The new
people trends

It seemed to me that there wasn’t a meeting or a conference in 2023 where AI was not the topic de jour. RELX employees are not strangers to AI and the opportunities it brings. In July 2023 our CEO, Erik Engstrom, said: “By embracing artificial intelligence technologies for well over a decade we have been able to develop and deploy these analytics and decision tools across the company, and we believe that our ability to leverage AI, as it evolves, will continue to be an important driver of our business going forward.”

However, we are also mindful of the challenges, which is why we have a clearly stated position through our Responsible AI Principles.

When thinking about AI and how it will impact work, I break it down into three key areas - products for customers, our own technology and software, and then our internal systems and processes. Today, many companies are thinking about AI in their product sets and how they can benefit their customers. The second and third areas I think are ripe for tackling. Like many new things though, let's make sure we are clear on what is hype versus reality, and the old adage of rubbish in, rubbish out still holds true for AI as well - your data has to be clean and of quality to maximise the opportunities.

I know there are mixed feelings about AI and we will all learn much more about it over the next few years, as we start to apply it to different situations and build our understanding of how it can really be used. I hope that one of the biggest benefits we will derive is the opportunity for everyone to do more interesting and fulfilling work because we’re using AI as a tool to deal with the boring bits. That would give all of us more time to focus on the more interesting and value-adding activities that help drive performance and growth. Of course, the use and adoption of AI must be aligned from top to bottom due to the impact it will have on jobs. Random application probably will not deliver sustainable results.

My position on AI and the workplace is that those who use it sensibly and responsibly will always be ahead of those who don’t. History has shown us that a person who can use a tool will most likely always be more productive than one who can’t, and that technology creates jobs - just different types of jobs. And that means we must all think about how we build our skills in new ways.

I anticipate a future of work where AI frees people up to do things machines cannot yet do like dream the impossible, show sound judgement, envision new futures, tell stories, build relationships, anticipate crises, and get the tone exactly right for any given situation. Machines will be unlikely to be able to do those things, in my lifetime anyway.

The coming year will see the start of AI changing the ways we work forever. While it will be tempting to throw it at every possible situation and task, I believe a more measured approach will win out as we explore how best to deploy it in practical ways to improve the working lives of our people.

It may well be the case that this new future will arrive faster than any of us thought plausible even a year ago. However, as I believe in the inherent ability of people to flex, I hope for a future where employees are harnessing the power of AI to create extraordinary change. I am in equal measure excited and apprehensive about how AI will impact our lives, but perhaps that’s a healthy response.

Employee engagement levels at RELX remain at record highs. Customer Net Promoter Scores remain high. And our share price keeps growing. These things are not, in my view, coincidental. At RELX, we recognise that the way people are living their lives, post-pandemic, has changed. Hybrid working has become, for many, a non-negotiable expectation. And 2024 is the year we must accept that it’s here to stay and embrace it.

Our employees have used the 2023 employee opinion survey to tell us, loud and clear, that they value having the choice to work flexibly and we have the data that reinforces they feel even more trusted, more valued and more empowered than they did before the pandemic drove us all home.

Like other organisations all over the world, we must make sure that we make this flexibility work in a sustainable way - one that balances the needs of the business with the needs of the employee. In many cases this is easy to accomplish, sometimes it requires a bit more navigation, but with good intention and respect on both sides it is achievable.

And as the war for great talent continues, flexibility can open up new pools of talent for vacant roles. While sometimes roles are location-specific for very good reasons, insisting that all roles are ‘based’ at a certain location simply serves to limit the chance of finding the absolute best candidate. Taking an objective approach to the location requirements, instead of simply following old norms, can make the difference between a good candidate and a great candidate.

Some managers and organisations find this a bit scary and may need to challenge themselves to embrace it, but we will have to let go of many more traditional ways of thinking if we are to compete in the long game. With the pandemic apparently in our rear-view mirror, we must avoid falling into the trap of arbitrarily deciding certain things should now revert to how they were - believing that success comes somehow from the familiar.

Let me give you an example. Instructing people to come into an office where they are nominally based at a regular interval, such as two days per week, could be perceived by employees as an arbitrary decision. It potentially signals mistrust and dents goodwill. However, if we are able to articulate the compelling reasons for teams to come together, people are likely to be much more accepting of it. Leaders need to create situations that bring people together to share knowledge, collaborate, innovate, celebrate and build relationships. Add purpose, value and meaning to the request. I feel that teams coming together in person is fundamentally healthy and critically important, but we must be thoughtful about why we’re doing it - it should be to make good things happen.

This year will be, in my view, the year we all finally get to grips with flexible working. Where we accept it’s a positive step in supporting a healthier work-life balance, while still maintaining powerful performance. A year where we recognise that, because women continue to do much of the caring in families, flexible working drives equality and inclusion, making it easier for those with caring duties to perform, contribute and thrive. And finally, a year where we truly trust that employees are adults, who understand what the business needs from them and will perform as required, regardless of where they are. If the pandemic taught us anything, it should have taught us that.

Just recently I have been thinking about an aspect of inclusion which is not much talked about and is under-represented - and that is inter-generational working. Looking at the labour market, there are three truths emerging. First, there are fewer people available for work as populations in developed nations start to decline. Second, as ‘baby boomers’ start retiring, the labour market risks losing swathes of experience and ‘corporate memory’ in a short period of time. Third, people are living longer and so for some, retiring at say 65 may simply be too young and will want to continue working well into their seventies or even eighties.

The opportunity is getting the most out of generations working together: how to successfully combine the differences in expectations, desires, aspirations and simply the way they go about their work. Managed well, in an inclusive work environment, these differences offer huge benefits as people with quite different life experience and approaches to work come together to solve problems and deliver for customers in innovative ways. Managed well, we will get the most from cross-generational working.

Inter-generational working has always been a thing, but managed badly, we may see misunderstanding and frustration, and nobody will benefit. My earlier point on flexibility impacts this issue as well - how do we create opportunities for everyone to come together in the right way to learn from each other?

This may not be a pressing issue for 2024 but it’s one that I am noodling about as we will need to address it sooner rather than later, as some known facts about the shape of the labour market come home to roost.

It’s becoming clear that AI will change the way we work in the future, and we should all begin thinking about what this means for our personal development. We will all undoubtedly need to expand our knowledge and skills, so our careers can keep pace with the seismic changes AI will trigger.

In our new world of work, with a greater emphasis on flexibility, we have an additional challenge. We are potentially missing out on those informal conversations that happen in every office and that contribute so much to personal growth and development. Over time, these small interventions and informal conversations contribute significantly to one's growth. Managers have the additional challenge of creating those opportunities, perhaps through creative use of time spent in the office.

I have said this before, but now more than ever we should think about careers as wall-climbing. Each hand and foothold are a skill or experience that we gain. It is the collection of skills and experiences, built over time, that open career opportunities. Each of us is the owner of our career and our career choices, so a person’s pro-activity is ultimately what will drive success.

People should spend time to properly understand not only their skills and experiences but also their inspiration and motivation at work and then use this learning to push themselves forward for new projects or new roles. I see this happening at RELX as people move between our departments, business areas and geographies. This is people taking control, and I like it. But it only happens when the environment is created to enable it and permission is given to think of the art of the possible.

Organisations have an inherent responsibility to unleash internal talent before they think about looking for it outside. And here we come back to the role of the manager in helping members of their team grow at their own speed and in directions they chose. This means letting go of preconceived ideas and trusting that employees know what is best for them and, with an engaged workforce, knowing that very often what is good for them is also good for the organisation.

Throughout this article I have talked about situations where careful people-management will make the difference between success and failure. From the introduction, where I talked about the importance of resilience, through to the challenges of effective flexible working, through to creating an inclusive environment where each generation can thrive and the importance of development and growth. In every case, the people manager is at the heart. Time after time, we call on them to lead the way, and be the example for others to follow. Being a manager is tough. I think we can all relate. Which is why, at RELX, we decided to do something big to help.

We are creating a movement of thousands of people. A community of people-managers who are coming together, learning together and growing together through a new, immersive and engaging learning experience. We call it Manager CORE. You can read more about it here.

Managers are the heartbeat of any organisation. We ask a lot of them and expect them to be exemplary practitioners with a diverse set of skills. We expect them to have the aptitude to hold a range of conversations that matter every day. We expect them to hire the right people, to be coaches, team-builders, enablers, planners, innovators, compliance role models and risk managers. We expect them to be champions for our customers. We expect them to manage costs. We expect them to deal with under-performance, provide counsel, support their people through tough times, care about their welfare, challenge them to reach new heights and to be great listeners. These are the people that set the all-important micro-cultures that drive performance locally.

We must invest in their skills and the tools they use to manage their teams, whether small or large, because of the impact that they have on a daily basis. No one role drives success or failure more than a manager. For all these reasons and more, we must celebrate our people-managers in 2024 and call them out as the heroes they are.