COVER STORY
HR REPORT
TODAY’S CHALLENGES Participants were asked to rank from 1 to 5 (1 being ‘extremely important’) a list of six challenges. Here are the ultimate scores assigned to each challenge, along with survey responses which serve to highlight specific issues HR is dealing with
90%
‘OTHER’ The challenges facing HR professionals were similar regardless of country, company size, or the job title of those taking part. However, intriguingly, ‘other’ was selected by the highest number of HR professionals as their number one challenge. By ‘other’, HR professionals specified: • Being a business partner: contributing to the business at a strategic level and achieving results through people; demonstrating value to the business; aligning HR with the need of the business • Managing people: Employee relations, organisational culture, increasing productivity, recruiting the right people • Keeping employees engaged • Employee development and career planning • Change management
89%
BUILDING INTERNAL CAPABILITY AND INFLUENCE “Linking HR programs to business results and knowing what metrics to measure.” “Being commercial – not enough acknowledgement of business needs is being shown in the profession.”
88%
EMPLOYEE RETENTION “Employee relations – resolving issues with employees. Many HR professionals no longer see this as important but poor relationships and unresolved problems create high turnover and low productivity.”
81%
EMPLOYEE RECRUITMENT ““Becoming an Employer of Choice – not just because of the catch phrase, but what it actually means: having engaged staff who believe in the company and its strategic direction, and being a place people want to work (unsolicited applications).” “Can’t do anything without the right people in the right job with the right skills.”
“Coping with a work base that wants to work on an increasingly flexible basis – not just working mothers/parents. Genuinely promoting work-life balance options combined with a meaningful job/career.”
75%
DEALING WITH LEGAL CHANGES
74%
ADAPTING TO NEW TECHNOLOGY “Using technology to streamline and automate routine processes, and using data more integrally with other business metrics to underpin the strategic contribution and cost benefits of HR to the business.”
20
“With the way Australian laws are headed, it is becoming a lot harder to act as a HR professional without facing employees who have the support of the legal system behind them even if they have acted incorrectly.” “HR is seen as a ‘Policeman’ concerned about countless ever changing pieces of legislation – as opposed to positioning themselves as a service centre to assist operational managers get the best out of their teams whilst aligning with the corporate strategic intent.”
www.hcamag.com
14-25_HRSurvey_v3_SUBBED2.indd 20
31/07/2015 3:19:02 PM