The war for talent has become the top business issue and in response, many business leaders are reviewing their overall business model and employee value proposition. Handling this challenge successfully requires strong leadership from both the executive team and the board. As custodians of the brand, reputation and organisational culture, the board is key to this process, and boards can therefore be powerful ‘agents of change’.
In this podcast, Dr Sabine Dembkowski, Founder and Managing Partner of Better Boards, talks with Denis Woulfe MBE. Denis is the Co-Chair on the board of ‘Leaders As Change Agents’ (LACA) and a Trustee at The Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI), where he also serves as the Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee. He has served on numerous public interest boards and is a former governor at the University of the West of England. Until 2017, Denis was a Partner and Vice Chairman of Deloitte LLP, holding many leadership roles with the firm. His roles included serving as a board member and on the Audit and Risk Committee for 8 years. In 2018 Denis was awarded an MBE for services to Women and Equality.’
Some of the key takeaways of the conversation include:
“We're not putting forward a ‘one size fits all’ for all businesses.”
Denis notes that each business is different in geography, scale, industry, ownership structure etc, so a ‘one size fits all’ would be impossible and inappropriate. He describes LACA’s 8 foundational principles, which executive teams and boards may wish to take into account when developing their own plans, appropriate for their individual businesses. Those principles are drawn from best practice research.
The first principle is empowerment and choice, and Denis explains this is about giving employees an appropriate voice and enabling them to feel connected to the business, which is key to their commitment and support. The second principle is to have diversity, equality, and inclusion as a foundation of the workplace culture, so everybody feels both welcome and included. The third principle is growth and development because everybody wishes to progress in their job and be given opportunities to develop their skills and experience. Fourth is commitment and engagement, gaining the views of employees and engaging them in certain decisions that affect them.
Denis goes on to describe participation in decisions as the fifth principle, and an important key to feel involved. The sixth is work-life balance, which he explains will be different in different organisations, but businesses need to ensure that people's work-life balance is respected. Seventh is fairness, and Denis promotes this as being for both sides. The final point he outlines is recognition and reward, not just in terms of pay, but in ensuring employees are recognised and rewarded for the contribution they make.
The three top takeaways from our conversation are
1. It has never been more important to try and address these challenges, and this is very firmly a leadership issue, which requires a strong and consistent leadership response
2. Getting this right can be a key source of competitive advantage for individual businesses, and it goes to the heart of the strategy and culture of the business. Obviously, the board has a pivotal role to play in driving and overseeing this change
3. There is an opportunity for business leaders to influence their broader networks by supporting these principles and encouraging others to do so by being active change agents themselves.