Five years ago, we were in the thick of the first wave of COVID-19
Offices were closed. Strategies thrown into chaos. People were in survival mode.
Looking back, it feels more like a weird dream rather than our lived reality.
Since then, almost everything has changed – how we work, where we work, the type of work we do, what people expect from employers, what employers expect from employees, and what risks organisations need to manage. But there’s one thing that hasn’t changed fast enough: how companies are tracking and understanding their people.
While billions have been poured into digital tools, restructuring plans, and financial resilience, people strategy has too often been an afterthought.
In Deloitte’s 2024 Human Capital Trends report,
nearly 6 in 10 leaders admitted their workforce strategies are still playing catch-up with the pace of post-pandemic change.
Meanwhile, Gallup continues to report flatlining global engagement rates – despite an explosion in employer branding and wellbeing rhetoric.
The message is clear: technical recovery has outpaced human recovery. And it’s becoming really problematic and disruptive.
A Leadership Issue Hiding in Plain Sight
If you’re a senior leader, and any of the following are true for your organisation, it should raise a red flag.
- The organisation has not run a robust organisational health or employee experience diagnostic in the past two years
- You’re relying on the same system you signed up for three or more years ago
- You’ve been collecting quality marks and HR awards, but your Glassdoor reviews and exit interviews paint a very different picture
- You’re gathering data, but no clear way forward ever seems to emerge for your people strategy
- You’ve struggled to demonstrate clear improvements in performance, wellbeing, or retention in recent years
If any of this sounds familiar, your organisation may not just be missing insight – you’re likely missing critical warning signs too.
Why This Happens (And Why It’s Not HR’s Fault)
Picture this:
You’re an overwhelmed HR Director. You’ve got sign-off authority, but limited time and even less headspace. It’s been a relentless slog since the pandemic. You’re already juggling competing priorities, and while diagnostics matter, the rest of the SLT seems far more interested in commercial projects and cost-cutting initiatives.
You’ve got a supplier who’s “fine.” They’re offering a decent discount on another three-year deal. If you take it, you can move this off your to-do list without attracting scrutiny. And you’re thinking you’ll probably be leaving this organisation in the next 12–18 months anyway.
You know it’s not ideal. But do you really have the time or internal backing to go hunting for alternatives, comparing tools, persuading budget holders, and navigating procurement red tape?
So you do what many would do: you renew.
You get some breathing space. Your successor gets a ready-made system. And the business gets… mediocrity, dressed up as continuity.
This isn’t incompetence or sabotage. It’s a structural and cultural trap that many find themselves in. And it’s why senior leadership needs to step in—not to micromanage, but to champion the right conversations (and decisions).
Because if no one starts those conversations soon, the cost of inaction will only grow.
With 77% of CEOs in PwC’s 2024 survey saying they plan to reduce headcount or overhaul workforce models in the next three years, someone needs to be having the right people conversations – now, not later.
Diagnosing the Diagnostic Problem
You can’t improve what you don’t understand – and you certainly can’t lead effectively with stale, surface-level data that earns recognition but fails to drive real, lasting results.
So if you’re in the C-suite, this is your call to action.
Acknowledge the weaknesses. Sponsor a better approach. Resource your people to ask better questions. And hold your outsourced tools to a higher standard.
Seven Questions Senior Leaders Should Be Asking Right Now:
- When was the last time we ran a comprehensive diagnostic of the employee experience, organisational health, and people risk?
- What percentage of employees participated – and how reflective were those participants of the organisation? How has our workforce since changed?
- What system or methodology are we using? Why did we choose it, and when did we last explore alternatives?
- How long have we been using it, and what are its strengths and weaknesses for us?
- What insights has the system provided – and what critical gaps are we still blind to?
- Is it delivering ROI? What real-world impact has it driven? Has it helped us reduce turnover, improve wellbeing, boost performance, or cut costs? And can it continue to do that?
If the answers to these questions are vague, outdated, or uncomfortable, that’s exactly why they need asking.
2025: The Year to Recalibrate
This year marks five years since the height of the COVID crisis. The world has moved on. But many systems inside our businesses haven’t.
Too many leaders are still making people decisions based on legacy assumptions, incomplete data, or “that’s what we’ve always done” logic.
That’s a risk. A strategic risk.
It’s time to take stock of your people.
How are they really doing? And what does that mean for your business?