Industry Insight
Building on Sand How can HR get on a strategic path? By The Editors As businesses emerge from the downturn, having the best people in the right places to drive growth has never been more important, shining a spotlight on the role of HR. But is HR seizing the initiative? While we hear a lot about shared services, evidence-based HR, and the cloud, we wonder the extent data, partnerships, and technology are leveraged to build world-class workforces. The HRO Today Institute partnered with consultancy firm Loudhouse to explore these issues. The research sought to determine how senior-level HR executives view executable best practices, and the barriers to delivering on strategic HR goals. The HRprOgression Survey 2013 research finds HR practitioners at a crossroads, focused on the need for growth and innovation, but essentially building on sand. While many organisations understand the strategic purpose of the HR function, day-to-day activities of HR executives tend to focus more on efficiency savings than delivering against the strategic objectives of the business. Six main challenges are diverting HR executives from being strategy focused: The need for a world-class workforce; [14]
HRO TODAY GLOBAL
| WINTER 2014
barriers to a world-class workforce; leveraging data, partnerships, and technology; deriving more value from data; the power of partnerships; and integrating HR and technology. The Need for a World-Class Workforce While the economic downturn has impacted businesses across the globe, survey respondents report the workforce is more important than ever. As organisations start to look towards a future upturn, seventy-one per cent have kept staff employed in readiness for growth. Seventy-four per cent expect to increase employee numbers over the next 12 months. This suggests a growing feeling of economic assurance. However, only 30 per cent of organisations are confident they have a world-class workforce already in place with the best people in the right positions and locations to drive potential growth. This lack of confidence could certainly constrain the future development of the business. Barriers to a World-Class Workforce Behind these concerns lie some very real challenges faced by