Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends 2024

2024 Global Human Thriving beyond boundaries:
Human performance in a
boundaryless world
Capital Trends
2024 Global Human Capital Trends
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Deloitte’s Human Capital professionals leverage research, analytics, and industry insights to help design and execute the HR,
talent, leadership, organization, and change programs that enable business performance through human performance.
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Table of contents 02 . . . Thriving beyond boundaries: Human performance in a boundaryless world
10 . . . When people thrive, business thrives: The case for human sustainability
26 . . . As human performance takes center stage, are traditional productivity
metrics enough?
38 . . . The transparency paradox: Could less be more when it comes to trust?
52 . . . What do organizations need most in a disrupted, boundaryless age? More
imagination.
66 . . . How play and experimentation in digital playgrounds can drive
human performance
78 . . . One size does not fit all: How microcultures help workers and
organizations thrive
90 . . . From function to discipline: The rise of boundaryless HR

104 . . . Evolving leadership to drive human performance
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Thriving beyond boundaries:
Human performance in a
boundaryless world
It’s time to trade in the rules, operating constructs, and proxies of the
past. Prioritizing human performance can help organizations make the
leap into a boundaryless future.
Shannon Poynton, Jason Flynn, Kraig Eaton, Sue Cantrell, David Mallon, and
Nicole Scoble-Williams
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e’re operating in a world where Reimagining boundaryless work amidst these disrup-
work is no longer defined by tions is no longer hypothetical—or optional. The old
jobs, the workplace is no longer a proxies previously relied upon to measure performance
specific place, many workers are may no longer apply, and there’s no easy playbook to
no longer traditional employees, follow that will enable organizations to thrive in this new
and human resources is no longer environment. So, what’s next for organizations and
a siloed function. These boundaries, once assumed to workers? What steps can we take to create a future
be the natural order of things, are falling away and full of possibility and hope in the uncertainty of a
traditional models of work are becoming boundaryless. boundaryless world?
Just a year ago, we introduced many of these shifting Our 2024 Global Human Capital Trends research
work realities in our 2023 Global Human Capital Trends reveals that a focus on the human factor is emerging
report. Since that time, things have only accelerated. as the bridge between knowing what shifts are shap-
ing the future of work and doing things to make real
Many of the technological changes happening now— progress toward putting them into action to create
the emergence of generative artificial intelligence, the positive outcomes. It’s clear from the responses to this
rise of virtual worlds and even virtual replicas of our year’s global surveys—over 14,000 respondents from 95
own selves, and the development of neurotechnology countries—that the more boundaryless work becomes,
that can now quantify the brain—may seem like they’ve the more important uniquely human capabilities—like
been plucked straight out of the pages of a science empathy and curiosity—become.
fiction book, but these concepts are already becoming
an everyday reality. It’s a time of uncertainty, shaped Our research points to the idea that prioritizing human
by unpredictable global events, lightning-fast advances sustainability—the degree to which the organization
in technology and AI, evolving workplace cultures and creates value for people as human beings, leaving them
markets, growing worker mental health and well-being with greater health and well-being, stronger skills and
concerns, and transformative shifts in how people think greater employability, good jobs,1 opportunities for
about work and the workplace. advancement, more equity, and heightened feelings
3
of belonging and purpose—can drive not only better need to let go of the mindsets, operating constructs, and
The good news human outcomes, but better business outcomes, too, proxies of the past.
is that most in a mutually reinforcing cycle. This combination of
leaders already human and business outcomes is what we call “human
understand performance.” Because it is humans, more than physical Outdated measures are holding us back
that focusing assets, that truly drive business performance today. This
is needed more than ever by organizations to both shape Historically, organizations have sought to unlock the
on human and adapt to the ever-evolving future of work. power of their workforce by implementing structures,
performance is processes, technologies, and systems meant to make
key to building humans better at work. In more recent years, those efforts
an organization THE NEW MATH OF HUMAN PERFORMANCE have expanded to include attempts to make work better
that can thrive for humans.3 We are on the cusp of the next step on that
today and We define human performance as a mutually reinforcing cycle journey as organizations seek to create value for work-
with compounding, shared value for workers, organizations, ers and every other human being they impact, including
tomorrow. But and society. extended off-balance sheet workers, future workers,
to close the or people in their communities. But by most measures,
gap between (Human outcomes) x (Business outcomes) = Human performance current efforts are falling short. Most workers say their
knowing and well-being either worsened or stayed the same last year.4
doing, they will And this isn’t a new trend: In 2018, over 40% of workers
need to let go of In this year’s report, we highlight tangible ways in reported feeling high stress in their job, with negative
which organizations can implement the new fundamen- impacts on productivity, health, and family stability.5
the mindsets, tals we introduced last year as they prioritize human Burnout is a common experience, with 48% of workers
operating performance: and 53% of managers saying they are burned out at
constructs, and work6 and nearly half of millennial and Gen Z workers
proxies of the • Thinking like a researcher by leveraging new report feeling stressed all or most of the time.7 The 2023
past. sources of data and technology to create greater Gallup State of the Global Workplace study reveals that
transparency in ways that foster workforce trust, and 59% of the global workforce are “quiet quitting.”8
that are used in collaboration with innately human
capabilities like problem-solving, creative thinking, As for making humans better at work, productivity
and innovation to explore, play, and experiment with paranoia—a concern that remote workers aren’t being
ideas that support the greater realization of value. productive9—is on the rise, with 85% of leaders saying
the shift to hybrid work has made it challenging to have
• Cocreating the relationship by collaborating with confidence that workers are productive, despite increases
workers to design people practices, microcultures, in hours worked.10 And with more organizations using
and digital spaces so they are relevant for them and new technologies and generative AI to measure and
support human outcomes. optimize human performance, they need to be cognizant
of the flaws and shortcomings of the humans that created
• Prioritizing human outcomes by moving past the and use them.
industrial-era mindset that led to a dehuman-
ization of both work and worker—for example, Yet most organizations don’t have appropriate measures
viewing the worker as a number, a box on the orga- in place to capture human performance, let alone
nization chart, or a cog in the process—to create optimize it: Only 3% of respondents from our 2024
shared value for workers, organizations, and the Global Human Capital Trends research say that their
communities in which they operate. organization is extremely effective at capturing the value
created by workers. Since the Industrial Revolution, the
The good news is that most leaders already understand increasing scale and growing complexity in ways of
that focusing on human performance is key to building working have led to the creation of imperfect substitutes
an organization that can thrive today and tomorrow. But to measure work and performance.
to close the gap between knowing and doing,2 they will
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We’ve used the concept of the “employee” to capture for current and future workers as human beings, and for
the singular notion of full-time staff, not considering society at large. The shift
the full ecosystem of workers that create value for the to human
organization. performance
Bridging the knowing-doing gap begins here, at
We’ve leveraged the idea of the “job” to document a the intersection
set of repeatable functional tasks, not accounting for The 2024 Global Human Capital Trends report invites
of business
how the dynamism of work today often means work is you to imagine a world where trust between workers
performed outside of traditional job boundaries. and their employers is the currency of work, and where outcomes
people are given opportunities to grow and develop and human
We’ve focused on creating a monolithic, one-size-fits-all those uniquely human capabilities that are so critical outcomes.
corporate culture to define how organizations should to human performance. To imagine what could happen
operate, when in reality, most organizations are made when workers see their organization making tangible
up of an abundance of microcultures. progress towards human sustainability goals or provid-
ing workers with safe spaces to play and experiment
We’ve relied on “employee engagement” to evaluate the with many possible futures. And where people exper-
relationship between organizations and workers when tise becomes a capability and responsibility of all, with
what we should be measuring is trust—and metrics customized people practices and cultures cocreated with
that benefit the worker. After all, measuring how much workers themselves rather than mandated and pushed
discretionary effort workers are willing to expend for out from a central authority.
their organization’s benefit helps a company, but whether
it helps workers is far less clear. The results can be good for the organization, the
worker, and for society: more innovation and complex
And we’ve relied on the idea of “productivity” to problem-solving. Higher standards of work. Healthier,
measure worker activity, without fully accounting for more committed, purpose-driven workers who feel a
desired human and business outcomes and potential sense of ownership over broader organizational goals.
future value.
The shift to human performance begins here, at the inter-
These proxies—imperfect placeholders for what should section of business outcomes and human outcomes. But
truly be measured—were once useful; they allowed the ability to make this leap requires a mindset shift
organizations to scale when scalable efficiency was the as organizations let go of the proxies of the past; for
primary means of differentiation, and they allowed example, viewing humans as costs rather than assets,
organizations to measure progress against the tradi- or business practices that reinforce efficiency of activ-
tional boundaries of work.11 But they were designed for ity over value and outcome. Fortunately, our research
a simpler world, a world of work that’s not constantly shows that most leaders are already well aware that these
reinventing itself, and served as intentional abstractions changes are needed. A small proportion of respondents
of what “could” be measured when organizations didn’t (33%) cited insufficient understanding as the reason for
have the advanced tools to evaluate what “should” be their organization’s inability to make progress to date.
measured. Today, the proxies that once made it easier to Instead, internal constraints, such as capacity for change,
structure, drive, and measure organizational activity are limited resources, and lack of leadership alignment were
holding us back from applying the tools and learnings of consistently shared as the justification for organizational
the past decade to inspire the realization of new value in inertia. With that in mind, fueling human performance
the boundaryless world. and leading in the boundaryless world will likely come
from not only clearing the mental obstacles in the way,
With more data, technology, and tools at our fingertips but the operational ones as well.
than ever before, we have an opportunity to redefine
how we measure human performance to get us closer to Moving past knowledge of the problem and beginning
what really matters: value creation for the organization, to define and embrace new ways of working is especially
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important as generative AI and new technologies offer the majority of value for an organization, including reve-
more diverse and accelerated pathways for organizations nues, innovation and intellectual property, efficiency,
to create value. These new technologies offer unprec- brand relevance, productivity, adaptability, and risk.
edented transparency into the inner workings of our Yet organizations’ current efforts to prioritize these all-
organizations that can be used to better drive human important connections appear to be falling short, partly
performance, but they present unprecedented challenges because many organizations may be stuck in a legacy
as well, requiring organizations to develop new frame- mindset that centers on extracting value from people
works of responsibility to ensure they are used in a way rather than working to create value for them. Leaders
that elevates, rather than diminishes, trust. should reorient their organizations’ perspective around
the idea of human sustainability.
With human performance as the theme for this year’s
trends, each trend provides a set of practical guidelines Moving beyond productivity to measure human
that can help unlock it and bridge the gap between know- performance. Leaders across industries are beginning to
ing and doing. recognize the limitations of legacy productivity metrics
in the current work environment. Traditional methods of
We begin by delving into the nuances of human sustain- measuring worker productivity as a series of inputs and
ability, gaining a deeper understanding of the rela- outputs solely reflect the perspective of the organization.
tionship between human and business outcomes—the New approaches, by contrast, can and should consider
very essence of what we define as human performance. the worker as a human being, with a more nuanced
With that in mind, our next trend explores the new perspective on how they contribute to the organization.
metrics that will be needed to understand how well an But if traditional productivity metrics no longer tell the
organization is doing in achieving those human perfor- full story, what else should organizations be measuring
mance goals. Recognizing that trust underscores efforts to meaningfully assess human performance? The new
to bring human performance to the fore, we then explore math involves a balance of business and human sustain-
how transparency can help—or hinder—efforts to build ability, creating shared, mutually reinforcing outcomes
that trust. for both the organization and the worker.
Our next set of trends focus on the how: How can Balancing privacy with transparency to build trust. New
organizations drive human performance? We discuss advances in technology can make almost everything in
how new digital advances like generative AI are expos- an organization transparent to almost anyone. Leaders
ing an imagination deficit, and how operationalizing may find this degree of transparency alluring: It offers
uniquely human capabilities and providing workers microscopic visibility into the workings of their organi-
with safe “digital playgrounds” to practice using them zations and their people. But this newly available trans-
can help solve it. Continuing the thread of empowering parency can be both a gold mine and a land mine. On
workers, we explore how moving away from monolithic the one hand, if responsibly managed, the ability to use
corporate cultures and embracing many diverse micro- this kind of transparency can create new opportunities to
cultures can support autonomy, agility, and workforce measure and unlock human performance. On the other
experience. Finally, we tackle the shifts that can make hand, there is significant potential for misuse—for exam-
human performance a shared accountability for all, with ple, privacy breaches, AI-driven surveillance, and efforts
HR moving from a specialized function to a boundary- to control workers’ every move. Although common
less discipline that is cocreated and integrated with the wisdom equates greater transparency with greater trust,
people, business, and community it serves. it’s not that simple. Many organizations are finding that
how well they walk the tightrope between transparency
Our trends this year include: and privacy is a key factor in driving trust today, and
that mishandling it can severely undermine trust.
Embracing human sustainability. For many
organizations, nothing is more important than its people, Overcoming the imagination deficit. Technological
from employees, to external workers, to customers and disruption is outpacing the capacity of many
community members. These human connections drive organizations and workers to imagine new ways of
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working that get the best out of both humans and tech- various work groups, providing them with the resources
nology. Consequently, many organizations may soon they need to establish their own ways of working (while
be facing an imagination deficit. To prevent this deficit, conforming to regulatory requirements), and orienting
organizations will need to scale and operationalize the these localized blends of culture and business strategy
cultivation of distinctly human capabilities like curiosity, toward the same broad, simple organizational guiding
empathy, and creativity, and they should give workers principles.
and teams the autonomy to use these to shape the kinds
of work they do. Just as importantly, individual workers Making the shift to boundaryless HR. Work is increas-
will likely need these capabilities to imagine their own ingly demanding agility, innovation, and collaboration
futures, as AI and other disruptive technologies take on to achieve outcomes. A new HR operating model is not
ever more prominent roles in their working lives. the only solution to respond to these shifts. Rather, a
new mindset, along with a new set of practices, metrics,
Creating digital playgrounds to explore, experi- technologies, and more can transform HR from a special-
ment, and play. As the pace of disruption accelerates, ized function that owns all workforce responsibility to
there is a growing need for safe spaces in which both a boundaryless discipline, cocreated and integrated
organizations and individuals can imagine, explore, and with the people, business, and community it serves.
cocreate a future that delivers better human experiences Boundaryless HR can develop people-discipline expertise
and outcomes at speed and scale. Deloitte calls these and weave it throughout the fabric of the business, creat-
spaces “digital playgrounds.” A digital playground is ing multidisciplinary solutions to increasingly complex
not a singular space or a virtual platform. Rather, it’s problems.
a mindset and an approach in which technologies are
curated with intention and opportunities to use them The speed at which the boundaryless world is evolving
are democratized, giving workers the opportunity and will likely continue to accelerate. While our research
psychological safety to experiment, collaborate, and shows that many organizations haven’t yet made the
explore multiple possible futures. important mindset and operational shifts needed to
respond to this imminent future, it also shows that know-
Cultivating workplace microcultures. According to ing is not the barrier. Where organizations are generally
conventional wisdom, corporate culture should be getting stuck in the doing: making real, actionable prog-
one-size-fits-all—a fixed, uniform culture that ensures ress toward unlocking human performance.
everyone is working in the same way.12 In reality,
organizations typically consist of a diverse set of But there are reasons to be optimistic.
microcultures—subtle variations in how work gets
done in different functions, geographies, workforces, Our analysis shows that organizations who bridge the
and even specific teams. When organizations embrace gap between knowing and doing are more likely to
microcultures, they can attract and retain top talent, achieve both better business and human outcomes. As
anticipate and respond to changes with agility, and better we outline in this year’s trends, organizations now have
meet workers’ unique needs. A key to harnessing the a window of opportunity to elevate human performance
power of microcultures is encouraging the autonomy of and thrive in a boundaryless world.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Deloitte’s 2024 Global Human Capital Trends survey supplemented its research this year with worker- 1,000 global executives and board leaders in order to
polled 14,000 business and human resources and executive-specific surveys to represent the understand their perspectives on emerging human
leaders across many industries and sectors in workforce perspective and uncover where there capital issues. The survey data is complemented
95 countries. In addition to the broad, global may be gaps between leader perception and by over a dozen interviews with executives from
survey that provides the foundational data for worker realities. The executive survey was done some of today’s leading organizations. These
the Global Human Capital Trends report, Deloitte in collaboration with Oxford Economics to survey insights helped shape the trends in this report.
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Endnotes
1. Jeff Schwartz, Kraig Eaton, David Mallon, Yves Van Durme, 6. Microsoft, “Hybrid work is just work. Are we doing it
Maren Hauptmann, Shannon Poynton, and Nic Scoble- wrong?,” September 22, 2022.
Williams, The worker-employer relationship disrupted: If we're 7. Deloitte, 2023 Gen Z and Millennial Survey—Waves of change:
not a family, what are we?, Deloitte Insights, July 21, 2021. Acknowledging progress, confronting setbacks, accessed
2. Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton, The Knowing-Doing Gap: December 15, 2023.
How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action (Boston: 8. Gallup, State of the global workplace: 2023 report, accessed
Harvard Business School Press, 1999). December 15, 2023.
3. Steve Hatfield, Tara Mahoutchian, Nate Paynter, Nic Scoble- 9. Jean Brittain Leslie and Kelly Simmons, “The paradox of
Williams, John Forsythe, Shannon Poynton, Martin Kamen, “productivity paranoia”,” Quartz, April 17, 2023.
Lauren Kirby, Kraig Eaton, and Yves Van Durme, Powering 10. Microsoft, “Hybrid work is just work.”
human impact with technology, Deloitte Insights, 11. John Hagel III and John Seely Brown, “Great businesses scale
January 9, 2023. their learning, not just their operations,” Harvard Business
4. Jen Fisher, Paul H. Silverglate, Colleen Bordeaux, and Michael Review, June 7, 2017.
Gilmartin, As workforce well-being dips, leaders ask: What will 12. Linda Ray, “Types of corporate culture,” Bizfluent,
it take to move the needle?, Deloitte Insights, June 20, 2023. April 20, 2018.
5. Gaurav Lahiri and Jeff Schwartz, Well-being: A strategy and a
responsibility, Deloitte Insights, March 28, 2018.
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Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Mari Marcotte and Corrie Commisso for their leadership in the development of this chapter.
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When people thrive, business
thrives: The case for human
sustainability
For true sustainability, organizations need to create value for all people
connected to them. It’s not just a nice idea—it’s central to better
outcomes for organizations and humanity.
Sue Cantrell, Jen Fisher, Joanne Stephane, Jason Flynn, Amy Fields, and Yves Van Durme
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e are operating in a human- and greater employability, good jobs, opportunities for
powered economy. Organizations advancement, progress toward equity, increased belong-
are at a watershed moment, ing, and heightened connection to purpose.
with many having transitioned
from an industrial economy to a Human sustainability—a concept we introduced in the
knowledge economy and now to 2023 Global Human Capital Trends report1—requires
an economy that is powered by the hearts, minds, and organizations to focus less on how much people benefit
essential human traits of people—in short, our human- their organization and more on how much their organi-
ity. Today, for many organizations, nothing is more zation benefits people. Some organizations are already
important than its people, from workers and contractors making this shift. As Gabriel Sander, head of human
to customers and community members. These human resources for global distillery, Cuervo, said, “Companies
connections drive everything of value to an organiza- can’t offer you employment forever, but they should
tion, including revenue, innovation and intellectual prop- make you employable forever.”
erty, efficiency, brand relevance, productivity, retention,
adaptability, and risk. Yet organizations’ current efforts The organizations that embrace this perspective stand to
to prioritize these all-important connections are generally build a beneficial cycle: one in which improving human
falling short—in part because many organizations are outcomes enhances organizational outcomes and vice
stuck in a legacy mindset that centers on extracting value versa, contributing to a better future for all.
from people rather than working with them to create
a better future for organizations and individuals alike.
Redefining the “S” in ESG
To advance on the social dimension of ESG (environ-
mental, social, and governance), leaders should reori- Research shows that ESG is becoming increasingly
ent their organizations’ perspective around the idea of unclear, unpopular, and polarizing.2 Its attempt to
human sustainability: the degree to which the organiza- encompass all facets of sustainability can make ESG
tion creates value for people as human beings, leaving both vague and an easy target for demagoguery—likely
them with greater health and well-being, stronger skills the reason organizations increasingly are avoiding it
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on earnings calls.3 While many countries in Europe are ESG may be considered more a means to an end, a frame-
setting a high bar for ESG compliance, other countries work of categories as a means for classification or report-
are experiencing an ESG backlash, with investors pulling ing, rather than the end goal itself.
out of ESG funds entirely.4 And for some organizations,
Figure 1
The knowing vs. doing gap: Respondents know that human sustainability is important,
but few are doing enough to make meaningful progress
Percentage of respondents answering the questions, “How important is leaving every human the organization touches better
off as a result of every interaction to your organization’s success?” and “Where is your organization in its journey to address
this issue?”
76% recognize the importance,
with 46% doing something,
and 10% doing great things
Note: The knowing-doing gap was introduced in The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action by Jeffrey Pfeffer and
Robert I. Sutton, and it has continued to be a relevant concept in business performance.
*Business outcomes are defined as meeting or exceeding financial targets. Human outcomes are defined as providing meaningful work for workers.
Source: 2024 Global Human Capital Trends research.
deloitte.com/insights
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Organizations typically group interactions with people but also future workers, extended (contingent, gig, or
under the “S” component of their ESG efforts. That external supply chain) workers, customers, investors, Human
approach is limiting. “S” often lives in the shadow of communities where the organization operates, and sustainability:
“E.” Unlike environmental metrics like carbon emissions, society broadly. the degree
which tend to be relatively straightforward to quantify, to which the
social metrics often lack clear definitions or standard- But human sustainability isn’t just another name for organization
ization: According to our 2024 Global Human Capital stakeholder capitalism: simply delivering a wider range
creates value
Trends research, only 19% of leaders say they have very of outcomes for a wider range of stakeholders. Some
reliable metrics for measuring the social component of suggest that, in the name of stakeholder capitalism, for for people as
ESG. And only 29% strongly agree that they have a clear example, organizations may make a positive contribu- human beings,
understanding of how to achieve it. tion to a stakeholder group to balance out some of the leaving them
adverse impacts to that group, much as carbon offsets with greater
In the absence of clear definition, organizations often function.5 These offsets can sometimes fail to address the health and
take narrow or self-promotional approaches to measur- root causes in the organization, and the positive impact in
well-being,
ing their human impact. Many focus just on short-term one area does not necessarily compensate for the adverse
risks (for example, a public relations issue), under- impacts elsewhere. To balance various stakeholder inter- stronger skills
valuing efforts that make a positive impact on society ests, some say priority is often given to interests aligning and greater
(for example, worker training or financial inclusion). with organizational objectives or of high importance to employability,
Fundamentally, people-focused metrics tend to be rooted individuals with influence, often entrenching social ineq- good jobs,
in an extractive, transactional mindset. For example, uities or resulting in organizations defaulting to meeting opportunities for
metrics that measure employee engagement in effect indi- ESG regulatory requirements or reducing risk.6
advancement,
cate how much discretionary effort workers are willing to
expend for their organization’s benefit. Is high employee A focus on stakeholders alone tends to obscure the fact progress
engagement a good thing? It helps the organization; that organizations rely on more than positive stake- toward equity,
whether it helps employees is less clear. holder relations for their long-term organizational increased
success. Being a stakeholder-focused organization is belonging, and
People and organizations are increasingly awakening not the same as being a sustainable organization whose heightened
to the idea that the earth is a complex, fragile system, success demands long-term, collaborative efforts to
connection to
not a bottomless set of resources, and that nurturing create shared value. An organization is sustainable when
the planet is fundamental to building a better future it addresses the complex problems of the underlying purpose.
for everyone. The move toward human sustainability structural and systemic issues that stand in the way of
represents a parallel shift in organizations’ concept creating value for humans at the systems level. Creating
of people. It requires a comprehensive effort by an another bolt-on program or employee benefit, such as
organization to add value for the individuals it affects gym memberships, meditation training, or volunteering
across multiple dimensions, most notably those listed in time with the community, is not human sustainability.
figure 2. Human sustainability applies to all people in Achieving human sustainability isn’t easy, and often
contact with the organization: not just current workers, requires important trade-offs and careful balancing of
SIGNALS YOUR ORGANIZATION SHOULD PRIORITIZE HUMAN SUSTAINABILITY
• You’re struggling to make progress on social • Your organization is unsure how to handle • You’re experiencing more workforce-related
ESG goals, including objectives related to the changing relationship with workers as risks, including increases in health and safety
well-being, worker skills, and diversity, equity, they redefine the role work plays in their life. incidents and potential worker displacement
and inclusion. by artificial intelligence.

• Your leaders are feeling pressure from
• You find ESG objectives vague, don’t have the workers, customers, board members, and
right metrics, or don’t have a clear business other stakeholders around human issues.
case for the work.
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Figure 2
Human sustainability means doing well by workers and the world

In an organization, human sustainability outcomes are additive, beginning with outcomes for employees—those the
organization cares for most closely—and continuing to build throughout the extended workforce and into society.
EXPECTED OUTCOMES
Employees
• Living equitable wages and long-term financial
Extended workers
prosperity
• Skills, employability, and advancement opportunities • Workforce development for future workers
Society
• Purpose and meaning • Elevation of human outcomes for external supply
chain workers • Improved population health, including
• Equity and belonging as a result of diversity,
environmental/climate impacts on health
inclusion, and addressing systemic causes of • Elevation of human outcomes for contingent or
inequity and lack of belonging informal workers • The creation of “good jobs”* for the economy
(e.g., paying equitable, living wages)
• Physical and psychological safety
• Positive impact on communities
• Mental, physical, social, and financial well-being
• Contributions to equity for populations historically
marginalized because of race, gender, or other
identities
*Zeynep Ton, The Case for Good Jobs: How Great Companies Bring Dignity, Pay, and Meaning to Everyone's Work (Harvard Business Review
Press, 2023).
Source: Deloitte analysis.
short-term initiatives and longer-term practices that can workers identified increasing work stress and the threat
“Companies address some of the root causes of difficult structural of technology taking over jobs as the top challenges to
can’t offer you and systemic issues. organizations embracing human sustainability (figure 3).
employment
forever, but they This approach is in its infancy today. Only 10% of There are also many developments in the world and in
should make organizations say they are leading in advancing human the workforce that threaten to leave people worse off.
sustainability. Among those that are, efforts are likely Some of them include:
you employable to be fragmented and uncoordinated, pursued in isola-
forever.” tion by disparate groups (for example, experiments with • Rampant worker burnout: Constant change and
— Gabriel Sander, nondegree hiring, four-day work weeks, living wages, or overwork are taxing workers. Worker stress world-
Cuervo employability improvement with skills passports). wide hit a record high for the second year in a row
in 2022, with about half of workers “always” or
Current trends threaten human sustainability “often” feeling exhausted or stressed.7 More than
four in 10 report feeling burned out at work.8
The worker-organization relationship is becoming
increasingly fraught amid broad disruptions in business • Concerns about AI eliminating jobs: According to
and society. a recent study, roughly two-thirds of workers in
the United States and Europe will be impacted by
Only 43% of workers say their organizations have left generative AI, with generative AI substituting up to
them better off than when they started. In our research, one-fourth of current work.9 The World Economic
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Forum estimates that generative AI could result • Lack of visible progress on DEI: Although almost
Only 43%
in 83 million job losses globally over the next five all HR leaders (97%) say their organizations have
years.10 Women workers are especially vulnerable: made changes that are improving DEI outcomes, of workers
Men outnumber women in the workforce, but only 37% of workers strongly agree that they’re say their
women are more likely than men to be exposed to making progress.16 organizations
the impact of AI.11 have left them
• Poor conditions for frontline workers: Frontline
better off than
• Rapidly evolving skill needs: The half life of skills workers compose about 80% of global workers,17
when they
continues to shrink, with skills evolving at a rapid but research suggests they feel underserved by train-
pace.12 Yet only 5% of executives strongly agree that ing, are less likely to have opportunities to work started.
their organization is investing enough in helping on purposeful projects, experience low wages,
people learn new skills to keep up with the changing receive little paid time off, and are less likely to have
world of work.13 health insurance.18
• Support for gig and contract workers: • Climate change and the energy transition affecting
Approximately 2 billion people globally are work- global workers: The Deloitte Economics Institute
ing informally (for example, contract work).14 These estimates that more than 800 million jobs world-
workers often do effectively the same work as their wide—one quarter of the global workforce—are
hired colleagues but may earn less and receive fewer highly vulnerable to climate extremes that affect,
benefits or protections.15 for example, access to clean air and water, and the
economic effects of the transition.19
Figure 3
Workers identify top challenges to human sustainability

Percent of workers answering the question: “Which of the following developments do you worry about as it relates to your
work? Select all that apply.”
53%
28%
25% 24%
22% 22%
20%
Increasing The threat of The rising number Increasing risks of The “always on” Employers now Lack of
work stress technology of new skills and threats to physical economy enabled being able to connection and
leading to taking over jobs jobs needed as a safety or wellness by digital digitally monitor belonging due to
worse mental result of in the workplace technology my work without more remote or
health technology or my consent hybrid work
business model
changes
15
Executives are on board with the idea of human sustain- That said, many of these developments also offer enor-
ability in theory: The large majority surveyed in the mous potential for both people and organizations.
Deloitte Global skills-based organization research (79%) Human sustainability offers a key to harnessing them
say their organization has a responsibility to create value to build a better future.
for workers as human beings and for society,20 and 81%
say human sustainability is very or critically important.
But just 12% of executives say they’re leading in this When people thrive, business thrives
area, while 17% say they have yet to make any prog-
ress. Meanwhile, only about a quarter of workers (27%) Focusing on human sustainability can help organizations
say their employer is making progress in creating value create beneficial outcomes for people and for themselves.
for them.21
A focus on human sustainability can help organiza-
An extractive approach to people, in which an organi- tions develop even more robust measures than evolv-
zation looks to maximize the immediate value it receives ing government policies related to people issues, which
from people while minimizing their cost, stands to exac- typically lag behind the pace and necessary scope of
erbate the trends above. It could lead organizations to change. Regulations—such as the US Human Capital
use AI to eliminate jobs rather than create or improve Disclosure Rule, Japan’s recently instituted Amendment
them, resist rather than embrace the postcarbon transi- on Disclosure of Corporate Affairs, and the European
tion, swell the ranks of gig workers with meager safety Union’s new European Sustainability Reporting
nets, fail to make the investments needed to move the Standards—may be necessary, but not always sufficient.
dial on DEI, and burn out workers.
Figure 4
Executives say they’re moving in the right direction. Workers are skeptical.
Executives who agree

89%
My organization is advancing human

sustainability in some capacity
Workers who agree

41%
Source: 2023 Deloitte Well-being at Work survey.
16
While people can represent risks to an organization, they advancing their career and that they are seriously
also represent great opportunities. Consider that intangi- considering quitting for a job that better supports A human
ble assets—the ideas, technologies, brand attributes, and their well-being.30 sustainability
other differentiators created by an organization’s people— mindset
made up 90% of US corporate assets in 2022.22 Intangible • Consumers are more likely to support socially replaces
assets approached comparable levels in other developed responsible organizations. Three-quarters (76%) extractive,
markets, though they were lower in emerging markets.23 of consumers say they’re more likely to buy from
transactional
organizations that are socially responsible.31
Studies have consistently found that organizations thinking
engaged in practices related to human sustainabil- For these reasons and others, a human sustainability about people
ity produce stronger business results. Analysis by the agenda can help future-proof organizations: bolstering with a focus
University of Oxford Wellbeing Research Center finds a their ability to access, engage and develop a diverse work- on creating
“strong positive relationship between employee well-be- force; develop a strong, diverse pipeline of talent; become greater value
ing and firm performance,” including stronger profits more rewarding and productive places to work; inoculate
for each person
and stock returns among organizations with the highest against a variety of risks; and appeal to consumers.
levels of well-being.24 In addition, organizations that connected to
rank the highest on addressing human sustainability the organization.
issues consistently outperform the Russell 1000.25 How leaders can advance human sustainability
In fact, the organizations that score highest on treatment To embrace human sustainability, an organization should
of their workforce had a 2.2% higher five-year return on first reset the way it views relationships with people.
equity, emit 50% less CO2 per dollar of revenue, and
are more than twice as likely to pay a family-sustaining A human sustainability mindset replaces extractive,
living wage.26 transactional thinking about people with a focus on
creating greater value for each person connected to the
A number of factors could help explain a connection organization. This shift can set the stage for leaders
between human sustainability and improved organiza- to implement broader actions in support of a human
tional value: sustainability agenda using trust as the critical glue.
• A focus on human sustainability may help orga- Consider starting with the following actions:
nizations receive the benefits of greater diversity,
equity, and inclusion. Organizations with greater • Focus on metrics that measure human outcomes.
diversity are 2.4 times more likely to outperform Organizations often design people metrics either
competitors financially.27 to quantify worker outputs and activities or as a
box-checking exercise, rather than as an assessment
• Organizations that invest in skills development of progress on outcomes and impact. For example,
have better business results. Eighty-four percent of nearly a quarter (23%) of organizations measure
workers at high-performing organizations say they progress on diversity commitments based on adher-
receive the training they need to do their jobs well.28 ence to compliance standards.32
• Pinching pennies on the workforce often backfires. Consider measuring the following factors like the ones
Low wages often lead to higher turnover, lost sales, highlighted below that the organization can act on to
low productivity, weak attendance, low levels of create a better future for both people and the organi-
innovation, poor execution, mistakes, and frustra- zation, and which include workers like external supply
tion among customers and managers.29 chain or contract workers in the analysis.
• Improving worker health and well-being can

reduce workforce risk. A majority of workers say
that improving their health is more important than
17
SUGGESTED ORGANIZATIONAL AND WORKFORCE METRICS
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT AND PURPOSE CAREER STABILITY AND

EMPLOYABILITY ADVANCEMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Purpose metrics measure the degree to which people
Skills development metrics can indicate the value feel their lives have meaning and they are making Metrics around career stability and advancement
an organization is providing to its workers, extended a positive difference in the world and their work. can be indicators of how well an organization fosters
workers, and future workers. economic mobility and advancement for workers.37
• Surveys and pulse checks gauging individuals’
• AI-driven analysis of how quickly people are perceptions of purpose and meaning • Percentage of people hired based on skills
learning new skills rather than degrees
• AI-driven analysis of worker motivations and
• Impact of skills and learning on worker sentiment35 • Average time it takes to move up one level
outcomes such as promotions, individual (velocity of growth)
performance, and employability • AI-driven analysis of time spent on
meaningful, value-added work versus • Percentage of senior management promoted
• Impact of skills and learning on organizational repetitive, nonmeaningful work from within the organization
outcomes such as sales and customer
satisfaction • Volunteering or social impact involvement • Career stability based on retention and wage
based on participation levels or percentage measures
• Percentage of workers displaced by disrup- of time spent
tions such as AI who are reskilled and attain SOCIETAL IMPACT
“good jobs” • Factors correlating with purpose (positively
or negatively), such as worker sick leave, Societal impact metrics measure an organization’s
WELL-BEING turnover rates, performance, and profitability36 contribution to communities and the world at large.
Well-being metrics should include emotional, DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION • Economic empowerment produced, as
mental, physical, social, and financial well-being.33 measured, for example, by income
DEI metrics measure the extent to which workers generation, wage increases, job creation, and
• AI-driven sentiment analysis, survey, and experience equity and belonging as a result of entrepreneurship opportunities
interview results diversity, inclusion, and addressing the root causes
of inequity in the workplace. • Impact on skills and employability
• Work-related emails sent during off hours
• Pay equity analyses • Impact on community health and well-
• Health equity and trends associated with being based on health care access, disease
medical claims over time • Root cause analysis of identified workforce prevention, happiness, climate sustainability,
inequities and other measures
• Physical, emotional, and mental well-
being and safety data from wearables • Organizational network analysis measuring • Impact on social innovation and
and neurotechnology, used with people’s the effectiveness of equity interventions collaboration, as measured, for example,
permission (for example, by measuring belonging and by number of public-private partnerships
diversity in organization networks) formed, new ideas generated, and knowledge
• Data on shifts or working time (for example, shared within the community
paid time off use, overtime) collected by • Equitable outcomes for various worker
sensors, email, chat, and calendars34 groups on dimensions such as promotions to
leadership, internal mobility, and retirement
savings participation
18
• Make the business case for human sustainability. • Tie leader and manager rewards to human sustain-
Making the mindset shift toward human sustainability metrics. To make progress on anything, an
ability often requires that leaders, executives, and organization needs to hold leaders accountable.
board members have a clear picture of the busi- Organizations should set goals to advance on key
ness advantages of making this shift. Organizations human sustainability outcome metrics and drivers
may in fact be taking many steps toward human and attach incentives to achieving them.
sustainability, but in a siloed or disconnected way.
Connecting the dots between initiatives can help Many organizations are already taking steps in this direc-
provide a holistic picture of the business impact of tion. Almost three-quarters of S&P 500 organizations
human sustainability. now connect executive compensation to sustainability
metrics.38 Genpact, for example, uses a suite of internal
As discussed above, a number of factors can demonstrate tech tools, including its AI chatbot, to check in regularly
the benefits, and driving this change may mean creat- with workers and learn what is or isn’t working well for
ing models, pilot initiatives, and new metrics that focus them and to gauge their mood and sentiment. The tools
on these factors. When PayPal, for example, began an aggregate a workforce “mood score” that is linked to
initiative to improve the financial well-being of its entry- 10% of bonuses for the organization’s top 150 leaders,
level and frontline workers, it needed to justify the addi- including its CEO.39 Mastercard takes this a step further,
tional costs from both a business and human perspective. determining bonuses for all workers in part based on
The organization estimated that for every one percent the organization’s performance on carbon neutrality,
reduction in attrition, it would save US$500,000 a year financial inclusion, and gender pay parity.40 That said,
from reduced recruiting, onboarding, and training costs there appears to be a long way to go. Less than half of
and through improved productivity (read the full case our survey respondents told us their organization holds
study below). itself and leaders accountable for the holistic well-being
of its workers.
19
• Integrate human sustainability governance into While the board can provide oversight, ultimately, it
the board and C-suite. Human sustainability is is the C-suite’s responsibility to operationalize human
increasingly taking center stage on the boardroom sustainability and ensure all parts of the organization are
agenda, as the board provides oversight on the actively working to help humans thrive. The vast major-
intersection of strategy, risk, culture, and ESG and ity of C-level executives (95%) agree that executives
its relationship to business results. “We’re seeing should be responsible for worker well-being, a leading
increasing discussion at the board level of topics indicator of effective human sustainability efforts.42 But
like DEI and ESG—and topics like changing work- living up to that responsibility can require thoughtful,
force expectations, purpose, and skills now matter cross-functional governance at the highest levels.
at the board level,” said Larry Quinlan, board
member of six organizations. In one Deloitte US People-related issues traditionally have fallen under
study, board members and C-suite leaders ranked HR. But managing human sustainability crosses almost
human sustainability issues among the top internal all parts of an organization, including finance, infor-
workforce risks, yet many don’t feel confident in mation technology, and operations, so HR can’t do
their ability to manage them (figure 5).41 the job on its own. Organizations should embrace a
Figure 5
The board and C-suite rank human sustainability issues among the top internal workforce
risks, but lack confidence in managing them
Top six risk factors that most threaten the organization's ability to meet its business objectives, according to C-suite and
board respondents
Top internal workforce risks, ranked Percentage who feel confident in effectively managing the risk
1 Ability to monitor, understand, and address worker activism 51%
2 Ability to foster ESG and sustainable business practices 56%
3 Ability to provide compensation/living wages and benefits to workforce 53%
4 Ability to plan and achieve a diverse and inclusive workforce culture 49%
5 Ability to provide an organizational purpose and mission the

workforce cares about
58%
6 Ability to support the physical, mental, financial, and purpose-driven

well-being of the workforce
58%
Source: 2022 Deloitte Workforce Risk research.
20
boundaryless HR approach that orchestrates the pursuit • Elevate managers’ human sustainability role and
of human sustainability across disciplines to achieve it. empower them to own it. Managers can play a
They might also consider appointing a chief human crucial role in advancing human sustainability, as
sustainability officer to connect the dots between func- they are the frontline leadership helping workers
tions or create new roles in charge of key aspects of develop skills and creating psychological safety and
human sustainability, such as work redesigner, steward belonging in teams. In one study, six in 10 workers
of purpose, or upskilling advocate. worldwide said their job is the biggest factor influ-
encing their mental health. The same study revealed
• Involve workers, future workers, and others in that managers have as great an impact on a work-
cocreating their roles and human sustainability er’s mental health as their spouse, and a greater
initiatives. To create value for individuals, organi- impact than their doctor or therapist. Roughly
zations need input from individuals. Leaders can seven in 10 said they would like their organization
engage workers, future workers, contingent work- and managers to do more to support their mental
ers, community members, and other members of the health.45 Organizations should empower manag-
organization’s human ecosystem in dialogue about ers with training, resources, and the autonomy to
what they value and how it can be pursued together. align policies and workloads with human sustain-
ability priorities. In addition, ensuring managers
While these discussions may take shape in many ways, have a clear window into human sustainability
one important thread may center around reimagining metrics can enable them to help the organization
workers’ roles—for example, integrating well-being achieve its commitments.
into work design, building roles around purpose, or
giving workers the freedom and autonomy to define • Learn from leading organizations’ workplace prac-
“how” their work gets done. Consider tomato proces- tices. Organizations in the forefront of human
sor Morning Star, where each worker drafts their own sustainability are implementing initiatives—and
outcomes and problems to be solved. For example, one in some cases, rewiring organizational practices—
worker’s personal mission is to turn tomatoes into juice to add greater value for workers and society.
in a way that is highly efficient and environmentally Consider the following practices adopted by some
responsible. The statement then describes how they will organizations as they work toward embracing
work to achieve the objectives, including whom they human sustainability:
will collaborate with and what decision responsibilities
they will have.43 – AT&T: Fewer than 5% of job openings require
college degrees. In addition, the organization
Approaches like this can create autonomy, continual trains heavily and recruits top managers from
learning and development in the flow of work, and the its own ranks—including CEO John Stankey,
cultivation of human capabilities like imagination and who does have a college degree and started his
curiosity used to identify problems and opportunities and career at AT&T taking customer requests for
then develop, test, and iterate on solutions. phone service.46
Alternatively, worker roles may become more fluid – Zurich Insurance Group: People analytics
through matching their skills, human capabilities, assess workers’ current skills and future skill
and unique motivations and passions to a portfolio requirements, and technology curates learn-
of ever-evolving projects and assignments—unleash- ing and development opportunities. Capability
ing greater agility, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and network mapping helps identify areas where the
greater growth, agency, and choice for workers.44 Both organization has networks of particular skills
approaches rethink work by negotiating what and how and capabilities and suggests ways for workers
it is done with the workers themselves. to strengthen their networks.47
21
– Chobani: Workers in its plants have an average – Hitachi: An executive sustainability committee
tenure of six years, longer than industry average. tackles 11 goals that pose the most important
This could be due to the organization’s empha- social challenges for Hitachi, including quality
sis on hiring refugees and offering ESL classes, education, gender equality, work and economic
language programs for managers, a child-care growth, health and well-being, and clean water
stipend, and relatively high starting wages.48 and sanitation.50 One initiative seeks to prevent
long working hours and overwork with a system
– Unilever: Unilever’s U-Work program offers that senses hours worked by each individual and
temporary workers who contract with the then sends alerts to supervisors with suggestions
company for a series of short-term engagements on how to help coach overworked workers, as
a guaranteed minimum retainer, access to organ- well as nudges to workers that encourage behav-
izational resources, and a core set of benefits like ioral changes.51
modified health care and retirement funding.49
FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY IS HUMAN SUSTAINABILITY: A PAYPAL CASE STUDY
In 2015, PayPal embarked on a new public mission: stock awards to all workers regardless of level Today, PayPal has raised workers’ estimated
using technology to democratize financial services or tenure, raising wages where appropriate, and net disposable income to 26% globally, with far
and improve financial health. That mission became providing access to personal financial education less worker financial stress and absenteeism.57
personal in 2018 when the organization assessed resources.54 The organization went on to allow The organization is seeing higher capacity to
the financial wellness of its own entry-level and workers to vest their stock awards more quickly meet customer needs and innovate, as well as
frontline workers and discovered that many were and to provide earned wage access before the all-time highs in employee engagement scores,
struggling financially. Approximately two-thirds official pay period.55 productivity, and retention, and in net-promoter scores
reported living paycheck to paycheck, and the among customers.58
company estimated that net disposable income Finding ways to address workers’ financial needs
(discretionary income remaining after taxes and without putting the organization under financial PayPal is continuing its mission by taking a lead
expenses are paid52) was as low as around 5%, strain was a challenge, given the tens of millions role in advocating for financial well-being to
even though the organization was paying at or of dollars the program would require in the first be included as an urgent human sustainability
above market rates.53 year alone. But leadership took a long-term view, agenda for every C-suite and board. “When you
agreeing that not only was it the right thing to add up the impact on workers across different
Understanding that financial wellness is inseparable do for workers, but it made good business sense. employers, you can very quickly get to big numbers
from physical, mental, and emotional wellness, For every one-percent reduction in attrition, the that ripple throughout families, the economy, and
PayPal launched a comprehensive program in 2019 organization estimated it would save US$500,000 communities,” said Tyler Spalding, PayPal’s senior
to improve workers’ financial health. The initiative a year from reduced recruiting, onboarding, and director of corporate affairs and global head of
included reducing healthcare costs, granting training costs and through improved productivity.56 social innovation.
22
Putting the human in sustainability consider working together as part of coalitions to define
best practices, standardize metrics, and push for smart
Human sustainability is a long-term play: The strategies policies. It will require challenging fundamental assump-
put in place today will help determine whether work- tions about business and its relationship with individu-
ers, organizations, and society endure and flourish both als and society—for example, some are suggesting the
today and for future generations. It’s a path toward creat- revision of accounting rules that currently treat people
ing a better future for us all, underscoring the intercon- primarily as a cost.59 But it can be done: Our research
nection between everything we do and need as humans, indicates that the major challenge to progress on human
including climate sustainability, equity, trust, purpose, sustainability efforts is internal constraints and that few
well-being, and belonging. And it calls on leaders and respondents say they have sufficient resources.
organizations to reflect—and act—on the role they play
as stewards of human thriving, making a commitment A human sustainability perspective is grounded in a few
to prioritize, measure, and improve human outcomes simple principles: The people connected to your orga-
within their spheres of influence. nization have the power to affect it in important ways.
Your organization has the power to affect each of them.
This work won’t happen overnight. The task is complex And by understanding and creating value for each other,
and will evolve constantly as the world changes. your organization and its people can improve business,
Organizations will need to take the lead and should also work, and life for everyone.
23
Endnotes
1. Sue Cantrell, Karen Cunningham, Laura Richards, Kraig Eaton, 18. Microsoft, Will AI fix work? (2023 Work Trend Index: Annual
David Mallon, Nic Scoble-Williams, Michael Griffiths, John report), May 9, 2023; Ed Frauenheim, “Purpose at work:
Forsythe, and Steve Hatfield, Advancing the human element of Soaring over gaps with incredible company culture,” Great
sustainability, Deloitte Insights, January 9, 2023. Place to Work, June 2, 2022; Naina Dhingra, Andrew Samo,
2. Alan Murray and David Meyer, “‘ESG’ represents a Bill Schaninger, and Matt Schrimper, “Help your employees find
fundamental shift in business strategy—but the term is unclear, purpose—or watch them leave,” McKinsey & Company,
unpopular, and increasingly polarizing,” Fortune, July 21, 2022. April 5, 2021; Matt Gonzales, “The plight of frontline
3. John Butters, “Lowest number of S&P 500 companies citing workers,” Society for Human Resource Management,
“ESG” on earnings calls since Q2 2020,” FactSet, January 14, 2023.
June 12, 2023. 19. Pradeep Philip, Claire Ibrahim, and Emily Hayward, Work
4. Nicole Goodkind, “ESG has lost its meaning. One advocate toward net-zero, Deloitte, November 2022.
says let’s throw it in the trash,” CNN Business, October 3, 20. Griffiths and Jones, “The skills-based organization.”
2023; Tommy Wilkes and Patturaja Murugaboopathy, “ESG 21. Ibid.
equity funds suffer big outflows, buffeted by market jitters and 22. Brand Finance, Global Intangible Finance Tracking™
US backlash,” Reuters, July 6, 2023. 2022, November 2022.
5. Rachel Dekker, “Why stakeholder capitalism is not enough,” 23. Ibid.
Embedding Project, October 5, 2021. 24. University of Oxford WellBeing Research Center, “Homepage,”
6. Ibid. accessed December 2023.
7. Gallup, State of the global workplace: 2023 report, accessed 25. JUST Capital, “Index concepts,” accessed December 2023.
December 2023. 26. Ibid.
8. Future Forum, Future Forum Pulse, February 2023. 27. Development Dimensions International, Inc., Diversity, equity,
9. Joseph Briggs and Devesh Kodnani, The potentially large effects and inclusion report 2023, accessed December 2023.
of artificial intelligence on economic growth, Goldman Sachs, 28. IBM, The value of training, accessed December 2023.
March 26, 2023. 29. Ton, The Case for Good Jobs.
10. World Economic Forum, Future of jobs report 2023, 30. Steve Hatfield, Jen Fisher, and Paul H. Silverglate, The C-suite’s
May 2023. role in well-being, Deloitte Insights, June 22, 2022.
11. Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, “Will generative AI 31. World Economic Forum, The Good Work Framework.
disproportionately affect the jobs of women?,” April 18, 2023. 32. Christina Brodzik, Joanne Stephane, Devon Dickau, Nic Scoble-
12. Jorge Tamayo, Leila Doumi, Sagar Goel, Orsolya Kovács- Williams, Yves Van Durme, Michael Griffiths, Kraig Eaton,
Ondrejkovic, and Raffaella Sadun, “Reskilling in the age of Shannon Poynton, John Forsythe, and David Mallon, Taking
AI,” Harvard Business Review, September–October 2023. bold action for equitable outcomes, Deloitte Insights,
13. Michael Griffiths and Robin Jones, “The skills-based January 9, 2023.
organization,” Deloitte, November 2, 2022. 33. Colleen Bordeaux, Jen Fisher, and Anh Nguyen Phillips, Why
14. Kunal Sen, “Over 2 billion workers globally are informal— reporting workplace well-being metrics is a good idea, Deloitte
what should we do about it?,” United Nations University World Insights, June 21, 2022.
Institute for Development Economics Research, May 2021. 34. Pamela B. de Cordova, Michelle A. Bradford, and Patricia W.
15. World Economic Forum, The Good Work Framework: A Stone, “Increased errors and decreased performance at night:
new business agenda for the future of work, May 17, 2022; A systematic review of the evidence concerning shift work and
Catherine Bracy, “A more ethical approach to employing quality,” Work 53, no. 4 (2016): pp. 825–834; Katharine R.
contractors,” Harvard Business Review, August 2, 2023. Parkes, “Shift schedules on North Sea oil/gas installations: A
16. Jeremie Brecheisen, “Where companies think companies systematic review of their impact on performance, safety, and
diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging efforts are failing,” health,” Safety Science 50, no. 7 (2012): pp. 1636–1651.
Harvard Business Review, March 9, 2023. 35. Julie Lodge-Jarrett, “Ford’s employee sentiment strategy: Ask/
17. Microsoft, Work Trend Index special report: Technology can listen/observe,” Institute for Corporate Productivity,
help unlock a new future for frontline workers, April 1, 2020.
January 12, 2022. 36. Rhonda Evans and Tony Siesfeld, Measuring the business value
of corporate social impact, Deloitte Insights, July 31, 2020.
24
37. American Opportunity Index, “Homepage,” accessed 46. Lauren Weber and Theo Francis, “Want to get ahead? Pick the
December 2023. right company,” Wall Street Journal, October 14, 2022.
38. Ted Jarvis, Jamie McGough, and Donald Kalfen, “Incentives 47. David Green, “Taking a skills-based approach to workforce
linked to ESG metrics among S&P 500 companies,” Harvard planning (interview with Ralf Buechsenschuss, Zurich Insurance
Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, July 20, 2023. Company),” myHRfuture, September 28, 2021.
39. Amber Burton, “Genpact is using AI to flag employee 48. Amber Burton, “Chobani hired hundreds of refugees at its
dissatisfaction and tying leaders’ bonuses to the results,” plants. Average tenure now exceeds industry average,” Fortune,
Fortune, June 26, 2023. July 7, 2023.
40. Michael Miebach, “Sharing accountability and success: 49. Leena Nair, Nick Dalton, Patrick Hull, and William Kerr, “Use
Why we’re linking employee compensation to ESG goals,” purpose to transform your workplace,” Harvard Business
Mastercard, April 19, 2022. Review, March–April 2022.
41. Deloitte workforce risk survey of 875 different C-suite leaders, 50. Hitachi, “Hitachi’s approach to sustainable development goals,”
executives, and independent board members was conducted in accessed December 2023.
winter 2021. For more on workforce risk, see: Joseph B. Fuller, 51. Hitachi, Hitachi sustainability report 2023, accessed
Reem Janho, Michael Stephan, Carey Oven, Keri Calagna, December 2023, pp. 71–93.
George Fackler, Robin Jones, Sue Cantrell, and Zac Shaw, 52. Ivy K. Lau-Schindewolf, “Research report: PayPal employee
Managing workforce risk in an era of unpredictability and financial diaries,” PayPal, July 18, 2023.
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42. Hatfield, Fisher, and Silverglate, The C-suite’s role in well-being. December 2023.
43. Susan Cantrell, “Beyond the job,” SHRM Executive Network, 54. Zeynep Ton and Sarah Kalloch, “PayPal and the financial
accessed December 2023. wellness initiative,” MIT Sloan School of Management,
44. See, for example: Sue Cantrell, Karen Weisz, Michael Griffiths, November 8, 2022.
Kraig Eaton, Shannon Poynton, Yves Van Durme, Nic Scoble- 55. PayPal, PayPal employee financial diaries.
Williams, and Lauren Kirby, Navigating the end of jobs, 56. Ton and Kalloch, “PayPal and the financial wellness initiative.”
Deloitte Insights, January 9, 2023; Cantrell, “Beyond the 57. Lau-Schindewolf, “Research report.”
job”; Sue Cantrell, Michael Griffiths, Robin Jones, and Julie 58. Tyler Spaulding (director of corporate affairs, PayPal) and Ivy
Hiipakka, The skills-based organization: A new operating Lau-Schindewolf (public affairs and strategic research lead
model for work and the workforce, Deloitte Insights, manager, PayPal), online interviews with author, 2023.
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December 2023. July 28, 2023.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Gabriel Sander (Cuervo), Tyler Spalding (PayPal), Ivy Lau, and Larry Quinlan for their contributions
to this chapter.
Deloitte’s DEI Institute contributed significantly to this chapter as well. Thank you to Sameen Affaf, Dr. Dhanushki Samaranayake, and
Dr. Julian Sanders for their contributions.
In addition, we’d like to recognize the expertise of the following team members who contributed their insights and perspectives: Karen
Cunningham, James Lewis, and Steve Hatfield.
Special thanks to Kristine Priemer for her leadership in the development of this content, and Bridget Acosta and Halle Teart for
their contributions.
25
26
As human performance takes
center stage, are traditional
productivity metrics enough?
In an era of human-centered work, new sources of data and artificial
intelligence can help organizations shift from measuring employee
productivity to measuring human performance.
Sue Cantrell, Julie Duda, Corrie Commisso, Kraig Eaton, and John Guziak
W
hen Japanese tech company and lower turnover intention and burnout.2 Profits
Hitachi set out to improve increased 10%. Sales per hour at call centers increased
organizational productivity and 34%, and retail sales increased 15%.3 What’s more, the
efficiency several years ago, it majority of participants said they were “happy”4—just
decided to experiment with an one indication that the key to unlocking organizational
unconventional approach. This performance in a rapidly evolving era of work may no
approach didn’t involve seeking ways to squeeze more longer be tied to traditional productivity metrics.
work out of working hours or reinventing processes to
shave minutes or seconds from production processes. Hitachi’s focus on measuring and building worker happi-
It didn’t push workers to produce more with less, and ness represents a shift away from traditional efforts of
it didn’t require leaders to double down on monitoring gauging and improving worker performance, which tend
every movement of their workforce in search of workers to focus on activity-centric productivity metrics such as
who weren’t carrying their weight. hours worked, time on task, product produced, and reve-
nue per employee. These traditional ways of measuring
Instead, Hitachi focused on tracking a single, unexpected worker performance as a series of outputs solely reflect
metric: worker happiness. the perspective of the organization. New approaches,
by contrast, can and should consider the worker as a
Using wearables and an accompanying mobile human being, with a more nuanced perspective on how
app, Hitachi offered participating workers artificial they contribute to the organization.
intelligence–based suggestions for increasing feelings of
happiness throughout the day by boosting psychological Making the leap from knowing to doing (figure 1) is
capital (self-confidence and motivation), psychological important for organizations that want to thrive in a work
safety, and alignment with management objectives.1 environment that is becoming increasingly human. The
once clear line that linked individual worker activity (for

The early results were stunning. Workers’ psychological example, hours worked or calls completed) to tangible
capital rose by 33%—a particularly meaningful improve- outcomes (customer satisfaction or commercial potential
ment, given that increased psychological capital results of research and development projects) is now blurred,
in increased worker engagement, greater job satisfaction, replaced by a complex network of collaborations and a
27
Figure 1
The knowing vs. doing gap: Respondents know that moving beyond traditional productivity
metrics is important, but few are doing enough to make meaningful progress
Percentage of respondents answering the questions, “How important is seeking better ways to measure worker performance and
value beyond traditional productivity to your organization’s success?” and “Where is your organization in its journey to address
this issue?”
282
demand for sophisticated skills that aren’t easily observed traditional productivity. But change has been slow. Only
by traditional productivity metrics. Even in front-line, 17% of respondents said their organization is very or The once clear
logistics, and manufacturing environments where tradi- extremely effective at evaluating the value created by line that linked
tional metrics like minutes per call or widgets produced individual workers in their organization, beyond tracking individual
may seem most applicable, technology and AI are being of activities or outputs. worker activity
increasingly used to automate such tasks. The workforce to tangible
can then be free to undertake complex problem-solving With new digital technologies providing access to more
outcomes is
that requires skills that are less technical and more abstract, work and workforce data than ever before, it may seem
such as creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration. that shifting to a new system of measurement would be now blurred,
In agriculture, for example, autonomous drones can easy to do. Organizations’ ability to track the outcomes replaced by
be used to plant seeds, apply fertilizers and pesticides, of human performance and understand what drives it a complex
and check for pests or environmental damage.5 Workers is supported by exponential growth in their ability to network of
would then be able to spend time learning new skills that collect, measure, and analyze this data—and, with the collaborations
can enable them to manage the technology, optimize help of machine learning or human judgment, convert
and a demand
processes, deal with exceptions, or develop sustainable the data into actionable suggestions. The resources at
strategies for crop health and maintenance. their disposal for this kind of data collection and analysis for sophisticated
include the following: skills that aren’t
At the same time, some organizations are looking easily observed
beyond traditional metrics such as revenues and profits • Workplace tools and technologies, such as email, by traditional
to consider how they can create shared value—outcomes collaboration platforms, social tools, and shared productivity
that benefit individual workers, teams and groups, the calendars, generate passive data that can offer real-
metrics.
organization, and society as a whole. The organizations time insights into how people and organizational
that successfully navigate this new environment will systems are working. A large global oil and energy
likely be the ones who make the shift from old methods company analyzed anonymized collaboration data
of understanding productivity to embracing a new para- (email, calendar, and conferencing and chat data)
digm of human performance. to understand how teams in its 500-person corpo-
rate law department were collaborating. Aiming to
better develop and retain talent, the organization
Rethinking traditional productivity metrics used the findings to redesign the workplace, which
resulted in more collaboration.6
Leaders across industries are beginning to recognize the
limitations of legacy productivity metrics in the current • Organizational network analysis can be used to
work environment: Seventy-four percent of respondents measure connections and collaboration between
in Deloitte’s 2024 Global Human Capital Trends survey people across an organization. As part of its efforts
said it’s very or critically important to seek better ways to promote more women, a global financial services
to measure worker performance and value beyond organization used organizational network analysis
SIGNALS YOUR ORGANIZATION SHOULD CONSIDER PRIORITIZING HUMAN PERFORMANCE METRICS
• Your organization primarily measures work • Traditional productivity is relatively flat • Your workers are burned out because of
output metrics rather than the broader despite your investments in technology. the perception—or the reality—of constant
organizational outcomes you’re driving activity monitoring.
toward. • Your workers are engaged in “productivity
theater,” in which they do tasks to make

• Your leaders are overwhelmed by the amount themselves appear busy and show that they
of data available to them and want to focus are being productive.
on measuring what really matters.
29
to understand the relationship between the size and with too much data and too little insight, leaving lead-
quality of women employees’ internal and external ers unsure about what metrics are most important and
networks and their chances of being promoted.7 which actions are truly driving performance.
• Sensors and connected devices, such as wearables, Productivity paranoia. During the COVID-19 pandemic,
badging scans, neurotechnology, biometric sens- many organizations were quick to adopt new work-
ing tools, extended reality headsets, and precision er-monitoring tools that tracked keystrokes, mouse
location-tracking technologies, can generate data activity, and more to gain visibility into who was work-
on worker behaviors and interactions. For example, ing on what and for how long—the same productiv-
when a Finnish railway company shifted to hybrid ity standards they’d always tracked. But new ways of
work and wanted to optimize its physical space working require new metrics. Now, some organizations
more effectively, it used occupancy sensors to detect are finding themselves at odds with workers over this
workers’ movements and use of its spaces. This data increased monitoring. Productivity paranoia—a concern
helped the organization reduce real estate cost by that remote workers aren’t being productive11—may lead
downsizing building space from five floors to two, to a surveillance state and a breakdown of trust, instead
while making sure workers were able to move about of important conversations about what effective perfor-
easily and access critical workplace assets.8 mance looks like in today’s work environment.
• AI-enabled voice or audio analytics generated from Lack of visibility into outcomes. Many organizations are
worker interactions with machines and AI systems, still focused on measuring worker inputs and outputs
such as algorithms that assess code quality or the rather than outcomes. As organizations begin to measure
emotional tone of call center interactions, can offer human performance, they can begin tracking two areas:
valuable insights for evaluating various aspects of business outcomes that create value for the organization
business operations. At MetLife, where customer and human sustainability, or human outcomes (both of
service agents field an average of 700 calls a week, which may vary by workforce).
AI coaching has helped agents have more “human”
conversations, which has increased customer satis- One way forward requires a fundamental rethinking
faction by 13%.9 of what measures matter in a workplace being trans-
formed by rapid advances in technology and shifting
While some organizations are moving ahead, what priorities. If leaders want to realize the human potential
potential challenges may be keeping others from expanding in their organizations and enable innovation, the focus
their view of performance beyond traditional productivity? should shift from only productivity to a broader view
of performance.
Pressure from external stakeholders. Despite their desire
to find better ways to measure human performance,
senior leaders are currently under pressure from external A new equation for human performance
stakeholders to demonstrate improved productivity and
efficiency amid high inflation, shrinking profit margins, The flood of possibilities unleashed by the unprecedented
and the looming threat of economic recessions.10 As a volume of work and workforce data now available to
result, they may become focused on achieving short-term, organizations raises an important question: If traditional
bottom-line results instead of desired human outcomes productivity metrics are becoming less relevant in the
(for example, improved worker well-being) that are workplace, what should organizations be measuring to
less tangible. meaningfully assess human performance and how should
these new metrics be operationalized?
Uncertainty about what to measure. More data
doesn’t automatically equate to better results. Many The new math involves a balance of business and human
organizations may find themselves lost in an ocean of sustainability—creating shared, mutually reinforcing
data as their ability to collect data outpaces their ability outcomes for both the organization and the worker.
to analyze and act on it. As a result, they may end up Business outcomes define the quality, value, or result
30
of work, and how it creates value for the organization. teams and groups, the organization, and society as a
Human sustainability defines the degree to which an whole—it creates shared value. The value created at each
organization creates value for people as human beings, level can flow between them, reinforcing and amplifying
leaving them with greater health and well-being; the value created at other levels.
stronger skills and employability; good jobs with sustain-
able wages; opportunities for advancement; and greater In the example of Hitachi’s experiment with improving
belonging, equity, and purpose. worker happiness, it’s easy to see how creating value at
the individual worker level led to value at the enterprise
After all, organizations essentially compete in two indus- level—increasing both revenues and profits. This is not
tries: the industry it works in and the industry of talent a zero-sum game: Organizational initiatives that were
management. Leaders should leverage the connection originally designed to achieve benefits like higher cost
between human and business outcomes to increase the savings or improved quality can also help amplify worker
likelihood of success in both these industries (figure 2). satisfaction and performance. For example, a major
energy organization recently used workplace badge data
When an organization uses the data it collects about to analyze where and how different groups were inter-
its workforce to benefit everyone—individual workers, acting while planning an office relocation. It found that,
Figure 2
In the era of human performance, business and human outcomes are mutually reinforcing
Representative metrics might include:
Business outcomes Human outcomes

• Customer satisfaction • Employability and advancement
(e.g., net promoter score) opportunities
• Efficiency • Equitable wages
• Growth and profitability Human • Equity and belonging
• Innovation performance • Happiness
• Speed • Physical and psychological safety
(e.g., time to market) • Purpose and meaning
• Quality • Skill development
• Well-being
31
as cross-functional teams became more dispersed, they In addition, they’re largely in agreement about what
had fewer informal interactions and instead relied too sources of data an organization should collect—and
heavily on occasional, formal meetings. The organization which to avoid. For instance, more than three-quarters
used this finding to plan the location of team members in each group are comfortable with collecting data from
during relocation to create more informal connection employee emails and calendars. But other data sources,
opportunities, boosting team belonging and workflow including location-tracking technologies or the review of
efficiency by 5.3%.12 external sites such as social media and personal emails,
give both groups pause.16
Also consider how this shared value dynamic played
out at a large automotive supplier, which deployed
AI-powered video analytics to increase its visibility into THE QUANTIFIED ORGANIZATION
factory operations. Analysis showed that the config-
uration of physical stations on the line was slowing Deloitte’s Quantified Organization research delves into what
down operations and creating fatigue for workers. The it means for organizations to take a strategic approach to
organization used these findings to reconfigure the measuring what they should, not just what they can. Through
stations, decreasing both idle time and overall produc- in-depth interviews conducted with senior global business
tion time. The analytics helped the organization make executives, global surveys of 2,000 workers and leaders, and an
informed decisions that directly impacted worker analysis of more than 50 case studies and 30 distinct use cases,
well-being, while also improving areas such as capacity the quantified organization series of research reports highlight
planning, quality improvement, workforce management, how new data sources and AI tools, responsibly used, can create
and process engineering—and the plant’s operation prod- shared value for workers, organizations, and greater society.
uct manager also noted improved happiness, health, and
productivity in line workers.13
Organizations have a window of opportunity This fundamental alignment may point to a critical
to capture human performance metrics window of opportunity for leaders to unlock the poten-
tial of work and workforce data in measuring human
Despite many examples of work and workplace data performance. While our recent Quantified Organization
being used to drive improved human performance in research shows a relatively high level of worker trust
organizations, the prevailing narrative tends to pit work- in their organization’s data collection efforts, it also
ers and organizations against each other. When it comes shows that trust is tenuous: Workers are less confident
to the collection and use of work and workforce data, the than leaders that their organizations are using data in a
typical assumption is often that workers are uniformly responsible way (70% vs. 93%).17
opposed to any type of monitoring and executives want
to track every metric available, no matter how intru- Transparently communicating how and why data is
sive. However, Deloitte’s research into the quantified being collected and used, along with giving workers the
organization suggests that this isn’t necessarily the case: option to opt in or out, is important here: It may be hard
Workers and executives have surprisingly similar views to imagine a scenario in which workers would object to
about how work and workplace data can improve the use of location-tracking technologies, specifically
outcomes in ways that benefit the organization as well for safety purposes, such as disabling equipment when
as the workforce.14 someone is standing in a dangerous spot. However,
unless leaders continue to invest in building worker trust
For example, workers and leaders largely agree that new and creating shared value through their data collection
sources of data have positively impacted both business efforts, the window of opportunity may close before
and worker outcomes (figure 3).15 organizations can realize the value.
32
Figure 3
Workers and leaders share similar perspectives on the positive impact of data on
business and worker outcomes
Percentage of respondents who say outcomes improved “somewhat” or “significantly” as a result of their organization’s
current attempts to make the most of newly available data.
Leaders Workers
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Workplace Worker Worker Business Career Employee Strategy and/ Organizational
safety satisfaction performance growth development engagement/ or innovation agility
activity
Source: 2023 Deloitte Quantified Organization research.
While workers and organizations appear to be more Laying the groundwork for a
aligned on the use of work and workforce data than human performance focus
one might expect, the use of this data is still complex.
When implementing new metrics and using newly avail- The shift toward using work and workforce data to
able workforce data to capture human performance, measure human performance is still in its infancy, as
organizations should carefully consider what to make organizations are still determining which metrics are best
transparent, to whom, and how—considering critical suited to their industry and their organization’s specific
factors such as worker consent, providing benefits to the needs. A majority (53%) of respondents agreed that their
worker, and other responsible data collection practices. organization is in the early phase of the journey toward
These efforts are essential, given the potential payoff: identifying better ways to measure worker performance
A predictive outcomes analysis of our quantified organi- and value beyond traditional productivity. Just 8% said
zation survey data suggests that trust in an organization’s their organization is leading in this area. But there are
approach to data management raises the probability of steps organizations can take now to lay the foundation
improved business growth by roughly 50%.18 for a shift toward human performance metrics.
33
• Cocreate metrics and solutions with workers. objectives can go a long way toward earning and
Organizations can build trust in their use of worker reinforcing worker trust.
data by providing workers with opportunities to
provide input into which human performance • Implement these practices in your performance
metrics should be prioritized, as well as opportu- management approach. Traditional performance
nities to respond to insights the data may reveal. management can be a challenging process if there
Consider an example of what this kind of part- are unclear or unrealistic expectations for workers
nership could look like: An oil and gas company and opportunities for errors in human judgment.
used wall-mounted cameras to observe workers For example, performance reviews that happen only
and assets at a maintenance and manufacturing once a year may lead to recency bias, where only
facility, and AI turned the aggregated, anonymized a worker’s most recent activities are included in an
video data into insights on patterns of productivity. evaluation. As organizations make the shift toward
Workers were involved from the start, choosing human performance, an organization’s approach
to opt-in for data collection, viewing the results to performance should evolve from management
of the AI analysis, and collaboratively engaging in to development. AI tools are poised to help lead-
problem-solving on how to use the data to improve ers redefine—not just augment—performance. Not
their experience and results. One set of data insights only can these tools collect unbiased data to foster
led employees to modify rest areas and take more fact-based performance reviews, but generative AI
frequent breaks to minimize fatigue—decisions that tools may be able to play a key role in summarizing
also improved their productivity.19 and synthesizing multiple sources of data. When
leaders are clear with workers about how AI is used
• Measure what you should, not just what you can.
The human performance metrics that matter most to
an organization will vary based on industry, geogra-
phy, workforce, and how the organization currently
operates, and will likely require some experimenta-
tion to find the right balance of business and human
sustainability outcomes. For example, in a call
center, productivity is typically measured by things
like the amount of time per call or the number of
sales made. But when human performance becomes
the primary focus, metrics like customer satisfac-
tion, retention, and upselling may give a call center
manager a better picture of how their workers are
performing. Organizations should continue to focus
on the “why” of their data collection efforts, asking
themselves: Just because it can be measured, does
it really need to be—and if so, why? For instance,
metrics in logistics that focus on safety or worker
fatigue may not necessarily be the wrong measures
but can become more human-centric when they are
measured with the intent to improve conditions
for workers. Deloitte’s Quantified Organization
research revealed that a lack of predetermined stra-
tegic goals for using workforce data was related to
workers’ lack of trust in the organization’s inten-
tions to collect and use that data for their benefit.20
Creating clear goals for data collection and use that
are directly aligned to organizational strategy and
34
in performance reviews, this kind of data-driven across an organization and help organizations
system can help maintain transparency and build comply with the evolving global regulatory
trust. In addition, AI can act as an additional coach requirements around data use. Such practices
for workers, offering personalized feedback based may include facilitating increased visibility into
on their established performance outcomes. which type of data is collected and why, respecting
privacy and data integrity concerns, and seeking
• Integrate new metrics into the processes of other worker consent whenever possible or required.
areas of the talent life cycle. As organizations tran- Aggregating and anonymizing data, for example,
sition to the use of human performance metrics, can help maintain worker privacy. While AI can
they should carefully consider how best to leverage be a valuable tool for assessing and improving
this data to better the work, and the experience, of human performance metrics, it can also damage an
individual workers. Organizations should consider organization’s reputation and performance if it
which human drivers to focus on, then calibrate is not used appropriately. For this reason, orga-
how team leaders discuss those metrics with work- nizations should rely on a multidimensional ethi-
ers and teams. This process begins with experimen- cal framework to manage AI’s potential risks and
tation as organizations and teams uncover which rewards.21
metrics, communicated in which context, create the
human and business outcomes they seek. • Plan now to address tensions around the use of
emerging technologies. While our Quantified
• Establish responsible data and AI practices. Organization research showed that workers are
Responsible data practices give workers input relatively comfortable with data collection from
on how their individual, personal data is shared known technologies like email, calendars, and other
Figure 4
Workers are less comfortable with data collected by emerging technologies,

but leaders expect to use them more in the next three years
The organization currently uses this technology The organization expects to use this technology in the next 3 years
Percentage of employees comfortable with the technology
66%
62%
58%
55%
34%
31% 29% 30%
24% 28%
23% 23% 21%
9%
3%
Neurotechnology Location-tracking External sites XR headsets Wearables

technologies
35
traditional technologies, they are far less comfort- human performance. But the time to act is now. Forward-
able when it comes to data captured from emerging thinking organizations can cocreate their human perfor-
technologies like wearables and XR headsets.22 mance metrics and the data policies and practices that
Still, a majority of leaders said they expect to imple- can measure or identify ways to drive these metrics
ment the use of these technologies for data collection with workers in real time, fostering trust throughout
in the coming years (figure 4). This could put leaders the process. Failing to do so, whether by imposing
and workers at odds and threaten organizational policies and practices from the top or continuing to
trust. Leaders should plan now for how they will rely on outmoded measures of worker performance,
work to bridge this gap, being mindful of worker can create potential challenges in talent attraction and
concerns around privacy and reinforcing the line retention, unintended consequences to well-being and
between professional and personal data collection. mental health that productivity paranoia may create,
and a potentially disastrous misunderstanding of what
factors actually drive the organization’s value creation.
Human performance: An evolving approach
to strengthening workers and organizations The alternative is far more appealing. As organizations
begin threading human performance throughout their
It is still early days for channeling the flood of available practices, they can strengthen business outcomes and make
work and workforce data into meaningful measures of a positive impact on everyone the organization touches.
36
Endnotes
1. Satomi Tsuji, Nobuo Sato, Keita Shimada, Koji Ara, 10. Deloitte, “Fall 2023 Fortune/Deloitte CEO survey
and Kazuo Yano, “Happiness planet: Support system insights,” accessed December 2023.
for promoting management objectives in partnership 11. Jean Brittain Leslie and Kelly Simmons, “The paradox
with employees,” Hitachi Review 70, no. 1 (2021), of “productivity paranoia”: 6 ways to trust employees
pp. 78–79. without sacrificing results,” Quartz, April 17, 2023.
2. American Psychological Association, “Psychological 12. Alexa Lightner and Paulina Borrego, “Energy
capital: What it is and why employers need it now,” company improves culture & productivity after
August 21, 2023. strategic M&A,” Humanyze, March 21, 2023.
3. Suchit Leesa-Nguansuk, “Hitachi’s AI for employee 13. John Sprovieri, “Video analytics help auto parts
joy,” Bangkok Post, February 7, 2020. assembler improve cycle time,” Assembly Magazine,
4. Tsuji, Sato, Shimada, Ara, and Yano, “Happiness December 18, 2022.
planet.” 14. Deloitte, “Unlocking the potential of the quantified
5. Bernard Marr, “The best examples of human and organization,” 2023.
robot collaboration,” Forbes, August 10, 2022. 15. Ibid.
6. Paulina Borrego, “Multinational energy company 16. Ibid.
improves culture & retention through office redesign,” 17. Ibid.
Humanyze, January 19, 2023. 18. Ibid.
7. Greg Newman, “How organizational network 19. SLB, “Digital equipment monitoring with OneStim,”
analytics is transforming diversity and inclusion May 2, 2018.
through data,” HRZone, July 10, 2019. 20. Deloitte, “Unlocking the potential of the quantified
8. Joy Trinquet, “It’s a tall order: Digital twins deliver organization.”
modernity to out-of-date buildings,” Verdantix, 21. Deloitte, “Trustworthy AI™: Bridging the ethics gap
August 18, 2022. surrounding AI,” accessed December 2023.
9. Alejandro de la Garza, “This AI software is ‘coaching’ 22. Deloitte, “Unlocking the potential of the quantified
customer service workers. Soon it could be bossing organization.”
you around, too,” Time, July 8, 2019.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Joan Goodwin, Gary Parilis, Brad Kreit, and Steve Hatfield for sharing their expertise and insights to
support this chapter.
Special thanks to Brittany Bjornberg and Sarah Hechtman for their leadership in the development of this chapter, and Cara Traub for
her outstanding contributions.
37
38
The transparency paradox:
Could less be more when it
comes to trust?
Greater transparency can help organizations build trust—or erode
it. What considerations should leaders keep in mind to ensure
transparency is helping and not hindering?
Jason Flynn, Sue Cantrell, David Mallon, Lauren Kirby, and Nicole Scoble-Williams
T
rust matters: It is the unseen, ineffable But it’s not that simple. The relationship between
glue that holds relationships together trust and transparency is much more complicated
and allows organizations, workers, and and nuanced. “Trust is really important to us,” Sara
communities to flourish. Trust between Armbruster, chief executive officer of furniture company
workers and organizations has poten- Steelcase told us in a recent conversation. “In many
tially never been more important, but for ways, transparency goes hand in hand with that. But if
many organizations, how to build and sustain it has you are going to advocate and implement a high degree
remained elusive. of transparency, you need to have systems in place to
address any issues that arise.”
Transparency is commonly thought to be a key driver
of trust; the idea that more transparency equals more Some organizations are discovering that mishandling
trust has become a truism. Eighty-six percent of leaders transparency can severely undermine trust. In an orga-
surveyed in our 2024 Global Human Capital Trends nizational context, transparency is usually thought of
research say that the more transparent the organization as information flowing from a leadership team to every-
is, the greater the workforce trust. It’s not an altogether one else. But new digital advances mean that transpar-
incorrect assumption: Research shows that some forms ency also exists inside teams, and worker information
of transparency do, in fact, drive trust. Deloitte research, can be made transparent too. Today, technology can
for example, found that transparency—defined as an make almost everything and everyone in an organiza-
employer using straightforward and plain language to tion transparent to almost anyone else. As they increas-
share information, motives, and decisions that matter ingly interact with smart machines, workers leave an
to workers—is a key dimension of trust.1 Sharing infor- ever-expanding trail of data that can be analyzed using
mation about decisions, results, strategies, and prac- artificial intelligence and shared at negligible cost.
tices freely with workers, customers, investors, and other

stakeholders is generally thought of as a good thing.2
39
Figure 1
The knowing vs. doing gap: Respondents know that navigating the transparency paradox to
build trust is important, but few are doing enough to make meaningful progress
Percentage of respondents answering the questions, “How important is an increasing focus on trust and transparency in the
relationship between workers and the organization to your organization’s success?” and “Where is your organization in its
journey to address this issue?”
40
The data may encompass virtually anything that happens on some of the positive possibilities these tools can bring;
in an organization: both agree that a variety of newly transparent data can If transparency
help to improve everything from worker performance used to mean
• Workers’ time at their keyboards, actions taken, and job satisfaction, to worker safety and career devel- that leaders
and effectiveness opment, to improved innovation and organizational could shine
agility.3 lights on
• Worker motivations and sentiment
particular
But using this new data effectively requires a sophisti-
aspects of an
• A worker’s emotional tone while interacting with a cated understanding of the relationship between trans-
customer or colleague parency and trust. Understanding this relationship is organization,
becoming more important; 86% of workers surveyed now it means
• Movements and interactions on a factory floor and 74% of leaders surveyed in our research say an the organization
increasing focus on trust and transparency in the rela- can be
• The distance and route covered by a driver tionship between workers and the organization is very or
illuminated in
critically important. In fact, this trend is ranked highest
every corner—
• Worker behaviors related to organizational culture, in terms of importance of the seven trends studied in our
belonging, and inclusion survey and was identified as the trend that would have for any audience.
the greatest impact on an organization’s success, both
• The physical safety of workers in the field this year and in the next three years.
• What topics are being discussed, by whom, on what Leaders—in collaboration with workers—should
channels and when consider important questions around what information
to make transparent, why, whose information should be
If transparency used to mean that leaders could shine revealed, and to whom and how.
lights on particular aspects of an organization, now
it means the organization can be illuminated in every
corner—for any audience. The essential role of trust
Leaders may find this degree of transparency alluring. Like transparency, trust is a two-way street4—there is
It offers microscopic visibility into the workings of their worker trust in leadership, and there is leadership trust
organizations and their people. But this newly available in workers.
transparency can be both a gold mine and a land mine.
On the one hand, if responsibly managed, the ability to In psychology and sociology, trust is often defined as a
use this kind of transparency can create new opportuni- belief that the other party won’t cause harm, and that
ties to measure and unlock human performance, creating one can rely on another to act in a way that is beneficial,
shared value for both individual workers and organiza- honest, fair, and reliable. At its heart, trust involves a
tions. On the other hand, there is significant potential willingness to be vulnerable and to depend on others
for misuse—for example, privacy breaches, AI-driven for mutual cooperation and benefit—a belief that people
surveillance, and efforts to control workers’ every move. will act in each other’s best interest.5 But to be mutually
vulnerable, people typically need to feel empathy and
New transparency-enabling technologies can give lead- psychological safety. While there are many components
ers a set of enormously powerful tools (figure 2). And that drive trust, Deloitte defines trust as the outcome
according to Deloitte’s Quantified Organization research, of high competence and positive intent, underpinned
many workers and organizations are surprisingly aligned by capability, reliability, humanity, and transparency.6
41
Figure 2
Advancing technologies are making work and workforce data more transparent
Which of the following technologies and sources has your organization used to collect workforce data in the past three years?
Today? In the next three years?
Used in the past three years Currently uses Expects in the next three years
Employee calendars 42% 75% 87%
Employee surveys 57% 77% 87%
Employee emails 75% 81% 88%
Biometrics 50% 68% 79%
Keystroke/mouse tracking 26% 57% 66%
Internal social collaboration sites 13% 42% 57%
Wearables 21% 34% 66%
External sites 8% 29% 55%
Location-tracking technology 7% 24% 62%
XR headsets 13% 21% 58%
Neurotechnology 1% 3% 31%
A confluence of trends today is putting trust at risk. • Increasing uncertainty for organizations and
Information and misinformation are omnipresent, workers: The less people know what to expect, the
perceptions often supersede facts, and digital security more they rely on trust to feel safe.
and data privacy are commonly at risk. These trends
expose people to the possibility that private or inaccurate • Disappearance of traditional boundaries: As many
information may be exposed in ways that harm them, traditional boundaries of work and the workplace
making many cautious about extending trust to organi- continue to erode, trust, perhaps even more than
zations. Meanwhile, turbulence related to outsourcing, culture, is emerging as a tie that binds—a means to
mergers, downsizing, shifting business models, digital keep the organization cohesive and mission-aligned.
transformation, return to office, and other changes, can Especially as organizations grapple with questions
create a breeding ground for distrust among workers. around what defines a job and how a workforce
Other factors that tend to impact trust include: should operate in a boundaryless world, trust can
create a common foundation for decision-making.
42
THE FOUR FACTORS OF TRUST
Based on over 400,000 survey responses with • Reliability: Consistently delivering on • Shares of companies graded trustworthy
customers and workers across nearly 500 brands, promises and experiences by Trust Across America and the Initiative
in-depth focus groups, conversations with leaders on Quality Shareholders have outperformed
committed to building trust, and case studies • Transparency: Openly sharing information, the S&P 500 by 30% to 50% over recent
exploring situations when trust was won or lost, motives, and actions in straightforward and five-year periods.9
Deloitte distills trust down to four factors:7 plain language
• Workers in high-trust companies are 50%
• Humanity: Demonstrating empathy and Trust has always been important to organizational less likely to leave, 180% more likely to be
kindness and treating everyone fairly success, and it seems to grow more so by the year. motivated, are 140% more likely to take on
extra responsibilities, and are generally more
• Capability: Creating quality experiences, • Deloitte research shows that companies productive, more satisfied with their jobs, and
products, and/or services deemed “trustworthy” tend to outperform healthier.10
their competitors by up to four times,
measured by market value.8
• Generative AI and other forms of automation: laws in eight states in the United States,12 where pay
An increasing
As technology automates rote tasks, human transparency in job postings has more than doubled since
capabilities such as empathy and curiosity can 2020,13 and globally, where pay transparency also focus on
increasingly differentiate leading organizations from continues to increase over time.14 Meanwhile, employ- trust and
the rest—and to express these capabilities, workers are increasingly sharing other information they once transparency
ers will need to trust the organization to use their kept private. For example, Patagonia revealed its exter- was identified
work for mutually beneficial purposes. It’s worth nal supply chain to show consumers its commitment to
as the trend
noting that AI itself faces a trust deficit: Deloitte climate change,15 and Asana publishes the minutes from
research reveals that workers can perceive employ- its board meetings for workers so they’ll have clarity on that would have
ers as much as 2.3 times less empathetic and human the organization’s strategic priorities.16 Some organiza- the greatest
when AI tools are offered.11 tions even allow anyone at the organization to access impact on an
things like financial records to the minutes or recordings organization’s
Amid these challenges, workforce trust may be even of meetings among executives so they can weigh in on success, both
more important than employee engagement when it organizational direction and decision-making.
this year and in
comes to navigating relationships. Many organizations
use employee engagement as a proxy to measure the Indeed, the “why” behind transparency can vary. the next three
worker-organization relationship. Trust, however, may Patagonia and Asana are examples of what we call years.
be a better measure for this relationship. Engagement proactive transparency, where leaders or workers
simply measures workers’ willingness to extend them- intentionally choose to share information to improve
selves on their organization’s behalf, not the degree to trust, accountability, decision-making, or to achieve
which they trust an organization to support their inter- mutually beneficial outcomes. Reactive transparency,
ests. Trust, on the other hand, may be a better metric on the other hand, is the result of legislative or regula-
to evaluate whether workers are getting what they need tory changes forcing leaders to disclose information that
from their relationship with the organization. was previously closely held. Finally, forced transparency
typically involves collecting and analyzing information
about workers or executives as a blanket organizational
What we mean when we talk policy or without their knowledge or voluntary consent.
about transparency Workers can also force transparency on the organization,
when they publicly share information about an orga-
Transparency is in vogue. Demands for visibility into nization or its leaders through social media or other
pay, for example, have led to pay-range transparency channels, for example.
43
SIGNALS YOUR ORGANIZATION SHOULD THINK MORE CAREFULLY ABOUT TRANSPARENCY
• Your organization is rapidly adopting • You worry that workers are hiding, posturing, • Your workers are withholding data because
transparency technologies (for example, or otherwise reacting to the feeling that they they are not confident their data is being used
sensors and connected devices; analytics are being surveilled. in responsible ways or for their benefit.
based on worker email, calendar, and
collaboration-site data; or AI and machine • Workers are resistant to performance • Your workers are experiencing information
learning). management decisions being made based overload, contributing to burnout and slowed
on newly available data. decision-making.
Although there has been a growing trend toward turnover is almost twice as high at companies that use
Workforce proactive transparency, much of the recent movement monitoring software as surveillance than at organizations
turnover is toward transparency has been either reactive or forced that do not.21
almost twice transparency.17 And until recently, the direction of trans-
as high at parency—who shares the information with whom—has Many use cases, however, can be beneficial, such as
companies that primarily been one-way: organizations and leaders shar- using workforce data and AI as a coach to help work-
ing information with workers. But today, transparency ers grow or using wearables and smart sensors to track
use monitoring can work the other way, too. With the advent of new and improve worker safety practices. For example, a
software as technologies, workers are increasingly sharing their infor- British multinational retail distribution center integrated
surveillance mation transparently—proactively or by force. Figure 3 AI with their CCTV systems, enabling them to identify
than at presents a simplified view of bidirectional transparency. unsafe events that resulted in an 80% reduction in safety
organizations incidents in the first three months.22
that do not. As technologies have enabled leaders to gain greater
transparency into work and workers, many organiza- It’s worth noting that transparency shouldn’t be imple-
tions have rushed to capitalize. One study reveals that mented just for the sake of being transparent, assuming
organizations surveyed are collecting data from an aver- that transparency will automatically create trust. The flip
age of 400 different sources including computers, smart- side of transparency is privacy; greater openness is risky
phones, websites, social media networks, and more,18 as developments in technology and society, particularly
and Deloitte’s Quantified Organization research reveals the rise of social media, have made it easier to share
that the vast majority of organizations are collecting potentially harmful information far, fast, and perma-
email and calendar data already and are likely to begin nently. Privacy can sometimes be a better path to trust
collecting data from other sources in the near future, than transparency. And when greater openness is the
such as wearables, biometrics, and location-tracking chosen path, it requires more earned belief in collective
tools (given transparent data practices and respect for safety and common interest. Getting it right is critical,
potential worker privacy concerns).19 as trust earned with difficulty can be lost with ease.
The measures that can help boost transparency from
Whether the use of this newfound transparency is helpful workers, for example, typically require sacrifices of
or harmful will depend on how it is used; forced trans- privacy, whether that means sharing data about people’s
parency that is used as surveillance, with punitive conse- well-being or monitoring workers’ time at their
quences, can damage trust. Already, 78% of employers keyboards—so those measures have the potential to
surveyed say they are currently using remote tools to erode trust rather than build it.
monitor their workers;20 studies show that workforce
44
Figure 3
Transparency is no longer a one-way street

DIMENSION OF TRANSPARENCY PROVIDES TRANSPARENCY INTO TYPE OF TRANSPARENCY
Organizational information such as

financials, policy drafts, and board minutes
Leadership
Transparency
from the Leadership priorities and decisions
Reactive transparency
organization
Information revealed as a result of
legislative or regulatory changes that
Disclosure
require disclosure of information that
was previously closely held
New or previously undisclosed information
such as pay, ESG, or DEI metrics
THEN How and where people are working, based

NOW on physical observations in open spaces,
location data collected by smart sensors or
badges, video analytics, and more
Proactive transparency
Workplace Leaders or workers intentionally
choose to share information to
improve trust, accountability, and
decision-making, or to achieve
mutually beneficial outcomes
Workers’ salary information, organizational
Social and experiences and more, conveyed through
media voluntary posts on social or media channels
Transparency
from workers
Business operations, processes, or
Forced transparency
Process or workflows, made visible through Collecting and analyzing information
operational technologies such as recorded video calls, about workers or executives as a
project dashboards, and process mining blanket organizational policy or
without their knowledge or voluntary
consent
Work and Work, activity, or workers, using existing

worker data and emerging technologies such as
wearables, analysis of email, calendar,
and collaboration data, audio analytics,
and AI to collect data related to well-being,
sentiment, emotions, performance, work
activities, decisions, and other factors
45
There are also other potential downsides to transparency, between themselves and workers, only 13% of respon-
Only 37% such as: dents said they are leading in this space. The biggest chal-
of workers lenges they identified were internal constraints, such as
surveyed say • Gaming the system. Social scientists have identi- culture, and lack of leadership alignment or commitment.
they are very fied various behaviors people undertake in response
confident their to demands for transparency, typically to protect How then do organizations navigate the tricky territory
themselves or manipulate a situation in their favor. of using transparency in a way that builds trust, rather
organization These include dishonesty, hiding, cheating, postur- than undermining it?
is using work ing, productivity theater, window-dressing, and
and workforce impression management—for example, using a First, organizations will need to put transparency in
data in a highly mouse-moving machine to trick productivity-track- conversation with privacy. Typically, they are not in
responsible way. ing software.23 But it’s not just workers that can conversation, with transparency largely under the
avoid transparency. Organizations can play at this, purview of executives and information technology, and
too. For example, some companies will comply with privacy often handled by legal and human resources.
pay-transparency laws in job postings by including a Cross-functional governance conversations will be
wide salary range for a job—for example, “between important to striking the right balance for each organi-
US$50,000 and US$250,000”—rendering the infor- zation, based on an organization’s own culture, values,
mation essentially useless to job seekers.24 and decision-making practices that can vary based on
geography, industry, or life cycle stage of the organiza-
• Negative impacts on decision-making. Providing tion. Think in terms of best fit rather than best practice.
more data and visibility into decision-making
processes may lead to information overload, endless Second, organizations should bring workers together in
debate, second-guessing, and accountability gaps— conversation with leaders about what and why infor-
situations in which people have important information should be made transparent, to whom, and
mation but are not accountable for using it wisely. how. As discussed in “Negotiating worker data” in our
Beyond slowing decision-making, without sharing 2023 Global Human Capital Trends report,27 cocreating
the rationale behind the decisions, workers may also transparency practices—and enabling transparency to be
misinterpret the information being shared.25 proactive rather than forced—can help create a mutual
relationship of trust and provide a window into what work-
• Hindering creativity. People who think their ideas ers’ needs and desires are when it comes to transparency.
and experiments could be made public may expe-
rience a phenomenon called “the spotlight effect.” In particular, workers and leaders can cocreate respon-
They may avoid risk-taking and experimentation, sible transparency practices, ones that create mutual
and innovation can suffer. Ethan Bernstein, a profes- benefits for workers and organizations alike, allow
sor of leadership and organizational behavior at workers to opt in to data collection for specified time
Harvard Business School, has reported these impacts periods and purposes, and enable workers to challenge
among creative workers. In addition to the spotlight potentially incorrect data or raise concerns about how
effect, Bernstein found that many workers will also it is being used.
conceal their most creative thinking from manage-
ment because they don’t want to be punished for When workers see personal benefits to transparently
straying outside of organizational norms.26 sharing their data, they are more likely to embrace it;
a study by Gartner found that 96% of digital workers
would accept more data-monitoring in exchange for
Using transparency in ways that build trust benefits like training and increased career development
opportunities.28 Likewise, our Quantified Organization
Most organizations are in the early stages of coming to research showed that workers who are given the choice
grips with the new transparency landscape and its impli- to opt in to transparent data collection have more trust
cations for privacy and trust. When we asked whether in their organizations, are more likely to report that data
organizations were addressing trust and transparency collection efforts improve business outcomes, and are
46
less likely to report negative outcomes such as presen- • How compensation and other workforce decisions
teeism or privacy concerns.29 Other research shows that are made
giving workers input and agency reduces the risk of them
engaging in these negative behaviors.30 For example, one • Skills needed today and in the future, given the
global health care provider conducted an organizational disruption of work by generative AI and other
network analysis based on worker communications and emerging technologies
collaboration data to optimize cross-functional teaming.
Workers could opt out of data collection, and the final Caution (think twice) with information such as:
data was aggregated and anonymized to protect worker
privacy.31 • Recorded leadership meetings and other sensitive
discussions
Organizations that build workers’ trust in transparent
data practices stand to benefit: When workers are confi- • Details about the creative process
dent in their organization’s approach to responsible use
of newly transparent data, they are 35% more likely to • Personal information about individual workers,
trust their organization. But there is still a long way to including pay, health and well-being data, and
go: Only 37% of workers surveyed say they are very information about emotions. For example, if an
confident their organization is using work and workforce organization’s bonus policy is perceived as inequi-
data in a highly responsible way.32 table, bonus transparency may lead to envy among
workers and encourage them to think about their
To strike the right balance between transparency and relationship with the organization in transactional
privacy in a way that elevates trust, it may be helpful to terms.
consider the following questions. Each question includes
examples of transparency that are likely beneficial WHY is it important to make this information transparent?
(Go) and others that may pose trust issues (Caution).
For workers to trust an organization with their data, they
need to understand why they are being asked to share
WHAT information or whose actions will be made it and be offered benefits in return; we call this “give
transparent? to get.” Using transparency in ways that foster human
performance rather than punitive or compliance-oriented
When making decisions about what to make transpar- ends can help promote trust.
ent, consider the potential impact of that information.
For example, publicly sharing organizational informa- Go (proceed thoughtfully) with transparency for the
tion may increase trust among stakeholders, but sharing purpose of:
highly personal worker information about an individu-
al’s emotions in the organization may introduce compli- • Creating better outcomes for workers: For example,
cations and have unintended consequences. using AI video analytics in a factory environment
to drive improvements in ergonomics, safety, and
Go (proceed thoughtfully) with information such as: other matters that benefit workers.34
• Leadership priorities and goals. Finnish software • Holding leadership accountable for social metrics,
consultant Reaktor, for example, maintains an such as by publishing equity, diversity, or well-being
online forum where workers can openly discuss metrics
organizational policy and business decisions.33
• Helping workers make better decisions by aligning

• Business information like financials or operational their actions with business goals
data
• Elevating trust and confidence in leadership and in
• Leadership’s decision-making process the vision and strategy they are seeking to advance
47
Caution (think twice) before implementing transparency • Operational or process information within workers’
for the purpose of: own teams, in forums such as scrum teams or daily
standups.
• Involving more people in decision-making. Unless
there are clear expectations, criteria, and deci- • Worker information and data to coaches who can
sion-makers identified, including too many people help workers grow or support human sustain-
in decision-making can create information overload, ability. For example, AI tools can analyze sales
reduce accountability, and bog down decisions.35 representative videos and provide personal coach-
ing on emotions, topic coverage, and personality.
• Performance management decisions. For example, The videos can be made available to managers to
making people’s individual performance reviews personalize further coaching and mentoring work.37
transparent to others may cause strife, as will making Or organizations can help managers coach work-
performance decisions based on an individual’s ers on well-being by revealing, for example, how
unique data (for example, docking pay or limiting often workers have taken time off or are working
eligibility for promotions by using location tracking on weekends.
to determine adherence to return-to-office policies).
Caution (think twice) before implementing transparency
• Surveilling or punishing workers. In contrast, that provides:
Metlife employs AI to coach call center workers—
not to punish them, but to help them learn and • Individual data about workers beyond themselves
improve at their jobs.36 or their immediate teams, unless it is aggregated
or anonymized. For example, if an organization
WHO will provide the information, and who will requires all intra-organization communication
receive it? to happen on an open platform that exposes all
communications in the name of visibility, workers
Decisions around who has control over transparency of may feel surveilled or intimidated.
information can be affected by the reach of that transpar-
ency—whether the information will be shared internally HOW will the information be made transparent?
or externally, with just the individual, their manager
or team, or organizational leadership. Giving workers Enact guidelines that give workers reason to believe data
agency over their information can help provide trans- about them will be assessed and used fairly. Pursue lead-
parency while also fostering trust. In addition, making ing practices for consent and preference management—
determinations about who has access to information for example, making transparency initiatives temporary
should be based on the recipient’s commitment to listen- and storing data for limited periods of time, so workers
ing deeply to worker voices and ability to act on the don’t have to worry about how their information might
information (for example, making policy adjustments be used in the future.
based on aggregated feedback from workers).
Go (proceed thoughtfully) with transparency plans that:
Go (proceed thoughtfully) with transparency that provides:
• Clearly explain how information will be disclosed
• Information about a worker to that worker. This and used.
practice, called auto-analytics, can be a valuable
learning tool. For example, some organizations use • Are opt-in and seek permission from workers to
AI tools to analyze conversational and emotional make their data transparent.
tone in customer meetings, using the information
to help workers work more effectively. • Have fair guidelines about how the information will
be assessed and used.
48
• Are temporary and store data for limited periods believe the other is looking out for its best interests.
of time. This dialogue should focus on what kinds of transpar-
ency organizations and workers will provide; why it is
• Explain clearly to workers how decisions based on valuable for them to provide it; who will provide the
worker data are made, such as performance, hiring, information and who will receive it; and how that infor-
and assessments. If AI is used to inform these deci- mation will be delivered, evaluated, and used.
sions, ensure that workers understand how it uses
their data to make recommendations. Regulations can help guide organizations, but they typi-
cally lag the pace of technological innovation and are
Caution (think twice) with transparency plans that: constantly evolving. Organizations thus should develop
their own frameworks of responsibility when it comes
• Are vague about how information will be disclosed, to transparency.
evaluated, and used. When one well-known news
outlet installed body heat detectors at desks, it Organizations should expect the dialogue around trust
intended to use the information gathered to lower and transparency to continue, as evolutions in society
costs for space and energy. But the intent wasn’t and technology present new possibilities and challenges.
communicated to workers, who interpreted the For example, advanced sensing and tracking technologies
detectors as surveillance, inundated managers with can already make behavior highly visible in real time,
complaints and leaked negative stories to other and the depth and breadth of those kinds of insights will
media outlets.38 likely only increase.
• Could be used to identify specific individuals. And although it may sound like science fiction, the day
Instead, individual data should be anonymized and when technology can interpret and convey the contents
aggregated. of individuals’ brains could arrive sooner than most
people think possible.39 How will organizations and
• Are enacted without context, since data in isolation workers collaborate to navigate these kinds of devel-
may be misinterpreted or misunderstood. opments? They have enormous ethical implications for
organizations’ practices and relationships with workers,
• Leadership doesn’t intend to act on. Workers need and they will further complicate the critical job of earn-
to know that their data is being collected with the ings workers’ trust. Asking the right questions now can
intention to create mutual benefit. help organizations develop frameworks around transpar-
ency—positioning them to navigate this future in ways
that build workers’ trust and help empower all parties
The trust and transparency conversation to build a better future together.
To build trust, organizations and workers should have

an ongoing dialogue that gives each party reason to
49
Endnotes
1. Ashley Reichheld and Amelia Dunlop, “How to build a high- 19. Deloitte, “The time for the quantified organization is now.”
trust workplace,” MIT Sloan Management Review, January 24, 20. Mark Banfield, “78% of employers are using remote work tools
2023. to spy on you. Here’s a more effective (and ethical) approach to
2. Deloitte’s TrustID research and data platform, 2023; Slack, tracking employee productivity,” Entrepreneur, December 23,
“Trust, tools, and teamwork: What workers want,” 2022.
October 3, 2018. 21. Matthew Finnegan, “Rise in employee monitoring prompts calls
3. Deloitte, “The time for the quantified organization is now,” for new rules to protect workers,” Computerworld, November
accessed December 19, 2023. 30, 2021.
4. Deloitte defines organizational trust as a bilateral relationship 22. Charlotte Healy and Charles Russell Speechlys, “UK: AI’s
between businesses and their customers, workforce, partners, impact on workplace safety,” SHRM, June 2, 2023.
and governments; Deloitte Insights, 2020 Global Marketing 23. Ethan S. Bernstein, The transparency paradox: A role for
Trends, collection, accessed December 19, 2023; Roy J. privacy in organizational learning and operational control,
Lewicki, Daniel J. McAllister, and Robert J. Bies, “Trust and Harvard Business School, June 2012.
distrust: New relationships and realities,” The Academy of 24. Rosemary Scott, “Pay transparency backlash: The harm of
Management Review 23, no. 3 (1998): pp. 438–458. reluctant compliance,” BioSpace, February 27, 2023.
5. Roger C. Mayer, James H. Davis, and F. David Schoorman, 25. Deloitte Insights2Action, “Decision intelligence: The time is
“An integrative model of organizational trust,” The Academy now,” accessed December 19, 2023.
of Management Review 20, no. 3 (1995): pp. 709–734; Julian 26. Ethan S. Bernstein, “Why we hide some of our best work,”
B. Rotter, “A new scale for the measurement of interpersonal Harvard Business Review, September 24, 2023.
trust,” Journal of Personality 35, no. 4 (1967): pp. 651– 27. Steve Hatfield, Tara Mahoutchian, Nate Paynter, Nic Scoble-
665; Lewicki, McAllister, and Bies, “Trust and distrust: New Williams, David Mallon, Martin Kamen, John Forsythe, Lauren
relationships and realities,” pp. 438–458; Oliver Schilke, Martin Kirby, Michael Griffiths, and Kraig Eaton, Negotiating worker
Reimann, and Karen S. Cook, “Trust in social relations,” data, Deloitte Insights, January 9, 2023.
Annual Review of Sociology 47, no. 1 (2021): pp. 239–259. 28. Gartner, “Gartner survey reveals 47% of digital workers
6. Ashley Reichheld and Amelia Dunlop, The Four Factors of struggle to find the information needed to effectively perform
Trust: How organizations can earn lifelong loyalty (John Wiley their jobs,” press release, May 10, 2023.
& Sons, 2022). 29. Deloitte, Unlocking the potential of the Quantified
7. Deloitte’s TrustID research and data platform, 2023. Organization, accessed December 19, 2023.
8. Ibid. 30. Chase Thiel, Julena M. Bonner, John Bush, David Welsh, and
9. Barbara Kimmel, “Trustworthy companies offer superior Niharika Garud, “Monitoring employees makes the more likely
investment returns with less risk,” Medium, July 22, 2022; to break rules,” Harvard Business Review, June 27, 2022.
Lawrence A. Cunningham, Initiative on quality shareholders 31. David Green, “The role of network analytics (Organizational
highlights, Center for Law, Economics and Finance occasional Network Analysis) in ensuring team collaboration and
paper series (2020)—George Washington University, October well-being,”myHRfuture, April 27, 2020.
29, 2020; Lawrence A. Cunningham, “Opinion: Why high- 32. Deloitte, Unlocking the potential of the Quantified
quality, trustworthy companies have beaten the S&P 500 by Organization.
30%–50%,” MarketWatch, July 3, 2021. 33. Kate Morgan, “How much ‘radical transparency’ in a
10. Deloitte’s TrustID research and platform, 2023. workplace is too much?,” BBC, November 17, 2021.
11. Ibid. 34. John Sprovieri, “Video analytics help auto parts assembler
12. Becca Damante, Lauren Hoffman, and Rose Khattar, “Quick improve cycle time,” Assembly Magazine, December 18, 2022.
facts about state salary range transparency laws,” Center for 35. Deloitte Insights2Action, “Decision intelligence.”
American Progress, March 9, 2023. 36. Alejandro de la Garza, “This AI software is ‘coaching’ customer
13. Cory Stahle, “Pay transparency in job postings has more than service workers. Soon it could be bossing you around, too,”
doubled since 2020,” Indeed Hiring Lab, March 14, 2023. Time, July 8, 2019.
14. Indeed, “Pay transparency: The 2023 Indeed discussion guide,” 37. Business Insider, “Brainshark’s new AI-powered engine elevates
accessed December 19, 2023. sales coaching and readiness,” press release, June 5, 2018.
15. David Linich, The path to supply chain transparency, Deloitte 38. Ben Quinn and Jasper Jackson, “Daily Telegraph to withdraw
Insights, July 19, 2014. devices monitoring time at desk after criticism,” Guardian,
16. Allie Joel, “5 years in a row: Asana named a Fortune Best Place January 11, 2016.
to Work,” Asana Blog, August 9, 2021. 39. Nita A. Farahany, The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the
17. Deloitte analysis, 2023. Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology (St.
18. Matillion, “Matillion and International Data Group survey: Data Martin’s Press, 2023).
growth is real, and 3 other key findings,” January 26, 2022.
50
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Sara Armbruster (Steelcase) for her contributions to this chapter.
They would also like to thank the following Deloitte subject matter experts for lending their expertise to the development of this content:
Ashley Reichheld, Amelia Dunlop, Margaret Fletcher, Natasha Buckley, Jonathan Holdowsky, Kate Graeff, Michael Bondar, Phillip
Webster, Brad Kreit, and Tanneasha Gordon.
Special thanks to Steve Hatfield for lending expertise, to Kristine Priemer for her leadership in the development of the content, and to
Bridget Acosta for her contributions.
51
52
What do organizations need most
in a disrupted, boundaryless age?
More imagination.
Generative AI and other technologies may be exposing an imagination
deficit. Scaling human capabilities like curiosity and empathy can help
organizations replenish it.
David Mallon, Nicole Scoble-Williams, Michael Griffiths, Sue Cantrell, and Matteo Zanza
W
e are living in an age of disruption environment at the time. In that environment, executing
and yet also one of possibility. As repeatable processes to produce standardized products
well-known boundaries fall away and services was the most effective way to operate at
and new technologies—especially scale. As the world becomes more interconnected, scal-
artificial intelligence (AI)— ing the efficient execution of processes is becoming less
advance at ever faster speeds, important than the ability to adapt to changing market
anxiety can be a natural reaction. But so is wonder. conditions and drive new value.1 This ability, which is
Both leaders and workers see risks, and they also find closely tied to entrepreneurship and innovation, depends
reasons for optimism. A door is opening to extraordinary less on training workers in specific technical skills than
opportunities to drive human performance: outcomes on cultivating curiosity and other human capabilities
that benefit organizations, workers, and society. Crossing that allow people to respond to changing conditions and
this threshold is putting a renewed premium on human imagine different futures.2
capabilities—in particular, empathy and curiosity—both
as an antidote to anxiety and an input to imagination. Moreover, new technologies are becoming better at
For organizations and workers to fully realize the oppor- replicating the functional and technical aspects of work.
tunities available to them, they should have a scaled, And yet much of the differentiation going forward will likely
operationalized way to grow and sustain human capa- come from what humans do or evolve to do, not techno-
bilities. Those that can create an abundance of these logy. Today’s AI is capable of creation, using the meth-
capabilities will likely have differentiated advantages; ods and tools of music or visual art, and this ability
those that find themselves at a deficit will be at risk of may expand as technology advances.3 However,
being left behind. AI cannot replicate the curiosity and empathy that
fuel imagination and lead to creative invention. This
Traditionally, organizations have focused on developing involves the drive to explore, to craft narratives, and to
specific, easily replicable functional or technical skills. team—work that requires thinking like a researcher and
Not only were these skills easier to teach but organiza- asking the right questions as much as delivering on
tions were also operating in a more stable, predictable preprogrammed objectives.
53
Figure 1
The knowing vs. doing gap: Respondents know that addressing the imagination deficit is
important, but few are doing enough to make meaningful progress
Percentage of respondents answering the questions, “How important is ensuring that the imagination and curiosity of the
humans in the organization keep pace with technological innovation to your organization’s success?” and “Where is your
organization in its journey to address this issue?”
54
To harness human capabilities in service of imagina- Generative AI shines a spotlight
tion, both organizations and workers have important on an imagination deficit
roles to play. Organizations will need to scale and oper-
ationalize the cultivation of human capabilities such as In 2021, a Deloitte survey of global workers gave some
curiosity and empathy through intentional development insight into how many workers were already beginning
and establishing of cultural norms, and they should give to explore the evolution of their work—in the context
workers and teams the autonomy to use these capabil- of the COVID-19 pandemic at the time—and how they
ities to shape the kinds of work they do. At the same contributed to it.5 When asked to imagine how techno-
time, workers will need to grow, practice, and deploy -logy could improve their roles, workers responded with
these human capabilities to envision how their roles will ideas such as:
change as AI and other disruptive technologies take on
more prominent roles in their working lives. • What if AI attended meetings and could create short,
precise summaries of what happened in each one?
Organizations can help cultivate these capabilities
by providing workers with the tools and safe spaces • What if technology could organize my project
to experiment, explore, and envision possible futures. finances and track my projects’ spend without me
By empowering workers to ask questions about their having to create onerous large spreadsheets?
work, leaders can lean into a more open evolution and
disruption of work that values human sustainability and • What if the calendars I manage could automatically
organization-wide cocreation. manage scheduling between parties and discern less
important meetings from higher priority ones?
• What if technology supported the ability to learn

new skills and new abilities without taking time
away from and affecting your day job?
ENDURING HUMAN CAPABILITIES
“Skills” encompasses hard or technical skills and innovation while reducing conflict and and machine collaborations. This way of
(coding, data analysis, accounting, etc.), human decision-making errors. working builds empathy and allows teams
capabilities (critical thinking, emotional intelligence, to tap into the strengths and motivations of
etc.), and potential (latent qualities, abilities, • Informed agility: The ability to continuously various teammates.
adjacent skills that may be developed and lead accumulate, filter, and integrate information,
to future success, etc.).4 While hard skills are and pivot quickly to address new needs or • Divergent thinking: The ability to think
important, the value of human capabilities that environments. Informed agility can help differently; specifically, to look laterally, find
transcend specific skill sets and functional domains deliver insights that aid decision making, commonality in seemingly different things,
persists in ways that hard skills cannot, potentially change management, and reskilling efforts. and generate new ideas through synthesis.
making them more important than ever. Innate An increased openness to ideas can improve
human capabilities such as curiosity and empathy • Resilience: The willingness to persevere in innovation, creativity, and inclusivity.
can be cultivated to fuel innovation. Others, like the face of rapid change and challenging
connected teaming and informed agility, emerge circumstances. Resilience can be aided by • Social and emotional intelligence: The ability
through experience and practice. The list of enduring taking stock of support mechanisms and to recognize, regulate, and express emotions
human capabilities is long. These are a few key pausing during and after action to identify while interacting with others in an empathetic
capabilities to consider amplifying in your organization: what is and isn’t working. and morally grounded manner. Social and
emotional intelligence can support personal
• Curiosity: The desire for more information, • Connected teaming: The ability to and organizational values and create a culture
typically resulting in exploratory behavior collaborate effectively across geographic, of growth.
toward gaining that information. Curiosity can organizational, and other boundaries.
improve communication, team performance, Connected teaming may also refer to human
55
In just a few short years, advances in AI, especially In the accelerating march of disruptive technologies,
Seventy-five generative AI, have already turned most of these ideas generative AI is leading the charge. While emerging tech-
percent of into reality. ChatGPT, the early and most well-known nologies and other disruptions previously led to concerns
organizations example of generative AI, reached one million users just for organizations and workers related to skills develop-
globally intend five days after its launch in 2022—a number that took ment, employability, and fear of the unknown, genera-
to accelerate TikTok nine months to achieve.6 AI is already being used tive AI has put a renewed fervor and sense of urgency to
to transform all manner of work across almost every these same questions. Already, 28% of workers say they
their use of AI sector, including many domains originally thought to be use generative AI occasionally for their work, and 8%
over the next out of the realm of possibility for computing.7 According say it’s expected or encouraged as part of their work. In
five years, while to a recent research report, these transformations could the coming years, four out of five US workers could see
also anticipating lead to a dramatic increase in macroeconomic output at least 10% of their tasks automated by generative AI,
significant akin to the original inventions of the electric motor and and about one in five workers could see up to 50% of
disruption to the personal computer.8 their tasks automated by generative AI.9 Another recent
global report estimates that generative AI could soon do
current worker But the potential disruption of generative AI may be up to a quarter of the work currently done by humans.10
skills. outpacing the capacity of many organizations and work-
ers to imagine new ways of working that tap into the The coding capabilities of generative AI, for example,
strengths of both humans and technology. According offer insight into how this technology might impact
to our 2024 Global Human Capital Trends research, jobs, particularly high-demand jobs with a STEM
73% of respondents say it is important to ensure that focus. Recent research shows that generative AI tools
the human capabilities in the organization keep pace will be able speed up a developer’s code generation.11 For
with technological innovation, but just 9% say they financial services company Westpac, the shift is already
are making progress toward achieving that balance. happening. The company saw a 46% gain in produc-
Consequently, many organizations may find themselves tivity, with no reduction in quality, in coders aided by
with an imagination deficit. generative AI compared to coders who performed the
same tasks on their own.12 These gains, which were
reported by both junior and senior engineers, may reduce
SIGNALS YOUR ORGANIZATION MAY BE FACING the amount of time coders have to spend on more routine
AN IMAGINATION DEFICIT tasks, creating space for more complex work that not
only requires human capabilities to execute but can also
• Your workers, managers, executives, and board members lead to increased meaning and purpose.
recognize the need to reinvent work in the age of generative
AI but are unsure how to take the first step. Many of the tasks that will be automated are in fields
of knowledge work, such as writing, translating, and
• Your hiring managers are emphasizing the need for soft coding.13 But nearly all jobs will have some level of
skills in candidates as they look for human capabilities such exposure, and the AI transformation will encompass
as divergent thinking, collaboration, and social intelligence. nearly all forms of work. In agriculture, for example,
AI-powered technology is already being used to elimi-
• Your organization is increasingly turning to hiring or nate weeds, monitor plant health, and identify rocks in
acquisitions to infuse new ways of thinking and new ideas. fields.14 In retail, AI is augmenting workers’ ability to
manage inventories in real time and provide customers
• You are noticing fewer entry-level jobs in your ecosystem. with highly personalized experiences.15
56
While workers share concerns about the threat of tech-
nology taking over their jobs or worry about the new To harness the
skills that will be needed to keep up with technology extraordinary
changes,16 they also see an upside: 70% of workers potential of
would be willing to delegate as much work as possi- this moment,
ble to AI to free up time for other tasks and enhance organizations
their creativity.17
and workers
alike should
The more AI-enabled work becomes, the more counter their
important human imagination becomes fear with
curiosity and
To harness the extraordinary potential of this moment, imagination.
organizations and workers alike should counter their
fear with curiosity and imagination. Put simply, work
is changing. What if it could be better? The role of as production design, naming, testing, and market-
imagination is particularly important in the current ing. Workers could collaborate with generative AI to
moment, given the nontraditional nature of generative compose complex texts, develop software, and interact
AI as a technology. In contrast to commonly used tech- with customers in more effective ways. Organizations
nologies such as internet browsers or word processing are already starting to imagine new uses that expand
applications, which either work or fail, the effective- on previously imagined ideas of what was possible.
ness of generative AI can’t be measured in black and For example, a recent collaboration between Zapata
white terms. Generative AI can produce results with Computing, BMW, and MIT’s Center for Quantum
varying levels of accuracy and precision. It may make Engineering is using generative AI inspired by quantum
mistakes, and humans will have to devise methods to technologies to improve the efficiency of automotive
assess its reliability.18 production lines.20
Moreover, unlike many past technologies, generative The success of these collaborations will likely depend on
AI tools aren’t necessarily anchored to any one task the degree to which organizations and workers can focus
or domain. Rather, they can excel at generating know- on developing curiosity, resilience, divergent thinking,
ledge and drawing connections from massive sets of data emotional intelligence, and other human capabilities.
and ideas. Consequently, they have the potential to help
workers in numerous ways—many of which have yet to There is increasing recognition at a global level of the
be imagined. At the same time, it’s important to note that importance of these human capabilities. According to
generative AI also has the potential to produce inaccurate research by the World Economic Forum, the top core
information and reinforce existing biases from the data skills for workers in 2023 include things such as curio-
it’s trained on or the people who design it.19 Addressing sity, creative thinking, empathy, and resilience.21 In fact,
these errors and biases will require the curiosity and “technological literacy” is the only technology skill listed
empathy of the workers who use it. in the top ten. There is, however, a broad gap for all the
skills related to human capabilities, with respondents
As technology advances and humans discover more ways estimating that less than 10% of their current workforce
to use generative AI, it has the potential to become a possesses them.
true creative partner for workers, aiding in tasks such
57
Figure 2
Human capabilities top the list of core skills, but there’s a gap to fill
Core skills for workers in 2023 Estimated average skill set
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Analytical thinking Creative thinking Resilience, flexibility, Motivation and Curiosity and
and agility self-awareness lifelong learning
Source: World Economic Forum.
How the process of developing these human capabilities developing new products and services, may see short-
plays out will often differ from culture to culture and term gains fizzle out as the pace of technological change
across geographies and industries. For example, in Japan, continues to accelerate. What may be needed now is a
curiosity is sometimes considered a hindrance to flawless new model, one in which people and technology come
execution based on proven methods. There, innovation together to cocreate new knowledge, address previously
often results from finding solutions to acknowledged hidden problems, and discover new opportunities to
problems, rather than curiosity about new ideas.22 To create value. This way of operating requires the delib-
encourage more curiosity, one Japanese pharmaceuti- erate scaling and cultivation of human capabilities.
cal company, Shionogi & Co., experimented with an Organizations should also work with technology to
optional four day workweek to allow workers to use bring these qualities to the fore—a point most execu-
the fifth day as an opportunity to gain experiences not tives agree with. In our survey, 71% of executives said
available to them within the confines of their job, with their organization’s plans for generative AI include using
the hope that they would infuse their digital upskilling it to advance the human capabilities of their workers.
and creativity into the business.23
Consider Swedish retailer, IKEA. The global furniture
company is using AI technologies to transform its global
Scaling human capabilities creates call center operations, intending to both increase effi-
value for organizations and workers ciencies and turn each agent into a designer—shifting
the focus of their roles from procedure and process to
Organizations that focus solely on traditional stra- creativity and human connection. IKEA implemented an
tegies for differentiation, such as minimizing costs or AI bot named Billie to handle most routine customer asks.
58
They then invested in a comprehensive upskilling initia- for uncertainty. This is also likely to set apart the organi-
tive for their 8,500 call center workers to strengthen zations who can learn from unexpected challenges with-
Investing in the
design skills and human capabilities.24 out crumbling under pressure and are therefore better development
positioned for long-term success.27 of human
As people bring their unique skills and capabilities to capabilities
the table to collaborate within and across organizations, doesn’t
learning accelerates, value is scaled, and the imagina- Harnessing imagination to create just build
tion deficit narrows or even disappears. By embrac- positive change
ing this model, organizations have an opportunity for
organizational
true differentiation. To help ensure an adequate supply of imagination, orga- resilience: It
nizations should shift from an approach that prioritizes improves worker
Investing in the development of human capabilities short-term fixes to a long-term approach that priori- resilience,
doesn’t just build organizational resilience: It improves tizes adaptability, resilience, and imagination. For many well-being, and
worker resilience, well-being, and mental health—all organizations, such a shift will require a redefinition of
mental health—
important components of human sustainability. As we success, one that reflects a reimagined world of work in
wrote about in our 2021 Global Human Capital Trends which humans and technology produce value together.
all important
report, conventional reskilling initiatives are insufficient There are four key steps organizations can take to begin components
on their own.25 The pace of change is too fast, and work investing in human capabilities in their organizations: of human
is becoming too dynamic: Facts that recent research sustainability.
shows are contributing to a broad mental health crisis • Operationalize human capabilities as part of
in today’s workplace.26 Instead, we should equip work- overall workforce strategy. Start by assessing the
forces with the tools and strategies to practice adapting current state of your workforce’s collective human
to a range of possible futures. Doing so can enhance capabilities, in particular, empathy and curiosity.
worker well-being and leverage the dynamic potential of Most organizations have more experience measur-
people to reinvent themselves as the best way to prepare ing functional and technical skills than broader
59
capabilities. According to Deloitte’s Skills Based • Practice imagination in service of human sustain-
Organization global survey, 68% of business and ability. Today’s workers have increased agency and
HR leaders say they are confident they have veri- many are seeking greater meaning in their work.33
fied and valid information on their workers’ hard While extrinsic rewards can be important, research
skills, but only 48% are confident they have veri- has found that one of the best rewards for exercising
fied and valid information on their workers’ human creativity is simply the chance to use it in service of
capabilities.28 While measuring human capabilities outcomes that are meaningful to the individual.34
isn’t as straightforward as measuring hard skills, Encouraging workers to use their human capabili-
there are nevertheless a variety of ways to do so. ties in service of outcomes that matter to them and
Organizations can collect peer or manager feedback, to the organization has the potential to be a virtu-
assessments, or endorsements of capabilities. They ous, reinforcing cycle. These capabilities may be
can use digital assessment tools including psycho- innate, but when they aren’t exercised on a regular
metric assessments, simulations, and challenges. basis, they can atrophy. That’s why it’s so important
Or, if workers consent, they can use AI tools that for leaders to model and encourage their use. When
infer human capabilities by analyzing workers’ daily given a safe space and the time to pursue projects of
behaviors and performance in the flow of work, interest—even if that work lies outside their defined
including AI analysis of audio or video calls.29 responsibilities—workers have a chance to hone and
strengthen their human capabilities while generating
Once an organization understands the relative greater value for the organization and themselves.
strength of human capabilities in its workforce Organizations can harness the intrinsic passion that,
and identifies any capability gaps, it can start to for most people, is the strongest motivating force.35
close those gaps by operationalizing the devel-
opment of human capabilities. One way to do • Highlight for workers, teams, and managers the need
this is to begin hiring for them. Many organiza- to prioritize human capabilities. Workers should not
tions are already doing so. For example, design be expected to transform their mindsets overnight
and consulting company IDEO prioritizes hiring from “What needs to get done?” to “What possi-
“T-shaped” employees: people with human capabilities can I help unlock?” Leaders have a respon-
bilities such as creativity (the vertical stroke of the sibility to communicate the importance of curiosity
T) and a willingness to collaborate across disci- and empathy and model behavior that demonstrates
plines (the horizontal stroke of the T). The orga- their effective use. One of the most effective ways
nization understands that T-shaped candidates are for leaders and managers to model curiosity is to
more likely to ask questions about the organiza- engage in a consistent practice of asking questions
tion that aren’t directly related to the roles they’re and sincerely listening to what workers have to say.
applying for, and they’re more likely to talk about Leaders often believe they’re expected to provide
how past successes have involved collaboration, all the answers themselves, particularly in times of
rather than focusing exclusively on themselves.30 crisis. In reality, asking workers how they can be
most helpful often leads to better ways of moving
In conjunction with deploying talent acquisition forward while also strengthening connections across
initiatives, future-thinking organizations will the organization. Managers and team leaders can
develop, support, and reward the effective use of also create space for their workers to use their
human capabilities across their workforce. For human capabilities to rethink their roles (figure 3).
example, many organizations with a large frontline
worker population engage in empathy-related train- For some leaders, embracing a model that
ing and development.31 Such development activities encourages worker autonomy and feedback
often involve deliberately being placed in unfamiliar may be difficult. Managers and executives are
experiences or having the chance to observe and often encouraged to deliver on specific objec-
then practice empathetic responses. Best Western tives or solve for specific problems and may fail
hotels, for example, used VR to help workers better to see the upside of thinking outside the box.
empathize with tired and frustrated travelers.32 One survey of 520 chief learning officers and chief
60
Figure 3
Workers want the opportunity to reimagine the future of their work, but many aren’t given
the opportunity to do so
Percentage of workers answering the questions, “Is your organization helping you imagine how your job may change in the
future, with technology or other advancements?” and “How important would this be to you?”
Importance to workers
76%
Organizations helping workers

imagine the future of their work
43%
talent development officers found that they often potential to generate tremendous value.37 Recent
fail to encourage curiosity because they believe the research has found that many people celebrate
organization would be harder to manage if people creativity outwardly while subconsciously viewing it
were allowed to explore their own interests.36 as a disruptive force that introduces unwanted uncer-
Instilling habits and norms that foster creativity tainty.38 Curiosity, too, has historically been seen as
requires senior leaders to develop and promote both a positive quality and a potentially disruptive
governance frameworks that consider creativity one.39 This may partly explain why, in a recent
as a key factor when deciding what to invest in. survey spanning 16 industries, 65% of workers
said curiosity was of great importance to exploring
Organizations may need to overcome biases against new ideas and solving work problems, while almost
curiosity and creativity and related blind spots as to as many—60%—said they encountered difficulties
their rising importance for workers. As illustrated in in fulfilling their curiosity on the job because of
figure 4, executives see human capabilities as very daily routines and rigid organizational structures.40
important for themselves (8 out of 10) but only
moderately important for their workers (6 out of 10). When people at all levels of an organization are not only
communicating the importance of qualities like curio-

One of the reasons for this difference might be the sity and imagination but modeling them in their
mixed, historical perceptions of creativity in orga- day-to-day actions, a culture of trust can be
nizations. It has often been seen as competing with created in which workers begin to feel more
efficiency, even though in the long term, it has the comfortable with uncertainty and can lean into an
61
Figure 4
Executives rate human capabilities more important for themselves than for workers
Calculated average of executives answering the question, “How important are the following skills at each level of your
organization for its business performance? Rate on a scale from 0-10.”
Human capabilities
(e.g., curiosity, empathy, critical Collaboration
thinking, emotional intelligence) with machines
Executives 5.4
8.2
8.2
Workers
6.4
imaginative transformation of their roles. What’s • Provide opportunities and venues for workers
more, investing in worker reinvention can build to explore, experiment, disrupt, and cocreate.
resilience among current workers and make the It’s not enough to simply encourage innovation:
organization more attractive to new workers, posi- Organizations should also provide digital play-
tioning it well for talent attraction and retention. grounds for workers to explore, experiment,
disrupt, and cocreate, working with both their
Interestingly, collaboration with machines is ranked human colleagues and with the latest techno-
highest for workers and lowest for executives, logical tools. When given the safe space and
suggesting that leaders may be underestimating the encouragement to play and search for new
impact of AI on their roles (figure 4). possibilities, workers can more easily tap into
their natural curiosity and let go of the fear that
could be holding them back from taking risks.
62
Create moments, both ad hoc and built into daily It’s up to organizations to prioritize human capabilities
work, to exercise the imagination. Hackathons in a technology-dependent world. This means hiring
offer one model for how to create such experimen- for faculties such as curiosity, creativity, and critical
tal moments. In hackathons, creative autonomy thinking; developing them throughout the workforce;
is valued above all else. Instead of managing the providing safe spaces where workers can come together
innovation process as it happens, managers set the to experiment and practice; and rewarding workers who
stage by providing access to tools and asking a set harness their autonomy to reimagine what’s possible for
of questions to inspire creativity. themselves, the organization, and its stakeholders.
This reimagination is no longer the exclusive remit of

Looking toward an imagination-rich future organizational leaders. Instead, it’s a team sport that
involves everyone in the organization and beyond,
The disruption posed by technological innovation and welcoming new technologies into teams to produce
an increasingly interconnected world is changing the transformative outcomes. When imagination becomes
way organizations and workers analyze, collaborate, an expectation from top to bottom, workers can imag-
and create. New, yet-to-be-imagined technologies are ine new opportunities and organizations can be better
likely to continue to do so in the future. But while some positioned for perpetual reinvention and innovation.
of the tools of creativity can be automated, the desire to
seek answers to new questions and explore the unknown
are not capable of automation. These capabilities are
uniquely human.
63
Endnotes
1. Francesca Gino, “The business case for curiosity,” Harvard 22. Fangqi Xu, “The strengths and weaknesses of Japanese
Business Review, (September-October 2018). innovation,” Kindai Management Review vol. 2, (2014).
2. John Hagel, John Seely Brown, Maggie Wooll, Skills change, 23. Ayano Shimizu, “Focus: Japan Inc. turns to 4-day workweek to
but capabilities endure, Deloitte Insights, 2019. offer flexibility to employees,” Kyodo News, May 3, 2022.
3. IBM, “The quest for AI creativity,” accessed December 17, 24. Stealthesethoughts.com, “How Ikea upskilled 8,500 employees
2023. to boost sales by $1.4 billion,” September 1, 2023.
4. Michael Griffiths and Robin Jones, “The skills-based 25. Jeff Schwartz, Brad Denny, David Mallon, Yves Van Durme,
organization,” Deloitte, November 2, 2022. Maren Hauptmann, Ramona Yan, and Shannon Poynton,
5. Deloitte, “Work re-Architected,” accessed December 17, 2023. Beyond reskilling: Investing in resilience for uncertain futures,
6. Fabio Duarte, “Number of ChatGPT users (Dec 2023),” Deloitte Insights, May 15, 2020.
Explodingtopics.com, November 30, 2022. 26. Gabriella Rosen Kellerman and Martin E.P. Seligman, “There’s
7. Claire Cain Miller and Courtney Cox, “In reversal because of a mental health crisis at work because life is changing too fast,”
AI, office jobs are now more at risk,” The New York Times, TIME, January 24, 2023.
August 24, 2023. 27. John Hagel III and John Seely Brown, Unlocking the passion of
8. Jan Hatzius, Joseph Briggs, and Devesh Kodnani, Global the explorer, Deloitte Insights, September 17, 2013.
Economics Analyst: The potentially large effects of artificial 28. Michael Griffiths and Robin Jones, “The skills-based
intelligence on economic growth, Goldman Sachs, March 23, organization.”
2023. 29. These tools need to be responsibly used. See: Deloitte, “Beyond
9. Tyna Eloundou, Sam Manning, Pamela Mishkin, Daniel Rock, productivity: The journey to the quantified organization,” May
“GPTs are GPTs: An early look at the labor market impact 2023.
potential of large language models,” OpenAI, March 17, 2023. 30. Francesca Gino, “The business case for curiosity.”
10. Jan Hatzius, Joseph Briggs, and Devesh Kodnani, Global 31. Ashley Abramson, “Cultivating empathy,” American
Economics Analyst: The potentially large effects of artificial Psychological Association, Vol. 52, no. 8 (2021) p. 44.
intelligence on economic growth. 32. Allan V. Cook, Michael Griffiths, Siri Anderson, Laura
11. Peter Cihon and Mert Demirer, “How AI-powered software Kusumoto, and Cary Harr, A new approach to soft skill
development may affect labor markets,” Brookings.edu, August development, Deloitte Insights, May 8, 2020.
1, 2023. 33. Sue Cantrell, Karen Weisz, Michael Griffiths, and Kraig Eaton,
12. Kate Weber, “Westpact sees 46 percent productivity gain from Harnessing worker agency, Deloitte Insights, January 9, 2023.
AI coding experiment,” ITnews, June 1, 2023. 34. Markus Baer, Greg R. Oldman, and Anne Cummings,
13. Claire Cain Miller and Courtney Cox, “In reversal because of “Rewarding creativity: When does it really matter?” The
AI, office jobs are now more at risk.” Leadership Quarterly vol. 14, Issues-4-5, (August-October
14. Nate Bek, “AI on the farm: Ag-tech startups help zap weeds, 2003), pp. 569-586.
fertilize crops – but still face challenges with data,” GeekWire, 35. John Hagel III, Maggie Wooll, John Seely Brown, and Alok
August 11, 2023. Ranjan, Passion of the explorer, Deloitte Insights, August 17,
15. Geoff Williams, “How artificial intelligence will change retail,” 2020.
National Retail Federation, June 28, 2023. 36. Francesca Gino, “The business case for curiosity.”
16. Deloitte, 2024 Global Human Capital Trends research 37. Peter Evans-Greenwood, Robert Hillard, Robbie Robertson,
17. Microsoft, “Will AI fix work?” blog, May 9, 2023. Peter Williams, Setting the stage for creative performance,
18. Mike Bectel and Bill Briggs, Tech Trends 2024, Deloitte Deloitte Insights, October 29, 2021.
Insights, 2023. 38. Matt Richtel, “We have a creativity problem,” The New York
19. Zachary Small, “Black artists say AI shows bias, with Times, April 16, 2022.
algorithms erasing their history,” The New York Times, July 4, 39. Shayla Love, “This is how to nurture curiosity in children (and
2023. yourself),” Psyche, August 22, 2023.
20. Jacob Bourne, “BMW, Zapata, and MIT test quantum-inspired 40. Yu-Yu Chang and Hui-Yu Shih, “Work curiosity: A new lens
generative AI in production,” Eingineering.com, June 29, 2023. for understanding employee creativity,” Human Resource
21. World Economic Forum, The future of jobs report 2023, April Management Review vol. 29, Issue 4, (December 2019).
30, 2023.
64
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the following Deloitte subject matter experts for lending their expertise to the development of this
content: Mike Bechtel, Eamonn Kelly, Kate Schmidt, Chris Norman, Lee Merovitz, Julie Hiipakka, Kim Lamoureux, Laura Shact, Greg
Vert, Kevin Moss, Peter Evans-Greenwoood, and Gary Parilis.
Special thanks to Molly Rogers for her leadership in the development of the chapter, and to Caitlin Nasseraddin and Kailyn Hornbeck
for their contributions.
65
66
How play and experimentation
in digital playgrounds can drive
human performance
As technology continues to spark change in the relationship between
workers and organizations, they need safe spaces to cocreate their
common future.
Nicole Scoble-Williams, David Mallon, Sue Cantrell, Matteo Zanza, Michael Griffiths, and
Shannon Poynton
I
n Dublin, Ireland, one of the country’s leading would normally have taken months, and even years, of
private hospitals was facing a crisis: Amid grow- trial and error to achieve—were realized in just a matter
ing patient demand, increasingly complex clinical of weeks.1
issues, aging infrastructure, and space constraints,
patient care was starting to suffer. Wait times were This is just one example of how organizations are using
too long. Delays and interruptions in care were a rapidly advancing suite of digital tools and applications
negatively impacting the patient experience. to achieve transformational business and customer-facing
results. But there’s something important missing in this
To address these challenges, the hospital began by equation: workforce impact. In their rush to improve the
launching an experiment with a single department— end-customer experience and organizational bottom line,
radiology—creating a digital twin of the department. organizations may be overlooking the potential benefits
In this virtual 3D environment, teams were able to that use of these technologies can bring to the human
explore different physical layouts and test new oper- beings doing the work, and thus missing a critical oppor-
ational scenarios, workshopping them with staff and tunity to expand their impact.
stakeholders.
Technological advancement, most notably the profu-
In short order, the department reduced patient waiting sion of technologies powered by generative artificial
times by up to 25 minutes and turnaround times (the intelligence, is creating the potential for new ways
time between a patient’s arrival and departure) by 28 of working that can help elevate human performance
minutes or more. They were able to improve physical (outcomes for both organizations and workers). To deliver
accessibility, make better use of equipment, and reduce on these outcomes, organizations will need digital play-
staffing costs. And all of these improvements—which grounds—safe spaces that encourage intentional play and
curiosity—to experiment and explore new ways

of working.
67
Figure 1
The knowing vs. doing gap: Respondents know that creating digital playgrounds is
Percentage of respondents answering the questions, “How important is reimagining the work, workplace, and workforce
through digital footprints, simulations, and related tools to your organization’s success?” and “Where is your organization in its
journey to address this issue?”
68
A digital playground is not a singular place or virtual Digital playgrounds can be expansive and include the
platform. Rather, it’s a mindset and an approach in which opportunity to experiment with existing as well as A digital
technologies are curated with intention and opportuni- emerging technologies. For example, physically demand- playground is
ties to use them are democratized. It’s a safe space for ing job sites in industries like shipping, construction, and not a singular
workers to build confidence, learn new skills, and hone natural resources are already combining technologies place or virtual
their human capabilities.2 Safety in this context refers such as analytics, sensors, drones, digital models, IoT, platform. Rather,
to psychological safety—where individuals do not risk edge computing, and extended reality (XR) technology
it’s a mindset
punishment or humiliation for speaking up with ideas, to help workers operate more efficiently. Augmented
questions, concerns, or mistakes, and where they are reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies are and an approach
safe to take interpersonal risks.3 It also refers to spaces providing workers with personalized, data-rich environ- in which
where workers can experiment with new processes and ments to engage with new skills and situations safely, or technologies
technologies without putting business outcomes at risk. to collaborate better given complex task barriers such are curated with
as geographic distance or lack of common language. intention and
As they play with the possibilities of a new, technolog- Generative AI sandboxes are providing workers at every
opportunities
ically enabled future on this playground, both work- level of organizations with a safe space to imagine new
ers and organizations can gain experience and achieve combinations of AI and human work. to use them are
enhanced business outcomes (i.e., innovation) faster than democratized.
real-world conditions might allow.
Digital playgrounds are safe spaces to
One example of the broad application of multiple digi- realize possibilities while easing anxieties
tal playground technologies is the Vancouver Airport
Authority launching a virtual, real-time interactive Amidst the optimism surrounding the possibilities of
representation of the airport in Vancouver, Canada these rapidly advancing technologies, there is also an
(YVR), in 2022.4 This platform was expressly created undercurrent of anxiety and caution about their use. In
with experimentation in mind—its designers anticipated November 2023, 28 countries—including 18 of the 20
that YVR’s workers and surrounding community would largest economies in the world—issued a declaration
come up with many more uses for it than they might committing themselves to responsible, human-centric use
originally conceive. The platform involves a mix of a of AI.5 While the declaration highlighted AI’s potential
virtual space with data collected in real-time from sensors “to transform and enhance human wellbeing, peace,
and other Internet of Things (IoT) tools throughout the and prosperity,” it also noted the harm that could result
facility. Data is used to inform daily decision-making from misuse. Leaders are walking this line: According
and collaboration and explore future opportunities for to the World Economic Forum, 75% of organizations
improvement or innovation. Local teams are using the globally intend to accelerate their use of AI over the
platform to improve outcomes as diverse as managing next five years, while also anticipating significant disrup-
ground traffic control, improving worker safety and secu- tion to current worker skills.6 Workers also see both
rity, reducing carbon emissions from aircraft and other sides: A global survey found that while 39% of workers
equipment, growing workforce skills, and modeling the are worried about the impact of AI on their job, 52%
expansion of the airport’s indigenous art collection. YVR say that increased use of AI is likely to enhance their
sees the platform as central to its digital learning hub, career possibilities.7
an initiative to spur innovation and growth in the
surrounding community.
69
But the opportunities to positively affect human perfor- and workshops to rapidly train people in AI and
Seventy-five mance are also real. Among the new wave of digital and bring generative AI prototypes to production. The
percent of AI-powered technologies is a growing suite of tools that Singapore initiative goes beyond consumer-facing
organizations can enable workers and organizations to set the risks chatbots, seeking to create an AI-first culture that
globally intend and uncertainties of the real world aside, providing a fosters innovation.9
to accelerate playground in which to explore, experiment, and cocreate
their use of AI solutions that make work better for humans and humans • Digital twins: A digital twin is a near-real-time digital
better at work.™ These tools include AI-powered people replica of a physical object (a car or human body),
over the next analytics; augmented, virtual, and extended reality; business process (supply chain), workforce (call
five years, while digital twins; digital doppelgangers; and more—technol- center), or place (a factory, airport, or an entire city).
also anticipating ogies that not long ago were largely confined to science
significant fiction. Many of these tools are already in use across indus- Before construction even began, BMW created a
disruption to tries to drive efficiencies, improve processes, train work- digital twin model of an electric vehicle produc-
forces, and explore new ways of working. Moving ahead, tion plant set to open in Debrecen, Hungary, in
current worker organizations will have an increasing array of techno- 2025.10 Digital twin simulations are allowing work-
skills. logies that could become a part of their digital playground ers to train together in a virtual 3D environment,
to create improved outcomes for both workers and giving them the opportunity to gain familiarity
organizations. Consider the following examples: with the new space and practice location-specific
skills, with the freedom to experiment, play, and
• Generative AI: Generative AI is a subset of artificial make mistakes. BMW teams can collaborate
intelligence in which machines leverage deep learning across multiple locations on any device. The digi-
to generate new content in the form of text, code, voice, tal twin model also allows engineers to work out
images, videos, and processes. The content is often bugs and make processes more efficient before
indistinguishable from human-generated material. the plant opens, saving time and cutting costs.
The entire production process will be validated
One Fortune 500 software firm tested a new gener- virtually before hardware is installed and robots
ative AI system with its customer service agents, are programmed to produce specific models.
who are required to have both detailed product
knowledge and top-notch problem-solving skills A British telecommunications company built a digi-
to successfully resolve customer issues. The system tal twin of their call center operations to monitor
combined a recent version of a GPT platform with and visualize its live status and performance. The
proprietary machine learning algorithms based application allowed the user to experiment in real-
on data from previous customer service interac- time, varying staffing or making operational changes
tions among their 5,000 agents. It provided real- to see the impact on expected performance. A user
time suggestions for how agents should respond could test the impact of different decisions related
to customers, as well as links to relevant inter- to work shifts, different ways of routing calls, and
nal documentation to help solve technical issues. sudden surges in demand.11
The firm realized a 14% increase in the number
of chats an agent successfully resolved over the • Digital doppelgangers and digital humans: Digital
span of an hour—and an even greater increase doppelgangers replicate specific skills, knowledge, and
(35%) for less experienced agents, helping them other attributes of an individual or small team. A digital
move more quickly through their learning curve.8 human is an avatar used in a virtual environment that
can produce a whole range of human body language.
In Singapore, a coalition of digital government
agencies launched a joint initiative in partnership A global technology corporation patented a chat-
with a leading technology company to drive gener- bot that can act and behave like a real person.
ative AI capabilities in both the public and private The doppelganger is created using information
sectors. Their approach to increasing generative that can be gathered from a person’s social media
AI capabilities includes “innovation sandboxes” profile, including voice data, posts, messages,
70
behavioral information, and images.12 A team A telecommunications company used AI to analyze
at MIT Media Lab is working on technology to the profiles of thousands of workers who identified
enable machine intelligence to replicate a person’s themselves as machine learning experts to interpret
digital identity so that others can “borrow their the aggregation of skills, experience, and pathways
identity” to provide consultation or to help with relating to these workers’ machine learning skill
decision-making in the absence of the source development. The company then created algorithms
human. For example, the technology could be used to search for and hire based on those new metrics—
to create a doppelganger of a corporate lawyer that increasing the talent pool by at least three times
provides legal expertise to clients at a reduced fee, what the company had estimated.17 After hiring the
in essence, “borrowing” the identity of the lawyer.13 workers who had these adjacent skills, the company
then quickly built on the foundation of these skills
HP already used AI in their call centers to route to train the hired workers with the specific required
customer calls to the agents best equipped to handle machine learning skills. It now has technology that
them but has evolved the AI to act as a digital enables workers to compare their skills profile to
doppelganger, replicating the skills and expertise of high- different types of work and assess their fit, along
performing call agents to incorporate into its algorithm.14 with a list of skills they need to develop.
Celebrities and in-demand individuals are also • 5G, drones, edge computing, Internet of Things,
experimenting with scaling access to their scarce and sensors: These technologies expand the
time and attention. The Swedish band, ABBA, for digital feedback loop to include the real world,
example, launched a concert series in which the where work happens. These technologies can be
music was performed by their 3D digital avatars deployed to gather data to increase the fidelity of
created from motion capture.15 virtual copies, increase the volume of data to run
simulations and scenarios, and to feed data back
• Augmented and virtual reality: AR overlays digitally into the world to guide individuals and teams.
created content into the user’s real-world environ-
ment, usually through heads-up displays, mobile The EU is launching a digital simulation of the
apps, and smart glasses, offering a seamless blend of entire planet called Destination Earth, built from
the physical and virtual worlds. VR creates a highly data collected by climate, atmospheric, and mete-
immersive, fully rendered digital environment that orological sensors.18 Scientists, policymakers, and
entirely replaces the user’s real-world surroundings. business leaders from around the world will have a
digital playground where they can access the data to
The US Air Force is using AR/VR for training and model the socioeconomic impact of climate change.
reskilling for both pilots and maintenance crew, These analytics can help steer policy and business
improving safety and accelerating curriculum strategies, explore climate trends, test scenarios,
completion by 46%. The AR/VR training program and inform possible interventions and investments.
visualizes tools, systems, and aircraft for mainte-
nance training, and the AI capability can provide The full potential of these tools for enhancing work and
personalized nudges to the airmen based on their exploring many possible futures is still emerging and can
learning style.16 only be fully realized when they are curated and made
widely available for the express purposes of experimen-
• Analytics: Technologies such as analytics and AI tation and play.
have the potential to help organizations make
better use of massive volumes of data. Real-time In a time of disruption and possibility, experimen-
analytics applies logic and mathematics to data tation and play can help humans learn to explore
to provide insights that can enable users to make the unknown and the unexpected, to adapt, and
better decisions in real time. Auto-analytics is to generate the imagination required to solve the
the practice of voluntarily collecting and analyz- challenges of a boundaryless world.19 To engage
ing data about oneself in order to improve. with disruption productively, the opportunity to
71
SIGNALS YOUR ORGANIZATION SHOULD EMBRACE AND ENCOURAGE DIGITAL PLAYGROUNDS
• Your workers and leaders are excited about • Your workers and stakeholders are worried • Your organization is using analytics to inform
the possibilities of AI-enabled work and are about the long-term viability of workers’ skills short-term workforce-related objectives, but
looking for opportunities to experiment and due to tech disruption. hasn’t tapped its potential to explore and plan
explore, but don’t know where or how to for possible futures.
do so. • Your organization is using digital tools like
VR and digital twins to transform work but • Your competitors are getting to market with
• Your workers are already experimenting with isn’t using them to enhance the workforce AI-enabled solutions faster. Boards and
tools such as generative AI in their work, with experience. investors are demanding more and faster
or without the organization’s approval. innovation—especially related to AI—while
also calling for less risk.
play with the new and the unknown is important. Additionally, some organizations now expect new
However, enabling it—especially in a business context— entrants to come ready to put well-honed skills
requires explicit encouragement, opportunity, and and human capabilities to use, as the remaining
psychological safety. As the pace of disruption acceler- roles now require greater emotional intelligence
ates, there will likely be a growing need for more oppor- and divergent thinking.25 This change could have
tunities and spaces to play—spaces that provide access implications for the labor market, particularly
to new technologies and are safe from risk for both the among younger generations. Traditionally, entry-
worker and the organization.20 level roles allowed new workers the time and space
to grow skills. As these roles become scarcer, digital
playgrounds could provide spaces to build required
Disruption and evolving worker needs are experience and practice and develop new skills.
driving the need for digital playgrounds For example, digital twins of human bodies and
hospital environments can prepare medical profes-
The pace of disruption is creating a world of increasing sionals before they interact with real-life patients.26
unpredictability and complexity. New ways of work- Digital doppelgangers of experienced sales execu-
ing—emerging seemingly in real time—introduce a host tives can be personal, on-demand coaches for new
of complex questions. As a result, numerous factors salespeople. And VR is being used in power utilities
appear to be driving an urgent need for organizations to prepare workers to work in dangerous environ-
to bring play into focus: ments like electrical substations.27
• Entry-level roles are declining or may require new • The importance of human capabilities is increasing
skills.21 In many organizations, the application of in the work. As work becomes more dynamic, less
automation and AI technologies could reduce the predictable, and more composed of making judg-
need for some entry-level roles. Common, procedural ments in the face of constantly changing data, the
office work is now often handled by software or relative importance of capabilities such as curiosity,
requires far fewer people.22 For example, in customer empathy, and resilience as inputs to the work is
service, chatbots are handling a significant portion rising. By giving workers a space to explore, exper-
of customer inquiries23 and in health care, AI-based iment, and play, digital playgrounds can both culti-
systems can take the first pass at coding a case, vate and capitalize on workers’ human capabilities.
meaning companies may be able to leverage their Digital playgrounds can help workers refresh their
experienced coders to audit the system’s decisions.24 skills, step into new roles, and adapt to a rapidly
72
shifting job market. And they can help organizations helping them do so. Another recent study of global work-
develop the vision and resilience to thrive under ers published in September of 2023 found that only 13%
Organizations
challenging conditions.28 of workers had been offered AI-related skills training in that fail
the past year, despite a majority of workers believing that to explore
• Workers need time and space to learn how to those skills would be essential to their future prospects.33 with digital
collaborate with smart technologies. In almost Many organizations are not providing the time, space, playgrounds
all the examples discussed so far, technology is opportunity, or tools to either experiment or play.
run the risk
not just replacing human effort or augmenting it.
These smart technologies are handling tasks within To help organizations succeed, workers should feel like
of falling into
processes and work groups, requiring new modes active participants in the evolution of their roles. Giving conventional
of interaction. The experience of the work for the them a place to explore and play can be a way to earn ways of working,
human worker is changing,29 likely explaining why their buy-in. Plus, since humans tend to learn best by which may
executives in our research rated human-machine practicing, digital playgrounds support continuous put them at a
collaboration30 skills as very important. It’s not learning and the development of new skills—particu-
disadvantage
surprising, then, that human and machine collabo- larly when it comes to collaborating with others and
ration is an evolving field of inquiry—one of grow- honing workers’ ability to work well with technology,
as technologies
ing importance to human performance and worthy a skill that will become more and more necessary in the continue to
of the kinds of dedicated experimentation and play coming years.34 advance and
that could take place in the digital playground. change what is
At a moment when worker roles are shifting, it’s import- possible.
• Distributed teams are changing how work gets ant to create safe spaces in which organizations and
done. As we move further into a hybrid reality, workers can direct that change toward business outcomes
workers are increasingly working at different and human sustainability broadly. Importantly, these
times, in different places, and at varying speeds. outcomes will differ from organization to organization
Because of this, there is a pressing need for spaces and from worker to worker. There is no one-size-fits-all
for ideation, experimentation, and exploration that solution. Digital playgrounds give workers and organiza-
span time and distance. In one example, a digital tions the opportunity to model different ways of working
playground enables a group of globally distributed and determine the best fits given their specific goals and
scientists to manage the work of robots conduct- situations. Organizations that fail to explore with digital
ing chemistry experiments in a physical lab.31 playgrounds run the risk of falling into conventional
ways of working, which may put them at a disadvantage
In addition, younger workers tend to value hybrid as technologies continue to advance and change what is
work, distributed teams, and online interactions. possible. Since speed is a major differentiator in today’s
Deloitte Global’s millennial and Gen Z study world, the faster they start enabling these explorations,
found that about half of all Gen Zs and millenni- the better.
als consider online experiences to be meaningful
replacements for in-person experiences.32 For these
workers, digital playgrounds will likely seem like Building digital playgrounds that
a natural extension of the rest of their lives, and drive human performance
they will be ready to embrace their roles as active
creators in digital spaces. Building and maintaining successful digital playgrounds
will likely require organizations to embrace new strate-
gies, mindsets, and approaches to meet evolving work-
What’s at stake? force needs. But launching a digital playground doesn’t
need to be a complicated, resource-intensive endeavor. It

According to our research, 76% of workers say it’s very just requires you to start where you are with what you
or moderately important that their organization help have: Many organizations are already using some of the
them imagine how their job may change in the future, but tools one would expect to find in a digital playground.
less than half (43%) of workers say their organization is Creating access, psychological safety, and opportunities
73
to play and experiment are the next steps. As organiza- • Connect play to work. Play might be best when
tions begin to build out digital playgrounds, they can it’s open-ended, but that doesn’t mean it should be
consider the following actions: frivolous or disconnected from the purpose of the
organization. Encourage exploration of domains
• Democratize access to the digital playground. In and problem sets of import and interest to the
many cases, only a few specialists are using digital organization. From a work design perspective,
playground tools in isolated ways—and with the consider where engagement with the playground
intent to optimize specific processes, not to reimag- can be designed into the work on a day-to-day basis.
ine the art of the possible. Consider democratizing Encourage teams to experiment and play together.
access to these tools, then expand where and how Where possible, give those teams the space to be
they are used to experiment in the short term and creative, including defining, and possibly refining,
play in the future. As access to the playground is the scope of the real-world challenges in front of
expanded, give special attention to mid-level lead- them based on what they learn on the playground.
ers and front-line supervisors. These workers are Consider how governance mechanisms for invest-
often caught up in the operational challenges of the ment and innovation can seed imagination, establish
moment, working to meet short-term performance playground rules where necessary, and harvest the
goals potentially at the expense of engaging their best of ideas generated.
imagination to take a broader view. Digital play-
grounds can help restore their curiosity and allow • Use digital playgrounds to cocreate. Cocreation
them to participate more fully in creative collabora- is proving to be difficult for many organizations.
tion. Senior leaders, however, should consider giving Only 30% of executives say that they are regularly
workers space to play in their own playgrounds engaging workers in cocreation of strategies and
without leader involvement so they can experiment solutions. Digital playgrounds can be less risky
or fail without feeling exposed. forums for inviting workers to cocreate changes
in their own roles and their organizations’ future.
• Encourage play. Above all, digital playgrounds Empowering workers in this way can enhance their
should be spaces where workers at all levels of an sense of purpose, belonging, and resilience in the
organization are given the time, encouragement, and face of change.
opportunity to experiment and play. Encouraging
play includes establishing norms and ground rules • Focus on human sustainability. Digital playgrounds
for the playground, making it clear that it’s perfectly are more than just collections of the latest advanced
acceptable to test ideas that fail or make mistakes technologies. As spaces to harness and develop the
with the technology. Workers should be rewarded curiosity and imagination of human beings, the
for their efforts to engage with a digital playground humans playing in them will need a solid founda-
and for innovations that result from their experi- tion of well-being, psychological safety, and trust.
mentation. In addition, organizations can encour- In turn, these playgrounds are natural places in
age play by ensuring that workers understand what which to explore improving outcomes related to
tools are available and have access to information human sustainability; for example, using AR or
that teaches them how to use different technolo- VR to increase skills viability or using sensors and
gies. When workers are encouraged to play and analytics to improve safety.
experiment in a digital playground, they—and their
organizations—are likely to be more practiced at • Negotiate worker data. Many of the tools used
adapting to disruption, putting them in a better in digital playgrounds, from AI-powered analyt-
position to navigate uncertainty and ensure that ics to digital twins, can be applied to work,
the organization is never lacking for imagination. workforce, and workplace issues, but to increase
74
their likelihood of success, they will require large unique purpose. Some will be specific to certain projects
quantities of worker data. Workers are increas- or issues, and these may have a lifespan that ends when
ingly demanding greater control of this data, the project is over. Others will be more open-ended, with
and organizations should aim to use it to create many potential uses.
mutual value, working from workforce data
policies that are transparent and accessible.35 In the example of the Vancouver International Airport
discussed earlier, the platform was explicitly designed as
Digital doppelgangers provide an especially pointed a people-first technology, with operations teams being
example of the importance of trust when it comes given free rein to imagine how to apply it. Already, these
to the role of worker data in digital playgrounds. teams have found multiple uses. It supports worker train-
Since digital doppelgangers are often modeled on ing and testing of new methods. Data about passen-
actual people, these people will need to provide ger demand helps staff forecast wait times and identify
their ongoing consent to share their knowledge and potential processing issues, allowing workers to provide
capabilities in digital form, and potentially own better service to passengers. Cameras detect if a vehi-
or share intellectual property. Some celebrities are cle has been parked outside the terminal curbside for
already choosing to sell their likenesses for digital an extended period, allowing operations and security
use,36 while others are seeing doppelgangers created teams to swiftly address the issue and improve the flow of
without their permission.37 Workers with in-demand traffic. Real-time information about maintenance needs
expertise, experience, and talents could find similar, enables maintenance staff to respond more efficiently to
lucrative opportunities to have their own doppel- work orders.39
gangers created to scale their value in a way that
benefits the wider organization. Exercise caution, as These are just some examples of the ways in which
this is an emerging field with many questions not yet leaders and workers are using the airport’s digital play-
answered and many more not yet asked.38 ground. Its potential uses for experimentation and play
in service of better outcomes are practically infinite. It’s a
demonstration of how, at their best, digital playgrounds
The future of digital playgrounds are spaces of limitless possibility. Organizations and
workers can both benefit from their capacity to engender
Organizations will likely need many digital play- new models and find solutions to urgent problems—none
grounds, each involving different sets of tools, leaders, more urgent than the role of the worker in an increas-
and workers. Each of these playgrounds may have a ingly tech-enabled workplace.
75
Endnotes
1. Siemens Healthineers, “From digital twin to improved patient 21. Nicole Lewis, “Generative AI will disrupt career paths,
experience,” September 11, 2018; Maulshree Singh, Rupal recruiting,” SHRM, August 8, 2023.
Srivastava, Evert Fuenmayor, Vladimir Kuts, Yuansong Qiao, 22. Kate Morgan, “Why inexperienced workers can’t get entry-level
Niall Murray, and Declan Devine, “Applications of digital twin jobs,” BBC, September 20, 2021.
across industries: A review,” Application Science 12, no. 11 23. Pranshu Verma, “ChatGPT provided better customer service
(2022). than his staff. He fired them,” Washington Post,
2. John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, and Maggie Wooll, Skills October 3, 2023.
change, but capabilities endure, Deloitte Insights, 24. Thomas H. Davenport and Steven Miller, Working with AI:
August 30, 2019. Real stories of human-machine collaboration (MIT Press,
3. Amy C. Edmondson, “Psychological safety,” accessed 2022).
December 19, 2023. 25. Morgan, “Why inexperienced workers can’t get entry-level
4. YVR, “YVR launches its digital twin, making people and jobs.”
community the center of its digital transformation,” 26. Peter Coveney and Roger Highfield, “Why some scientists
March 24, 2022. believe the future of medicine lies in creating digital twins,”
5. Gov.UK, “The Bletchley Declaration by countries attending the TIME, April 5, 2023.
AI Safety Summit, 1–2 November 2023,” November 1, 2023. 27. Deloitte Insights, Virtual reality helps Exelon put safety first,
6. World Economic Forum, “The future of jobs report 2023,” November 18, 2022.
April 30, 2023. 28. Jeff Schwartz, Brad Denny, David Mallon, Yves Van Durme,
7. Randstad, “AI threatening jobs? Most workers say technology Maren Hauptmann, Ramona Yan, and Shannon Poynton,
is an accelerant for career growth,” September 5, 2023. Beyond reskilling: Investing in resilience for uncertain futures
8. Erik Brynjolfsson, Danielle Li, and Lindsey Raymond, Deloitte Insights, May 15, 2020.
Generative AI at work, National Bureau of Economic Research, 29. Alexandra Samuel, “I’ve worked with generative AI for nearly a
April 23, 2023. year. Here’s what I’ve learned,” Wall Street Journal,
9. Yogesh Hirdaramani, “100 solutions in 100 days: Singapore November 6, 2023.
government jumpstarts generative AI capabilities with 30. Sue Cantrell, Thomas H. Davenport, Steve Hatfield, and
sandboxes, workshops,” GovInsider, July 25, 2023. Brad Kreit, Strengthening the bonds of human and machine
10. Jacob Bourne, “BMW, Zapata, and MIT test quantum-inspired collaboration, Deloitte Insights, November 22, 2022.
generative AI in production,” Engineering.com, June 30, 2023. 31. Rachael Pells, “Why scientists are delving into the virtual
11. Deloitte, “How twin tech is helping _VOIS design a new world,” Nature, September 1, 2023.
future,” accessed December 19, 2023. 32. Kevin Westcott, Jana Arbanas, Chris Arkenberg, Brooke Auxier,
12. Grace Kay, “Microsoft has patented a chatbot that could Jeff Loucks, and Kevin Downs, 2023 Digital media trends:
imitate a deceased loved one, celebrity, or fictional character,” Immersed and connected, Deloitte Insights, April 14, 2023.
Business Insider, January 23, 2021. 33. Randstad, “More than half of workers believe AI skills will
13. MIT Media Lab, “Augmented eternity and swappable future-proof their careers, but only 13% have been offered such
identities,” accessed December 19, 2023. training opportunities - Randstad data reveals,”
14. Simon Firth, “HP Labs uses artificial intelligence to improve September 5, 2023.
HP’s customer service offerings,” The Garage by HP, 34. Jim Guszcza, Harvey Lewis, and Peter Evans-Greenwood,
January 15, 2020. Cognitive collaboration, Deloitte Insights, January 23, 2017.
15. Jenni Reid, “ABBA’s successful avatar show in London offers 35. Steve Hatfield, Tara Mahoutchian, Nate Paynter, Nic Scoble-
a glimpse at a daring new direction for live music,” CNBC, Williams, David Mallon, Martin Kamen, John Forsythe, Lauren
December 29, 2022. Kirby, Michael Griffiths, and Kraig Eaton, Negotiating worker
16. Miriam A. Thurber, “Tech Training Transformation modernizes data, Deloitte Insights, January 9, 2023.
tech training with virtual reality,” United States Air Force, 36. Todd Spangler, “Meta launches AI chatbots for Snoop Dogg,
July 26, 2021. MrBeast, Tom Brady, Kendall Jenner, Charli D’Amelio and
17. Michael Griffiths and Robin Jones, “The skills-based more,” Variety, September 27, 2023.
organization,” Deloitte, November 2, 2022. 37. Will Bedingfield, “The Bruce Willis deepfake is everyone’s
18. European Commission, “Destination Earth—new digital twin of problem,” Wired, October 17, 2022.
the Earth will help tackle climate change and protect nature,” 38. Steve Hatfield, John Brownridge, Gregory Vert, Eoin Drumm,
press release, March 30, 2022. and Brad Kreit, “Digital doppelgangers,” Deloitte,
19. Adam Piore, “Do you play enough? Science says it’s critical to December 3, 2022.
your health and well-being,” Newsweek, July 19, 2023. 39. Larisa Redins, “Using digital twins to improve operations at
20. Joseph B. Fuller, Michael Griffiths, and Reem Janho, Are Vancouver’s airport,” Edgeir.com, October 19, 2022.
organizations actively managing the full spectrum of risks
associated with the workforce?, Deloitte Insights,
December 12, 2022.
76
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the following Deloitte subject matter experts for lending their expertise to the development of this
content: Kate Schmidt, Jennifer Hentz, Dany Rifkin, Steve Kyle, Greg Vert, Maya Bodan, and Andrew Pau.
Special thanks to Molly Rogers for her leadership in the development of this content, and to Caitlin Nasseraddin and Kailyn Hornbeck
for their contributions.
77
78
One size does not fit all: How
microcultures help workers and
organizations thrive
Rather than striving for one common culture, organizations should
enable a “culture of cultures” tailored to the needs of local teams while
aligning to organization-wide values.
John Forsythe, Julie Duda, Sue Cantrell, Nicole Scoble-Williams, and Mari Marcotte
W
hen it comes to how culture plays organizations, for example, often seek entrepreneurial,
out in an organization, consider collaborative cultures that are high-risk, high-reward,
the recruiting process: Job appli- and without rigid rules. While such a culture may indeed
cants are often coached to ask exist in the technology function of an organization, the
about “corporate culture” in recruiter may instead emphasize the overall corporate
an interview, and hiring manag- culture that is quite different from the one the worker
ers are instructed to assess “cultural fit.” This advice seeks—creating a disconnect when it comes to attract-
tends to presume that most large organizations have ing and accessing the talent an organization needs to
a single culture that workers need to fit into—fixed compete.
and uniform, articulated and enforced from the C-suite
down. However, rarely does culture play out this way. This monolithic view of culture is no longer fit for
purpose in a world where an increasingly diverse work-
Often, a worker will join an organization only to find force seeks greater autonomy and customized work expe-
themselves in a unique team culture in a specific part of riences—and one in which organizations compete more
the organization. When the culture differs from their on agility and customer responsiveness than standard-
expectations, the impact can be significant—almost a ization and top-down control. Proclamations of culture
third of new workers leave their jobs within the first by senior leaders may start to sound the same. In fact,
90 days of being hired,1 with unmet expectations from research shows that the stated organizational values of
recruitment and culture being top factors.2 multinational corporations are largely similar to one
another, with “integrity” appearing in three-quarters
Alternatively, the culture a worker is seeking may not of them, and other admirable but common values like
be adequately or accurately described in the interview innovation, teamwork, excellence, and safety appear-
process because it diverges from the overall corporate ing frequently as well.3 Despite the similar language
culture touted by the recruiter—leaving the worker used to describe these values, organizational cultures
unimpressed and wanting to go elsewhere. Technology can “feel” very different from one another, suggesting
workers interviewing for jobs in non-technology that the microcultures that bring these values to life are
79
where differentiation occurs in practice. If stated values microcultures are 1.8 times more likely to achieve
Fifty percent all sound the same, microcultures can help enable organi- positive human outcomes and 1.6 times more likely to
of executives zations to set themselves apart—leading to major impacts achieve desired business outcomes.
report that an for talent attraction and retention.
organization’s A key to harnessing the power of microcultures is align-
culture is most What’s needed now is to embrace and nourish the multi- ing around a set of global values while encouraging some
plicity of microcultures within an organization that adapt autonomy of functions, teams, and geographies, not only
successful to the unique needs of a specific team, function, location, permitting them to flourish, but also providing them with
when there is or even worker type. Microcultures reflect the subtle the resources they need to establish their own localized
a moderate variations in how work gets done in different teams, blends of culture.7 The organization can then embrace
degree of functions, and geographies and are an important way the diversity of thought, innovation, agility, and tailored
variation. Yet that organizations can get closer to and respond more ways of working that each microculture is embold-
executives quickly to the people they serve. ened to foster. Robin Leopold, chief human resources
officer of JPMorgan Chase, recognizes that, “For an
ranked this WHAT IS CULTURE? organization of our size and scale, it’s normal for teams
as the most to have microcultures. But how those cultures come
difficult trend to Culture is “the way things get done” in your organization— together and rally around our firmwide values of service,
address. sustained patterns of behavior over time that are supported heart, curiosity, courage, and excellence is the secret
by the shared experiences, values, and beliefs of the sauce.”8
organization.4
Culture includes both stated values, which are typically

consistent across an organization, and the lived behaviors
or artifacts—norms, symbols, language, and actions—where
culture is manifested in practice. These lived behaviors are
what can and should be flexible across an organization that
embraces microcultures.
Leaders are recognizing this shift: Nearly three-quarters

(71%) of respondents in our 2024 Global Human
Capital Trends research say that focusing on individual
teams and workgroups as the best places to cultivate
culture, fluidity, agility, and diversity is very or criti-
cally important to their success. Additionally, 50% of
executives report that an organization’s culture is most
successful when there is a moderate degree of variation.
Yet executives ranked this as the most difficult trend
to address. This difficulty points to the importance of
culture for workers—73% of people have left a job due
to poor cultural fit6—and the “fuzziness” of defining and
driving culture for organizational leaders.
Taking a “micro” approach to culture can enable

organizations and leaders to paint a more detailed
picture of “the way we work around here” to drive
different experiences and outcomes that mutually bene-
fit both workers and the organization. Indeed, accord-
ing to our research, organizations that have embraced
80
Figure 1
The knowing vs. doing gap: Respondents know that fostering workplace microcultures is
Percentage of respondents answering the questions, “How important is focusing on individual teams and workgroups as the
best places to cultivate culture, fluidity, agility, and diversity to your organization’s success?” and “Where is your organization
in its journey to address this issue?”
81
Some leaders may balk at the idea of intentionally This contrasts with the narrative often reported in the
cultivating different behaviors and practices to support media, citing some organizations’ need for a strong,
workers. Indeed, some practices may need to be stan- common culture as the primary driver for return-to-office
dardized to conform to regulations. However, attempts mandates. Research shows this may have the potential
to root out all unique practices and behaviors may limit to negatively impact worker experience.11 Our research
organizations’ agility and impact worker experience and shows that while senior leaders rate microcultures as less
retention. In a conversation with Sanjiv Gajiwala, former valuable, directors and workers who are closer to the
chief growth officer of a leading US consumer products work itself recognize the importance of microcultures
company, he noted a direct link between microcultures to their success (figure 2).
and organizational agility, saying “If you accept volatility
as the norm, a ‘monoculture’ is extremely vulnerable to Empowering teams to define and implement their own
shocks.”9 ways of working, rituals, and norms becomes increas-
ingly important in the new era of human sustainability.
When asked how organizational culture has changed Enabling workers’ autonomy, in alignment with
since the pandemic, most leaders say it is better now organizational goals can act as a catalyst of business and
(60%). One reason for this could be an increase in micro- human outcomes.12
cultures as a result of more hybrid or remote work.10
Figure 2
The worker-leader disconnect

There is a disconnect between senior leaders, directors, and workers when it comes to the importance of workplace microcultures.
Board 46%
Lorem ipsum
C-suite 53%
Director 60%
Worker 71%
Note: Respondents answering “Of critical importance” or “Very important” to the question, “How important is focusing on individual teams and
workgroups as the best places to cultivate culture, fluidity, agility, and diversity to your organization’s success?”
82
SIGNALS YOUR ORGANIZATION SHOULD EMPOWER MICROCULTURES
• Your executive leaders feel the organization • You are noticing innovation and agility are • Your workers and managers are saying that
is straying from its corporate culture and are lagging and suspect it is because workers feel long-held norms related to ways of working—
calling for a reset. bogged down by enterprisewide processes such as those related to the start and stop
and policies. of the workday—are no longer meeting their
• Your workers are creating their own norms needs.
and work practices as they adapt ways of • Your current one-size-fits-all organizational
working for their team, office, or function. culture is making it difficult to attract or retain
top talent.
Current trends underline the importance of An increasingly diverse workforce. Attempting to apply
“thinking small” when it comes to culture a single culture to an increasingly diverse workforce is ”If you accept
not likely to meet the needs of today’s workers, who now volatility as
The growing importance of workplace microcultures is vary more than ever across geographies, employment the norm, a
being driven by several shifts related to worker prefer- types (contingent, gig, full-time, part-time), working ‘monoculture’
ences, technology, and ways of working. arrangements (on site, hybrid, remote), demographics is extremely
(life stage, education level, identity), and even motiva-
vulnerable to
Hybrid and remote work arrangements. Managers may tions or thinking and networking styles.
be unsure about how to drive culture in a hybrid envi- shocks.”
ronment and could be struggling to apply old models of Eighty percent of respondents to an MIT-Sloan —Sanjiv Gajiwala
a single, uniform culture that are no longer relevant in Management Review workforce ecosystems survey,
hybrid work. Research shows that remote and hybrid for example, say it’s important for external workers to
arrangements have a significant impact on worker expe- participate in the culture of their organization, yet only
rience and retention—hybrid work can reduce attrition 18% take an integrated approach to managing inter-
by 35% and improve employee satisfaction. Indeed, nal employees and external contributors.18 But trying to
61% of US human resource leaders say that culture is integrate external workers into an organization’s single,
more important in a hybrid model than it is in an on-site monolithic culture can often be challenging, for a variety
work model.13 Conversely, more than a third of leaders of reasons both practical and legal, suggesting micro-
report that remote work has weakened their culture, cultures might be a better route. Kori Covrigaru, chief
and concern for culture has often been cited by C-suite executive officer of PlanOmatic, explains, “It’s really
leaders as a rationale for “return to office” initiatives.14 hard to get contractors to embrace the culture. Typically,
With nearly 70% of workers globally preferring a hybrid contractors have multiple gigs going on. They are their
arrangement, leaders may need new ways of empowering own brand; they are their own culture. Trying to instill
team cultures beyond the four walls of the office.15 core values and get buy-in from people who may be here
one day a week, two days a week, and trying to figure
Microcultures represent a possible solution to the chal- out where that balance is—there is not a one-size-fits-all
lenge of driving culture in a hybrid and remote envi- solution to bring them in.”19
ronment—by focusing on connection at the team level,
managers and workers can collaborate to define how With globally distributed teams whose workers repre-
and where they work together best. Research shows that sent diverse identities, microcultures can allow for deep
workers on hybrid teams are creating closer bonds within and meaningful connections across teams or functions.
their teams, though weaker ones across the organiza- Rather than requiring sameness for all by applying a
tion.16 However, workers who have greater freedom single set of norms to everyone, microcultures don’t
over location and schedule report a far higher degree of confuse fairness with sameness. By helping to ensure
connectedness compared to those who don’t—and the equity rather than equality (or sameness), microcultures
more connected workers are, the higher they perform.17 can celebrate and capitalize on individual and team
differences.
83
Advances in technology. New technologies are giving of an organization’s purpose.23 While organizational
some leaders more visibility into ways of working across leaders can establish the broad guiding principles of a
an organization, enabling them to feel some degree of supportive culture, it’s mainly managers who bring that
control and thus more comfortable embracing local support to life in the microcultures they foster—sensing
cultures. For instance, natural language processing can worker needs and priorities and supporting their career
analyze subtle elements of culture, such as the use of development.
different terms and phrases across the organization in
collaboration platforms, to highlight potential issues and Merger and acquisition activity. Many leaders recognize
opportunities for improvement. Generative AI-enabled that a newly acquired company or merger may have its
tools can consolidate and interpret that information own unique culture. While there are some things that
at the organization level, leveraging existing data and may need to be standardized, many leaders are mindful
producing real time insights. For example, a global that squashing the unique culture of the newly acquired
pharmaceutical company has created a view of real-time organization could be detrimental to business outcomes.
employee sentiment based on collaboration platform This presents an opportunity for organizations that are
data that provides a constant pulse on pockets of culture highly acquisitive to embrace microcultures. For exam-
to identify hot spots that may need attention.20 ple, Cristina A. Wilbur, chief people officer at biotech and
medical solutions company Roche, explains, “When we
The importance of empowering frontline workers with acquire companies, we are very mindful of the things that
decision-making. New technology can enable workers are most critical to connect into the Roche organization
who are closest to the customer to rapidly sense and without crushing a culture. If you acquire a company
react to changing customer needs. As leaders are increas- and then you sweep it completely through, you lose the
ingly aware of this, they can provide access to data for whole sense of why the company was acquired in the
frontline workers and empowering the edges of the first place. Culture is a big part of that.”24
organization with the autonomy to make decisions. For
example, factory floor workers at Michelin have digital
workflow boards that visualize stock levels of different Benefits and barriers to fostering
tire types, enabling the workers to prioritize which type workplace microcultures
of tire the factory produces based on real-time informa-
tion. Empowering frontline workers to make decisions Fostering microcultures does not mean discarding
based on data has led to increases in yearly production, the idea of an organization-wide culture. Instead, the
greater agility, and increased engagement among work- organization-wide elements should shift to become broad
ers by enabling them to quickly solve problems in the values and a shared vision and purpose, articulated by
production line based on their expertise.21 senior leaders who then empower local teams to create
the unique ways of working they need to be success-
Rising worker agency. Today’s workers often have more ful. The result can be an organization with a very clear
choice and influence over where, when, and how they identity—some might call it a set of “north stars”—that
work than ever before.22 And workers have expressed a also has developed flexible ways of working that are
clear desire for localized cultures that reflect their team’s uniquely suited to the needs and interests of local teams
ways of working: One in three workers responding to and groups.
our survey say the unique culture of their immediate
workgroup or team is most important to them when it Consider Dutch health and nutrition company Royal
comes to their experience at work. DSM’s “flotilla-style” culture, in which strategy and
overall direction comes from the center but is activated
The growing importance of human sustainability. by agile teams with their own microcultures that are
Human sustainability is increasingly recognized as a empowered to drive desired outcomes. The company
vital component of workforce experience and organi- provides the “flotilla” with guidance to sail in the right
zations’ contributions to people and society. In a survey direction, but it does not prescribe the norms and behav-
of UK professionals, 80% of respondents said that iors aboard each independently “piloted boat.”25
fostering a supportive workplace culture should be part
84
However, fostering microcultures can involve an element Attract and retain in-demand talent. Creating and
of risk. For example, if an individual microculture is communicating about various internal microcultures that
misaligned with the organization’s core values, it can may vary from an organization’s perceived or primary
become a breeding ground for “us versus them” thinking corporate culture has the potential to attract different
and affect contribution to overall organizational goals. types of workers to fit in-demand skill needs. For exam-
Other potential risks include perceptions of unfairness ple, a health care organization on a digital transforma-
as ways of working vary, reduced collaboration if the tion journey may be looking for advanced technology
interfaces between microcultures are not clear or func- skills. Microcultures could allow this organization to
tional, and change fatigue for workers as they move have tech teams or functions that feel and operate more
through different parts of an organization and struggle like startups to meet the expectations and preferences of
to adapt to different norms and ways of working. To help a software developer.
stave off these dynamics, organizations should prioritize
intentional communication and coordination with clear Drive better business outcomes. Organizations that are
interaction points, enabling collaboration across func- rated as great places to work outperform the market,
tions and geographies. with culture being a key driver of that experience.26 With
microcultures, leaders can adapt ways of working for
MAKING MICROCULTURES WORK their team, which can improve workers’ ability to drive
business outcomes. Additionally, workers who identify
There are many factors that can influence how organizations, with and care about the culture perform at higher levels
leaders, teams, and individual workers embrace microcultures. than other workers by as much as 37% and are 36%
The number and type of microcultures will vary by organization more likely to stay with the organization.27
based, for example, on some or all of the following characteristics:
Increase ability to anticipate and respond to future
• Decision-making speed and style (e.g., consensus-based, demands and changes. Empowering microcultures to
distributed) thrive can enhance organizations’ ability to respond
to customer, market, worker, and stakeholder needs,
• Diversity of workforce (e.g., variety of workforce types, enabling greater agility. When teams are granted auton-
identities) omy to define microcultures centered around broad orga-
nizational principles, they remain aligned to the what but
• Geographic diversity have freedom and flexibility on the how.28 NASA, for
example, allows microcultures to thrive to enable greater
• Governance approach (e.g., command-and-control, flexibility. “NASA has multiple microcultures that are
decentralized) the result of [a] decentralized workforce that is dispersed
across many NASA Space and Research Centers,” says
• M&A activity Nicholas Skytland, NASA chief technologist. “This
allows NASA to remain flexible and distribute its work
• Regulatory oversight effectively.”29
• Risk tolerance Make strides toward human sustainability. By embrac-

ing more fluidity across team cultures, managers can
• Size and organizational maturity have greater ability to support their team’s well-being
goals—70% of managers report that internal barriers
• Workplace model (remote, hybrid, on-site) like corporate culture make it difficult to support their
team members.30 When ways of working are custom-
ized to the unique needs of the people on those teams,

When organizational leaders embrace microcultures, a organizations are more likely to meet workers’ needs to
host of positive results are possible: support well-being and purpose.
85
How to foster successful microcultures which has led to the placement of higher-qual-
ity candidates into teams that fit their behav-
Creating the conditions in which microcultures can flour- ioral profile and team culture, resulting in more
ish requires coordination among organizational leader- productive teams and significant time saved.31
ship, team leaders, and HR. To facilitate microcultures,
organizations should consider the following steps. When it comes to reinforcing microculture behav-
iors, rewards can be a powerful lever. Leaders
• Define a microculture by focusing on the work. To should ensure that performance management
define where and how you want to create a micro- processes and rewards reinforce behaviors that
culture, start with the work itself, as the work will are consistent with—or at least not in conflict
often drive the development of a microculture. with—teams’ unique ways of working. One orga-
Working backward from the outcomes the organization that is embedding microcultures into
nization seeks to achieve, the work can be broken performance management processes is Google
down into its component parts to understand Cloud. Because Google Cloud is a business-to-
what needs to get done and then where and how. business company, unlike the rest of Google, which
works directly with consumers, the Google Cloud
For some companies, starting with the work enables People team recognized the need to have a unique
them to create workplace microcultures that cut microculture that reinforced customer empathy.
across traditional functional siloes. For example, The tenets of customer empathy are embedded in
one microculture may exist for those who work the Teamwork attribute of Google’s performance
primarily on-site for roles like IT infrastructure review process, so while all Googlers are expected to
specialist, because while the work is done inde- exemplify teamwork, Cloud Googlers’ Teamwork
pendently, specialized equipment is required. In assessment is tied to the customer empathy culture
contrast, roles like customer engagement manager tenets.32
or HR business partner may have a microculture
with more remote and flexible time arrangements • Tap managers, leaders, and boundary spanners
because their work is collaborative but not location- to be “modular” across microcultures. While
or time-specific. microcultures move some of the perceived locus
of control away from an organization’s leadership,
• Integrate microcultures into the talent life cycle. Talent leaders have an important role to play in establish-
processes like hiring, performance management, ing and articulating guiding principles that apply
development, and deployment should be flexible to to the whole organization and enabling manag-
adapt to the unique culture of a team, function, or ers to make connections across teams. Managers
location. When it comes to talent acquisition, orga- and team leaders can serve as the connection
nizations can tailor recruitment communications to points between teams that can align potentially
capture the distinctive cultural elements of the hiring disparate cultures to accomplish common goals.
team. In the same way that organizations have sophis-
ticated methods for targeting customer segments, The growth organization at one leading consumer
they can similarly target workforce segments products company, for instance, includes innova-
internally or externally with tailored messaging tion, research and development, and marketing
and practices specific to a given microculture. functions, which are united broadly by curiosity,
but each has a distinct microculture due to unique
This can even be done on a team-level basis, where differences in the nature of the work. The research
workers are hired or deployed to teams based on and development function is highly technical,
which microculture suits them best. For exam- so its microculture is focused more on educa-
ple, manufacturing company ACS has increased tion and discovery processes, with a medium- to
its hiring effectiveness by adding a behavioral long-term view of work products. By contrast,
assessment to its talent acquisition process, the social media marketing team prioritizes speed
86
and creativity to produce viral content aligned learnings across groups. This approach can provide
with social media trends.33 Despite the different insight into work groups’ functioning and allow
microcultures across these three groups, lead- leaders to relinquish tight control of microcultures.37
ers of these teams are able to work across them
due to the overarching value of curiosity, which For example, Dutch software company KeenCorp
fosters more collaboration and engagement. scans internal emails and chats (aggregated and
anonymized, never at the individual level) to gauge
Organizational network analysis can also help culture, engagement, and flag potential prob-
identify the “modular” collaboration points across lems.38 For instance, if there are microaggressions
microcultures. This analysis can identify not only in a particular microculture, the analysis may find
people that overlap between multiple microcultures normal patterns of engagement for one population
to be ambassadors for each but also when two micro- but a dip in another.
cultures are not collaborating at optimal levels.34
General Motors tapped into organizational network Looking to the future of microcultures
analysis to drive innovation and change through
agile teams, which were formed based on network Organizational leaders may worry that acknowledging
roles that could be leveraged in different ways to and enabling microcultures will cause the organization
drive new ways of working.35 For example, when to lose its identity or focus as microcultures prolifer-
General Motors acquired a technology company, ate. However, thoughtful use of new data and technol-
it intentionally did not fully absorb the team in ogy to understand various microcultures, coupled with
order to protect its microculture led by the founder. empowering managers to “own” their respective cultures
Rather, General Motors tapped into “boundary with a boundaryless HR approach to people expertise
spanners” to connect the entrepreneurial team can help strike the right balance between control and
with the operations side of the business for access empowerment.
to resources like engineering or testing. Preserving
this microculture helped General Motors become Failing to embrace microcultures—whether by passively
the first in self-driving test vehicle assembly in a ignoring the microcultures that already exist or actively
mass-production facility.36 discouraging their existence—is likely to create misalign-
ment between workers and leadership that hinders the
• Provide the tools and data needed to enable ongoing achievement of business and human outcomes. Instead,
sensing. Consider investing at the organizational organizational leaders, managers, and workers should
level in survey-based tools, AI, and other data collec- cocreate a set of flourishing microcultures that are
tion and analysis mechanisms that allow organiza- aligned with the organization’s guiding principles. The
tions to understand microcultures in real-time. While likely results: better collaboration, stronger business and
sensing of microcultures can be used to course-cor- human outcomes, and increased agility—all key contrib-
rect teams or groups that have gone rogue, it can utors to an organization’s long-term success.
also be used to shine a spotlight on best practices or
87
Endnotes
1. Roberta Matuson, “So you want to quit your brand-new 21. Andrew Hill, “Power to the workers: Michelin’s great
job…,” Harvard Business Review, December 6, 2021. experiment,” Financial Times, May 11, 2017; Patrick Gilbert
2. Human Capital Institute, “Why new employees quit,” and Ann-Charlotte Teglborg, “Empowering employees in the
December 3, 2019; Rachel Pelta, “Great resignation: Survey age of the digital revolution: A practical approach,” ESCP
finds 1 in 3 are considering quitting their jobs,” Flexijobs, Business School, November 4, 2022.
accessed December 15, 2023. 22. Sue Cantrell, Karen Weisz, Michael Griffiths, Kraig Eaton,
3. Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership, “Do Shannon Poynton, Yves Van Durme, Lauren Kirby, and John
corporate values make a difference?,” University of Notre Forsythe, Harnessing worker agency, Deloitte Insights,
Dame, accessed December 15, 2023. January 9, 2023.
4. Deloitte, “Catalyze culture change in the workplace for 23. 31% probably should, 49% definitely should; Deloitte’s power
sustained results,” accessed December 15, 2023. of purpose research and analysis 2022.
5. Edgar H. Schein, “Coming to a new awareness of 24. Altman, Kiron, Schwartz, and Jones, Workforce Ecosystems.
organizational culture,” MIT Sloan Management Review, 25. DSM, “Preparing the future people & organization strategy,”
January 15, 1984. accessed December 15, 2023.
6. Robert Walters, “Professionals report leaving a job due to poor 26. Ted Kitterman, “5 ways workplace culture drives business
cultural fit,” accessed December 15, 2023. profitability,” Great Place To Work, February 13, 2023.
7. The use of “global” and “local” in this context extends beyond 27. Harvard Business Review, “Revitalizing culture in the world of
the geographic sense of the words. hybrid work.”
8. Online interview with Robin Leopold, chief human resources 28. Alicia Boisnier and Jennifer A. Chatman, “The role of
officer, JPMorgan Chase, 2023. subcultures in agile organizations,” American Psychological
9. Online interview with Sanjiv Gajiwala, former chief growth Association, 2003, pp. 87–112.
officer of a leading US consumer products company, 2023. 29. Nick Skytland, “The future of work,” Nasa, October 17, 2019.
10. Kylie Matthews, “How businesses are adapting to the post- 30. Jen Fisher, Paul H. Silverglate, Colleen Bordeaux, and Michael
pandemic cultural shift,” CEO Magazine, July 29, 2022. Gilmartin, As workforce well-being dips, leaders ask: What will
11. Gallup, “Indicators: Hybrid work,” accessed it take to move the needle?, Deloitte Insights, June 20, 2023.
December 15, 2023. 31. Humantelligence, “Customer stories,” accessed
12. Holger Reisinger and Dane Fetterer, “Forget flexibility. Your December 15, 2023.
employees want autonomy.,” Harvard Business Review, 32. Online interviews with Heather Riemer, chief of staff to
October 29, 2021. the CEO; Monica Morrella, head of strategy and business
13. Alex Christian, “How should HR respond to the rise of operations; and Tracey Arnish, vice president and head of HR;
workplace microcultures?,” HRM, November 10, 2022. Google Cloud, 2023.
14. Schein, “Coming to a new awareness of organizational culture.” 33. Online interview with Sanjiv Gajiwala, former chief growth
15. Johnny Wood, “Hybrid working: Why there’s a widening gap officer of a leading US consumer products company, 2023.
between leaders and employees,” World Economic Forum, 34. Mark S. Granovetter, “The strength of weak ties,” American
December 20, 2022. Journal of Sociology 78, no. 6 (1973), pp. 1360–1380.
16. Oliver Pickup, “How hybrid working brings teams closer but 35. Rob Cross, Heidi Gardner, and Alia Crocker, Networks for
also creates ‘micro cultures’ and internal conflicts,” Worklife, agility: Collaborative practices critical to agile transformation,
January 10, 2023. Connected Commons, March 2019.
17. Harvard Business Review, “Revitalizing culture in the world of 36. Ibid.
hybrid work,” November–December 2022. 37. Deloitte, “Beyond productivity: The journey to the quantified
18. Elizabeth J. Altman, David Kiron, Robin Jones, and Jeff organization,” accessed December 15, 2023.
Schwartz, Orchestrating workforce ecosystems, MIT Sloan 38. Keencorp, “Maximize your most valuable asset with the leader
Management Review and Deloitte, May 2022. in workforce analytics,” accessed December 15, 2023.
19. Elizabeth J. Altman, David Kiron, Jeff Schwartz, and Robin
Jones, Workforce Ecosystems: Reaching Strategic Goals with
People, Partners, and Technologies, The MIT Press (2023).
20. Aware, “Filling gaps between traditional employee experience
surveys,” accessed December 15, 2023.
88
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Tracey Arnish (Google), Monica Morrella (Google), Heather Riemer (Google),
Robin Leopold (JPMorgan Chase), and Sanjiv Gajiwala for their contributions to this chapter.
Thank you to Tom Alstein, Burt Rea, Cindy Skirvin, Katherine Peterson, Carissa Kilgour, and Steve Hatfield for sharing their expertise
and insights to support this chapter.
Special thanks to Brittany Bjornberg, Catherine Gergen, and Sarah Hechtman for their leadership in the development of this content
and to Femi Olaniyi for his contributions.
89
90
From function to discipline: The
rise of boundaryless HR
The future of work requires human resources to evolve, shifting from a
siloed function to a boundaryless discipline integrated with the people,
businesses, and community it serves.
Kraig Eaton, Sue Cantrell, Kim Eberbach, and Julie Duda
T
o meet the new demands of a boundary-
WHAT IS “PEOPLE EXPERTISE?”
less world, human resources itself should
become boundaryless, shifting from a People expertise is the knowledge and understanding of how
specialized function that owns most to develop, motivate, and deploy workers to achieve business
workforce responsibility to a boundar- outcomes (for example, productivity) and human outcomes
yless discipline, cocreated and integrated (for example, professional growth) throughout the talent life
with the people, business, and community it serves. One cycle. At an individual contributor level, people expertise is an
where people expertise isn’t solely owned by HR, but understanding of how to amplify your own and your fellow team
where the people discipline in an organization becomes a members’ performance through providing feedback, seeking
responsibility and capability of all, woven throughout the and supporting development opportunities, reinforcing culture,
fabric of the business to create multidisciplinary solutions engaging in positive teaming, and other actions.
to increasingly complex problems.
Harnessing the potential of people has become as import- culture, skills, and behaviors in achieving digital trans-
ant as, or more important than, leveraging physical formation outcomes.” This collaboration has helped the
assets to achieve outcomes.1 And as dramatic changes organization achieve business process improvements,
in business, technology, and the world often demand resulting in a 75% reduction in total order cycle time.2
unprecedented agility, responsibility, and the creation Digital transformation—in particular, the impact of
of human outcomes, no single function can tackle these generative artificial intelligence—also creates a premium
on its own: People expertise (within or beyond HR), on people capabilities and skills for all; indeed, talent
alongside expertise in other disciplines, will be critical. management is one of the top 10 skills that is increasing
in importance for all workers, according to the World
Consider how the explosion of human and machine Economic Forum.3
interaction demands close collaboration between HR

and information technology. Chris Nardecchia, chief Or consider how as work becomes more dynamic, people
information officer for Rockwell Automation, for exam- expertise is needed at the edges of the organization, close
ple, works closely with the chief human resources officer to the point of need—rather than many steps removed
“because there is an inherent link between leadership, in a function. Likewise, the responsible use of workforce
91
Figure 1
The knowing vs. doing gap: Respondents know that shifting HR to a cross-functional
discipline is important, but few are doing enough to make meaningful progress
Percentage of respondents answering the questions, “How important is the shift of HR from an operations function to a cross-
functional discipline of orchestrating work to your organization’s success?” and “Where is your organization in its journey to
address this issue?”
92
data and AI requires HR to partner with information • Boundaries that equate the notion of “jobs” to
“HR is an ability
technology, risk, and ethics. The pursuit of responsi- work and “employees” to workers. HR, together
ble business practices, including environmental, social, with other disciplines, fluidly orchestrates the skills and a discipline
and governance concerns—in particular, the increas- of all resources who perform work—employees, that everybody
ing importance of human sustainability—means HR is partners, extended workers, and smart machines. has to have.
collaborating closely with other functions and groups People are increasingly becoming less tethered to As HR, we
like corporate social responsibility; diversity, equity, work bound in “jobs;” rather, their skills can be
have to stop
and inclusion; finance; operations; marketing; and flexibly deployed based on evolving work needs.
public affairs. thinking that
• Boundaries between HR and external organiza- our managers
tions, customers, and other outside parties. HR being better is a
A new mindset for HR thinks beyond the traditional internal “customer” detriment to our
of leaders, managers, and employees, and now also function. Every
These are just a few examples of boundaryless HR focuses on end customers, investors, and society.
person who
in action. But what exactly is boundaryless HR? HR orchestrates a wide range of relationships
Boundaryless HR is first and foremost a mindset shift— beyond the organization, including those with works with other
supported by the adoption of a different set of practices, educational institutions, governments, partners, people has to
skill sets, metrics, technologies, and even in some cases, and communities. be good at HR.”
structural changes. Boundaryless HR embeds the people — Gabriel Sander,
discipline into the fabric of a business by breaking down HR has already worked to dissolve boundaries within Cuervo
the following boundaries: the HR function, adopting more agile, employee-centric
operating models.4 Now, HR is poised for the next
• Boundaries between HR and other disciplines. As evolution: shifting its mindset to reconsider the very
people expertise is integrated across functional areas boundaries of the HR function itself (figure 2). When
to jointly solve business problems, all functional HR becomes boundaryless, HR professionals can act
areas (including HR) should work toward—and more like orchestrators, coaches, and cocreators, rather
measure themselves against—common business than traditional employment managers.
and human outcomes. With the breakdown of
these boundaries, not only do functional disciplines It’s worth noting that boundaryless HR is not an HR
start to merge, but the traditional people discipline operating model problem or a neat remapping of who
itself starts to merge with other related disciplines owns what. It’s less a matter of where people are in the
like decision science, behavioral economics, and boxes and lines of an organization’s structure, and more
academic disciplines such as psychology, sociology, how the organization taps into the most skillful people,
and anthropology. no matter where they reside, inside or outside the orga-
nization, to address people-related challenges and issues.
• Boundaries between HR, workers, leaders, and
managers. All people in an organization—from the As leaders recognize the critical importance of people
board to the C-suite to every individual contrib- expertise, it becomes less of a question as to where
utor—need people expertise and to be mutually this expertise is housed, or where, when, and how it is
accountable for human performance. HR democ- delivered through an HR operating model, and more
ratizes people management, serving as a platform of a question of how to operationalize people expertise
aided by automation and AI that provides leaders, throughout the organization at the point of need. “HR is
managers, and workers with the tools, information, an ability and a discipline that everybody has to have,”
and real-time data they need to perform more of the explains Gabriel Sander, head of human resources at
HR-related work themselves. Rather than owning Cuervo. “As HR, we have to stop thinking that our
the discipline of people, HR cocreates that discipline managers being better is a detriment to our function.
and cultivates it across all roles in the organization, Every person who works with other people has to be
transforming workers from consumers of HR prac- good at HR.”5
tices into coproducers.
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Figure 2
HR’s role evolves with organizational needs
Personnel and HR management

HR generalists aim to manage employment, with a
focus on process, execution, compliance, and control.
Strategic business partner HR

Seen as a cost center, HR business partners and centers of
excellence seek to align HR with business strategy. Scope
includes learning and development, organizational design,
culture, performance management, and total rewards.
Agile HR
HR and talent management groups are integrated in
end-to-end teams. Assisted by artificial intelligence and other
technologies, HR aims to deliver continuously adaptive HR
services based on emerging worker and business needs.
Scope includes employee value proposition and experience.
Boundaryless HR
A discipline integrated with the business, workers, and stakeholders
it serves, HR orchestrates work and blended resources, including
humans and machines, to drive business transformation, strategic
outcomes, and human sustainability.
This shift builds on our 2020 Global Human Capital to the organization—and ultimately, to the work and
trend, Memo to HR,6 which called for HR to expand workforce itself. Boundaryless HR is how we get there.
accountability, extending its scope of influence beyond
the function to the enterprise and business ecosystem The end result is an ecosystem of HR professionals, busi-
as a whole, and broadening its focus from employees ness leaders, and workers who are equipped with the
people expertise to unlock human performance.
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What boundaryless HR helps unlock for Now, there is risk of a snapback, perhaps because
organizations HR earned a temporary spotlight and entry into
work-related decisions, but business leaders didn’t
The COVID-19 pandemic put a spotlight on the value fully recognize the ongoing value of people expertise;
realized when HR has broad involvement across the or because the prepandemic status quo offers a simpler
organization. During the pandemic, HR often: path.9 Although the pandemic may have been an accel-
erator, the need for greater HR impact was growing well
• Worked closely with IT to manage the technological before the pandemic. Simply going back to previous ways
implications of remote work, with finance to work of working overlooks the need to operationalize collab-
through tax and payroll implications of remote orative work across the organization and the ecosystem
work, and with real estate and operations to keep in which it operates.
workers safe;
At the same time, the pace of change and expectations
• Adopted capabilities outside its typical scope, such continue to rise, suggesting that HR should reinvent
as the health expertise needed for effective contact its purpose. The world of work is changing, as illus-
tracing; and trated by so many of our current and previous trends,
requiring five major shifts (figure 3). But moving to
• Established new partnerships entirely outside the a boundaryless HR approach can help organizations
organization, collaborating with medical providers, protect themselves against a snapback and evolve fast
departments of health, and even other organiza- enough to keep pace with change. Moving toward
tions to borrow or loan workers. Cross-company boundaryless HR can be a path toward increased value
talent exchanges that emerged during the pandemic creation—for HR, for workers, and for the organiza-
enabled organizations to temporarily move workers tion as a whole. And value creation is what it needs;
in industries without work due to the crisis (for although HR has certainly made progress in recent years,
example, airlines and hospitality) to those organi- only 15% of executives strongly agree that their orga-
zations that had an excess of work (for example, nization values the work performed by HR, according
health and logistics).7 to our 2024 Global Human Capital Trends research.
By working outside of its traditional functional bound- The five major shifts, and why boundaryless HR is
ary, HR successfully kept people safe while sustaining needed to execute them, are as follows:
business operations, created new ways of working with
digital technologies, and helped advance human sustain- • From improving productivity to unlocking human
ability by keeping workers employed. And leaders recog- performance. As work and productivity metrics
nized the impact: The percentage of executives who are shift away from industrial-era concepts to become
very confident in HR’s ability to navigate future changes more human-centric, HR will need to shift to
doubled from 2019 to 2020.8 measuring and unlocking human performance and
SIGNALS YOUR ORGANIZATION NEEDS TO MOVE TOWARD BOUNDARYLESS HR
• Your business leaders are asking how managers and don’t feel that HR practices • Your HR talent prefers to gain experience in
they can develop their own people-related are meeting their unique needs. diverse types of work.
expertise, realizing they need it as work
becomes more dynamic and they need to • Your workforce is increasingly composed • You are sensing that the scope and
deliver on human outcomes. of internal and external talent, humans and expectations of HR are broadening and
smart machines, and distributed workers in evolving.
• Your employee feedback shows that workers remote and physical locations.
are not getting enough support from their
95
Figure 3
Boundaryless HR involved a shift from compliance and deliverables to

cross-disciplinary strategy
From: To:
Improving productivity Unlocking human performance
Improving employee engagement Elevating human sustainability
Managing employment Orchestrating work
Aligning HR practices to the business strategy Driving business transformation and shared outcomes
Ensuring worker compliance Managing and mitigating workforce risk
potential; 70% of leaders agree that this should well-being, stronger skills and employability, good
be HR’s new role, representing a bold move away jobs, sustainable wages, opportunities for advance-
from a function long devoted to standardization.10 ment, and greater belonging, equity, and purpose.
Currently, however, only 20% of C-suite leaders Management appears to be already on board with
strongly agree that their HR function improves this shared outcome: Seventy-nine percent of execu-
their workers’ performance. To truly unlock human tives agree that the organization has a responsibility
performance, HR should help build people exper- to create value for workers as human beings and
tise across the organization. It should integrate new society in general.11
sources of work and workforce data with business
data and become more integrated with, and tailored • From managing employment to orchestrating
to, the individual needs of the workers and people work. As speed and near real-time responsive-
managers it serves. Today, however, only 10% of ness increasingly create competitive advantage,
workers strongly agree that their HR organization’s work is becoming unbound from jobs. Instead,
practices meet their unique needs and preferences. work is often fluidly organized based on skills12 in
blended, cross-disciplinary teams of humans and
smart machines,13 as well as a workforce ecosystem
• From improving employee engagement to elevat- composed of internal and external talent.14 In addi-
ing human sustainability. For decades, employee tion to increased agility, this new workforce ecosys-
engagement has been a goal of HR. But engagement tem can help solve some of business leaders’ most
can be an imperfect proxy for the bigger goal that pressing challenges: chronic skill shortages, cost
boundaryless HR can help orchestrate: pursuing optimization, and demand for innovation. A major-
human sustainability, which we define as the degree ity of business and HR leaders (72%) believe that
to which an organization creates value for people as HR will shift beyond managing traditional employ-
human beings, leaving them with greater health and ment activities to orchestrating work.15 Indeed, 81%
96
of leaders say a shift from jobs to skills demands sustainability, DEI, or ESG officer; and operations,
greater cross-functional collaboration,16 and 84% with mutual accountability and responsibility for “It’s hard to
say orchestrating an entire workforce ecosystem shared outcomes from managers to the board. implement
already requires close collaboration between two change
or more functions.17 effectively
The move toward boundaryless HR is underway if you’re not
• From aligning HR practices to the business
leading change.
strategy to driving business transformation and Seventy-two percent of respondents in our research
shared outcomes. Today’s business problems are agreed that HR’s shift from an operations function to If we want to
increasingly complex, demanding multiple disci- a discipline operating across functions to orchestrate be a strategic
plines to come together to solve them. In this work is very important or of critical importance. Some function, we
environment, HR is no longer merely a supporter progress is being made: Thirty-five percent of respon- need to think
of business strategy as a “business partner.” dents said that the HR function at their organization has about the role
expanded its scope over the past three years. And 27%
we play in
Instead, the people discipline is cocreating business of C-suite leaders strongly agreed that their HR function
strategy and key business outcomes, and 81% of has become increasingly integrated with the practices of architecting
business executives say the business agenda and other business functions. that change—
the people agenda have never been more inter- envisioning
twined.18 Whether it’s innovation, customer satis- That trend is reflected across the organization, where organizational
faction, digital transformation, or organizational functional boundaries are becoming less meaningful design, ways of
agility, the discipline of people is a key, and often overall. In fact, 81% of executives said work is increas-
working, new
the most critical, driver of the major outcomes. ingly performed across functional boundaries21 and 54%
of executives in our survey said cross-functional collab- opportunities
“It’s hard to implement change effectively if you’re oration at the worker level is now happening often or for impact.”
not leading change,” said Donna Morris, chief all the time. These results represent a substantial shift — Donna Morris,
people officer at Walmart. “If we want to be a stra- from the data of our 2018 survey, in which 73% of chief people officer,
tegic function, we need to think about the role we respondents said their C-suite leaders rarely, if ever, work Walmart
play in architecting that change—envisioning orga- together on projects or strategic initiatives.22 Johnson &
nizational design, ways of working, new opportu- Johnson’s HR leadership saw an opportunity to break
nities for impact.” down functional boundaries in creating the HR Decision
Science team, which is tasked with tapping the organi-
• From ensuring worker compliance to managing and zation’s vast data resources to make better end-to-end
mitigating workforce risk. HR’s historical focus on workforce-related decisions and improve organizational
employment-related compliance is shifting to a and worker outcomes. The team includes experts and
broader view of managing and mitigating work- specialists from across the organization working together
force risk. However, only 35% of organizations to help strengthen J&J’s ability to drive science-based
have made this shift.19 This lens expands organiza- and data-driven people decisions across talent practices
tions’ focus beyond operational and financial risk (see the case study titled “Johnson & Johnson: A case
to include the human implications of a growing list study in cross-functional teaming”).23
of disruptive external risks, including environmen-
tal, social, technological, political, and economic The shift to boundaryless HR doesn’t necessarily indi-
issues. Although the chief human resources officer cate that HR needs to take over the responsibilities of
(CHRO) is the C-suite executive most often respon- other functions. At the same time, it is also true that, as
sible for managing workforce risk,20 addressing and the people discipline is increasingly integrated into the
mitigating workforce risk demands cross-functional business, HR leaders may take on responsibilities such as
collaboration. Building on its expertise across real estate and customer experience that are outside their
the organization, boundaryless HR orchestrates traditional functional purview. Consider how Alexion
a cross-functional view of workforce risk that Pharmaceuticals introduced a chief patient and employee
involves finance; risk and legal; the chief purpose, experience officer, integrating the worker and patient
97
experience,24 or how KION Group AG’s chief people Further, our research also indicates that organiza-
officer expanded her role to become chief people and tions may be particularly challenged by their internal
sustainability officer.25 constraints. Potential constraints could include not
prioritizing people expertise or not having a culture that
But these dynamics will work the other way, too. To supports it, as well as competing priorities. For exam-
become better integrated, HR may give up some of its ple, while organizations might offer training courses on
ownership over certain tasks as HR-related activities people-related issues to first-time supervisors or provide
are folded into other groups. For example, marketing mid-level managers feedback or coaching to help them
may take on the responsibility of employer branding; become better people leaders, these can sometimes be
chief strategy officers may be responsible for creating a treated as secondary priorities, lack investment, and
human capital strategy; operations management groups not be well-integrated into day-to-day ways of work-
may take on some HR responsibilities related to process ing. Resolving those issues, in part by moving bound-
excellence. Octopus Energy, for example, does not have aryless HR higher on the organizational priority list, is
an HR department, but rather empowers managers to necessary for organizations to benefit from boundaryless
be responsible for tactical tasks like resolving a case of HR’s promise.
bullying or mediating contract disputes.26 Managers will
also need to take on more people management respon-
sibilities themselves—performing their own analytics, Boundaryless HR in action
conducting workforce planning, or identifying areas
to improve human performance. For instance, Google HR is not alone in becoming boundaryless: IT, finance,
Cloud managers use people dashboards provided by HR and other functions are increasingly becoming integrated
to share insights on organizational health and perfor- into the business to drive agility, innovation, and human
mance, and they plan to embed AI in the future to model sustainability. Like other functions, HR will need to
changes to things like team structures or roles.27 actively seek better integration across roles, processes,
objectives, teams, metrics, technologies, and systems
However, it’s still early when it comes to fully shifting HR throughout the organization.
from an operations function to a boundaryless discipline
that orchestrates work—and organizations are finding Organizations can take the following actions to trans-
the process challenging. In our survey, 31% of C-suite form HR from a function to a boundaryless discipline:
leaders said this shift is one of the top three most difficult
changes for their organization’s leadership to address. • Redefine the role of the manager to be a people
leader. Recognizing the need to embed the people
discipline into the role of managers, Standard
Chartered Bank redefined the role of the manager
as a people leader and created training and an
accreditation process for people skills.28 Telstra split
the role of the manager into two: leaders of people
(responsible for similarly skilled workers, ensuring
they have the skills and capabilities to meet current
and future needs) and leaders of work (responsible
for creating and executing work plans), with neither
being subordinate to the other..29 Cisco reinvented
its HR function to make its primary purpose to
support managers in becoming better people lead-
ers, building an entire set of tools and apparatus
around data and manager capability.30 To be effec-
tive, organizations should also measure and recog-
nize the people leader aspect of managers’ roles,
making the people outcomes just as important as the
98
financial or business outcomes. Some organizations, issues like attrition risks; an AI-driven adviser even
for example, have performance management ratings suggests salary increases. The AI considers not only
and compensation outcomes based on whether a performance and market pay gaps, but also internal
leader is a producer or developer of an organiza- data on worker turnover by skills, and current and
tion’s people, or even an “exporter of talent.” future external demand for each worker’s skills. AI
has also freed up managers to take on more people
• Create new metrics and analytics shared across development responsibilities—for which training
functional areas. As the people discipline becomes programs accredit them and for which they are
a responsibility for all, accountability should follow. held accountable through a metrics-driven perfor-
Data suggests that it’s been lacking thus far: Sixty- mance development system.33 Organizations should
five percent of organizations said their people consult with legal advisors prior to implementing
analytics created no commercial benefit for the orga- employment-related AI tools like this and ensure
nization over the previous year.31 And only 24% responsible data practices are in place.
of executives strongly agreed that the HR function
is measured against the same business metrics as • Create cross-functional teams or cross-functional
other operational functions. Now, boundaryless HR “integrator” roles to tackle business problems and
should focus on shared outcomes, such as agility, people issues. To start, organizations can cross-pol-
customer satisfaction, and human performance, and linate expertise by bringing people from other func-
analytics that combine multiple data sources (HR, tions or disciplines into HR roles or projects, and
finance, operations, etc.) to uncover issues and illu- vice versa. Upskilling HR professionals so they
minate solutions. Organizations should ensure that understand other functional areas (for example,
managers—especially people leaders—have access finance and technology) and upskilling leaders in
to the data and information they need to assess other domains in people expertise can also help. In
performance. VW Australia, for example, created addition, organizations can create cross-functional
a democratized platform integrating its customer teams; many organizations have already created
and employee experience data for access by local teams of IT, facilities, and HR to improve workforce
managers. This shift prompted investments in dealer effectiveness, others are starting to create teams
facilities that led to sustained sales growth and the composed of the chief digital or information officer,
highest retention rates and workforce experience chief human resources officer, chief marketing offi-
scores in the company’s history.32 cer, and chief executive to achieve digital transfor-
mation. Johnson & Johnson’s HR Decision Science
• Democratize people practices and data with AI and team exemplifies how cross-functional collaboration
other digital tools, creating science-based processes can improve organizational and worker outcomes
that unlock performance. AI—in particular gener- (see the case study titled “Johnson & Johnson:
ative AI—is poised to shatter the boundaries of A case study in cross-functional teaming”).34
the HR function. What is the role of HR-provided
training when workers can now, for example, get Alternatively, organizations can create integrator
information on any topic, along with actionable roles that include the people discipline such as joint
suggestions, with a simple question on a generative worker or customer experience leader, chief collab-
AI platform? Generative AI can create first drafts oration officer, or chief transformation officer. For
of job postings or integrate performance feedback, example, after spinning off from Western Union,
suggest career options for workers or managers’ fintech organization Convera has created integrated
direct reports, offer real-time performance insights transformation roles to drive its business strategy,
into worker sentiment or the extent of collabora- naming a leader to each transformation goal. Senior
tion across silos, or automatically assemble learning leaders recognized the importance of embedding
content and assessments to help people learn in the change capabilities and resilience throughout the
flow of work. Data democratization is also import- organization, not siloed to one workstream or team
ant. At IBM, for example, new AI tools are helping within HR. To operationalize this change capabil-
managers make better people decisions and spot ity, each of the transformation leaders has been
99
trained in change management, and each initiative transactional way, like customers, is counterproduc-
is measured against organizational change manage- tive. Real cocreation can break down the boundary
ment metrics as part of its business case.35 The between workers and HR by, for example, involving
change management training has also been rolled workers directly in virtual focus groups, interactive
out for managers and employees to build individual whiteboards, extended hackathons, or idea jams to
and organizational resilience amid change. come up with ideas or test drive concepts. Allstate
Insurance, for instance, involved 170 workers in
• Transform workers into producers of people designing and testing employee experience prod-
practices, not just consumers. Boundaryless HR ucts like a new performance rating scale,36 while
organizations work side by side with workers, Convera invited all its workers to participate in a
involving them in the design, deployment, and hackathon to redesign its rewards platform.37
iteration of things like microcultures and other
people practices that affect them. However, only • Pursue collaborations and partnerships with exter-
30% of C-suite leaders say their organization’s nal entities. Organizations can start by appointing
leaders are involving their workers in cocreating teams of ambassadors to engage with the broader
the organization’s solutions often or all of the time. community, including educational institutions,
governments, regulators, investors, suppliers, part-
To be effective, cocreation needs to go far beyond ners, and global collective movements. Or consider
end-to-end journey mapping, persona development, joining consortiums with other organizations to do
design-thinking, agile methodologies, and insight things like influence regulations, share skills-demand
gathering from workers through sentiment analy- data with educational institutions, or provide input
sis or analytics—all of which have been borrowed into post-secondary curriculum to better develop
from the customer experience field. Workers the talent pipeline.
are not customers; in fact, treating workers in a
JOHNSON & JOHNSON: A CASE STUDY IN CROSS-FUNCTIONAL TEAMING
When Johnson & Johnson identified an opportunity well as experts like industrial or organizational Beyond breaking down boundaries between HR
to make better, more objective, and data-driven psychologists and data scientists. They work in and other disciplines, the HR Decision Science
decisions about their workforce, the Global Talent close collaboration with both technology partners to team is also working to break down boundaries
Management team set out to make it happen by ensure that they are integrating HR data with other that equate the notion of “jobs” to work. The team
finding a way to integrate the vast amounts of data from the business (e.g., finance, operational, is driving a transformation that is enabling Johnson
data that were available to them, but siloed across and customer data), as well as with the businesses & Johnson to become a skills-based organization
different functions of the organization, and then themselves to strategically help frame up the where skills, more than jobs, are at the center of the
leverage this connected data within talent practices. right types of questions to answer their talent talent strategy ultimately launching a model that
To bring this data together, and ultimately provide challenges. The team then blends high quality data powers skills-based hiring, mentoring, development,
added strategic value to the organization at large and science to ultimately help business partners and redeployment to other functional areas.
by collecting and connecting talent insights to make informed, impactful decisions about people
actionable recommendations that drive outcomes, and organizations. This integrated team has been
they launched the HR Decision Science team. critical to delivering the best possible insights and
decisions for the organization, informing decisions
The team relied heavily on cross-functional teaming around, development, performance engagement,
and collaboration, bringing together specialists and workforce planning.
from business units across the organization, as
100
The future of boundaryless HR CHROs may need to shift their own roles, too, as they
integrate the people discipline across the organization
The mindset shift to boundaryless HR often requires and cocreate new approaches to unlocking human
that HR leave its comfort zone—shifting from owning potential and measuring human performance along
the discipline of people to coowning and cocreating it with other functional leaders. Fortunately, many CHROs
with the people and business it serves in order to drive are already well-positioned to be an orchestrator across
shared outcomes with mutual accountability. It’s a disciplines, as it is one of the only roles that serves every
two-way street: Like counterparts in IT and finance, part of the business. For example, the CHRO is often
HR can become more integrated with the business, and well-placed to identify and orchestrate the connections
the business can become integrated with HR. among technology, data, and people, or the connec-
tions between the customer and worker experience.
The CHRO has a critical role to play in this evolution, This shift will require that many CHROs grow their
which demands a new way of leading. It may even be skills, as they forge connections across and beyond the
time to make the CHRO the chief work officer, respon- enterprise, and create a stable home for HR professionals
sible for a workforce that is now composed of internal through belonging and purpose as they increasingly work
and external workers collaborating with AI, and where outside of the HR function itself.
the line between technology and people is increasingly
blurred. “The future of HR is one where we think about The shift to boundaryless HR will require a new vision
boundaryless differently, and how that changes our team of HR, a new mindset, new skills, a new way of leading,
constructs,” said Michael Ehret, PhD, head of global and potentially new roles and organizational structures.
talent management at Johnson & Johnson, in an inter- But the payoff from the move from knowing to doing
view with Deloitte. “For example, our talent acquisition can be tremendous. HR can help create more compelling
team has transformed into a talent access team, because worker value propositions, improve workforce effective-
it’s not just about hiring people full-time or part-time. We ness, and move talent management closer to serving as a
need to access the best talent in the world, with the right strategic function of the business, rather than one that is
skills, whether that’s full time, part time, contingent, or primarily operational or reactive. In addition, the work
smart machines that will allow our people to focus on the of HR professionals can be more creative and meaning-
most impactful work. Our Global Talent Management ful. As human performance is unlocked and measured,
team has adopted the mantra of ‘ready for any future.’ organizations can thrive, along with the workers, part-
We want to make sure the organization, our leaders, and ners, and communities they reach.
our people are ready for whatever comes.”38
101
Endnotes
1. Frederico Belo, Vito D. Gala, Juliana Salomao, and Maria 20. Joseph B. Fuller, Michael Griffiths, Reem Janho, Michael
Ana Vitorino, “Decomposing firm value,” Journal of Financial Stephan, Carey Oven, Keri Calagna, Robin Jones, Sue Cantrell,
Economics 143, no. 2, February 2022, pp. 619–639. Zac Shaw, and George Fackler, Managing workforce risk in
2. Bob Violino, “8 ways CIOs and CHROs can collaborate for an era of unpredictability and disruption, Deloitte Insights,
business impact,” CIO, August 24, 2022. February 24, 2023.
3. World Economic Forum, The future of jobs report 2023, 21. Griffiths and Jones, “The skills-based organization.”
April 30, 2023. 22. Gaurav Lahiri and Jeff Schwartz, The symphonic C-suite: Teams
4. Deloitte, Imagining HR for today’s worker, accessed December leading teams: 2018 Global Human Capital Trends, Deloitte
2023; Harvard Business Review, “Why your organization’s Insights, 28 March 2018.
future demands a new kind of HR,” February 21, 2019. 23. Michel Ehret (head of global talent management, Johnson
5. Gabriel Sander (chief human resources officer, José Cuervo), & Johnson) and Sarah Brock (head of HR decision science,
online interview, 2023. Johnson & Johnson), online interview, 2023.
6. Jeff Schwartz, Brad Denny, David Mallon, Yves Van Durme, 24. Wall Street Journal, “How marketers can inspire, empower
Maren Hauptmann, Ramona Yan, and Shannon Poynton, A talent,” March 9, 2020.
memo to HR, Deloitte Insights, May 15, 2020. 25. Modern Materials Handling, “KION Group appoints new CFO
7. Ravin Jesuthasan, Tracey Malcolm, and Susan Cantrell, “How and new Chief People and Sustainability officer,” October 20,
the coronavirus crisis is redefining jobs,” Harvard Business 2022.
Review, April 22, 2020. 26. Dougal Shaw, “CEO secrets: ‘My billion pound company has
8. Deloitte, Deloitte 2021 Global Human Capital Trends report, no HR department’,” BBC News, February 24, 2021.
press release, October 22, 2020. 27. Heather Riemer (chief of staff to the CEO, Google Cloud),
9. Millicent Machell, “Are we returning to pre-pandemic ways of Monica Morrella (head of strategy and business operations,
working?,” HR Magazine, April 6, 2023; John Dujay, “Is HR’s Google Cloud), and Tracey Arnish (vice president and head of
transformation here for the long run?,” HR Reporter, May 10, HR, Google Cloud), 2023.
2021. 28. Abbie Lundberg and George Westerman, “The transformer
10. Michael Griffiths and Robin Jones, “The skills-based CLO,” Harvard Business Review, January–February 2020.
organization: A new operating model for work and the 29. Diane Gherson and Lynda Gratton, “Managers can’t do it all,”
workforce,” Deloitte, November 2, 2022. Harvard Business Review, March–April 2022.
11. Ibid. 30. Mastufa Ahmed, “At Cisco, people come first: Ashley Goodall,
12. Sue Cantrell, Karen Weisz, Michael Griffiths, Kraig Eaton, SVP, Methods & Intelligence,” interview, People Matters,
Shannon Poynton, Yves Van Durme, Nic Scoble-Williams, August 10, 2020.
Lauren Kirby, and John Forsythe, Navigating the end of jobs, 31. Insight222, People Analytics Trends 2023 report key findings,
Deloitte Insights, January 9, 2023. accessed December 2023.
13. Steve Hatfield, Tara Mahoutchian, Nate Paynter, Nic Scoble- 32. Wall Street Journal, “How marketers can inspire, empower
Williams, John Forsythe, Shannon Poynton, Martin Kamen, talent”; Qualtrics, “Volkswagen,” website, accessed
Lauren Kirby, Kraig Eaton, and Yves Van Durme, Powering December 2023.
human impact with technology, Deloitte Insights, January 9, 33. Gherson and Gratton, “Managers can’t do it all”; Nicole Lewis,
2023. “IBM transforms its approach to human resources with AI,”
14. Sue Cantrell, Karen Weisz, Michael Griffiths, Kraig Eaton, Society of Human Resource Management, May 21, 2019.
Shannon Poynton, Yves Van Durme, Nic Scoble-Williams, 34. Ehret and Brock interview.
John Forsythe, and Lauren Kirby, Unlocking the workforce 35. Jodi Krause (chief people officer, Convera), online interview,
ecosystem, Deloitte Insights, January 9, 2023. 2023.
15. Griffiths and Jones, “The skills-based organization.” 36. Christina Chateauvert, “Keeping people at the center of the
16. Ibid. people experience,” i4cp, March 7, 2023.
17. Cantrell, Weisz, Griffiths, Eaton, Poynton, Durme, Scoble- 37. Krause interview.
Williams, Forsythe, and Kirby, Unlocking the workforce 38. Ehret and Brock interview.
ecosystem, Deloitte Insights, January 9, 2023.
18. Mercer, “2024 Global Talent Trends,” accessed December
2023.
19. Sue Cantrell, Zac Shaw, Michael Griffiths, Reem Janho, Kraig
Eaton, David Mallon, Nic Scoble-Williams, Yves Van Durme,
and Shannon Poynton, Elevating the focus on human risk,
Deloitte Insights, January 9, 2023.
102
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Jodi Krause (Convera), Vitalija Jakovoniene (Convera), Gabriel Sander (Cuervo), Tracey Arnish (Google),
Monica Morrella (Google), Heather Riemer (Google), Michael Ehret (Johnson & Johnson), Sarah Brock (Johnson & Johnson), and
Donna Morris (Walmart) for their contributions to this chapter.
Thank you to Victor Reyes, Amy Sanford, Steve Hatfield, Robin Jones, and Karen Weisz for sharing their expertise and insights to
support this chapter.
Special thanks to Sarah Hechtman and Brittany Bjornberg for their leadership in the development of this content, and to Meghan Bayne
for her contributions.
2024 Global Human Capital Trends Report
103
104
Evolving leadership to drive
human performance
Organizational leaders and board members can play a critical role in the
journey toward driving business and human outcomes.
Yves Van Durme, Corrie Commisso, Jason Flynn, Michael Griffiths, and John Guziak
W
ork has never been more digital, like creativity and curiosity are becoming more
requiring more uniquely human important than ever, and the way we need to measure
capabilities. Organizations have human performance is rapidly changing in response.
access to more work and work- Taking a boundaryless approach to HR, where people
force data than ever before and expertise is woven into the fabric of the business, makes
a growing suite of technology, human performance a shared responsibility.
tools, and intelligence that promise to elevate human
performance—or the combination of business and It’s also clear that this new focus on human performance
human outcomes. isn’t a trade-off. Workers and leaders aren’t looking to
make work more human at the expense of business
But in the midst of this radical transformation, an unex- outcomes and priorities, but as a path toward improv-
pected shift is taking place. In a workplace that is increasing business outcomes and priorities. But while 76% of
ingly shaped by advances in technology, many leaders respondents to our 2024 Global Human Capital Trends
and workers are now focusing on a new challenge: not research say that leaving every human the organization
only making work better for humans but also creating comes in contact with better off is very or critically
value for workers and every other human being the orga- important to their organization’s success, there’s a gap
nization impacts. in how well leaders and executives are prioritizing this.
Leaders and executives in our survey ranked this last
It’s clear in the trends we’ve explored in this year’s report in importance, behind priorities like reimagining work
that while technology plays a role, human outcomes with digital tools and seeking better ways to measure
and capabilities are the key drivers behind innovation worker performance.
and organizational growth. Expectations are high for
organizations to make progress on human sustainability What does this mean for those who are responsible for
and for leaders to build trust through taking a thought- leading organizations through this new way of working
ful approach to transparency. Many workers want that is both high-tech and human-driven?
microcultures that are relevant to the way they
work, and they are looking for safe digital spaces to In last year’s Global Human Capital Trends report, we
experiment and innovate. Uniquely human capabilities focused on the new fundamentals organizations need to
105
navigate a world where boundaries are breaking down. progress than workers (22% of executives say they are
Workers and In this chapter, we’re zooming in on senior leaders and doing well versus 10% of workers), it’s clear that there
leaders aren’t the board and the influential roles they play as their is much work to be done.
looking to organizations begin to embrace these new realities. Even
make work as traditional top-down leadership evolves into a more It’s likely that the push needed to close the gap between
more human distributed model in many organizations, board and knowing human performance should be a priority and
C-suite leaders play a pivotal role in navigating through doing the work to make it a reality will come from those
at the expense this dynamic environment. holding the decision-making reins. Senior leaders have
of business access to the organizational levers that can either help or
outcomes and These leaders are in a unique position to help their hinder efforts to change: finances, governance, process,
priorities, but as organizations successfully embrace human sustainabil- organizational values, and priorities. They are also in a
a path toward ity. While our research indicates that most leaders are position to model and drive a purpose-driven vision that
improving confident in their ability to scale human capabilities supports human sustainability.
and people skills, measure engagement, and meet ESG
business goals, they may be overestimating their progress, and While worker expectations can inspire action—and are,
outcomes and relying on outdated proxies. Making the shifts neces- for many organizations—transforming an organizational
priorities. sary to truly prioritize human performance will not be mindset requires leadership engagement and support
without its challenges. According to our research, for beyond grass-roots efforts. According to Kerrie Peraino,
example, one-third of executives are still managing their chief people officer at Verily Life Sciences, “It is not the
functions independently, collaborating occasionally on workforce that is resisting the change. It is often leaders
ad-hoc initiatives and partnerships. To achieve desired who are resisting the change because we’re applying old
human and business outcomes, leaders should consider paradigms to our new reality.”1
leaning into more integrated, cross-functional leadership,
examining and evolving their own mindsets in ways that As we look across the 2024 Global Human Capital
may not be comfortable or familiar. It will likely require Trends, we see three key areas emerging where lead-
new and different measures of leadership accountability ers have an opportunity—and a responsibility—to help
across the organization. their organizations create new paradigms geared toward
human performance: Resetting organizational priorities,
And it will likely require leaders at every level to not only evolving governance structures, and fostering psycho-
embrace new ways of working but to model them for logical safety for their teams. Leaders who fail to act on
the rest of the organization. This is where a boundary- these issues may put their organization’s progress toward
less approach to human resources becomes imperative, achieving human performance at risk.
infusing people expertise at all levels of leadership across
functional areas. Resetting organizational priorities aligned
with what’s most important
Orchestrating human Leaders bear the responsibility of making the most

performance from the top pivotal decisions and relying on outdated proxies can
jeopardize decision-making. We identified some of these
Our research shows that leaders are already keenly aware proxies in the report introduction, such as using produc-
that these shifts need to happen. But few are making real tivity as the primary measure of worker activity with-
progress in this transition—just 10% of all respondents out considering quality or intended outcomes. Clearly
say their organizations are succeeding at making the shift defining and measuring organizational priorities can
toward human sustainability: the degree to which an empower an organization to shift from talking about
organization creates value for people as human beings, human performance to taking concrete actions and allo-
and a key to unlocking human performance. Although cating resources accordingly. The following actions can
executives have a slightly more positive view of their help senior leaders and board members embrace the shift
106
away from old proxies and move toward a new model would tie a portion of bonuses for all employees
of human performance: to achieving organizational sustainability metrics.3
• Operationalizing human capabilities as part of • Replacing outdated metrics with new metrics that
overall business and workforce strategy. Begin by matter. New kinds of work often require new kinds
ensuring your leadership team understands the level of metrics. The human performance metrics that
of human capabilities—creativity, empathy, curi- matter most to an organization will vary based on
osity, etc.—already present in its workforce and industry and workforce, requiring some experi-
identifies any capability gaps. Commit organiza- mentation to find the right balance of business and
tional resources to hiring initiatives that seek out human sustainability outcomes. But leaders can
these capabilities; rewarding workers who display take steps to collaborate with workers on cocreat-
them; and creating, monitoring, and nurturing safe ing what should be measured—not just what can be
spaces where these uniquely human skills can be measured. In a call center, productivity is typically
developed and practiced. measured by things like amount of time per call or
number of sales made. But when human perfor-
• Tying leader and manager incentives to human mance becomes the primary focus, traditional busi-
sustainability metrics. Making progress on ness metrics like customer satisfaction, retention,
human sustainability requires that leaders are and upselling need to be combined with human
held accountable. Organizations should set goals sustainability metrics like worker well-being and
to advance on key human sustainability outcome skill development to give call center managers a
metrics and drivers and attach incentives to achiev- better picture of how their workers are actually
ing them. Many companies are already doing this: performing.
Almost three-quarters of S&P 500 companies now

connect executive compensation to achieving key When it comes to defining what’s important, consider
sustainability metrics,2 and some organizations are the following actions for each trend in our report that
passing these incentives on to the entire workforce. are unique to senior leadership.
Mastercard, for example, recently announced it
107
Figure 1
Define what’s most important
Trend Act Avoid
Thinking of human sustainability as the next

Understand and communicate the business
Human sustainability fad in workplace wellness and not addressing
advantages of prioritizing human sustainability
root causes
Seek the right balance of business and human

Measuring so much that you have too much
Beyond productivity sustainability outcomes in measuring
data and too little insight
performance
Consider the public, organizational, and worker Assuming that greater transparency always
Transparency paradox
impact of making information transparent builds trust
Communicate the importance of curiosity and

Over-indexing on technical skills that have a
Imagination deficit empathy and build workforce capacity by hiring
short half-life
and developing for them
Encourage exploration and experimentation in Underestimating the importance of workers

Digital playground domains and problem sets of import and learning to collaborate with machines in safe
interest to the organization spaces
Establish and communicate the organization’s Mandating a specific way of working across the
Workplace microcultures
guiding principles organization’s teams, functions, or locations
Relegating HR to a secondary or support role

Create new people metrics that focus on shared
Boundaryless HR when it comes to orchestrating work and
outcomes for the organization and its workers
driving business transformation
Be prepared to evolve and adapt boundaries. HR alone shouldn’t be tasked with this
organizational governance structures responsibility, thereby suggesting a boundaryless
HR approach in which the board defines human
Successfully shifting away from old paradigms to a focus sustainability goals and provides oversight to ensure
on human performance means being willing to forgo the C-suite is meeting them. With the board holding
old approaches to organizational governance as well. them accountable, C-suite leaders can then take
Many of this year’s trends highlight a need to increasingly ownership of achieving human sustainability goals
include all levels of the organization in decision-making for the organization by, for example, connecting the
and adopt cross-functional governance approaches: less dots between functions.
micromanagement, more autonomy. Fewer top-down
dictates and more cocreation. Consider the following • Empowering managers to improve human perfor-
actions in leading your organization toward shared mance. Many workers say that managers have a
ownership as a human performance organization: significant impact when it comes to human sustain-
ability issues: in fact, in one global study, respon-
• Integrating human sustainability governance into dents said managers have as great an impact on
the board and C-suite. HR has historically been their mental health as their spouses.4 Managers are
the primary catch-all for people-related issues, in a unique position to influence human perfor-
but human sustainability crosses all functional mance, but simply adding new responsibilities to
108
roles that are already struggling with overwork will a growing recognition that empowering individual
likely fail. Instead, leaders can empower manag- workers and teams is a great way to generate the
ers to prioritize tasks related to improving human results leaders want for their organizations. Just
performance and help clear organizational obsta- over half of the executives in our survey (56%)
cles, such as company policies, heavy workloads, say they are leading or expanding their efforts to
and unsupportive cultures. Taking a boundaryless focus on individual teams and workgroups as the
HR approach by giving managers the training and best places to cultivate culture, fluidity, agility,
resources they need to build the people expertise and diversity. Organizations that understand the
necessary to elevate human performance can also value that worker autonomy and choice have on
help. building organizational trust will reap the benefits.
Our research shows that workers who trust their
• Let microcultures flourish. For some leaders, employers are highly motivated, more satisfied with
embracing a new mindset that encourages worker their jobs, healthier, and less likely to be on the
autonomy in the way they work can be difficult. lookout for new employment opportunities.5
Leaders and executives are often held accountable
for delivering on objectives created for an existing Governance is a domain that is unique to senior lead-
paradigm and may balk at the idea of decentraliz- ership, and the following guidelines may help leaders
ing control over how work gets done. But there is navigate governance issues across the trends.
Figure 2
Governance
Trend Act Avoid
Align leader incentives to achievement of

Handing off sole responsibility for human
Human sustainability human sustainability outcomes in addition to
sustainability to HR
business outcomes
Relying solely on traditional workforce

Give C-suite and the board human performance
Beyond productivity productivity metrics to measure workforce
metrics to help unlock growth and innovation
performance
Provide oversight of responsible use of Making one function solely responsible for
Transparency paradox
transparency technologies and data transparent data and technologies
Competing solely on efficiency and scale,

Promote the critical role of human capabilities neglecting the critical component of
Imagination deficit
across the organization imagination and curiosity in driving business
performance
Creating rigid rules or restrictions around use
Ensure that everyone in your organization has of emerging technologies like generative AI; not
Digital playground
access to digital playgrounds providing guidance on its limitations and how
to address them
Provide guardrails and modular interfaces for Letting microcultures stray from
Workplace microcultures
microcultures to flourish autonomously organization-wide values
Promote people expertise as a key leadership Assuming HR solely owns all people expertise
Boundaryless HR
and managerial capability and responsibility
109
Be unequivocal about creating trust • Establishing strategies for responsible use of data
and psychological safety from new transparency technologies. Organizations
have access to more work and workforce data than
It only takes a quick skim of the latest headlines to under- ever before, leading to unprecedented transparency
stand that organizational trust is under threat from any in every corner of the organization. And as leaders
number of internal and external factors. An increas- begin to focus on new metrics for human perfor-
ing focus on trust and transparency in the relationship mance, it may be tempting to tap into this resource
between workers and organizations was the top response before having a strategy in place for responsible
from board members, directors, and C-suite respondents practices around its collection and use. But accord-
of issues important to the organization’s success. Yet ing to Deloitte’s Quantified Organization research,
only 16% of workers responded that they have a very a lack of strategy for the use of workforce data
high level of trust in their employer. Leaders carry a was directly related to workers’ lack of trust.7
heavy responsibility to not only build trust with their Consider strategies like voluntary data sharing
workforce, but also to create the psychological safety agreements, which allow workers to opt in or out
within their organization necessary to elevate human of sharing optional data with their organization,
performance. as these are linked to increased worker openness to
data-sharing.8 Leaders and the board have a respon-
The following actions can help leaders build trust and sibility to create responsible practices for workforce
psychological safety with their workforce: data and AI–not just customer data and AI—and
will need to create governance structures to do it.
• Inviting workers to cocreate alongside leadership.
Our research indicates that while workers are often • Planning now to address tensions around use of
invited to provide feedback, organizational strat- emerging technologies for data collection and moni-
egy is still a very top-down activity. Only 30% of toring. Deloitte’s Quantified Organization research
C-suite leaders say their organization’s leaders are shows that most workers are relatively comfortable
involving their workers in cocreating the organiza- with data collection from known technologies like
tion’s strategies and solutions often or all the time. email, calendars, and other traditional technologies.
And less than half (43%) of individual contributors But workers see data collection from emerging tech-
believe that their organization is helping them imag- nologies like wearables and XR headsets as crossing
ine how their job may change in the future. One of a line, which could create a friction point for trust
the most powerful means of building trust with your as a majority of leaders surveyed said they expect to
workforce is to invite them to participate in creat- be implementing these technologies for data collec-
ing the organization’s future in a more meaningful tion in the coming years. Don’t wait until emerging
way. To create value for individuals, organiza- technologies are posing ethical and trust issues in
tions need input from individuals. As we intro- your organization: Strategize ways to build trust
duced in our 2023 Global Human Capital Trends with employees, address worker privacy concerns,
report, cocreation is essential for operating in a and hold the line between professional and personal
boundaryless world. Leaders can establish safe data monitoring.
digital spaces where workers are invited to cocre-
ate and reimagine their future and the future of Trust and psychological safety need to be created and
the organization. For example, they can cocreate embraced at the highest levels of the organization to
solutions for human performance efforts, establish- be successful. Consider these actions across the trends
ing new metrics, responsible data practices, and in establishing psychological safety in an organization.
evolving organizational structures, policies, and
relationships.6
110
Figure 3
Trust and psychological safety
Trend Act Avoid
Involve workers in cocreating human Ignoring or undervaluing managers’ role in

Human sustainability
sustainability initiatives advancing the human sustainability agenda
Cocreate and implement new human

Beyond productivity Measuring what you can, not what you should
performance metrics with worker input
Enact guidelines that give workers reason to

Transparency paradox believe data about them will be assessed and Using transparency to surveil or punish workers
used fairly
Reward and recognize workers for displaying

Imagination deficit Micromanaging the innovation process
curiosity, imagination, and creativity
Participating in a digital playground as a C-suite

Democratize access to digital playgrounds in
Digital playground member—consider creating a separate
your organization
playground for executives instead
Recognize and reward teams for outcomes,

Conflating equality with equity, trying to create
Workplace microcultures while allowing autonomy on how they’re
the same work experience for everyone
achieved through different ways of working
Empower and trust managers to be people

Boundaryless HR leaders, providing them with relevant tools and Treating workers in a transactional way
resources
Leading an organization toward optimizing human organization closer to its human performance goals.
performance can seem like an overwhelming challenge While focusing on short-term progress can help move
for leaders. Shifting organizational mindsets can be just the needle, making the shift from a traditional mindset of
as difficult as making the operational adjustments needed work to a human performance mindset of work can be a
to support a new way of thinking and working. The key much longer-term play, helping drive the organization’s
to making the shift from knowing to doing in a bound- continued success for generations to come.
aryless world is to start where you are, with what you
have, and continue to build strategies that take your
111
Endnotes
1. Online interview with Kerrie Peraino, Chief people officer, 5. Deloitte’s Trust ID research and platform, 2023.
Verily, 2023. 6. Gartner, “Gartner survey reveals leader and manager
2. Ted Jarvis, Jamie McGough, and Donald Kalfen, “Incentives effectiveness tops HR leaders’ list of priorities for 2023,” press
linked to ESG metrics among S&P 500 companies,” Harvard release, October 12, 2022.
Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, July 20, 2023. 7. Deloitte, “Beyond productivity: The journey to the quantified
3. Michael Miebach, “Sharing accountability and success: organization,” May 31, 2023.
Why we’re linking employee compensation to ESG goals,” 8. Ibid.
Mastercard, April 19, 2022.
4. UKG, “Mental health at work: Managers and money,” accessed
December 18, 2023.
112
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to Kerrie Peraino (Verily) for her contributions to this chapter.
The team would also like to thank Erin Clark for sharing her expertise and insights to support this chapter, and to Catherine Gergen for
her leadership in the development of this content.
113
About the authors
Sue Cantrell Kraig Eaton
[email protected] [email protected]
Susan Cantrell is a vice president at Deloitte Consulting LLP and Kraig Eaton is a principal within Deloitte Consulting LLP’s US
serves as the US Human Capital Eminence leader. She is a leading Human Capital practice. Eaton has more than 28 years of experi-
expert and frequent speaker on the future of work and human capi- ence working with senior business and HR executives to transform
tal. She coauthored the Harvard Business Press book Workforce of their human capital strategies and capabilities to better support
One and has published widely in publications like Harvard Business organizational business goals. He supports some of the world’s lead-
Review, Wall Street Journal, and MIT Sloan Management Review. ing organizations on the full spectrum of HR and workforce trans-
Cantrell has more than 20 years of experience serving as an exec- formations, from upfront strategy development through large-scale
utive advisor, author, researcher, and developer of new solutions operating model, organization, and technology implementations.
that help organizations harness digital technologies and evolve their
workforces to innovate, unlock agility, and drive transformation.
She holds a master of science degree in management information Kim Eberbach
systems from Boston University and a bachelor of arts degree from [email protected]
Vassar College.
Kim Eberbach is an experienced director for the executive acceler-
ator CHRO program at Deloitte. This program provides powerful
Corrie Commisso experiences to help senior HR executives and teams push to new
[email protected] possibilities. She was previously the senior vice president of HR at
Chubb Insurance, where she delivered HR solutions on a global
Corrie Commisso is a senior editor at Deloitte Insights, leading scale. Eberbach also served as a director in the human capital prac-
content strategy on the future of work and human capital. She is tice at Willis Towers Watson, working with clients to evolve and
a seasoned writer, editor, and creative director with more than 20 transform talent practices and elevate the employee experience.
years of experience in delivering creative solutions for some of the top With more than 25 years of experience, she has been a CHRO and
consumer and business brands. Commisso holds an undergraduate has partnered with senior leaders and management teams across a
degree in journalism and a master’s degree in library and information range of industries to achieve breakthrough business, culture, and
science—a combination she credits for her ability to tell deep and people performance outcomes.
engaging stories.
Amy Fields
Julie Duda [email protected]
[email protected]
Amy Fields is a communications strategist at Deloitte, focusing on
Julie Duda is all about making connections. She brings together the well-being and employee engagement. Previously, she led marketing
research we conduct and the knowledge and experience she’s gained and communications for Deloitte’s Global Public Sector Industry
from working with clients over the years to develop on-the-pulse program.
insights to produce material outcomes. She knows there’s nothing
better than helping people reach success, and since no organization
is the same, she combines perspectives from working with clients
across various industries to drive narratives that lead to better
decision-making. Her areas of expertise include workplace;
diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging; and energy, resources,
and industrials.
114
Jen Fisher Michael Griffiths
Jen Fisher is Deloitte’s human sustainability leader. Previously, Fisher Michael Griffiths is a principal at Deloitte Consulting LLP with
served as Deloitte’s first-ever chief well-being officer. She’s also a more than 20 years of experience working with organizations on
TEDx speaker, coauthor of the book, Work Better Together: How key transformational programs. Within the human capital practice,
to Cultivate Strong Relationships to Maximize Well-Being and Boost he leads the workforce transformation offering, helping clients with
Bottom Lines, editor-at-large for Thrive Global, and host of the learning transformations, workforce planning, workforce experi-
“WorkWell” podcast series. ence, becoming skill-based, and other workforce-related issues. He
is well-published in the field of learning and talent and is the leading
market voice on becoming a skills-based organization. He co-led
Jason Flynn Deloitte’s Human Capital Trends research and report—the largest
[email protected] global report of its kind in the market—in 2023.
Jason Flynn is a principal in Deloitte’s US Workforce Transformation

practice and a leader in Deloitte Consulting’s global Total Rewards John Guziak
practice. He has 30 years of experience helping companies across a [email protected]
variety of industries design, deliver, communicate, and manage the
financial and human capital aspects of their total rewards and broader John Guziak is the lead partner for human capital in Central Europe.
talent programs, both in the United States and abroad. He also has He has a passion for business strategy, people development, team
experience helping companies develop global or country-specific acceleration, and HR technology. For more than 25 years, he has
workforce and rewards strategies that are aligned with their overall worked with the C-suite of global companies across three conti-
corporate talent strategy, and has assisted companies with a variety nents, advising leaders on moving from strategy to results through
of strategic talent-related issues during mergers and acquisitions, people. Prior to joining Deloitte, Guziak was an entrepreneur who
restructuring, cost reduction, and other corporate events or initiatives. created successful companies in Poland, Romania, and Spain, and
an accomplished speaker and a professor at IE University.
John Forsythe
[email protected] Lauren Kirby
[email protected]
John Forsythe is a managing director with Deloitte Consulting LLP’s
US government and public services (GPS) human capital practice and Lauren Kirby is a manager within Deloitte Consulting LLP’s work-
the senior sponsor of Deloitte’s GPS culture transformation offering. force transformation practice, specializing in employee experience,
He specializes in helping executive clients lead behavioral change talent, leadership, and change programs. She focuses on advising
across organizational boundaries. Forsythe has over 31 years of organizations as they align business and talent strategy and define
business experience, including 23 years in public services consulting. the strategic initiatives that make their people a critical enabler of
Throughout his career, he has led many consulting assignments, devel- business and market success. Kirby has a master of business admin-
oping expertise in culture, leadership development, strategic change, istration degree from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business.
organizational assessment, communications, leadership alignment,
and executive coaching.
115
David Mallon Joanne Stephane
David Mallon is a managing director at Deloitte Consulting LLP Joanne Stephane is the executive director of Deloitte’s DEI
and chief analyst and market leader for Deloitte’s Insights2Action Institute™, focusing on data-driven research, challenging ortho-
team. He, with the team, helps clients to sense, analyze, and act doxies, and recommending impactful actions to help business and
at the ever-shifting intersection of work, workforce, workplace, community leaders lead inclusive change. She works with C-suite
and industry. With more than 20 years of experience in human executives to define, design, and operationalize their workforce
capital, he is a cohost of the Capital H podcast and a sought-after experience vision and helps clients transform their talent organi-
researcher, thought leader, and speaker on organization design, zations to achieve sustainable results. Stephane also serves as the
organizational culture, HR, talent, learning, and performance. CDEIO at Deloitte Consulting’s human capital practice and works
in the consumer, health care, and life sciences sectors. She is a
sought-after voice on the evolving role of HR and business leaders
Mari Marcotte in shaping the way organizations compete for and access talent,
[email protected] curate workforce experiences, and impact the communities where
they operate.
Mari Marcotte is a manager within Deloitte Consulting LLP’s human
capital practice with over eight years of consulting experience. She
partners with clients to create organizational and talent strategies Yves Van Durme
to drive business performance and impact. Marcotte served as the [email protected]
program manager for the 2024 Global Human Capital Trends,
managing the design and deployment of this year’s survey and report. Yves Van Durme is a partner at Deloitte Consulting in Belgium.
Specializing in cultural transformation, leadership and organiza-
tional development, and data-driven people strategy, Van Durme
Shannon Poynton has over 20 years of experience as a consultant, project manager,
[email protected] and program developer for human capital projects for multiple
European, Japanese, American, and Belgian multinationals. Based
Shannon Poynton is a senior manager within Deloitte Consulting on his experience coaching high-performance sports, he has an
LLP’s Human Capital practice with over 12 years of experience affinity for leadership and organizational development. Previously,
designing and executing organization, talent, leadership, and change he was a business unit director (talent management) for Hudson
programs that enhance business performance. Poynton advises orga- BNL, engaging with HR strategy, competency and performance
nizational leaders on strategies to help them retain critical talent, management, career counseling, assessments, management devel-
engage their workforce, and reimagine work through innovative opment, and change management.
combinations of humans and technology. She is a frequent speaker
on talent and workforce trends.
Matteo Zanza
[email protected]
Nicole Scoble-Williams
[email protected] Matteo Zanza is a partner at Deloitte Italy’s Human Capital practice
and serves as organization transformation lead. With over 20 years
Nic Scoble-Williams is a partner at Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting of consulting experience, he has supported transformation projects
LLC and Deloitte’s Asia-Pacific leader for the future of work. With for clients across the world in various industries, including public
more than 20 years of cross-industry experience in information and government, aerospace and defense, manufacturing, automo-
technology services, talent strategy and advisory, and mergers and tive, and financial services. Zanza has an extensive experience in
acquisitions, she works with businesses and governments to embed managing complex transformation programs and reorganization/
future of work vision into enterprise transformation strategies. She reengineering initiatives both in Italy and abroad.
is a frequent speaker on work, workforce, and workplace strategies
for thriving in today’s world of perpetual disruption.
116
Acknowledgments
The author team would like to thank the following members of the Global Human Capital executive committee for bringing their global
perspectives to this year’s report: Jodi Baker Calamai, Amanda Flouch, Maren Hauptmann, Andrew Hill, Bob Kaunert, Art Mazor,
Kate Morican, Yasushi Muranaka, Nicole Scoble-Williams, Dheeraj Sharma, Simona Spelman, Kate Sweeney, and Nathalie Vandaele.
They extend special thanks to Richard Coombes for his early leadership of the program, and to Steve Hatfield and Robin Jones for their
perspectives on emerging trends.
The authors would also like to thank Mari Marcotte and Catherine Gergen for keeping the project on track with their expert program
leadership; Brittany Bjornberg, Sarah Hechtman, Kristine Priemer, and Molly Rogers for their leadership in managing the individual
chapters in this report; and Madeline McEachin, Dhara Puvar, and Regina Miller for their support and activation efforts.
This report could not have been written and published without the partnership of the Deloitte Insights team, led by Corrie Commisso.
The author team extends special thanks to Rithu Thomas for editorial contributions and to the following members of the visual and
design team for their artwork and data visualizations: Matthew Lennert, Sylvia Chang, Sonya Vasilieff, Molly Piersol, Sofia Sergi, and
Govindh Raj. They also thank the Deloitte Insights production editors, Blythe Hurley and Preetha Devan, for their flexibility and guidance.
Furthermore, the authors express gratitude towards the survey team that was instrumental in the data collection and analysis for this
project. They thank Shruti Kalaiselvan and Ananshi Chugh, who mentored and advised the entire survey and data analysis team; Priyanka
Sahu and Vikas Arora, who led the global survey and data analysis efforts; Rishab Kumar Agarwal, Aniket Abhijeet Kale, Disha Nagpal,
Shruti Garg, Simran Bakshi, David Goott, Erin Spencer, and Zhi Ming Wang who provided insightful analysis of the survey results; and
Lokesh Kumar and Justin Johnson David, who supported survey translations and survey response analysis.
Deloitte’s Insights2Action™ team provided much of the sensing, research, and advanced data analysis that informed the selection and
development of the trends in this year’s report. The authors thank Matthew Deruntz, Yuejia (Mandy) Teng, Brandon Barker, Anchal
Singh, and Derek Taylor for their input.
And last (but not least!), the author team thanks the outstanding marketing and public relations team, led by Marissa Copeland and
Jennifer Donegan, for their support and leadership in releasing the 2024 Global Human Capital Trends into the wild: Tyra Cannady,
Charlean Parks, Christian Slike, and Malia Maack.
117
Continue the conversation
Global Human Capital leadership
Arthur Mazor
Global Human Capital leader | Deloitte Consulting LLP
[email protected]
Kate Morican
Global Organization Transformation leader | Deloitte
[email protected]
Bob Kaunert
Global Human Capital as a Service leader | Deloitte Consulting LLP
[email protected]
Andrew Hill
Global HR Transformation leader | Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
[email protected]
Human Capital Country leaders

To connect with one of our human capital country leaders, please see our online list for contact details.
118
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Deloitte Insights contributors

Editorial: Corrie Commisso, Arpan Kumar Saha, Emma Downey, Pubali Dey, Debashree Mandal, Aditi Gupta, Hurley Blythe,
and Preetha Devan
Creative: Sonya Vasilieff, Sofia Sergi, Molly Piersol, Jaime Austin, Govindh Raj, Meena Sonar, and Pooja Lnu
Deployment: Pooja Boopathy
Cover artwork: Sofia Sergi
About Deloitte Insights

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and experience from throughout our professional services organization, and that of coauthors in academia and business, to advance the conversation on a broad
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2024 Global Human Thriving beyond boundaries:

2024 Global Human Capital Trends

26 . . . As human performance takes center stage, are traditional productivity

38 . . . The transparency paradox: Could less be more when it comes to trust?

52 . . . What do organizations need most in a disrupted, boundaryless age? More

66 . . . How play and experimentation in digital playgrounds can drive

90 . . . From function to discipline: The rise of boundaryless HR

104 . . . Evolving leadership to drive human performance

2024 Global Human Capital Trends

76% recognize the importance,

with 46% doing something,

and 10% doing great things

SIGNALS YOUR ORGANIZATION SHOULD PRIORITIZE HUMAN SUSTAINABILITY

and inclusion. by artificial intelligence.

Human sustainability means doing well by workers and the world

Workers identify top challenges to human sustainability

Source: 2024 Global Human Capital Trends research.

Executives who agree

My organization is advancing human

Workers who agree

Source: 2023 Deloitte Well-being at Work survey.

• Improving worker health and well-being can

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT AND PURPOSE CAREER STABILITY AND

2024 Global Human Capital Trends

1 Ability to monitor, understand, and address worker activism 51%

2 Ability to foster ESG and sustainable business practices 56%

3 Ability to provide compensation/living wages and benefits to workforce 53%

5 Ability to provide an organizational purpose and mission the

6 Ability to support the physical, mental, financial, and purpose-driven

Source: 2022 Deloitte Workforce Risk research.

FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY IS HUMAN SUSTAINABILITY: A PAYPAL CASE STUDY

2024 Global Human Capital Trends

once clear line that linked individual worker activity (for

74% recognize the importance,

with 40% doing something,

and 8% doing great things

SIGNALS YOUR ORGANIZATION SHOULD CONSIDER PRIORITIZING HUMAN PERFORMANCE METRICS

theater,” in which they do tasks to make

Business outcomes Human outcomes

Source: Deloitte analysis.

Source: 2023 Deloitte Quantified Organization research.

Workers are less comfortable with data collected by emerging technologies,

Neurotechnology Location-tracking External sites XR headsets Wearables

Source: 2023 Deloitte Quantified Organization research.

tices freely with workers, customers, investors, and other

88% recognize the importance,

with 52% doing something,

and 13% doing great things

Employee calendars 42% 75% 87%

Employee surveys 57% 77% 87%

Employee emails 75% 81% 88%

Biometrics 50% 68% 79%

Keystroke/mouse tracking 26% 57% 66%

Internal social collaboration sites 13% 42% 57%

Wearables 21% 34% 66%

External sites 8% 29% 55%

Location-tracking technology 7% 24% 62%

XR headsets 13% 21% 58%

Source: 2023 Deloitte Quantified Organization research.

Transparency is no longer a one-way street