we look at the hiring process as an example, technology greatly assists in advertising, compiling candidates, evaluating keywords in resumes, and identifying a shortlist based on criteria, metrics and requirements defined by the people who know the role and company best. Technology can be what we want it to be and we can choose how to implement it in our workflows. So let’s look at the hiring process in another way:Technology is implemented to create an application and extend reach to attract qualified gig-economy professionals. It is used to compile resumes and validate credentials and certifications. Then human assets step in to meet, evaluate, and connect with potential candidates. Data analytics are applied to help segment candidates and companies and generate a short-list of potential matches, then humans evaluate for culture and company fit, and create a match. The future of work won’t be about machines only, or machine work first and human value after - it will be a conversational exchange between people and the technology they utilize.

Freedom

“Autonomy to work without unnecessary constraints…” The workforce of the future is in the seedling stage. Already we are starting to track the effects of work from home on productivity and employee satisfaction. We are also seeing toleration decrease from employees who no longer wish to sacrifice their work/life balance for their career. We quoted “unnecessary constraints” earlier in reference to support and work autonomy - things like location, hours, and length of the workweek come to mind as obvious constraints, but we can also talk about micro management, task tracking, and freedom for creativity within roles. It may seem counterintuitive but technology can help automate autonomy while still supporting quality of work and proper function of your business. Tools like workflow planning, Trello, Asana, etc., meeting apps/virtual connectivity solutions, and cross-platform integrations can help sync your team across time zones and responsibilities - in some ways increasing visibility and transparency compared to brick and mortar models.Freedom is also found in data - by enhancing outreach efforts for campaigns and analysis efforts for sales pipelines or sequences. From the development side of your business to the “front of house” endeavours like marketing and customer experience - tech applications create bridges between software and separate areas of employee expertise to elevate your services, branding, and infrastructure.

Encouragement

How does tech promote encouragement? We’ve explored how it can help you create and manage your team, but how can it help turn your team from a group of employees to an inspired and motivated unit? The future of work is adaptable and adaptation is about reacting the same way that decision-making is. How you react to decisions and change overall greatly contributes to the perception your team has about your company and about how they are managed. One thing is for certain, the future of work will not be static. Technology used to be a solution to get from point A to point B faster and more efficiently. Email was more efficient than faxing, as an example. Now, technology is about creating points to go between - in other words, it’s more destination oriented - think about the headlines recently talking about the metaverse or wearable tech. When we consider a future where technology is even more integrated in our daily work, personal tasks, and recreation than it is now - we have to also think that things like verbal encouragement, incentives, and recognition will all be delivered and viewed digitally. Tech is expanding our landscape but it isn’t altering our basic needs as much as it is amplifying them. The changes we’ve seen recently related to The Great Resignation are markers that the workforce is ready to embrace the synchronicity that technology can provide between work life and home life - but none of this means compromising your company’s growth or operation. Curious to know more and start building your team for the future? We have the answers to all your questions. Reach out to us today to learn more!