In many of the events we attended, a critical competency is being discussed- Empathy.

Empathy is discussed with the context of employee interactions, customer, and product management constructs.  Responding with Empathy was often a skill/characteristic often sought out in social care settings.  This has entered the corporate board room discussions in the last few years, and post-pandemic has gained significant traction. We went back to the research desk to look at certain questions.  A very basic google search will show you that Empathy is the capacity to understand and share the feelings of another person.  This can be a little tweaked in enterprise settings.  Empathy:  The ability to understand and share the feelings of another person and Systems.  (the system can be customers, broader shareholders and other entities with which the enterprise is deeply connected).  The next question, in my mind, was whether Empathy could be taught.  Not many experiments conducted in this regard.  Researchers Epner & Bailee, 2014 have theorized that Empathy is a skill that can be taught and learned.  A thesis work done by Laura Meyer at Arizona State University conducted an interesting experiment. The researchers took a sample medical system of doctors and nurses and documented the common phrases and responses used with patients.  Post this; they developed an Empathetic response guide.  This guide consisted of more empathetic statements.  Over 3 months, the rate of empathy (a metric measured by surveys) improved from 63% to 83%!.  That is a significant jump. But is Empathy merely statements used during interactions?  A very systemic action plan and the framework should be backed post empathetic responses.  For example, a call centre agent telling an angry customer “ “That is tough to think about.  I hear you, and we will see what can be done” – should now follow up and truly see what can be done.  This is where Empathy is both a skill and a business strategy.  Not many tangible experiments in this space.  Concepts like Design Thinking brings in empathy in product designing.  This should be a key aspect of all future Strategic Workforce Planning initiatives

In one of the discussions with global HR, we were brainstorming on the dimensions of how the Strategic Workforce Planning has changed.  The actual process of debate was interesting and lengthy, but here is the summary of pointers we arrived at. Here are some of the best practices companies are trying to implement in the Workforce Planning.  As you design the Workforce Planning office, this may be very useful for you.

Here are some of the best practices companies are trying to implement in the Workforce Planning.  As you design the Workforce Planning office, this may be very useful for you:

• Align the activities of Workforce Planning very close to business trends.  This invariably means fully understanding the Digital Transformation Initiatives ( just two years ago, this was not even a topic).  Many companies focus on competitive research as part of their SWP
• Location analysis has taken a new meaning on talent migrating from big cities to smaller cities (I had written another detailed email on this).  The frameworks of location analysis are different as a result
• Quality of Hire is a very big emphasis, which translates to having a point of view of Quality of talent pool.  At Draup, we study this through the lens of Startups, University Courses, Training Institutes
• In many companies, Reskilling is considered as a sperate function, but we are beginning to see a lot of integration here as well
• Companies are bringing Economic analysis into SWP.  This makes sense as the complexities of locations and talent costs models are becoming higher
• Workforce Planning across many companies is focused on Customer Support Function/Call Center  transformation
• The degree of transformation and automation impacting call center workforce is high, and as a result we are fielding several projects around the same
• Workforce Planning is also taking an aggressive role in analyzing new jobs such as Business Storyteller
• Establishing boilerplates for various functions such as Data Science is also undertaken by SWP team (so that there are enough entry-level, mid-level and senior roles in a function)

One key question, many companies, are pondering is concerning Call Centers.  Many call centers across the globe have successfully transformed into virtual centers.  Now when the pandemic is hopefully over, the question will be around whether to transition back or remain as virtual centers. So what are the issues in operating Call Centers entirely virtual?  I was quite interested to understand the problems facing call centers being virtual (forever). 

One key question, many companies, are pondering is concerning Call Centers.  Many call centers across the globe have successfully transformed into virtual centers.  Now when the pandemic is hopefully over, the question will be around whether to transition back or remain as virtual centers. So what are the issues in operating Call Centers entirely virtual?  I was quite interested to understand the problems facing call centers being virtual (forever). 

Here are some of the responses we got (post interviewing several call center leaders)

Training:  Conducting training at a large scale of customer support agents is a challenge reported by many leaders.  In call centers (especially if it is B2B), there are many rules and heuristics associated with each client served.  These are often handled by floor managers in a very dynamic way.  This is a challenge in the current environment

Home Infrastructure of Call Center Agents:  Not all Call Center employees have the right home infrastructure.  This workforce is often an entry-level workforce and are often associated with lower pay bands.  As a result, several employees are finding it difficult to cope up.  Some companies have taken the right step to provide support to get them set up done, but it is still a challenge

Chat Support for agents:  Agents often rely on internal knowledge sources, and they chat with managers, floor leaders while in call.  With everyone working virtual, when there is no response to a chat question, they are impacted in serving customers.  If they are working on the same floor, agents often would stand up and try to get attention from their managers

Non Verbal Cues:  A call center is a very tough environment with customer escalations and high volume activity.  The nonverbal cues that managers pick up walking around are often very valuable in designing coaching moments.  This is completely lost in the current set up

With many finance leaders getting energized by the savings around having 100% virtual call centers, this will be a key area many HR leaders will be looking into.  We will continue the research on this.

A Draup, we are now dedicating more efforts into studying global migration patterns.  Often these studies yield very interesting insights.  The UN Migration report provided some intriguing insights.  The total international migrants globally is around 272 million.  About 70% of this is labor migrants (people migrating for work).  A very large number of people (97% of the world population are estimated to be residing in the country in which they were born.  So why is it a concern?  We have blown past all projections from the total migrant movement standpoint.  We have already met the predictions for 2050 from an absolute count standpoint.  Now, that is an interesting statistic to further research.  Here is a quick graph showing the movements.  Some of the locations like Jordon may emerge as key labor hub for Enterprises (as they get residents from different parts of the world and also work harder to improve infrastructure and sustain peace efforts).  More to come from this data set treasure