Jarrod McGrath launches new book to give businesses roadmap for a modern digital workforce

The Digital Workforce 2nd Edition highlights the importance of trust and transparency, wellbeing and a people-first mindset post COVID 

Sydney, August 5, 2021 – Global human capital management (HCM) consultancy, Smart WFM, today announced the launch of company founder and CEO Jarrod McGrath’s book, The Digital Workforce 2nd Edition. Leveraging insights from business and human resources leaders worldwide, the book demonstrates a five-step workforce method to maximise the value of people in modern organisations.

The Digital Workforce features interviews with T2 Tea Global People Director Georgegina Poulos, Aron Ain, CEO of UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group) and author of WorkInspired: How to Build an Organization Where Everyone Loves to Work, Australian Payroll Association CEO Tracy Angwin, and Leapgen CEO Jason Averbook, among other business, HCM and HR leaders. The book highlights the importance of trust and transparency, wellbeing and people experience playing a larger role for CEOs and CHROs.

“Business and HR leaders are trying to understand what their workforce will look like and what will make their people tick post pandemic, and that needs to go far beyond the flexibility buzzword,” said McGrath.

“There are deeper, more difficult to measure ideas leaders need to get across to connect with a modern workforce, such as trust and transparency. These are relevant – people may trust some parts of their working experience and not others. To make it holistic, transparency must extend to areas like diversity and inclusion, and emerging technologies such as AI which are causing fear over people’s role in the workforce.” 

The growing importance of wellbeing is highlighted throughout the book, with a traditionally narrow focus impeding organisations from leveraging technology and their environments to promote a broader sense of wellbeing, whether it’s physical, mental, social, financial, intellectual and/or emotional.

T2 Tea’s Georgegina Poulos believes the role of people should always be the highest priority.

“I think the focus on mental health, wellbeing, the real self, the whole self, will continue into the future,” she said.  

“The office was a place to go to work; its four walls provided a physical space entirely devoted to work. Now, the home has become the gym, the office, the movie theatre, the kids’ playground, the hospital, the kitchen, the restaurant, you name it. I think what we really need to focus on now is redefining the boundaries of the home and work within this flexible environment, and figuring out how they come together to support wellbeing as well as business success.”

The Digital Workforce also recommends businesses meet the workforce’s demand to have a stance on world longevity – organisations need to recognise that people are their lifeblood, and with that comes the responsibility to incorporate their people’s values into the impact the organisation has on the environment, the economy, their families, and the world around us.

“I think people want to work for a place that makes a difference – not just inside the company walls, but also in the broader community,” said Mr Ain. “Their own expectations are they want to make a difference in their communities and the world. Social tools make that much easier to do. It’s impacting philanthropy, it’s impacting volunteerism, it’s impacting how people spend their time.”

To help businesses adapt to the digital hybrid workforce of today and the future and to ensure investments in workforce management (WFM) initiatives are valuable, the book provides a five-step workforce method: Align, Prepare, Track, Implement, and Measure.

“This book is about changing the way we think about the workforce, creating workforce initiatives that work, and not only understanding people’s passions, but weaving those passions into the very fabric of the organisation,” said McGrath.  

“As we hit the reset button on how we live, work and interact, there’s never been a better time to change our approach and create more successful organisations that have people at the epicentre of everything they do.”

The Digital Workforce 2nd Edition is available to order now in print, virtual and audio copy via Amazon, Booktopia, Barnes & Noble, Audible and directly from Smart WFM. More information is available here: smartwfm.com/book. A percentage of book sales will be donated to Indigenous education as part of Pledge 1%.

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About the Author

Jarrod McGrath understands the importance of people in any business. From his time managing the services division for Kronos (now UKG), then as a partner for a global consulting firm (now Deloitte), and currently as Founder and CEO of global consultancy Smart WFM.

Jarrod’s inspiration to write this book was to provide the knowledge and learnings from over 20 years of delivering successful transformation programs, enabling organisations to take responsibility for their digital transformation destiny in a modern world where many businesses are struggling to keep up with rapid change.

About Smart WFM

Smart WFM is a global human capital management (HCM) consultancy specialising in digital transformation. The company’s service offerings include advisory, implementation and support. Smart WFM also offers Service On Demand and the Apitome Software Suite designed to support the HCM customer journey. Smart WFM’s framework is defined in “The Digital Workforce”, a book written by Smart WFM founder and CEO, Jarrod McGrath.