The year 2020 brought many challenges, including fear for the health and wellness of our communities, economic distress, and disruption in nearly every facet of our personal and professional lives. And while the world slowed down in some ways, in other ways it did not.
For many business leaders, the pandemic accelerated key business initiatives that have been top-of-mind for years. Digital transformation efforts such as moving systems to the cloud, reskilling and mobilizing workforces, and taking more steps to foster a company culture where all employees can do their best work have reached a new level of focus and increased investment.
Businesses have been forced to plan for multiple scenarios simultaneously and shift from plan to plan as circumstances change. This unstable environment has required leaders to pivot our businesses in ways we may not have realized were possible. We learned that more than ever before, necessity is the mother of invention to maintain business continuity.
When Digital Transformation Mattered Most
At the onset of the pandemic, businesses that were already in the cloud had an edge. They were able to take advantage of the business stability enabled by the cloud, including scalability, flexibility, and remote access. In turn, this let them focus on finding new revenue sources, or new ways to engage employees and keep their cultures strong. Because of the cloud, they were able toclose their booksremotely, use data to gain better insights into their businesses, and get much better at financial and workforce planning.
That’s why it’s not surprising that even despite massive disruption in the world, businesses continued to move to the cloud all year long (as my colleague Emily McEvilly points out, we hadmore than 190 go-liveson Workday last year).
Even with the cloud, none of us thought we could run so much of our economy with a largely remote workforce. Businesses learned to be industrious and use ingenuity when faced with new requirements and challenges. For example, they were able to change pay rates and work leave policies for frontline workers. They were agile when it was important not just to their business, but to their workers and the good of their communities, such as pivoting their holiday schedule and adding additional days off throughout the year. These process changes extended to initiatives focused on talent, hiring, skills, and more.
Reskilling and Mobilizing the Workforce
Reskilling used to be viewed as a talent strategy initiative only. Now, it's a business imperative. Starting with the onset of the pandemic, businesses have had to mobilize to reskill employees to fill new roles. As a society facing high unemployment, wehave a responsibilityto connect displaced workers with new opportunities. Initiatives led byOpportunity@WorkandPeople + Work Connecthave helped match skills with opportunities, which is especially important in industries that have seen drastic business changes. Knowing reskilling is so important to our customers, it’s been at the heart of our investments in talent solutions, such asWorkday Talent Marketplace.
It’s been inspiring to see how organizations have been able to transition to a reskilling environment not over a couple of years, but literally within weeks. For example, a leading fitness apparel company recently shared how they quickly redeployed manufacturing effort and reskilled their employees to produce masks and other PPE.