A look at current trends and data

Citation

Nolan, S. (2013), "A look at current trends and data", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 12 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr.2013.37212daa.010

A look at current trends and data

Article Type: Research and results From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 12, Issue 4

Story 1

Europe needs a new breed of leaders

A new report reveals a major shift in the leadership characteristics required to run European businesses compared to the pre-crisis period. The research, conducted by Korn/Ferry International, executive search and talent management consultancy, included interviews with over 100 senior executives within the European Union.

Table I Shift in importance of leadership competencies

Since the financial crisis, a new range of challenges has led to a transformation and reprioritization of the leadership skills and styles required of the best European executives. The composite picture of the “New European Executive” – one able to rekindle and sustain growth – is a leader more visionary, move driven by competence and expertise, more flexible and adaptable to rapid change, more courageous, and more strategic than before the onset of the financial crisis – see Table I.

The most valued competencies in the new profile, however, are exceedingly challenging to develop. Managerial courage and dealing with ambiguity are typically developed through experience in challenging, often emotionally charged situations and executives with these most critical skills will be in short supply.

Characteristics of the new European leader

The most important characteristic for business leaders in Europe in 2012 is the ability to deal with ambiguity, a trait that did not even make the top 10 five years ago. As the direction of the economy, market movements and demands placed on businesses by European and domestic governmental bodies have become ever more difficult to predict, the report reveals that the ability to negotiate these unknowns is more vital than ever before.

Managing vision and purpose – being able to define what success looks like in a flat economy and communicating that to stakeholders – is another key new attribute, ranked third in the 2012 list. Another new attribute, managerial courage, enters the list at number five as business leaders need to make bolder decisions in an environment where they frequently have to act quickly on a limited amount of information.

The research highlights how the most successful decision-making styles have evolved over the past five years. Competitive and relationship driven leadership styles have been replaced by an openness to new information and ways of doing business. Decision-making styles for the post-crisis executive need to be anchored in intellectual argument, competence and expertise rather than power and influence.

For more information

Visit www.kornferry.com.

Story 2

HR professionals unclear on how talent data impacts the bottom line

Seventy-seven percent of HR professionals worldwide do not know how workforce potential is affecting the company’s bottom line. This is according to a survey carried out by SHL, a talent measurement company, of nearly 600 HR professionals worldwide. Less than half of organizations surveyed use objective talent data to drive business decisions. The study suggests that HR is overwhelmed by the volume of employee data and struggles to elicit meaningful insight that will help drive businesses forward and deliver results.

With organizations focused on restructuring, cost-cutting and growing the top line in tough markets, HR’s 2013 priorities reflect the organization’s need to engage their talent (55 percent of those surveyed) and cultivate strong leaders (52 percent) to drive change. The report reveals the other priorities of HR professionals are performance management (49 percent), workforce planning/talent analytics (43 percent) and training (42 percent). HR priorities reflect the contention between balancing short-term employee productivity and performance with longer-term strategy of aligning talent to the needs and vision of the business.

Ken Lahti, vice president, Product Development and Innovation, SHL, comments: “Our research shows that even though organizations measure employee performance, they have historically focused on efficiency data, like how well an employee is performing versus data that allows them to make a strategic talent decision. This means key information on talent potential and future capability is overlooked, effectively making targeted programs that identify the next generation of leaders and nurture talent for critical roles ineffective. This increases succession risk for organizations, putting business performance and continuity in jeopardy.”

The challenge of big data

The report also revealed that HR professionals are facing a “big data deluge” with confusion over how to manage talent data to impact company performance. Two major challenges for HR to overcome are data quality and accessibility, and respondents indicated that there is room for improvement in these areas.

Despite workforce planning and talent analytics being referenced among the top five priorities, less than half of respondents (44 percent) said their organizations use objective data on employees’ competencies and skills to make workforce decisions and only 18 percent of HR professionals are currently satisfied with the way their organization manages talent data. However, according to the upcoming report from CEB, SHL’s parent company, organizations that are effective at using talent analytics can boost employee bench strength, performance and retention by up to 19 percent.

For more information

These findings are revealed in SHL’s annual Global Assessment Trends Report 2013. For more information, visit www.shl.com.

Story 3

Conflict between employee skills and changing workforce needs

Employers are facing a conflict between the employee skills and changing workforce needs. Research among over 20,000 employees from member-based advisory company, CEB, suggests that managers need 20 percent more productivity from their employees at a time when the instability of the current economy is impacting the corporate bottom line.

Moreover, CEB suggests that organizations are entering an age of a new work environment and that the next generation of “high performers” should now be sought during the recruitment phase. High performers are nimble and adapt to change well, work collaboratively and apply judgment to the breadth of knowledge they are confronted with to ensure profitable growth for their business.

However, high performers for the new work environment are a rare gem to find – on average, only 5 percent of employees globally have a strong combination of the skills to be high performers, according to CEB’s research. Instead, recruiters will need a new armory to ensure that they are recruiting the high performing talent of tomorrow. CEB recommends the core competencies recruiters should be looking for from candidates include the following:

1. 1.

   Flexibility. Over half (56 percent) of employees state they have experienced significant change at work in the last year. Candidates must demonstrate an ability to respond to change with little impact on their productivity.

2. 2.

   Team player. candidates need to show they can collaborate well and are able to work with a range of people across their organization. The number of people employees have to work with is rising, with 67 percent of employees noting greater collaboration in the last three years.

3. 3.

   IT savvy. Candidates with technological know-how are imperative to business productivity in the new working environment, with employees working with more complex technology than before. Meanwhile, currently 99 percent of employees say they use a form of technology at work.

4. 4.

   Analytical. Strong analytical skills are crucial and candidates must prove they can be decisive, objectively prioritize their workload and problem solve, particularly at a time of change. However only 40 percent of workers who frequently use information to make decisions as a part of their day-to-day job currently have the analytical skills and business judgment required to make influential decisions.

For more information

Visit the CEB website at www.executiveboard.com.

Story 4

Insights into global learning

Speexx, an online corporate language training provider, has produced a whitepaper called “Setting the agenda for global talent management” to help organizations understand global talent management trends. It incorporates insights from 230 organizations across five continents, representing over 1.6 million employees.

The whitepaper examines elements such as why empowering communication matters, the impact of mobile learning and cloud-based technology and assessing the benefits of workforce learning against the constraints of tightening budgets. Following are some of the findings:

• •

  According to the Speexx Exchange 2013 Survey, language learning technology is indicative of a global shift towards improved cross-border communication, with 47 percent of organizations e-enabling language training and 88 percent deeming communication skills vital for business success.

• •

  Among the most reported benefits of e-learning were standardization, flexibility and a better way of monitoring results. Despite these inherent gains, however, around half of the organizations claimed to be investing less than 10 percent of their training budget in e-enabled learning solutions.

• •

  The untapped potential of mobile is also echoed in the survey, with 63 percent of organizations allowing mobile devices in the workplace, but less than a third of these actually using them for learning purposes.

In addition to showcasing the current attitudes and tendencies, the whitepaper offers HR managers some useful strategies for closing the gap between the opportunities offered by e-learning and cloud-based talent management systems and their actual usage.

For more information

The whitepaper can be downloaded for free at speexx.com/whitepaper.

Sara Nolan