HR ready for the future? No way, report says
The highly connected and global 21st-century workforce is here. And if a massive new report from Deloitte is to be believed, employers are simply not ready for the challenges that workforce will present.
The Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends 2014 report combines 15 years of research as well as a global talent management survey, incorporating the views of more than 2,500 business and HR leaders in 94 countries.
According to the report, the single biggest challenge cited by most (86%) respondents is leadership development, followed by retention and engagement (79%), and “reskilling” the HR function (77%).
The bad news: Most respondents say that their organizations aren’t prepared to address those challenges, the report said.
“As the world’s population grows, the global workforce is simultaneously getting younger, older, and more urbanized,” Josh Bersin, principal and founder of Bersin by Deloitte, said in a press release. “Millennials are reshaping the talent markets with new expectations; new technologies are changing work in countless ways; and we are more frequently competing and racing with machines for knowledge work. The findings of our global survey reveal that a majority of global organizations are not prepared to deal with these trends that are reshaping the workforce.”
Developing leaders is the top issue facing these organizations, the research says. Yet only 13% percent of respondents believe they do an excellent job in providing leadership programs across all levels; 66% believe they are “weak” in their ability to provide leadership programs for Millennials, and about half (51%) have little confidence in their ability to maintain clear and consistent succession programs.
The second top challenge cited by respondents — retention and engagement of employees — is another area where executives rate themselves as either “weak” or just “adequate.” More than one-third (38%) reported they are “weak” at integrating social, community, and corporate programs and aligning employee and corporate goals. Four-in-ten respondents (40%) said their organization is “weak” in helping employees balance their personal and professional lives, and only 8% believe they have a strategy to help employees manage the barrage of information they receive every day.
HR under the microscope
HR gets an especially critical look in the Deloitte report: 43% of respondents to the survey indicated that their organizations are “weak” when it comes to providing HR with appropriate training and experiences. Forty-seven percent ranked their organizations “weak” on preparing HR to deliver programs aligned with business needs.
According to the study, many HR teams lack the skills and data they need to understand today’s global business environment, local labor markets, evolving workforce demographics, shifts in technology, and the changing nature of work itself.
In fact, more than one-third (34%) of the respondents said their HR and talent programs are just “getting by” or even “underperforming.” Moreover, less than eight percent of HR leaders have confidence that their teams have the skills needed to meet the challenge of today’s global environment and deliver innovative programs that drive business impact.
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