Remote work and artificial intelligence (AI) pose opportunities and challenges for marketing and communications leaders. How to optimize in-person and remote work while managing productivity and performance, in addition to strategically integrating AI into the workplace, is proving to be a formidable challenge.
Remote work and artificial intelligence (AI) pose opportunities and challenges for marketing and communications leaders. How to optimize in-person and remote work while managing productivity and performance, in addition to strategically integrating AI into the workplace, is proving to be a formidable challenge.
Trusted Insights for What's Ahead™
The following insights are based on a roundtable discussion of marketing, communications and human resources leaders on talent management hosted by The Conference Board.
- Success requires managing performance, promoting creativity and collaboration, and building a common culture in hybrid environments. This entails setting clear expectations and communicating effectively. It is important for leaders and employees to be able rely on and trust each other, which can support a flexible work environment and help employees achieve their best.
- Finding ways to incorporate AI into the workplace is becoming crucial to maintaining a strategic advantage in the marketing and communications arenas. Many companies are encouraging employees to explore AI and suggesting ways of leveraging the technology that can free up time for collaboration, creativity, and other higher-value work. Marketing and communications leaders should experiment with use cases and promote buy-in for AI adoption from employees.
- AI integration into the workplace and the normalization of hybrid work requires changes to current talent strategy approaches. Business savviness, customer understanding, strategic thinking, planning, and storytelling will be important core competencies for leveraging the technology effectively. Team leaders need to think about how to upskill employees to help them leverage AI tools, as well as learn the business now that AI can do much of the groundwork that used to serve as a learning tool for junior talent.
Successful hybrid work requires clear communication and trust that enables high performance
Three years into the widespread adoption of hybrid and remote work, companies and teams are seeking innovative solutions to obtain the right balance between in-office and remote work, while supporting their teams’ ability to collaborate and generate ideas efficiently.
Specify clear work responsibilities, and set expectations for communications and availability. Clear communication and guidelines about business goals, productivity, and core hours can address some of the challenges around employee performance and accountability in a remote work environment. But communications must go both ways: remote workers also need to keep their team updated. Trust and reliability are key, and leaders should offer flexibility when specific tasks can be done just as well in a remote work environmen