What is being connecTED (Talent, Engagement and Development)?

How does a typical Monday morning look? The smart device rings, snoozes and finally illuminates the face even before the eyes adjust… while emails are a popular first choice for the working professionals, youngsters may be pulled to the social media apps to scrutinize what the world marvelled about while they rested. As the day progresses, we book a cab on the app, check the online delivery status of groceries, pay the pending school bus payment, on the way to work - take a picture of the Labubu pop up mart for your child, reminder rings to call landlady at lunch and it’s still just 8:30AM. That’s a great start to the day! So many tasks ticked off the list…

We often pride ourselves at multitasking and efficiency.  Yet miss that it comes at a cost. In your rush, you just missed out on holding the entry door open for an aged lady behind you, missed asking Diana how her last trimester is progressing, overlooked the shy little boy who was grinning ear to ear at you while waiting for his bus. Social media or any form of digital connect makes us feel popular, wanted though the irony is - it helps keep actual people at a distance.

Has digitalization helped consolidation or fragmentation?

Loneliness is officially declared as a global youth crisis, especially after the pandemic. It has impacted social wellbeing, student performance, and health for the working population. The key phrase here is ‘Run Slow to Run Fast!’ and get back the human edge. This is where the Talent, Engagement and Development piece in the people & culture team plays a pivotal role. The engagement formats whether under the wellness or inclusion umbrella, culture building, year-end celebrations or in person seminars or workshops, all contribute to building the connect between teams and individuals. Several multinational organizations take pride in having innovation contests, learning hubs that can provide global platform and subsequent recognition to participants on making valuable contributions.

In the hybrid set up, this needs to transcend additional challenges. When team members have access to licensed AI versions, will they continue to come to their managers or just provide the right prompt to get a more comprehensive research-based response? Artificial intelligence (AI) is over-estimated in the short-term and rather underestimated in the long-term. In one of the Edu tech firm projects, while working on designing curriculum for middle school kids, the staff leveraged AI with pride and were encouraged by the leaders, but miserably failed at achieving the project KPIs as the system generated and curated content missed out on appealing to the natural curiosity of kids. Some of the things that the prompts could not appeal to were the fun element, and the natural instincts that could not be replicated by the software.

Furthermore, how do we ignite the curiosity and passion online?

This is when integrated platforms like slack or teams come into play. These help us circumvent the geographical and time zone barriers. Alternate options could be mentoring programs, webinars, town halls, career pathing with cross functional exposure which enables people to connect via different platforms and forums. A lot of organizations even have global communities to link people with similar interests like Yammer, online community boards or knowledge sharing sessions. Interests like photography, trekking, food or football etc. get discussed. The are mini learning hubs or incubation pods to share novel brain waves.

In today’s corporate environment, we see a diverse workforce spanning multiple generations, each bringing unique strengths and perspectives. The role of the Human Resources team is to act as a bridge - equipping employees to perform at their best while building a credible talent pipeline that ensures business continuity. This comes from relevant system and technology exposure and training interventions.

While the strategic direction is aligned, flexibility determines how we achieve it. Younger employees often navigate new technologies and tools with ease, which can feel daunting even for seasoned professionals. Yet, the learning journey is continuous, and progress is more valuable than perfection.

Conclusion

Ultimately, our collective ability to adapt, co-exist, and thrive will create a more seamless and enriching experience across generations. True efficiency is about engaging and being present when its required. Corporate organizations have multiple opportunities and choices to incorporate these engagement options to foster trust, collaboration, team camaraderie and growth. Structured and dedicated programs around this concept will serve as an effective mechanism to align the employees and management teams to cohesively tread towards the same vision and business objectives. Harnessing and channelizing this energy will provide resilience to the organization in a constantly evolving business environment.