Growth, Sustainability Inclusion

By promoting inclusion and considering a workforce planning approach to the jobs and skills needed by an organisation, we can ensure it achieves growth and delivers the services and outcomes needed by communities, writes Steve Davies of the Public Services People Managers Association (PPMA)

In the last two years we’ve seen the best of our Human Resources/Organisational Development profession in supporting our organisations to manage and overcome the challenges thrown at us by the Covid 19 pandemic. We have found innovative ways to engage our workforces and keep them focussed on producing and delivering in support of the communities and people that, as public service organisations, we serve.  
    
As we move forward, we must get used to living with COVID-19 and our leaders are starting to look beyond safeguarding lives and livelihoods to set their sights on a more profound challenge - bettering them. We need to build on what we have already achieved and focus on enabling our organisations to achieve growth, sustainability and inclusion.  
    
These three elements can be considered from different perspectives. In relation to individual staff members; from an organisational perspective, or; from a wider societal basis.

From an HR/OD professionals viewpoint, we have little control over what might happen in wider society but the public service organisations we support and the leaders in charge of them do have the possibility of influencing and shaping the way in which citizens, communities and society are supported, but more of this later.

A growth mindset and learning organisation

Supporting individual staff in growth, sustainability and inclusion aspects can be done by stimulating a growth mindset and learning organisation. People with a growth mindset seek opportunities to learn, gain new skills, and enhance their existing skills. Learning organisations enhance opportunities for employee involvement in the organisation and this empowers them to make relevant decisions. Learning organisations have strong cultures that promote openness, creativity and experimentation.   
    
Setting this up will enhance sustainability but we also need to give staff the right information, skills and workplace systems/ tools to do their jobs effectively, and we also need to be mindful of supporting their health and wellbeing in the right way to ensure they can give their best.  

Finally, it is extremely important to consider and appreciate individuals for themselves and therefore ensuring a culture of inclusion is promoted so that individuals feel a sense of belonging for who they are and what contribution they can make regardless of background, experience, skills or personal characteristics.  
    
From an organisational perspective it is obviously important to consider the whole workforce and what the organisation does to achieve and deliver for the communities and people we serve. So, creating a growth mindset and learning organisation needs to be focussed on developing the skills that the organisation needs going forward and ensuring performance outputs/outcomes are measured, monitored and assessed.

Workforce planning

We know that the world of work is constantly changing and that digital innovations mean that the nature of many jobs and roles will change or disappear, and we know that many people will need to develop new skills if they are to remain employed and engaged, so we need to consider sustainability of our workforce through proper workforce planning based on data and evidence to identify the organisational skills and jobs and structures needed for delivery. The pipelines for recruitment, progression and development need to be thought about to maintain and support the workforce. Also, the way in which work is organised taking account of recent approaches to agile/flexible/hybrid working where our organisations have embraced a stronger emphasis on work-life balance and different approaches to how, when and where work is done based on individual/team/ service approaches to get the most effective and productive work, as opposed to applying a one size fits all approach to the organisation of work is equally as important.
    
Interwoven with these key organisational props must be a focus on inclusion so that we are promoting understanding and appreciation of difference and finding ways to address inequality through equitable opportunity and development and stimulation of inclusive cultures. By promoting inclusion and considering a workforce planning approach to the jobs and skills needed by the organisation, we can ensure it achieves growth and delivers the services and outcomes needed by the communities we serve and therefore promotes the sustainability of the organisation.

Wider Societal Drivers

Finally, it is possible to broaden out these concepts of growth, sustainability and inclusion into wider societal drivers that focus on growth of economies and jobs, providing sustainable systems of infrastructure, housing, transport etc. that support healthy living and environmental sustainability; and inclusion through the narrowing of inequalities among genders, ages, ethnicities, family backgrounds by health, living standards and opportunities for work/development.

About the author
Steve Davies has been a member of the PPMA since the early 2000’s and became the Chair for London in 2013. He was a key member of the PPMA board for many years and as President from 2020-2022. Steve’s professional role is Head of London Regional Employers’ Organisation, which supports London Boroughs in improving public services through delivery, commissioning and sharing best practice. He has held senior HR positions for many years including director level HR management positions in two London boroughs.