Reporting on reputation, behaviour, culture is exactly what organisations need in 2021

It’s January. There is (or was) snow on the ground her ein the UK. Usually that would mean a couple of our clients would be at the WEF in Davos. Except it’s 2021 so they are not. No doubt business titans wear a better cut of PJ bottoms than the rest of us.

The most interesting conversation I have seen is that in Q1 2021 amongst public companies there is a much greater disclosure of information related to the four P’s: people, profit, planet and purpose.

As Kevin Martin from the Institute of Corporate Productivity says “several factors are driving this demand, notably the increased emphasis on a company’s intangible assets — such as its brand and culture — plus the crises of 2020 that altered work as we know it and shone a light on persistent racial, social and economic inequities. All corporations must prepare for a future in which details of their work in these areas are open to all. By the end of March, 94 per cent of investors will have engaged with boards on matters including workforce diversity, employee health and safety, and corporate culture, according to a survey of 600 investors in North America, Europe and Japan by Edelman and the National Association of Corporate Directors.”

That’s an amazing change and hugely positive characterisation of the reset COVID has forced upon organisations – that we all now have to deal with the person, not the employee. It’s been a matter of life and death these past months. But it will evolve into a more balanced relationship between company and colleague. From this first quarter of 2021 US-based companies will have to say which human capital measures they consider are material to their business. At Davos there’s a decent chance they will agree a set of metrics for stakeholder capitalism that could include corporate purpose, wellbeing, skills, diversity, culture and equality.

Omobono is on the steering committee for B2B Marketing’s US Ignite Conference (set for 2-3 June so you can set your watches) and we were discussing the very same last night that is it is impossible to underestimate how critical diversity is a must-master issue for 2021. At Omobono we have a very activity D&I initiative and the team are often join speaker panels, credit to them.

As we all deal with the whole human, mental health is now a massive issue. The number of organisations planning to increase emphasis on mental health this year has doubled to 84% since pre-pandemic levels August last year (source: Institute for Corporate Productivity and WorldatWork)

If boards of big US HQ’d businesses are changing then we’re seeing what our industry has long advocated – a better balance of performance, purpose, culture (staff experience) and reputation (brand). That’s hugely encouraging. Maybe it’s not yet gone far enough but it is a big shift. The biggest focus of our business right now is on delivering the digital transformation which increasingly connects these four dimensions together. Helping the people at our clients keep up with these changes and learning the agility and experimentation required to master it requires a lot of communication and training.

We have a big investment in training this year and we have written extensively elsewhere about the EQ work we have done with colleagues these past 12 months. Training for all of us, for the new skills required to help our clients execute against these four dimensions (performance / purpose / culture / brand) - and add to that Diversity - is daunting, but exciting.