Long ago and far away, working in the hospitality industry, part of my job was conducting the Onboarding program. A group of enthusiastic, bright, and eager new hires would enter the training room. More times than I wish to count about midmorning, a security officer would enter the room and escort one or two of my attendees out of the room. Everyone was watching this activity, disengaging from the presentation. They were curious about what was going on, not about the program at that moment. Some people would understand what was happening. The new hires leaving had not passed their drug tests. A sense of gloom took the excitement and energy right out of the room. Is this any way to operate an On Boarding Program?

Back in the old days when everyone was working in the office, there may have been conflict, a need for empathy, and a call for understanding. However, we may have had it too easy in terms of having the ability to anticipate, observe, and solve issues. Current times have taken much of the ability for these out of our hands. But wait, we’re all in this together! So, shouldn’t we have an even greater ability to anticipate, observe, and solve issues?

When immigrants come to America, they often see opportunities, and many become extraordinarily successful entrepreneurs. Many Americans who grow up with these same opportunities fail to see them and therefore neglect taking advantage of them. One thing we do have in common is resistance to change. While an immigrant might find success, the idea of being on time, for example, is a difficult idea to change for some cultures. The changes dictated by the pandemic have given us all change challenges to wrestle. How will these changes, many of which are here to stay, affect our work culture and what changes do we need to embrace for success?

In the January/February issue of HR Magazine, Josh Bersin with Deloitte, makes nine predictions of “what’s in store for HR in 2015.” Many of the nine predictions are ongoing hang-overs (pun intended) and others do have some interesting twists and are the result of a world that continues to spin ever forward on the back of technology, data, and diversity. This will be the first in a series of articles looking at each of these predictions.

Prediction One: Culture, Diversity, Engagement, and Retention

Where have we heard these issues before? Let’s begin with culture. The interesting thing about this prediction is that now culture has become the cousin of your brand. Here’s what happens…people are unhappy in your organization, they leave, driving up turnover costs. Not only that, they tell others why they were unhappy, and all of this gossip, no doubt spread by social media, says your brand is no fun to work for, and you find it difficult to lure people to sign on at your company. Current employees become overwhelmed (another later prediction) from the extra work, they become disgruntled, under produce, give poor customer service, etc., etc., etc.