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Organizations Fail to Adjust to 21st-Century Workforce
NEW YORK -- The highly connected and global 21st-century workforce is here. But organizations remain unprepared to respond to the challenges this workforce represents, a subsidiary of Deloitte Consulting LLP says.
"As the world's population grows, the global workforce is simultaneously getting younger, older and more urbanized," said Josh Bersin, principal and founder of Bersin by Deloitte, part of Deloitte Consulting LLP, which issued the 2014 Global Human Capital Trends report. "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."
The single biggest challenge cited by 86% of respondents is leadership development, followed by retention and engagement, 79%, and reskilling the human resources function, 77%. Importantly, the report found, most respondents indicate that their organizations are not ready to address these challenges.
"Given the radical shifts in demographics and technology, doubling down on the human capital practices of the past will not be enough to get the job done," Bersin noted. "The research shows that organizations should re-imagine their approach to engaging people and move to re-engineer many of their human resources practices. Attracting top talent has become a serious competitive issue that demands attention at the highest levels of the organization."
Developing global leaders is the top issue these organizations face, yet only 13% 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 51% have little confidence in their ability to maintain clear and consistent succession programs.
Faced with a dire shortage of technical and professional skills, many organizations are resorting to the old-fashioned way of addressing the problem, i.e., trying to hire the right person to fill in the gaps. That said, the report indicates that as skills become obsolete more rapidly, organizations should learn to leverage massive open online courses and internal development resources to build a "supply chain for skills" -- developing deep, specialized skills on the job.
The second major challenge respondents cited -- retention and engagement of employees -- is another area where executives rate themselves as either "weak" or just "adequate." More than one-third, 38%, assessed themselves as "weak" at integrating social, community and corporate programs and aligning employee and corporate goals; 40% say 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.
"Twenty-first century employees have radically different expectations about work than those of previous generations," Bersin said. "Today, people want to work for organizations that continually invest in developing their skills, thereby enabling them to stay relevant. They also want balance, passion and purpose in their jobs. This changing employment value proposition requires organizations to align their business and corporate objectives with the professional, personal and social goals of their employees and give them an opportunity to make a difference, not just earn a paycheck."
The third top-rated issue is the need to transform the human resources function. 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, 34% of respondents reported that their HR and talent programs are just "getting by" or even "underperforming." Moreover, fewer than 8% 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.
"There's no doubt that human capital strategies are now a major factor in business growth," said Jason Geller, national managing director for U.S. human capital consulting at Deloitte Consulting. "Yet, today's HR departments are not equipped to face the challenges of this new role. When you add to this the rapidly changing landscape of HR technologies, such as cloud and big data, and their impact on attracting, retaining and developing talent, it becomes clear that reskilling HR teams is arguably the most critical mission for organizations today."
Specifically, 43% of respondents responded that their organizations are "weak" when it comes to providing HR with appropriate training and experiences and 47% rank their organizations "weak" on preparing HR to deliver programs aligned with their business needs.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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