Global Talent Trends 2022-2023

We started to work on something that we are now calling U-Work. So this is the internal branding. We have found, Kate, a way of creating the third way that we are calling internally. We we've built a model, an employment model, a new type of contract that is a hybrid, sits in between being a full time equivalent and being a gig worker. It's an employment contract that actually delivers the promise of, I want security but at the same time I want flexibility.

So how this works is basically, you as a Unilever employee decide

to waive your lifestyle as a full-time equivalent, and you are proactively joining the U-Work model. Under the U-Work model you continue to be a permanent, permanent, Unilever employee. We're not cutting corners. You are a permanent employee. You retain your service from the moment that that you joined whenever you did. And together we agree, on an annual retainer. An annual retainer, that we will settle monthly. It doesn't matter if you are working for us, or if you don't.

So this is an important message which is every month in your bank accounts where you used to get your pay slip, there is a flow of income that you as a U-Worker will continue to get. There are moments where we may call you because we have cool work to offer to you based on your experience and your skill set. And, should you accept to work for us and to contribute to that project, in addition to your monthly retainer you will also get assignment pay that that tops up your income. Again, you are not mandated or forced to work every time that there is an opportunity. But, but when we have work we will get in touch and let you know this is what we can offer. Are you interested to work for us?

Again, whether you are working for Unilever at that point or if you are not. And in addition to that monthly retainer, we're also providing pension. We're also providing health care. We are also providing benefits. There is also a nice learning allowance because we want these people and their skill set to always be what it needs to be so that they don't lose their mastery.

The beautiful thing again about this model, Kate, going back to traditional employment you are, you can say I work for Unilever. I'm a permanent Unilever employee. But at any point in time you could be actively working for another company for another business. You could be setting up your own company. You could actually be just caring after the elder parents, or looking after your children, or  going back into university or traveling, as is the case of a of a number of people that that that that we have. I think that at this point in time that he's actually someone cycling in Australia because that's what she wanted to do. And I think that that's really cool.

And for people also that are phasing into retirement, or that's they probably at that that stage in life where they don't need to work 24/7, but they don't want to lose the fact that they could be still active, contribute to society. They love Unilever and want to continue to be associated with us. That's also a beautiful, a beautiful employment contract for people that want to phase into retirement.

But for me this is a revolutionary concept. The way that we've thought through this model makes it affordable for our P&L. It is sustainable over time, and it's something that at the same time is responsible for as an employer and towards our employees right. I think everybody wins a with this model. Everybody wins.

Working in partnership is so critical for BMW, and I think the industry as a whole, because we see that this is a time of change. We are recognizing there is a strong competition on innovation and how we're going to shape the future of work. And I think, I know there is that saying you can't solve a problem with a mindset that created in the first place. And that's why you need another perspective. That perspective can come out of partnership with consultants that have a broader view of what is happening in the environment, and what new companies are trying to find of new solutions. But just as well in partnership with the employees, and really listening into their perspective, their needs, and letting them be part of creating that future so that we can make sure that we really find the best solution on what we need as a company to be competitive in this changing environment.

One thing that I really think that we, as BMW, but also in a broader marketplace, need to consider that equity is becoming a huge challenge in the future. People recognize the opportunities of remote work, but it really depends on the role that you have in the company. If you take, for example, my job, most of my management teams are sitting in different locations. And it's almost natural to me for me to work remotely with my leadership team. On the other hand, you also got assembly workers that don't have the opportunity to do it the same way. It really depends on every individual role on how we can get the most out of it, and how we can create the best fit, the best fit between individual needs and company needs. And how to really also create a future social engagement with a company.

And that is a really truly intense discussion that is happening right now. We’re figuring out the real sweet spot of how this is going to work in the future. That is a major challenge. We have traditional workers that have one assumption of how work should work be. But we also see how well things have worked during the past two years, and finding the best solution for everybody and the company as a whole, that is one of the major challenges that we're facing right now.

There are dimension, financial well-being, which we always doing, right. Different pension plans, different way to make money, so on.

Then there is emotional well-being, right? Then you have programs that helps you to get those, you know, counseling services, right? A known body where you can have objective counseling. That was also done.

Physical well-being absolutely important. Right? So importance of your physical fitness and lot of SAP locations have the gym facilities, and so on, and we encourage our employees by a different benefits program to avail to keep your body fit, right?

And then, of course, spiritual well-being is equally important. And I was never the kind who believed in spiritual well-being. But now, when I am in certain phase of my career, I believe that is equally important to keep the balance. So SAP offers lot of mindfulness trainings, lot of those kind of training to really foster or plant the seed that this is equally important. Two minutes of a mindfulness break is can be so powerful, right? Which we never even realized when we are working high pace.

So I think these all dimensions are coming sewn together, and the art will be, how do you communicate the total value proposition to the talents. And if you ask me, that's where we are right now, where we want to bring all dimension together to our talent and have digital ways to look at, in terms of their wallet, what are the different programs all coming together and treating you as a human keeping you in center and your needs in the center. So some work to do there for sure.

Building for employability is important as we strive to reach twice as many patients twice as fast with our innovative medicines. Our purpose is to reimaging medicine to alleviate society's greatest disease burdens in fields as cancer or multiple sclerosis.

We can only accomplish this by unleashing the power of our people. In realizing the strategic ambition, offering a democratic engaging and resilient talent ecosystem has been key for us. Identifying and closing skilled gaps by providing long-term learning agendas, as well as offering development opportunities helps our employees to remain employable. At the same time it helps the company to build business and relevant skills for today and tomorrow. To make internal opportunities accessible, we have opened our talent marketplace to all our associates around the world. We match our talent with opportunities based on their aspiration and skills.

Let me give you a few examples. Our talent marketplace not only proposes mentors for personal or specific skill development, but it also helps you learning about possible future career path and offers possibilities to really work on exciting projects and gigs. Which also helps at the same time staffing work in an agile way. To provide associates with relevant learning journeys and enablement we also support them in their skill building efforts. So we have interlinked our talent marketplace with potential assessment and learning experience platforms. Those are accessible to all our employees, regardless of location and level.

In 2022 we have reached more than 30,000 people who engaged in our skilled development marketplace and also our voluntary turnover has been only half of the industry average, according to Gardner. In 2023 you will see us expand our efforts to drive career and development of our people as we scale our skill based organization helping to ensure people are employable now and in the future.

I'm deeply convinced about investing into the future of skills and really strengthen the employability of our people, whilst accelerating business growth at the same time.

In my mind when I think about harnessing collective energy, first of all, its harness human energy isn't it. So how do we really look at transformation through the lens of what is the human agenda and talent agenda is extremely critical.

To me, harnessing energy means couple steps. Number one is how do we keep the vision alive? At Bayer, we're very fortunate we have a very strong vision - Health for all hunger for none. And we know that is what's keeping our employee base, including myself, energized and wanting to come to work every day. So making sure that vision and the purpose is at the front and center of what we do, I think, is a critical source of energy.

But probably also very importantly, especially the pandemic taught us a lot of things, which is, we also need to recognize that each of us harness our energy differently. So making sure that we, as individuals, and we as employers encourage our employee to re-examine their own value system as well as re-examined and what fills their boat. What fills their energy tank and what drains their energy? And be able to have really open dialogues and discussions about it. I think it's really important. Creating that environment. We talk about psychological safety a lot to be able to allow people to come to have a comfortable, safe place to work. I think it's a very critical source of energy for a lot of people.

And I think the third element here is obviously for us to have our positive energy flow, things have to work, right. So the support system itself had to work. If we think about talent development in the new era of flexible work having a, you know, a sense of borderless talent development, regardless of where you are regardless of the physical boundaries, I think, is something that we have to make it work.

Making digital work is another aspect of this. Employee experience has to be seamless and frictionless, because we know that you know a challenging call to a share service center or a website that doesn't work simply drains energy. So, making the system work well behind the scenes is a critical part.

And I think the other piece about harnessing energy is making sure that our leaders understand the role they play. To me leadership role modeling and leadership expectations is critical here. In in today's day and age leaders are coaches. They are the ones that play the pick me up role, oftentimes, as well as the ones that sort of both pull and push the organization forward. So in some ways they direct the team's energy, whether it's positive or negative. And I think, how do we equip our leaders to have that kind of sensing mechanism to sense their team's energy as well as then have the tools to harness the energy positively is going to be really important. So a lot of work to do. But ultimately balancing the need to continue to drive transformation and change, and balancing the energy of the individuals as well as collective energy of the teams. I think it's going to be really critical leadership, and also HR task for the next couple of years to come.