Hacking HR to Build an Adaptability Advantage

The HR community is currently at its most creative and collaborative. There are big opportunities to take advantage of, like new technologies and globalisation, and businesses need to cope with the increased competition that they bring. So being adaptable as an organisation is more important now than ever, and there are some great ideas being shared about how to do that via the MIX Hackathon.

One area that hasn’t been emphasised though – amongst the process improvements and new management styles - is the psychological side of adaptability. How do organisations help their employees to react positively to change? How can HR help to embed a mindset that deals successfully change, even values it, rather than creating barriers?

Research conducted by Robertson Cooper, the company of well-being experts which I co-founded, has shown that, at present, change is a significant negative pressure for many in the working population. Over 30% quote it as a source of ‘troubling’ stress. If there is one ‘hack’ for HR in this new world that demands adaptability, it needs to address this statistic, and that means focussing on psychological well-being as an ongoing issue, not just during times when major change is occurring.

Employees need to be in a state of mind that enables them to focus on meeting the challenge of ‘adapting’ – whether it’s designing their own new processes, learning new skills, or putting in more hours for a certain period. Managers need to ensure that they create the right environment for them to do that. So, do employees feel in control of their roles? Do they feel that they have the right resources and support to meet their objectives? Do they have the right balance between work and home life? These are not all directly related to the challenges an adaptable organisation needs to meet, but if they are not managed well, it becomes impossible for employees to focus on these and deliver in these difficult times.

We can map psychological well-being on to a model – the 6 Essentials of Workplace Well-Being – which includes; sense of control, balanced workloads, job security and change, good work relationships, resources and communications and job conditions. It helps to deconstruct what many managers consider to be an area too complex to approach, yet there are proven links between well-being and productivity. But how many organisations measure the key elements of well-being on an ongoing basis?

It’s typical for leaders approaching change to ask the question - is our communication with employees good enough? Communication about what is needed to adapt,and the effects it will have on the workplace. But why are we only asking this question when the need for change becomes clear? That type of thinking creates problems because if leaders only communicate in a certain way when change happens, employees’ response becomes markedly different, sceptical even. Adaptability is about being ‘always on’ – able to react and frequently change the way we do things in work, so communication needs to mirror that, and be consistently good. Likewise, the other Essential elements I’ve mentioned above cannot only be addressed as a way to smooth a specific organisational drive for adaptability. They have to be built into leaders and managers goals, and business-as-usual behaviours, so that they can create the right conditions for an agile organisation.

So my HR hack is to maintain that focus on employee well-being, whatever the business conditions. It’s easy to lose sight of the focus of HR, when business functions all around are demanding new ways for employees to contribute the success of a changing organisation. Employees can meet those demands and perform at their best level, only if they have a secure and high level of psychological well-being, and it’s a link that’s borne out in some of the most successful agile businesses, like Google and Apple, who offer great working conditions, benefits and a collective, supportive culture. So, HR hackers, get out there and start hacking for a well-being advantage – one that feels good and creates successful organisations. As George Bernard Shaw wrote in Mrs. Warren’s Profession “People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them”.

Professor Cary L. Cooper, CBE, Distinguished Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health at Lancaster University Management School, England, and co-author of Wellbeing: Productivity and Happiness at Work (Palgrave Macmillan).