Future Ready in the Present
I recently spoke to Marc McKenna-Coles, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Strategy Lead at Spotify, in the latest episode of my ‘Why Care?’ podcast series. We spoke about a range of topics including employee networks, collecting diversity data and active allyship, and one discussion point that especially stood out for me is one Marc calls being ‘future ready’.
What is being future ready?
Being ‘future ready’ is what Marc refers to as being ahead of the curve with inclusion policies in your organisation. Rather than trying to keep up with society you try to outpace it and stay ahead, to make sure when the time comes your organisation has been ready for a long time.
Marc uses the example of non-binary gender employees. It is predicted that the amount of people identifying as non-binary/gender non-conforming will rise over the coming decades, so why should organisations wait until the last minute to accommodate these employees when they can make small steps now and get ahead of the curve. Making small changes like adding a non-binary gender option to internal forms and gradually building on that over time is much easier than having to make large-scale changes all at once in a decade’s time.
What are the benefits to being future ready?
As well as making gradual inclusion changes now that in all likelihood will become legally mandatory in the coming years anyway, there are other benefits to being future ready.
If an organisation is demonstrably more inclusive than its competitors, people will notice. There’s some great benefits and esteem to be gained by being recognised as an inclusion market leader in your sector. Employees want to work for organisations that value and respect them, meaning inclusive companies often have the greatest pick of talent, and are more likely to retain their employees meaning lower turnover. Consumers also increasingly value ethical companies, and inclusive policies can often win over consumers and increase profitability.
How can an organisation become future ready?
As with the simple non-binary gender option on internal forms, being future ready doesn’t mean an organisation has to make large-scale changes now. The changes can be small things like encouraging employees to state their pronouns or greater flexible working options. If your organisation does small things now and creates a plan to slowly build on those things over time, then that is being future ready.
Let’s take an example of the current issue: the Covid-19 pandemic created such a widespread upheaval in working norms with the necessity of home working that it’s going to be hard to convince employees to go back to the 2019 ways of working.
On a quick personal note, many of you will know that I had a baby in December 2020. Having a business and two children is challenging at the best of times, however, my maternity leave started with schools closed and trying to get my 7 year old onto her 3 x a day Zoom calls whilst breastfeeding and on very little sleep. The one thing that kept me going was having my husband at home – he was working but at least he was there if needed. When schools re-opened, having him working from home made managing work and caring so much easier. He’d sort our eldest daughter’s breakfast and everything she needed for school, dropped her off and picked her up whilst I cared for the baby and hopped on the odd work call. As I fully returned to work, my husband started his Shared Parental Leave – he took 3 months and during that time it was amazing to be able to spend quality time as a family but work hard to grow Avenir.
Two weeks ago, my husband got a new job requiring him to be in the office 3 days a week – fantastic in so many ways but also such a realisation of how much we had adjusted to life working from home. All of a sudden, I am doing most of the drop-offs and pick-ups, trying to get our eldest to her after-school clubs with a small baby in tow, sorting out lunches and dinners whilst working full-time. Now, of course this is what millions of couples did pre-pandemic and I’m not necessarily complaining but, put simply, this moment in time is an opportunity for change. Inevitably it will be women in particular who are most impacted by companies requesting presence in the office.
Be future ready: the pandemic has changed the ways we work forever, rather than going back to pre-covid rigidity and presenteeism, organisations should capitalise on this momentum and become ready for the future of work.
Listen to each of your employees and truly understand their circumstances and needs. For parents or those with caring responsibilities, this may mean moving away from your standard 60:40 approach of office working. This could mean job-sharing roles (I wrote an article on this recently which you can read here), having days dedicated to administration tasks that are easier to manage, or any number of bespoke measures differing for individual peoples’ needs.
How can Avenir help?
Whilst I am recommending organisations to be future ready with small changes and carrying on the momentum from flexible working, it may be hard to initially spot where these changes can be made and what long-term plans can be devised to build on them.
Avenir is ready to be your partner in becoming future ready. Our Complete Inclusion Diagnostic is an online survey which provides a deep analysis of all aspects of inclusion in relation to your organisational culture. Through this, we can spot where the small changes can be created now, and we will help you devise tailor-made plans for how your organisation can build on these changes towards a more inclusive future and make you a market leader for being future ready.
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