Good Work A framework on How (and why) to get started with Good Work

1. Set your ‘Good Work’ ambition.

Begin by articulating where you want to go. Look at industry progress, market challenges, and employee expectations in the market and communities where you operate. Based on your values and commitments, where do you want to be a leader and where can you afford to be a laggard?

2. Understand the gaps in your organization.

As you identify the needs and expectations of your stakeholders, you will also want to understand the gaps between where you are and where you want to be, and the underlying causes for them. Audits of career, pay and health equity can reveal opportunities, and mapping internal labor flows, workforce analytics, and sentiment analysis can offer insights on what actions might move the needle within your workforce today.

3. Make sure you have the adaptive capacity to stay the course.

Stakeholders across the organization must be prepared for and invested in the change you are creating. Once a North Star is established, accountability must extend beyond the board or executives. Good Work delivers when it is embedded into the fabric of how work is done - for example: using fair wage perspective when acquisition and divestitures are made, looking at partnerships with a DEI lens and sustainability perspective, etc. Conducting active and passive listening to understand what really matters to your internal stakeholders should drive priority lists and actions.

In our recent BrinkEvents conversation on the topic of Good Work, Future of Work 2.0: What Trends Are on the Horizon? Christian Schmeichel, SVP and Chief Future of Work Officer for SAP, observed that understanding what is important to employees is critical. “This should not happen in an Ivory Tower,” he cautioned. “Only if you know what [employees] think can you get it right. Only if you know what they feel can you get it right. Only if you know how to put that forward into a value proposition can you get it right. […] And that kind of data-driven HR can help us big time with the softer elements to make sure everything fits together.”

4. Become a sustainable talent developer.

Think of your organization as a cultivator of talent — as much as a consumer of it.

Many organizations are still not focused enough on this important area. As Alain Dehaze, Chief Executive Officer, The Adecco Group observed at Davos: “You cannot imagine how few people have clarity about the skills and capabilities they will need on a horizon of 24-36 months.” But building careers and marketability of your people to deliver agile and more resilient organization is tougher than it looks. How ready are your talent and reward processes to operate in the new talent paradigm? Are leaders ready to be talent developers and even exporters of talent?

For example, Unilever has made public commitments to “reskill or upskill all employees to ensure that by 2025 they will all have a future-fit skill set,” to “pioneer employment models to provide all people with access to flexible employment options by 2030,” and to “help equip 10 million young people with essential skills to prepare them for job opportunities by 2030.”

To this end, Unilever has developed skills-building plans for employees to put 20% of their time into discretionary work and to help employees enhance skills for their current role, train for a different role, or even skill up for external opportunities. In effect, delivering on a 4 day work week model with the 5th days focus on learning.

5. Don’t boil the ocean.

Profound systemic change can be ambitious for any organization. Instead of trying to take on every element of Good Work at once, pick two or three things that are relevant and achievable. For example, global insurance company Zurich has identified three transformational themes that they consider key strategic priorities: tackling climate change, confidence in a digital society, and work sustainability. These principles have translated into action across the organization - such as prioritizing up-skilling existing employees over external hiring, rejecting unsustainable behavior for financial gain, and offering career choices that prioritize talents and ambitions as much as market needs. 

6. Ensure progress on Good Work standards is on par with commercial conversations.

Establish metrics, dashboards, and discussion agendas that balance progress on Good Work alongside revenue, profit and operating budget discussions. For example, having diversity metrics as part of the chairman's monthly operating conversation with each business CEO has made an enormous difference at General Electric - putting diversity on  target with other key business metrics like cash flow and quality. Establish the expectation that Good Work and good working conditions are everyone’s responsibility and will lead to a healthier organization and healthier society.