Every business leader aims to get the most value possible from their workforce. But in today’s era, your workforce encompasses more than just human employees. Between digital workers, automation, AI and more, the modern workforce is increasingly technology-enabled. So how can business leaders optimize their entire workforce, both human and non-human, to drive greater value?
Janice Robinson Burns, a human capital strategist, provides key insights on workforce optimization. With extensive experience in helping companies align their workforce, skills and work, Janice shares wise perspectives for enterprise leaders. As she explains, “If you’re not thinking about your workforce holistically between the humans that do the work and the augmented AI and digital workers, you’re probably not optimizing your workforce to its fullest.”
Understand the Work Itself First
The starting point for Janice is understanding the work itself. As she explains, “I’m sure you have job descriptions and those job descriptions are associated with roles, but let’s be honest – most job descriptions are created as marketing tools.” While job descriptions aim to attract talent and structure performance management, they rarely outline the actual day-to-day work.
Instead, Janice advocates looking at the core components that make up employees’ daily work: “If you asked any employee, do they do their work by looking at their job description every day, I guarantee you, most of them would say no. How do they get their work done? They get their work done based on the tasks that have been assigned to them, the projects that they’re involved in, and the problems that they need to solve that are associated with the work.”
By analyzing the discrete tasks, projects and problems that employees tackle daily, leaders gain crucial clarity on the work itself. As Janice states, “If you want to optimize your workforce you first have to optimize the work.”
Align Skills to Tasks and Work
With clarity on the work itself, the next step is identifying the skills tied to this work. Janice explains, “Everyone’s talking about skills today – skills-based organizations, skills powered work – and I am a huge proponent of skills. But when you take skills out of context and the context is the work, then you actually set yourself up for failure.”
In her view, skills must directly align to current and future work. “You need to align the skills in your skill strategy to the work – not only of today, but the work also of tomorrow – because those tasks, those problems to be solved, and those projects will change. As a result, those skills will need to be changed as well. Skills are dynamic because the work is dynamic,” she emphasizes.
Optimize Your Entire Workforce
With clarity on work and associated skills, leaders can then optimize workforce composition. As Janice states, “If you don’t understand the work and you don’t understand the skills associated with that work, then you can’t properly determine what tasks need to be assigned to who or what in your workforce.”
When armed with insights on work and skills, managers can then strategically leverage all workforce components – human, digital, AI – to maximize value. Janice concludes, “When you have greater clarity around the work and the skills you can optimize your workforce to drive greater value.”
As a human capital strategist, Janice Robinson Burns partners with companies to optimize their workforce and human capital practices. With extensive expertise in work analysis, skills alignment and workforce composition, Janice helps organizations adapt their people practices to drive maximum value.
To learn more about Janice Robinson Burns and her approach, check out her LinkedIn profile.
