Corporations do not constitute corporations; people do it. I wrote in a previous Forbes article“The success of businesses lies in the engagement, productivity and happiness of the people who work there. » I highlighted companies which show how taking care of your employees is good for business.

To further prove that employee well-being is good for the bottom line, new search shows that Fortune 500 companies that prioritize talent and invest in their people report 50% higher profit margins and growth.

“Dignity at work has become so evident since the start of the pandemic, where we truly understand what it means to create respect within a workplace,” says Alison Omens, president of JUST per capital, a nonprofit organization that measures and ranks companies based on the issues Americans care about most. “Work is something that brings everyone together. We all know what it means to work hard, want to take care of our families, be a part of our communities, and then show up that way. The connection between good jobs and dignity in the workplace is truly fundamental for business leaders.

At the same time as the workplace evolves, so do the values ​​and needs of workers: with rapid advances in AI and automation, five generations working together for the first time, distributed teams, and more. even more. Here are some ideas from the leaders who collaborated on this new research on how to make the future of work work for everyone.

Put processes in place to listen to your employees

Leadership that truly listens to what its employees want and need rather than making assumptions is essential to a company’s success, especially during times of disruption.

Start by creating open lines of communication, such as town halls and employee engagement surveys, to find out what matters most to employees. Managers who have a finger on the pulse of their employees’ daily experiences are important drivers of workplace culture and employee satisfaction. It is therefore important to train managers in people leadership, rewarding and tracking their time and efforts with those who report to them in their performance reviews.

“What we found in this research is that it is important to ask employees how they feel about the workplace by asking them to prioritize what matters most to them,” explains the Dr. Angela Jackson, founder of Future Forward Institute and author of the next book TA Win-Win Workplace: How Successful Employees Drive Financial Success. “Questions like ‘How’s your travel going?’ » “How can we help you?” or “What services do you really need?” » We’ve seen companies that ask these types of questions, then leverage this data, benefit from increased employee fulfillment percentages and a correlation with increased results.

Centering employee voice is especially important in the era of generative AI, where other research reveals more than 30% of workers could see at least 50% of their professional tasks disrupted by AI. “There is currently talk of increasing productivity by eliminating jobs,” explains Omens. “Centering employee voice is a critical part of thinking about how frontline workers can actually advance this work in ways that make their jobs better, more productive, and more fulfilling, instead of just seeing this as a cost reduction measure.

Invest in continuous learning

We are in the era of continuous learning. The half-life of skills is now 2.5 years for technical skills and less than 5 years for leadership skills. That’s why companies that provide upskilling and continuing education opportunities will help their employees grow and be more resilient while helping their business stay competitive.

“You have workers who certainly have a responsibility to prepare for the future of work,” says Stuart Andreason, executive director of programs at The Burning Glass Institutean organization that advances research into the future of work. “You have employers who have a responsibility to ensure that their business runs smoothly. And that requires being prepared and having a workforce that is productive and ready for the future of work in which they are investing.

Employers who promote ways in which they will help employees develop their skills may be better able to attract and retain talent, such as by offering tuition reimbursement, management training, or certification programs. . Dr. Jackson notes that even if an employee does not plan to stay with an organization for 10 years after their employer invests in their development or training, companies that double down on investment in their employees often see “returns,” or people return to the organization.

“When we think about what employers can do for a modern workplace, investing in training so an employee can thrive is deeply linked to a company’s success in the future of work,” says Dr. Jackson.

Redefine how you measure success

Workers and consumers can push for companies to move from making bottom line the only or greatest measure of success, to also tracking employee well-being, environmental impact, and on the community. Case in point: we are seeing an increase in the number of companies becoming Bcorp certifiedwhich means that they meet environmental and social performance and responsibility criteria.

Of course, making money is important, but the future of success metrics may shift toward a more holistic view of how companies also track the well-being and social impact of their employees.

“This is an opportunity to use data like a flashlight,” says Andreason. “A lot of the things that happen in human capital analysis can really be informative, but thinking about the business strategy behind all of this information is the next step for many organizations.”