I was reminded recently of the Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends report released earlier in 2014. The challenges expressed by more than 2,500 human resources and business executives from hundreds of companies around the globe had nothing to do with the “old school” human resources functions such as benefits and pay administration, policy enforcment, compliance and endless personnel paperwork. Those traditional personnel tasks are being automated, outsourced, or downplayed by savvy companies who know there are much more important challenges facing companies in the 21st century. So what were the areas 70% to 86% of business executives believed HR leaders need to focus on now?
- Leadership development was number one with 86% of businesses stating this a top priority they expect from human resources.
- Retention and engagement of employees (79% want HR to focus on this)
- Re-skilling the HR department to focus on business strategic priorities versus transactional personnel functions (77%)
- Talent acquisition and Workforce capability training (tied with 75%)
- Global talent management (72%)
- HR analytics (71%)
- Learning and development (70%)w
This certainly explains why organizations like Leader Discovery are focusing efforts on learning, development, training, motivating and engaging employees, and especially leadership development. We’ll be reaching out to human resources professionals for partnerships in these areas.