Salesforce Australia, New Zealand and ASEAN chief executive officer Pip Marlow today said businesses needed to realign themselves on a foundation of equality and integrity to thrive in a post-COVID world.
At today's QUT Business Leaders' Forum, Ms Marlow said the pandemic had forced employees and employers to rethink the way they worked.
"People really want to work for an organisation that's aligned to their purpose, aligned to their values and aligned to the work they do," she said.
"So, I don't like to call it the great resignation: I like to call it the great realignment. People are realigning themselves to the things that matter, including the organisation they work for."
Ms Marlow said "flexibility, outcome-based practices and trust" were key to creating workplaces that allowed for the hybrid model of working from both home and the office that had become more desirable after the pandemic.
"How do we let our employees make choices about where and when to work, but also how do we as organisations think about how we support that and how do we give them the tools to do their jobs from anywhere," she said.
Ms Marlow said collaboration and connection were two key drivers post pandemic, and workplaces needed to think about how they could ensure people were still in the room together to solve tough problems or talk about strategic planning.
She said workplaces had to especially think about how they could address gender imbalances in a hybrid workplace.
"One of my fears is that we may see more men return to the office than women, and therefore we may see that two-gender workplace that may impact on proximity bias or put more of the unpaid work back on women."
"Gender equality is not a women's issue: it's a human rights issue. When we're building policies and procedures in organisations that don't cater for half of the population then we are actually doing a disservice to our organisations, to our communities and to half the population," she said.
Ms Marlow said new generations coming through were also demanding employers were more progressive.
"Business is going to be the greatest platform for social change. It is going to lead the way on issues like climate and equality. People say they trust businesses to solve problems rather than the government."
Salesforce designs and develops enterprise software and applications. In Australia, the company has been named as one of the best places to work for six consecutive years, reflecting an advocacy for workplaces that are flexible, diverse, and inclusive.
Prior to Salesforce, Pip was Chief Executive Officer, Customer Marketplace at Suncorp and before that, Microsoft, where she held several senior executive roles in Australia and the US, culminating in her role as the Managing Director of Microsoft Australia for six years. Pip is also a non-executive director of Rugby Australia and a member of Chief Executive Women.
AGL Australia Managing Director and CEO-elect Christine Corbett will speak at the next QUT Business Leaders' Forum on July 20.
Ms Corbett will take the helm of AGL during a time of rapid change within the sector and will talk about her personal leadership journey and her views on key developments in energy transition and securing Australia's energy future on the path to net zero.
