There is no question that the pandemic caused a massive shift in the way we work — and what we expect from our jobs. Employers are stepping up to meet increased employee demands for more flexibility, better work/life balance, and benefits like mental health days, along with more perks.
For their part, employees are making their needs clear by leaving jobs that are over demanding or unfulfilling; a trend that’s being called the “Great Resignation.”
It feels like a moment of significant upheaval, but to Steve Hunt, chief expert of Technology & Work at SAP, our current workforce issues are not a surprise — he’s known it has been coming.
This article is part of a new series, SAP Pioneers, which features innovators at SAP who are charting new horizons in the cloud and guiding companies across the globe through exciting areas of innovation.
As an industrial organizational psychologist and a technologist who works with many different companies, Hunt understands the operational realities of businesses. This trend is the outcome of two tectonic shifts that have been moving under the ground of our society: the digitization of work and the shifting demographics of our workforce.
According to Hunt, we are seeing the outcome of an ongoing shift in the fundamentals of work, work that is now physically much easier but psychologically more difficult. As our roles in the workforce changed, the rules around that work did not adapt as fast, leading to frustration and burnout. The impact of COVID-19 was gasoline on a simmering flame. And now, companies must rethink how they design jobs and recruit, develop and engage employees.
Learn more about this topic in Hunt’s recent podcast interview with Tech Talks Daily, “SAP SuccessFactors – Workforce Psychology and HR Technology,” where he discusses topics that include:
- How technology is changing the purpose of work
- Why creating effective employee experiences is critical to building organizations that can thrive in a world of accelerating change and growing skill shortages
- How a technology company like SAP embraces this area of focus and how it impacts new software solutions being developed
- The role of technology in all of this and what tools are critical in this future of work evolution