Keynote: The New World of Work – Sharks in the Ocean

Speaker: Dr Efrat Liani

Summary by Giulia Sarri, AIM Group

If there was a surprising statement that was slapped onto my face during this session, it would be that CVs and experience resumés are no longer a key tool for HR departments. This is what Dr. Efrat Liani, CPO Business & Organisational Consultant, brought on stage. As the one chosen to be part of the 40 youngest successful leaders in Israel 40 under 40 The Marker leadership award, her mission at the IAPCO Annual Meeting was to connect the dots between people strategy and business success in the new, well, current world of work, where “sharks” are always ready to emerge from the water surface to obstacle our daily life.

More specifically, it happens that the new world of work is following 6 trends:

• 1 & 2 - Represented namely by managers who should embrace a leader’s approach while being ready for ongoing growth processes.

• 3 - Technology plays a big role of course, especially when it comes to flex-work

• 4 & 5 - How to engage well with employees in such an evolving world, while incorporating values as diversity and inclusion.

• 6 - Finding the right way to retain talents.

May it be that these trends, especially the last one, became real when we were all looking surprised when the great resignation

happened over the last two years? That’s what I believe since most of the audience considered “Talent Acquisition” as their major challenge during the polling activation.

Connected to this, another surprising, yet eye-opening, statement from the session was that the purpose of today’s leaders is shifting from managing the employee experience to managing the life experience of employees:

1. Consider measuring some unusual KPIs that can help trace and divide good from bad attritions. For instance, reframe the acronym ROI to ‘Return on Interaction’,

2. Secondly, make sure you remember that talents remain (or get on board) when they are involved and trusted in a flexible environment, while being mentored but also challenged… and not of less importance, paid well!

3. Finally, shift from controlling to leading, from manager to leader.

If you asked me, my favourite of these twists is being able to listen more rather than to speak more. I truly believe we all prefer to make our voice heard too much than put ourselves in a welcoming mood for understanding others’ perspectives. A leader is real when they will make you leave a meeting thinking “Wow! I am brilliant.”