The Key to Sustainable Business Growth: Human Performance
Overview
Deloitte's 2024 annual report on global human capital trends, "Human Performance in a Boundaryless World," emphasizes the importance of human sustainability in driving business growth. The report identifies four key themes: human sustainability, beyond productivity, trust and transparency, and the imagination deficit.
Human Sustainability
In the digital age, work has become "boundaryless," with traditional work structures becoming less stable and predictable. To thrive in this environment, organizations must prioritize human sustainability. Human sustainability is defined as the extent to which an organization creates value for people as individuals, not just as workers. This includes enhancing well-being, mental health, skills, employability, job quality, opportunities for advancement, and fostering equity and belonging.
Key Findings:
- Organizations that prioritize human sustainability are 1.75x more likely to achieve desired business outcomes and 1.9x more likely to achieve positive human outcomes compared to those that do not.
The Workday Approach
Workday's approach to harnessing human performance integrates advanced technology with human-centric strategies. Key components include:
- Workday Prism Analytics: Combines ESG data with employee data to provide a holistic view of human sustainability and track metrics like employee engagement, gender pay gap, leadership diversity, and training investments.
- Workday Skills Intelligence Foundation: Creates an environment where employees can showcase their capabilities, increasing engagement and advancement opportunities.
- Workday Peakon Employee Voice: A continuous listening platform that captures real-time employee sentiment, provides feedback, and offers personalized recommendations for action.
- Workday Career Hub: Guides employees in career development, offering tools for seeking feedback, connecting with mentors, updating skills profiles, exploring new opportunities, and planning career paths.
- Workday Talent Marketplace: Empowers employees by connecting them to opportunities and leveraging machine learning to assess fit.
Organizations prioritizing human sustainability and performance are significantly more likely to achieve desired business outcomes and positive human outcomes.
Beyond Traditional Productivity Metrics
The report advocates moving beyond traditional productivity metrics like growth, profitability, customer satisfaction, NPS scores, and speed to market. Instead, organizations should focus on metrics that capture the social impact of organizational practices, reflecting a commitment to the human aspect of business. AI and advanced data analytics offer unprecedented opportunities to accurately measure and enhance human performance.
Trust and Transparency
Building trust and transparency is crucial for fostering a sustainable work environment. Trust and transparency underpin human performance, ensuring that employees feel valued and supported.
Closing the Imagination Deficit
In an AI-powered world of perpetual disruption, organizations must address the imagination deficit—the gap between what is possible and what is being done. Encouraging creativity and innovation is essential for navigating a dynamic business landscape.
Conclusion
Prioritizing human sustainability, going beyond traditional productivity metrics, fostering trust and transparency, and addressing the imagination deficit are key to sustainable business growth. Organizations that adopt these strategies are more likely to achieve both business and human outcomes.
