Today’s fast-paced and ever-changing world has forced the business landscape to constantly evolve, and organisations must adapt to survive. To navigate this dynamic environment, HR teams need to be aware of several key acronyms that capture the current challenges and opportunities they face. Our blog today explores these acronyms and how HR teams can prepare their talent acquisition and talent management strategies in a brittle and incomprehensible world.
Introduction
When we think of acronyms, we know that the common ones exist – ASAP, LOL, BRB, OMG and TGIF. Then there are TL; DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) and WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get).
But wait, there’s more! According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the world’s longest acronym is NIIOMTPLABOPARMBETZHELBETRABSBOMONIMONKONOTDTEKHSTROMONT and has 56 letters. That’s rather extreme. In the realm of business today. there are three different kinds of acronyms – BANI, RUPT, and VUCA. Let’s explore how HR teams today can stay ahead in the BANI world when it comes to executing their talent strategies, such as talent acquisition, talent management, HiPo identification, and succession planning.
VUCA, the Volatile Acronym
The acronym can be traced back to its roots to the US Army War College in the 1980s during the time of the Cold War. It gained popularity through military ranks during the 1990s and eventually found its way into business strategy books in the early 2000s. At the time, it felt like a smart way of viewing the world and deconstructing it.
VUCA served as a launch pad for strategy development and implementation in key business functions, such as HR Management, Finance, Operations, IT, Production, and Engineering. The approach was based on the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity that the world faced.
- Volatile – A volatile situation is one where change is happening fast. As a result of this speed, companies and individuals often have a hard time adapting to change.
- Uncertain – A future that is uncertain is not known. It is futile to predict the future and what will happen tomorrow. As a result, it is impossible to plan and respond to environmental demands.
- Complex – In complex situations, a lot of factors need to be considered. It is hard to make a solid decision as many of these key factors have become so entangled and interconnected.
- Ambiguous – When a situation is described as ambiguous, it means that there is a lack of clarity regarding how to interpret the implications of business issues. This can result in significant challenges when attempting to predict change and properly analyse situations.
In recent years, many organisations have begun to liberally use the term VUCA to articulate or find a metaphor for describing our changing world. But this is often done without digging into its meaning. Until a better term is born.
BANI, the Chaotic Acronym
The world used to be called Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) until the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and other socioeconomic and political changes ushered in a new term.
BANI was coined by American futurologist, Jamais Cascio, as a sense-making model focused on helping business leaders to manage chaotic situations and develop a way to manage them better. BANI is an abbreviation for Brittle, Anxious, Non-Linear, and Incomprehensible.
- Brittle – The world has become brittle and competitive advantages may not last long. There are shorter product lifecycles, lower demand, and disruptive changes. Global talent is suffering from stress, burnout, and mental health issues due to a lack of physical contact.
- Anxious – The world has become more anxious, causing people to feel restless, uncertain, and hesitant to make decisions. Current events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war are evidence of this heightened state of anxiety.
- Non-Linear – Cause-and-effect relationships are unpredictable, and events often occur in the most unexpected ways. Traditional logic may not always apply, and new knowledge must be created to address new and existing problems, despite challenging long-held beliefs and truths.
- Incomprehensible – Events are becoming increasingly unpredictable, defying logic and causing difficulties in understanding their causes and effects. As a result, predictability is no longer guaranteed.
BANI best describes the situation we face today. Things have changed. Certain world events such as the 2020 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have threatened to decimate humanity. Despite all this, HR has the potential to build organisations that win in the marketplace.
RUPT, the Disruptive Acronym
There is yet another acronym; one that connects with the experience of disruption. It’s a word in its own right but not typically used alone.
Rupture is defined as “bursting”, as do the words disrupt and interrupt. All three are derived from the same Latin word rumpere, which means “to break, to burst.” And the word disruption happens when RUPT is in play. RUPT stands for Rapid, Unpredictable, Paradoxical, and Tangled. It is also another VUCA alternative.
- Rapid – We are constantly bombarded with rapid changes that seem to converge and overlap like waves from disparate origins colliding in the vast expanse of the ocean.
- Unpredictable – although we can analyse, strategise, and make predictions about the future, sometimes something completely unexpected emerges in a rapid and sudden manner. This can challenge our assumptions and force us to re-evaluate our thought processes.
- Paradoxical – Leaders often think that there is only one solution to complex issues, instead of embracing the polarities that need to be balanced for organisational effectiveness. For example, they may need to come up with new ideas for the future while taking care of things that need to be done right now. Yet, both must be done to succeed in both the short and long term.
- Tangled – The world is interconnected, and terms like “global village” highlight this reality. We exist in multiple ecosystems with internal and external connections that are often overlooked. Effective strategy implementation requires considering these connections.
Preparing for a BANI World
However, given the rise of a BANI world, we look at five key issues to deal with for HR teams today.
Nomadic talent
Talent has since become highly nomadic. A Microsoft study indicated that 41% of the global workforce might be considered to be resigning. This means that the pace of global talent mobility has increased. Talent retention has become so brittle and incomprehensible that talent leaders are so anxious about how to retain their talent whose trends are becoming more non-linear and unpredictable.
The rise of corporate nomadism in the face of the pandemic is yet another topic of discussion by the Harvard Business Review. A corporate nomad is an individual who engages and participates in part-time geographically dispersed work and projects within the employer’s network. Despite the impermanence of this trend, it still presents an opportunity for HR to generate value.
Corporate nomads gain critical skills from other organisations and best practices can help businesses to generate more value. As we continue to live in the times of BANI, we learn about how to manage situations better from the experience and the corporate knowledge of others. As a result, HR can retain top talent and serve as gatekeepers against great resignation.
Hybrid working
The pandemic may have upended the global economy, but it has also ushered in a new era of working – hybrid working. Employees now expect to spend more time with family and pursue other goals outside of work. This implies that employees require more control over how they work and when they work.
A recent survey by Microsoft reveals that 73% of employees want to work in a flexible environment while 67% crave for an in-person meeting with their colleagues to foster collaboration and teamwork. This means that hybrid work is still a dominant point in the current and future of work.
In essence, HR needs to redesign traditional work policies and standards to create more value and suit the new world of work. HR practices in talent acquisition and talent management must change. Moving forward, the focus should be placed on building collaboration, teamwork, and communication across the organisation to ensure effective coordination of business activities.
Rise of caring HR
A caring HR Management approach is critical for any organisational success in this brittle and anxious world today. The global workforce is currently suffering from burnout and stress. As a result, millions of employees have either left the workplace or found other forms of employment elsewhere.
As previously indicated by the Microsoft study, 41% of the global workforce might consider resignation. Evidently, HR professionals who provide care, developmental opportunities, and inspiration encourage employees to become their very best selves in the workplace.
After all, HR professionals are also best positioned to help employees and teams to stabilise their emotions and provide access to care and support. This will undeniably help employees to effectively contribute towards organisational goals and success.
Reskilling and upskilling of staff
In the year 2020, the World Economic Forum’s future of jobs report indicated that 85 million jobs around the world require reskilling and upskilling. The biggest challenge towards full adoption of the 4th Industrial Revolution is not technology, physical and financial resources. These can be easily mobilised and acquired compared to human skills and competencies.
Human skills and competencies are used to develop new advanced technologies which remains a critical challenge today. As such, these present a huge opportunity for HR to generate value and be able to align people’s skills and competencies with the organisational strategies.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, we all know that the world is changing. We are now living in the age of chaos where the world is going against the traditional way of things in a radical and almost violent manner. It has become a BANI world. And HR needs to rise to the challenge of creating organisations that win in the marketplace. HR leaders must be fearless in handling the immense challenges that they face today while taking steps to ensure the smooth execution of their talent strategies.
One of the ways to prepare for this challenging world is to capitalise on digital transformation and adopt a digital mindset. Check out our blog to learn more about the digital mindset and how to evaluate it.
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