Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. I would say one of the
Speaker 1: top two or three topics that we're talking about just
Speaker 1: about every day on air off Eric Carroll, is how
Speaker 1: do we get back to the office, What does it
Speaker 1: look like? And how has work fundamentally changed. On the
Speaker 1: other side of this, well, we have someone an expert
Speaker 1: who's been on this show before, who has She has
Speaker 1: all the answers. So you need look no further than
Speaker 1: our next guest, Erica Volini, back with us global human
Speaker 1: capital leader at Delat Consulting, joining us on the phone
Speaker 1: from Phoenix. So no pressure, Erica, but you're here to
Speaker 1: solve all of our problems and to answer all of
Speaker 1: our questions about everything related to getting back to work.
Speaker 1: So um, you know you've got seven or eight minutes
Speaker 1: to accomplish this. Um. But in all seriousness, like we
Speaker 1: are starting to now think about this, but we're thinking
Speaker 1: about it through a lens. I think for many of
Speaker 1: us that is fundamentally different from when we went into
Speaker 1: this ten or eleven weeks ago. What are you guys hearing? Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean we're seeing major organizations right now make announcements
Speaker 1: around the return to work, and I think fundamentally, at
Speaker 1: the core, organizations are trying to understand, um, what work
Speaker 1: should they be doing, how can that work be done,
Speaker 1: what work can be done remotely, what work requires the
Speaker 1: need to be done on site, and what whatever way
Speaker 1: work being done. How is the organization going to prepare
Speaker 1: its leaders, it's infrastructure to be able to support work
Speaker 1: moving forward, because it is going to look fundamentally different. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I was thinking about it, and actually our
Speaker 1: producer Paul Brennan was reminding us. You know, you talked
Speaker 1: to us about these surveys you do every year, and
Speaker 1: I think last time we talked about the robot apocalypse
Speaker 1: and how AI can work in concert with humans. And
Speaker 1: I do think even more than ever before, we're going
Speaker 1: to need technology right to especially in big cities, to
Speaker 1: kind of help us get back and feel comfortable about
Speaker 1: our work settings exactly. And Deloitte just produced Human Capital Report.
Speaker 1: We just released it a few weeks ago, and the
Speaker 1: title of our report is all about the integration of
Speaker 1: humans and technology. And to your point, Carol, technology is
Speaker 1: absolutely essential, but there is a recognition that technology is
Speaker 1: not enough. In fact, Our survey, which UM surveyed over
Speaker 1: nine thousand people around the world, found that only twelve
Speaker 1: percent of organizations are planning on using technology like AI
Speaker 1: to replace workers. Instead, we're seeing a shift of integrating
Speaker 1: humans and technology into what we're calling super team and
Speaker 1: really leveraging the power of that technology to augment what
Speaker 1: human are doing. I actually think a perfect example in
Speaker 1: the context of the pandemic is contact tracing. Everyone is
Speaker 1: talking about all these contact tracing technologies, but in the
Speaker 1: US we're currently looking for between a hundred and three
Speaker 1: hundred thousand human contact tracers. So it's a recognition that
Speaker 1: even though the technology is there, we need humans with empathy,
Speaker 1: with listening skills, with the ability to relate to individuals
Speaker 1: in times of stress to actually make that technology work.
Speaker 1: And that's really the mindset that we think organizations need
Speaker 1: to have as the enter this next decade. I think
Speaker 1: people don't understand AI, and maybe we've done you know,
Speaker 1: everybody hasn't done the best job at explaining how it works.
Speaker 1: Like we've talked to We've had some great stories in
Speaker 1: the magazine and Business Week magazine about AI and hospitals.
Speaker 1: How you can make it possible for workers to do
Speaker 1: even more by using kind of AI screening UM with patients,
Speaker 1: and I just think maybe maybe we've got to do
Speaker 1: a better job of explaining it. Yeah, AI is is
Speaker 1: a tremendous technology that will transform the way that works
Speaker 1: getting done, but it will not ultimately replace those essential
Speaker 1: human skills. And I think we've actually learned a lot
Speaker 1: through the pandemic about how agile, nimble, and adaptable, and
Speaker 1: how important those essential human skills are. If we think
Speaker 1: about going to the grocery store, going to the pharmacy,
Speaker 1: interacting with UM with customer service representative, that ability to empathize,
Speaker 1: to listen, to understand the customers needs, and to interact
Speaker 1: with them differently, that's not something that technology is going
Speaker 1: to be able to do alone. So I think now
Speaker 1: is the time for organizations to even double down more
Speaker 1: on investing in those human skills. And one of the
Speaker 1: statistics that really worried us in our survey this year
Speaker 1: is that only sixteen per cent, so that one and
Speaker 1: six of our respondents said that they're going to significantly
Speaker 1: invest in reskilling and focusing on continual reinvention of the
Speaker 1: workforce over the next three years. Despite the fact that
Speaker 1: the majority of our respondents said that between half and
Speaker 1: of the workforce are going to need to fundamentally change
Speaker 1: their skills. So there's just a huge disconnect there. I
Speaker 1: feel like, Jason, we talked yesterday Erico with pare yillen Hammer,
Speaker 1: long time CEO of volvo Um, you know, a few
Speaker 1: decades ago. But nonetheless he's got a book out and
Speaker 1: he was talking about leadership and integrity but the importance
Speaker 1: of the blue collar worker, kind of a responsibility of
Speaker 1: a company to workers. And I do wonder if that,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know if this comes up in
Speaker 1: your surveys, but I do feel like companies don't necessarily
Speaker 1: feel responsible to workers, maybe like they used to. And
Speaker 1: I don't want to make a blanket statement because I
Speaker 1: don't think that's fair. And I work for a great
Speaker 1: company UM that takes care of of its workforce. But
Speaker 1: I do wonder is there something missing? More broadly, well
Speaker 1: interestingly enough, the number one and two trends in this
Speaker 1: year's survey were belonging and well being, and I think
Speaker 1: that's big scarle exactly to what you're saying, which is
Speaker 1: and their acknowledgement by the way of our respondent said
Speaker 1: that it's an organizational responsibility to focus on the well
Speaker 1: being of its workers. So there's acknowledgement that it's a responsibility,
Speaker 1: but the execution is not quite there because only our
Speaker 1: response and said they're not even measuring the impact of
Speaker 1: their well being programs. So took to me the missing
Speaker 1: piece is how do you actually take what you um,
Speaker 1: what you're stating in these mission statements that you're making,
Speaker 1: and translate it to the day to day worker, translated
Speaker 1: into the work themselves. And the best way to do
Speaker 1: that is design work for well being. Make sure you're
Speaker 1: investing in reskilling programs and helping workers build new capabilities,
Speaker 1: give them an understanding of how you're rewarding them, what's
Speaker 1: the basis for your compensation strategies. Be more open and
Speaker 1: transparent around what's going on. And that's the the execution
Speaker 1: part is what's not happening right now and not translating
Speaker 1: Based on our survey Erica, how much do you worry
Speaker 1: that in the midst of a job crisis and a
Speaker 1: health crisis some of these things that maybe we're committed
Speaker 1: to in theory fallback in practice when we are on
Speaker 1: the other side of this and We're in an economy
Speaker 1: that's tough. People are happy to just have a job
Speaker 1: only about a minute left. But how much is that, uh,
Speaker 1: factoring into how you look at things. I worry about
Speaker 1: it a lot, and I think you know. One of
Speaker 1: the phrases we're using is let's return to work in
Speaker 1: the future of work, because what we're trying to communicate
Speaker 1: organizations is that we can't just think about returning to
Speaker 1: work the same way we did before. We have to
Speaker 1: keep an eye towards the future, and we need to
Speaker 1: make sure we're investing for the future. The war for
Speaker 1: talent has never really ended, and it will pick up
Speaker 1: again as the economy picks up, and employees and workers
Speaker 1: will remember how organizations treated them. And there's a real
Speaker 1: opportunity right now for organizations to set the tone that's
Speaker 1: going to be not just as they dam but for
Speaker 1: the next decade. All Right, we're gonna leave it. They're
Speaker 1: great to catch up with you. Thanks so much for
Speaker 1: the time. Erica Velini is Global Human Capital leader Forward
Speaker 1: Deloitte Consulting, joining us on the phone from Phoenix. A
Speaker 1: really interesting conversation and an important one as we all
Speaker 1: think about returning to the office, not returning the office,
Speaker 1: and what work is going to click