HR Trends.

Twenty-six per cent of HR departments added organisational restructuring to their portfolios in the last 12 months, making it the most commonly added area of responsibility for the fifth year in a row. Responsibility for strategic workforce planning has also been added to HR’s scope. This indicates that organisations recognise the need to shift, reorganise, and consciously plan to prioritise and manage top talent and staff risks in order to ensure their success in this dynamic environment.
While organisations shift and restructure to help drive the revenue that they are projecting, they anticipate challenges related to organisational growth and/or contractions, and gaps between required and existing skills and leadership capability.

Managing change, maintaining an engaged workforce, and having the leadership skills to move the organisation forward during such times are areas of significant importance to HR; as is the need to have the right people in the right roles now and in the future.

With rising concerns about the ageing workforce, it makes sense for HR to also prioritise attracting, recruiting and planning for staff succession. This may be of particular importance in the public sector, where 18 per cent of organisations identify “retirement volumes” as the area of challenge that will have the biggest impact on their organisations in 2013 (compared to 10 per cent of organisations overall).
Going hand-in-hand with staffing concerns, recruitment and selection will receive the largest increase in budget or time in 2013 (13%). This will support the 48 per cent of organisations planning to increase their workforce in 2013.
Investments of time or budget in leadership development (12%) and learning and development (9%) will help to align new staff to their roles, prepare leaders to lead change, prepare staff to successfully transition into new roles resulting from restructuring, and close the general leadership capability and skill gaps that concern HR practitioners.

In the public sector, the largest increase in investment will be in labour relations (15%).

Planning for Success;

HR will play a key role in positioning organisations for success going forward, making their involvement in the development of organisational strategy important. Fifty-four per cent of HR departments are involved, engaged or drive the development of the organisational strategy, and 18 per cent are consulted during strategy development.

In addition, HR will require the ongoing support of leadership, and the financial and staff resources necessary to be successful.

HR budgets will increase in 32 per cent of organisations, stay the same in 39 per cent and reduce in 16 per cent. While this generally indicates financial support, it should be noted that in the public sector 24 per cent of organisations will see their HR budgets decline.
HR staffing was the number one area for HR budget reductions, with 49 per cent of organisations reporting budget reductions in this area (62 per cent in the public sector). External consulting programs and employee training and development were the next two most common areas for budget reductions.

Regardless of whether the HR budget is staying the same, growing, or decreasing, careful planning of time and resources will be required to ensure success. When faced with the demands of a high change environment, HR departments must be responsive, not reactive, to ensure that resources are used in the most effective ways possible.

Implications for HR;

BC HRMA’s HR trends survey results provide valuable insight into industry trends and external conditions that will impact the strategies that your HR department uses to attract talent, prepare for change, and meet revenue targets.

Allocate Time & Resources Effectively

With results very similar to those of previous years, to effectively allocate time and resources, HR practitioners must continue to work towards the following recommendations:

Understand the organization’s strategic direction in order to determine change requirements and support change to take place effectively;
Understand current and potential skills related to change leadership and management, and take steps to close gaps;
Understand the organization’s current and future workforce/leadership needs and take action to build and acquire the skills and abilities needed to move the organisation forward; and
Be open to exploring new talent pools (e.g., New Canadians) to increase access to talent and provide the organisation with sources of new ideas, approaches and, potentially, business opportunities. A diversified workforce also better represents the consumer population and can have a positive impact on employer branding.
Develop HR’s Skills

HR practitioners must also take steps to close their own skill gaps. For the last several years the HR trends survey has seen a number of new areas added to the scope of the HR function, including organisational restructuring and workforce planning. With these new areas of responsibility comes the need to develop the knowledge, skills and abilities to successfully deliver on requirements. Even if consultants are used to address these organisational issues, HR requires the knowledge and skills to direct action, execute on programs/recommendations, and be the internal point of contact and recognised resource in these areas.

In addition to skill building in areas that have been added to HR’s scope, HR practitioners must also continue to build their knowledge and skills in areas of priority for 2013. Some development areas to consider include:

Linking Activity to Strategy – Build an understanding of the organization’s strategy to determine talent requirements and increase critical thinking skills, problem solving skills, influence skills and HR strategic planning skills to drive the organisation toward success.
Recruitment & Selection – Build skills related to enhancing and communicating the employer brand; using social media and technology for recruitment and selection purposes; and skills for attracting, effectively screening, and hiring from the growing pool of immigrant talent.
Workforce Planning & Succession Management – Build skills such as those related to identifying critical roles, understanding role requirements, and identifying high potential talent.
Learning & Development – Build skills that will support identifying training and development needs throughout the organisation, designing and implementing appropriate learning and development solutions, and measuring return on investment.
Change Management – Build skills related to managing change processes (e.g., project management), and effectively communicating change in ways that are meaningful (e.g., express the reasons for change) and practical (e.g., clarify how changes will affect day-to-day work).

Model Effective Change Management

Fifty-eight per cent of HR functions have been through some form of change or reorganisation in the past year. Twenty-four per cent of these organisations expect to change again in the next 12 months, and an additional four per cent also expect to change. While this may pose challenges, it also presents opportunities. HR will have special insight into the change process and how it impacts staff. This knowledge can be used to better support change initiatives and model effective change practises.

2013 will present HR with the opportunity to shape the changes that will support organisations to move toward their goals. To do this successfully, HR practitioners will need to carefully manage their resources, develop their skills and the skills of their workforce, demonstrate an openness to change, and truly understand the talent needs of their organisation now and in the future.
1. Next generation leadership

The majority of organisations (84 %) say that developing future leaders is relevant now and in the next three years, but organisations must seek a new leadership model for the age of agility. "Although there is clear focus on developing the next generation of leaders globally, HR executives still need to develop a different approach around development. These strategies must be specific to the business. It's pervasive and organisations must commit to getting the best results."

2. Accelerating organisational change

87% of respondents see the way in which organisations view change as a top trend. "In today's fast-paced environment, organisations need to adopt a new way of looking at change and become more results-orientated."

3. The war to develop talent

86% of respondents reported the shift to development and upgrading skills as a critical trend.

In Luxembourg, businesses struggle to fill critical positions at many levels, independently of the current unemployment rates. As the requirements for the leadership pipeline change rapidly, companies are putting renewed focus on building capabilities, not just finding them. The ‘war for talent’ is shifting – and is becoming the ‘war to develop talent’.

This major trend first seems at odds with the Luxembourg market where vocational training has declined significantly over the last years: from 2007 to 2011, training investment by employee dropped by 26% and the average number of training days by employee has been reduced by 1 day 1.

However, as cost-cutting is having a major effect both on recruitment and training activities, HR needs to ensure continuity of its talent pipeline by conducting a future oriented assessment of the types of skills, insights, and experiences required. This planning will need to focus on new skills that need to be nurtured and developed in order to enable and support future business strategy.

4. Boards are changing the HR game

82% of respondents say a growing number of boards are focusing on the role and impact of talent on business performance and risk. This is a step away from the previous focus of boards which was centred on CEO succession and setting compensation for the most senior executives.

Likewise, in Luxembourg, an increased board focus on risk is changing the game – focusing on the role and impact that talent has on business performance and risk. They know that developing strategy without considering the talent dimension creates risk in their business plans: talent is a core component of a company’s risk profile, including reputation risk, operational risk, regulatory risk, and financial risk.

5. Transforming HR to meet new business priorities

85% of respondents indicated that organisations are developing HR capabilities that will not only support the business, but enable business strategy.

In Luxembourg, the recent restructurings and mergers, especially in the financial services sector, should be considered as an opportunity to change and improve HR processes, systems and practises for the new organisation: HR’s new capabilities should include the ability to effectively and reliably combine two distinct workforce into a truly integrated organisation in order to drive efficiency, productivity and employee satisfaction.

6. The ageing workforce

The ageing workforce is a trend especially relevant to Luxembourg: Luxembourg has one of the lowest average retirement ages (58, 3 years 2). However, pension financing issues as well as the looming baby-boomer brain drain will have major impacts in the near future and will create the need to change the traditional view of retirement.

One approach for targeting this opportunity is to apply principles of workforce flexibility and career customisation, targeting workers as they near retirement age. Another major challenge for HR leaders will be to develop and support innovation and agility despite an ageing workforce.
It’s that time again when researchers, organisations, and opinion leaders share their predictions on a variety of business and technology topics for the coming year. The Human Resources (HR) industry is no exception, and a group of professionals recently got together at the Annual Society for Human Resource Management Conference (SHRM) in Chicago to talk about the top technology trends affecting employers and employees in 2014. Human Capital Management Advisers and member of SHRM’s, Technology and HR Management Expertise Panel, “The role of technology is that of an enabler, allowing HR to live out its strategies and support the business.”

These are the top ten HR technology trends that this esteemed group forecasts to impact companies and their workers in 2014:

HR data is secure in the cloud. When it’s done right, cloud is just as secure as on site, on premise software solutions.
Gratification is here to stay. Especially for millennial, gratification is the best way for employers to communicate, engage, train, attract, and retain top talent.
Integrated social media will result in better communication and collaboration. Software that embeds social media capabilities across daily processes, (as opposed to separate platforms), with internal and external colleagues is the optimal collaborative tool.
Visualisation and globalisation are transforming the workplace. Remote working arrangements will continue to proliferate expanding outside country boundaries forcing       employers to be more innovative in how they use collaboration tools.
Cross-functional innovation teams will become the norm to improve creativity, productivity, and quality. HR needs to collaborate with other departments to see what’s working, and apply those best practises to help achieve HR goals.
Cloud and business process outsourcing support business goals by reducing infrastructure costs while freeing up HR resources for strategic innovation.
Mobile tools become even more prevalent from senior management through hourly workers. Anywhere, anytime access to information speeds up recruiting, boosts productivity, and increases efficiency that benefit not just employees but suppliers and customers.

HR needs to harness and analyse Big-Data for business performance results. With the right information, companies can quantify the impact HR has on business performance, forecast       workforce demands near and long term, identify critical skills gaps, explore different scenarios, and develop people strategies to meet the needs of the company in a fast-changing global environment.
Integration, consolidation, and “suite” solutions will increase the penetrability of systems, databases, and tools. HR can make more informed decisions about workforce management based on quality data sets from across the entire company.
Global, standardised definitions for HR terminology, metrics, data models, and systems will emerge as technology unites HR professionals worldwide.
It’s clear that sophisticated technologies are forever altering the workplace, including HR itself. As integrated, advanced software becomes more widespread, Tanyaradzwa our Managing Consultant sees HR morphing into a purely business role over time. He predicts that, “If we do our jobs right, much of legacy HR as we know it as a profession will fade away, migrating from being ‘HR business partners’ to becoming part of the business with strong HR acumen.”