The pandemic has accelerated changes in the way we work but both employers and employees are still adjusting to this.

As we get deeper into 2023, there are some emerging leadership and learning trends in the business world that we are seeing. We have noticed a renewed focus on human skills, the evolution of modern workplaces and an increased focus on the 'S' in ESG!

A Renewed Focus on Human Skills

While technology and tech related skills continue to progress at an amazing rate, as recent Artificial Intelligence advances such as ChatGPT show, human skills do remain crucially important in business and there is a sense that some of these have been overlooked or under-invested in lately.

At ABSTRACT, we have noticed a renewed focus from our clients on the development of leadership, relationship management and commercial skills. Also, increasingly emerging and growing is the development of cultural awareness and social intelligence.
 

Creating Modern Workplaces

Employee experience extends into the post-pandemic office too. With many people being physically present in the corporate workplace less regularly now, it is even more critical that time spent in the office feels productive and beneficial.

With employers encouraging their people back to the office, a notion that would have seemed strange in the past, some employers are offering perks such as car-charging and dog hotels according to a recent BBC report. It’s also interesting to see some landlords and property companies using new approaches to sell the benefits of being in the office.

I have seen examples in my inbox offering modern workspaces that can drive better business and people performance, improve productivity, mitigate business risk, enable better communication and collaboration, rationalise business costs and attract and retain talent. Example here.
 

Increased Focus on the 'S' in ESG

ESG: Environmental, Social and Governance

The Social element of corporate ESG reporting is expanding beyond compliance to attracting talent and to be a market differentiator for employees, customers, and investors. Investors are increasingly applying these non-financial factors as part of their analysis to identify material risks and growth opportunities.

In the most recent round of annual financial reporting, we observed that many companies are focusing even more heavily on their ESG agendas. A recent Forbes article also highlights an increasing trend of linking ESG performance measures to executive incentive compensation.
 

This trend is positive provided organisations are genuinely reshaping their thinking for action to close the gap between their good intention and desired outcomes.

Summary

This begs the question; do you as a leader and your business have plans in place to develop the human skills of your people, to create modern day workplaces where your people can thrive and are you genuinely closing the gap on your ESG agenda between good intent and positive outcomes?

At ABSTRACT we believe that learning and development should support cultural advancement and development in these areas, help to change behaviours and embed cultural change. We deliver this through compelling content that is interesting with practical application. We are here to help.