People Operations Powers Profitable Growth During Disruption

2022 is the third year of disruption in the world of work. Although Covid-19 is declining and becoming endemic, companies continue to combat the Great Resignation and feverishly create the “new normal” to advance toward the Future of Work. Their success will depend on the outcomes of their People Operations to streamline processes, gather reliable data, and effectively use this data to make continuous improvements.

According to Visual Capitalists, the Future of Work includes the following: 

1. The digitization of the workflow 
2. Upskilling and training digital literacy to the workforce 
3. Creating a flexible work environment 
4. Redesigning the office to be a place to collaborate, build relationships, and allow employees to work from anywhere (supporting hybrid work models) 
5. Improving employee experiences by providing employees better career training, coaching, opportunities for advancement/growth, enhanced health care, and retirement savings benefits

People Operations began at Google with a simple idea: use people analytics data to drive improvement. They began to track worker, team, and operations performance data and surveyed employees to identify the obstacles for improving company productivity and innovation. The data was used to implement measurable strategies and goals to drive strategic advancements.  

People Operation’s first success at Google was in understanding how it could more successfully recruit and retain women. It was a priority business issue for Google as a gender equality issue and affected its bottom line. The fledgling People Ops organization reviewed their data and surveyed a sample of the workforce. They discovered that the main problem was inadequate maternity leave benefits. Google changed its policy to provide five months of leave with full pay and benefits.

Later, Google’s People Ops organization would again tackle tough issues such as the best competencies for their managers and the factors that enable teams to perform at their best.

In the Fall of 2017, Google’s People Operations published its study on team effectiveness. As with previous studies, they found that group dynamics and especially the key dynamic of psychological safety (trust) was most important.

The People Operations analysis conducted more than 200 interviews with their employees and analyzed 250-plus attributes they identified from more than 180 active Google teams. They compared high-performing teams with low-performing teams.

According to Google’s rework website, they discovered that “who is on the team matters less than how the team members interact, structure their work, and view their contributors."

They discovered five key dynamics that set successful teams apart from the rest:

1. Psychological safety: Can we take risks on this team without feeling insecure or embarrassed?
2. Dependability: Can we count on each other to do high-quality work on time?
3. Structure & clarity: Are goals, roles, and execution plans for our team clear?
4. Meaning of work: Are we working on something that is personally important for each of us?
5. Impact of work: Do we fundamentally believe that the work we’re doing matters?

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According to Google, psychological safety was far and away the most important of the five dynamics, and it is the underpinning of the other four. Additionally, individuals on teams with higher psychological safety are less likely to leave Google. They are more likely to harness the power of diverse ideas from their teammates. They bring in more revenue, and they are rated as effective twice as often by executives.

In 2022, there will be plenty for People Operations functions to do:

• Like Google in 2007, identifying the top drivers of turnover by different operations and functions of the organization.
• Analyzing workforce acceptance of new digitization efforts and identifying solutions to improve the digital/employee interfaces – and the ultimate success of the project.
• Identifying the competencies needed of the workforce in the digital era and unique competencies by function (such as engineering, sales, and marketing), and then making recommendations to hire and train for these competencies.
• The employee and management preferences of different flexible workforce arrangements and how to redesign the office for the organization’s needs.
• Identifying the early indicators of future workforce concerns.

MeBeBot is an AI-powered chatbot that is at the forefront of helping organizations digitize their workflows through automating FAQs for HR, IT and Operations questions. In addition, it can gather employee opinions on the strategic issues the company is addressing. It helps HR and its People Operations functions in many ways:

1. MeBeBot’s surveying capability allows our customers to take the pulse of the whole workforce or departments to uncover critical issues with new initiatives, digitization projects, and flexible work environment announcements. Click to learn more about our Pulse Surveying capability.
2. Our Push Messaging capabilities can make announcements on new initiatives for the Future of Work or Return to the Office plans and provide reminders on actions to be taken.
3. MeBeBot tracks the questions your employees ask from around the world and can identify the rise of new issues to be addressed.
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Remember, it is all about the data. Your organization’s success in transitioning back-to-the-workplace, implementing flexible work arrangements, and the Future of Work depends on how thoroughly your People Ops team gathers reliable data and effectively uses it.