Summary

The COVID-19/20 crisis has driven firms to fast-track their organization transformation efforts across the board: from overall structure and roles to compensation strategy and effectiveness of the remote working model. With human capital as the foundation of every firm’s strategy, it is key for leadership to focus their energy on equipping talent with the tools required to exceed productivity expectations and, ultimately, deliver important financial results.

In response to the currently hostile economic climate, the HR agenda across industries has shifted its focus significantly. Identifying and nurturing top talent — both the high-performers and the high-potential individuals — is increasingly critical, as is letting go of the more unproductive team members. While headcount reduction exercises will inevitably lead to significant cost reductions in payroll, it is imperative that companies adopt as empathetic an approach to exits as possible.

Company structures will also need to evolve in order to become more lean, efficient, and digital-friendly in response to changing industry dynamics. Most critically, organizations are addressing the growing need for digital roles, with technology-forward positions — such as that of chief digital officer — rapidly replacing the less essential, non-digital roles across industries. This has also translated into performance measurement, as enterprises worldwide implement new KPIs and KRAs that assess digital adoption levels and digital maturity.

While many are pursuing rapid organizational transformation, this will only succeed if supported by a robust HR strategy and framework — one that is closely aligned with the overall business philosophy, vision, and strategy, and designed to deliver high-impact results. Now is also an opportune time for firms to conduct vertical and horizontal delayering exercises to improve organization-wide efficiency and communication.

Cedar’s Human Capital practice is equipped with decades of global experience in leveraging our Balanced Scorecard thought leadership to drive organizational transformation programs worldwide. Our experience spans a wide range of programs, from designing a best-in-class performance monitoring framework for a large real estate player, to organizational structure design for a leading footwear retailer, to compensation design for a top financial services company.

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