"Social Value Proposition" in the post-COVID world

Firstly, if you are reading this from India or any other impacted countries, my prayers for the health and safety of you and your loved ones.

As we go through the COVID waves, it is difficult to ignore the ever-visible notion of "Social Value Proposition" of organizations. While most of organizations routinely focus on Employee and Client Value Propositions, the pandemic has shown us the importance of being socially empathetic leaders and organizations.

Every organization big or small contributed to the world's fight of the pandemic, some very unconventionally so. Companies allowed their premises to be used for testing (eg: Walmart), reengineered production lines to manufacture emergency supplies (eg: General Motors), paid for vaccination cost of employees (eg: Cognizant), and many more. While most of these companies had to make such decisions with less than perfect data and a fair amount of uncertainty, these steps illustrated the willingness and commitment to the larger ecosystem that they operate in. This has also resulted in a healthy, indirect competition to gain social capital. As we start to look forward the light at the end of the tunnel and plan for a post-COVID era, this social capital may have a significant role to play in attracting, engaging and retaining talent.

I see the following implications as we wriggle our way past the pandemic:

1. Socially empathetic organizations will have a talent edge: Expect organizations to focus on their “social value propositions” alongside or within their EVPs. This will increasingly become part of the DNA of organizations, beyond tokenism and social media impressions. While the world was, for the lack of a better word, “forced” to be socially aware and responsible during the past 12-15 months, this will increasingly become a differentiator for organizations that are genuinely committed towards the cause. Expect this to become a key to employee value propositions, and a magnet for attracting a young, socially aware generation. 
2. Organizations with balanced leaders will engage employees better: COVID is surely a good reminder for leaders. They were forced to think differently, trust their teams immensely, manage uncertainty like never before, become more empathetic and of course be socially responsible. The ability to balance these, will go a long way in differentiating the good vs great in the future. Leaders who are pretentious will not last. These changes will reflect in leadership competency models and expectations.
3. Organizations will renew their focus on Long Term Incentives: Expect (and hope) that COVID puts the focus back on the topic of long term incentives and better social security for employees. It shouldn’t come as a surprise if some governments make or modify employment laws around this topic, and organizations introduce innovative policies to address policy gaps. 
4. Organizations with transferrable benefit policies will have an advantage: There are benefit disparities we in most organizations, for no fault of theirs. I would really like to see benefits such as leaves become transferrable. At any given point, one section of employees require it more than the other. Why can't we all have a flexible model where one can give away the benefit of another colleague who needs it more? This doesn't really put any additional liability of the companies, but provides a sense of psychological safety for employees. I wrote about leave donation in an article last year and still strongly believe that this is something organizations will eventually get to.   
5. Measuring Social Return on Investment will become a "thing": Could this be something that we soon see in an annual report? May be an expansion of the definition of Corporate Sustainability? I don't know, but I do hope that organizations adopt this and make a difference. After all, what gets measured gets done.  

While none of these are really new points or radical ideas, the current situation does change the pecking order for many organizations. It is important for HR and business leaders to respond to the growing awareness and make social value proposition a key constituent of the organizational DNA. Philosophically speaking, in my opinion, the increased significant of this concept would make the world a much better place to work! 

Views are strictly personal. Stay safe!