Organisations are still failing to take action to improve their culture and are potentially jeopardising future growth, according to a Deloitte report, which highlighted a gap between what business leaders want and the capabilities of HR to deliver.
The report found that only 5 per cent of businesses rate their organisation’s HR performance as excellent, and said re-skilling HR is a critical business issue that must be addressed confidently at the CEO level.
HR and business leaders must have the confidence to re-imagine, reinvent and reinvigorate their talent and HR functions, according to the report, Global Human Capital Trends 2015: Leading in the New World of Work.
“It all starts with the senior HR leader as their role has radically changed and is more demanding than ever,” said Andy Peck, human capital partner at Deloitte Consulting.
“Today’s senior HR leaders must be innovative and business-savvy, plus be able to bring the HR team together so it evolves into an integrated business function. Research shows almost 40 per cent of HR leaders come from the business, not from HR.”
The report said companies can start to reinvent HR by doing the following:
- Design the HR organisation to be an enabler and builder of talent
- Align the specialist capabilities with priority business needs and decrease the effort of generalists
- Harness the wealth of data available to act as a research and professional development capability for the business
- Improve HR capability development around capabilities such as consulting and project management, organisational change and HR analytical skills.
“Once designed primarily as a compliance function, today’s HR organisation must be agile, business-integrated, data-driven, and deeply skilled in attracting, retaining and developing talent,” said Peck.
A shift in the balance of power
In addition to workers’ changing expectations of employers, skills needed on the job are changing faster than ever.
Organisations are quickly falling behind on developing the right skills across all levels, according to the report, which was conducted among more than 3,300 HR and business leaders in 106 countries.
It highlighted an urgent need for organisations to re-evaluate their learning programs and treat leadership development as a long-term investment, rather than a discretionary training spend item when times are favourable.
“As demand for talent picks up, the balance of power in business is rapidly shifting from the employer to the employee,” said Peck.
“In Australia workers are becoming more mobile, contingent and autonomous and, as a result, harder to manage and engage.
“In this new world of work, organisations need to re-imagine the way they manage people and come up with new, out-of-the-box ideas to make themselves relevant.”
As significant shifts take place in the workforce, such as it becoming younger and older, more diverse, as well as increasingly mobile and autonomous, workplaces become more complex, yet they still need to engage with a highly diverse employee base.
“Success in the new world of work means organisations must have the confidence to re-imagine the way they approach talent management by viewing their employees as customers or partners,” said Peck.
“They must create an employment brand and a culture that aligns with the values of the talent they want to attract and also flexible and individualised career options, offer ongoing leadership and professional development opportunities.”
Image source: iStock
