Working life is facing big changes
I believe that our working life is on the verge of big changes. Traditional power relations are breaking down in industries, service models are changing and our understanding of work is changing. I believe that 2016 could well be a year of these big changes. So what is it really all about?
Last Friday was an interesting day. In the morning I had a conversation with a financial management consultant and later with the welfare director of an occupational pension company. After inspiring meetings, my head was full of new thoughts and ideas. I was delighted to talk to people with fire and vision.
Staff measurements are becoming more common and changing
Management wants indicators to measure employee well-being and customer satisfaction. The problem with current indicators is that they reflect averages and changes in opinion. They ask questions defined on behalf of the employee, forcing the employee to answer in a certain way.
How can each employee be measured individually when there are many employees? It may sound impossible, but in fact there is a very simple solution: let people speak their minds. Give employees a voice and listen to it. It is the job of management to listen and respond. Accept the fact that comparing people's feelings doesn't work. Instead, we can measure the changes that come from listening and responding to people's feelings.
The relationship between work culture, motivation and leadership
People create the work community and its working culture. The work culture drives people's thinking and values, and therefore the company as a whole. This is difficult to influence because work culture is a synthesis of employees' internal motivation, goals, attitudes and values. Employee motivation to work is a unique, emotion-based, hidden and powerful force.
To be successful, a company needs to get in touch with its employees' internal motivation and find ways to influence it. Employees need to be listened to and understood. Traditional top-down management does not produce the best results. Management needs to facilitate a confidential and open discussion through which suggestions for improvement are implemented.
If you are interested in intrinsic motivation, I recommend the recently published book DRAIVI by Frank Martela and Karoliina Jarenko.
Occupational pension companies at the heart of a changing environment
Occupational pension companies are at the centre of events, both as guardians of the big issues and as enablers. I was excited to hear that new ways of thinking and new attitudes are already well established in practice. Services are being developed rapidly and new service models are being dared to be tried out on customers. This is bringing occupational pension companies closer to businesses and increasing understanding of mutual needs. For example, the occupational pension company Elo has started to develop new services in cooperation with Tieto in the context of TietoXHub.
Through their actions, occupational pension companies can influence the dynamics of working life. And as the pace of change in working life accelerates, it is important that the parties involved keep up to date. There is a lot of pressure for change. It is not enough for working life to change radically. Changes in people's life expectancy and various global phenomena have an impact on society and the pension system.
Other topics discussed included trade unions, support for entrepreneurship and a new attitude to work among young people. Occupational pension companies are involved in various brainstorming and hackathon events. So what does all this portend? I believe that 2016 will see a lot of concrete changes in the world of work.
