Fighting Fragmentation: Takeaways from the Gartner ReimagineHR Conference

Between hybrid work, digital fatigue, and elevated turnover, HR leaders in the post-pandemic era face a world seemingly primed to pull their people apart from one another.

Organizations that create fresh opportunities to get employees moving in new directions and help them find greater authenticity, creativity, and connection—and ultimately reach higher levels of performance—will prove most successful.

These discussions and more were all on hand at the Gartner ReimagineHR Conference in London (September 15–16, 2022). WorkForce Software was there to take part in the event and help HR professionals manage the issues confronting their companies today through our digital workforce management solutions.

The first of two main event presentations was Gartner’s “Pulling Together—How Great Organizations Succeed in a Fragmenting World.” In the current competition for talent and profit, it’s important to support not only employees but their families and communities. Remote and hybrid work, while a lifesaver for many during the pandemic, has raised some difficulties over the longer term. Research suggests that remote work will increase average turnover 20% for companies who maintain it going forward.

Remote and hybrid work models are showing a higher incidence of “fragmentation,” the general sense of disconnection that accompanies the lack of onsite working. It’s projected that in the current job market, 81% of the eligible workforce is at least partially remote or hybrid. While many workers prefer this approach, studies are showing some negative results, such as:

• Fewer emotional relationships formed with managers and co-workers
• A general lack of trust, with only 43% of remote or hybrid workers reporting that they trust their employer
• Significant time spent switching between the various apps used for working remotely (9% on average)

Pre-pandemic, the major concerns of employees and managers related to burnout, disengagement, and dissatisfaction. But now the big worry is that physical isolation is interfering with normal levels of attachment among colleagues and between employees and managers. Gartner surveys found that employees feeling fragmentation are:

• 57% less likely to be high performers
• 83% less likely to be on a highly collaborative team
• 68% less likely to stay at the organization long term

Gartner believes that modern workforce management solutions (such as WorkForce Software) can be used to counter fragmentation, pulling workers together and pushing them ahead. With improved communication tools, barriers to collaboration and connection can be overcome with omnidirectional messaging, putting all workers and managers in contact with one another without blocks or mediums between.

In addition to communication, digital workforce management solutions address other issues these remote and hybrid workers face. Organizations often implement a large number of apps and programs to enable remote work, which means more work time is spent simply shuffling through all those different platforms. Digital solutions like the WorkForce Suite can keep your workers’ entire connection to the workplace on one helpful app for scheduling, payroll, communication, clocking in, and much more. Our platform also allows for easier training: rather than having to schedule group training meetings featuring a live presenter, employees can instead access digital videos and files whenever and wherever they need to.

The second major session was presented by WorkForce Software: “A Journey to Deliver a Modern Time Management Solution at Novartis.” The presentation showed how we can help large global enterprises (spanning multiple regulatory regimes) maintain consistent and accurate time management solutions.

Novartis is a multinational pharmaceutical company based in both Massachusetts and Switzerland with over 110k+ employees around the globe. Their pre-existing time management process varied between regions and required many manual processes. They were seeking a solution that could be applied globally and be sophisticated enough to account for varying collective bargaining agreements (CBA) amongst their employees (26% of all employees’ roles were impacted by one or more CBA). They also sought a better communication system, as 88% of employees did not have an effective method of communicating with other workers.

The presentation also illustrated the typical rollout WorkForce Software would implement for a company of this size. First, a series of exercises would be run to see how smoothly systems could be operated at launch. Next, the WorkForce Suite would be implemented in six countries under Novartis’ operations umbrella. As each new region and country is incorporated and difficulties are troubleshooted, the implementation would continue to expand (supported by WorkForce’s implementation partner, Adessa) to the entire Novartis network.

Based on many previous WorkForce Software implementations, the benefits include:

• More accurate timekeeping, which significantly reduces errors that otherwise result in costly fines and litigation resulting from CBA violations
• Greater convenience, transparency, and flexibility, which gives workers more control over their own affairs and, in turn, improves employee engagement and retention
• Easy expansion for new locations, as WorkForce doesn’t require costly custom coding
• Improved profitability from minimizing errors, preventing payroll leaks, and eliminating repetitive tasks with automated time, attendance, leave, and gross pay processing

The Gartner ReimagineHR Conference presented its audience of HR professionals with the latest information on what managers around the world are facing. While employee fragmentation and difficult legacy time management systems were the focus of these presentations, Gartner and WorkForce Software are always prepared to partner up and present our clients and potential clients with the latest problems and solutions facing their industries.

Be sure to check out the tools of our WorkForce Suite to see what WorkForce Software can do to assist your business with their digital workforce management.