Marietta Harvey is the Vice President and Global Head of Employee Experience at Enquero - A Genpact Company. She comes with over 25 years of experience as a people leader who fully understands the value of company culture and is well-versed in how to create, embody, and nurture a culture of excellence. The breadth of her experience combines the execution of proven best practices while incorporating the dynamic needs of the constantly disrupted and evolving business models. Marietta built Enquero scalable human resources functions from the ground up. Prior to joining this company, she helped shape start-ups, distributed, and multi-site global business organizations by leveraging human resources business models for companies like Dell, Netformx, Sybase, and Siemens.

In an exclusive interaction with People Matters, Marietta shares her take on how organisations can thrive and lead innovation in the face of business disruptions. Here are some excerpts. 

Digital transformation opens a space for innovation as well as disruption. How can leaders today prepare for business disruptions?

The business world is forever evolving, driven by new technology, and shifting customer preferences. And industry leaders need to stay ahead of the trends to discover possibilities. Disruptive innovation relies on untapped markets to create more convenient and affordable products and services. Leaders of tomorrow must be open to absorbing and carefully experimenting with disruptive innovations. Before jumping on the bandwagon to try something new, it is essential to evaluate an enterprise's current state and its people's potential while clearly defining the purpose for enthusiastic buy-ins. Building a culture that is ready to incubate such tech disruptions is necessary to ensure that your digital transformation initiative takes off the ground right.

As the HR function becomes more digitized, what are the significant challenges that might come up, and how can leadership address them efficiently in the era of hybrid work? 

When disruptive leaders are at the forefront of driving digital transformation, fostering creativity within a team can be more complex because it relies on people’s comfort level with technology and collaboration. Teamwork and collaboration have always been complex issues. The bottom line is that technology offers advantages, flexibility, and mobility. Leaders will need various talents and competencies to lead a hybrid working model. Businesses will need to adapt their work procedures to a hybrid working paradigm to sustain employee engagement and productivity.

Leaders must undergo a paradigm shift to acquire skills, such as making analytical decisions, learning new technologies, and adopting them effectively. Business leaders require robust emotional intelligence to confront remote leadership challenges and the capacity to create the right attitude within teams to foster autonomy, responsibility and learning agility.

How can technologies be designed to impact the softer aspects of the workplace, such as work culture, wellbeing, collaborative practices, and even employee engagement?

We are witnessing the rise of technology platforms designed to implement an innovative culture and improve the employee experience. Integrating technology and culture can help in a clear line of communication and empower employees to meet an organization’s expectations. Access to accurate, real-time data allows managers to comprehend their team’s work habits, improve efficiency and transparency, and encourage goodwill practices within an organization for employee retention.

Employees can work most effectively and productively through performance management tools that enhance communication, collaboration, and cooperation. HR departments can utilize a simple survey application to gather employee feedback and ideas for improvement while measuring output metrics. Companies can implement flexible, employee-centric work practices without losing performance through workplace optimization tools.

A culture of innovation is what every organization aspires to build. How do digital solutions today create greater spaces for innovation and reimagining the future of work?

Today’s workplace transformation has blurred the boundaries of physical and virtual spaces to increase opportunities for collaboration and innovation. Digital solutions provide employees with a unified experience across geographies and help them balance life and work.  

Organizations are now using various new-age tech tools such as Cloud app services, IoT sensors, state-of-the-art video conferencing tools, connected devices, and applications. These tech choices nurture a diverse and inclusive culture that can boost productivity and deliver meaningful impact.

What are some words of advice that you would like to share with businesses leading their digital transformation journeys in today’s business landscape? 

Digital transformation has created some excellent possibilities for leaders in today's economy. Integrating digital transformation efficiently and flexibly in all areas is advisable while keeping human centricity the primary metric. As a leader, you should incorporate methods of creating functional, effective, versatile, and user-friendly technological platforms for organizational success. Additionally, strategizing to build a sustainable organization for the future and restructuring the organization should be a determining factor. Businesses must ensure a flexible workforce, a comprehensive benefits package, a flexible and collaborative work environment, and opportunities for advancement for all employees.