Resilient organisations focus on what really matters - their people

It's a new financial year, economic recovery is in the air and increasingly socio-economic shifts are affecting the workplace. Positioning budgets and headcounts to respond effectively is no easy feat in these volatile times. However, it is precisely in times of economic and social challenges that it is important to purposefully align resources with strategic goals and objectives to create a resilient organisation.

Resilient organisations engender a corporate culture that not only says it values their people but one that actually invests at all levels and sees employees as essential to survival and success. They deliberately work with shifts - whatever they happen to be.  And, they recognise that strategic human resource planning is as critical to business success as financial budgeting - in fact it's part of the same overall process.

The point is - economic set-backs are part of our mixed market economy and social trends always affect our workforce. Although, admittedly, this last economic setback was unprecedented for many countries. The wave of boomers leaving the workforce is causing us to scramble to fill certain skills gaps. The need to bridge the generation gap is not just about age - it's about cultivating across the board skills and talent.

As you get ready for each new financial year, it's important to ask questions like: “What is your HR strategy and how does it play with your bottom line? What are your HR strengths, weaknesses and gaps? What are the trends and shifts that we must deal with?” Critical questions as you work towards strategic goals and operational or sales targets for 2011 and onward.

Regardless of the size of your company, understanding the skills and levels of experience in your organisation and aligning them with business goals is not an easy task. Nor does it happen overnight. In fact, done right it can take larger firms up to a year or two to identify core HR competencies that truly support strategic objectives.

In a recent survey, sourcing and retention of top talent were found to be the biggest challenges for 2011. This is according to 75% of senior Australian HR professionals across a range of industries from more than 55 organisations who participated in the survey.

According to the survey, these findings are not surprising considering recent predictions for hiring growth in Australia. It expects hiring to increase throughout 2011 - leading to greater competition in strained talent pools. It goes on to say that the strong Australian economy likely will encourage more overseas-based recruitment. Others like BBC Worldwide, are finding that attracting new talent is an ongoing problem. Proponents at BBC believe that companies need to adapt to new challenges in order to recruit and retain staff.

With such predicted fierce competition for talent, organisations need a comprehensive understanding of the talent they already have, the talent they need to recruit and the workforce trends they face.

If we look at US socio-economic trends in this area, we find that in a recent survey some 1,240 HR professionals widely agreed about the various challenges in the workplace. These challenges are being faced in other countries as well, including Australia.

The relevant challenges included:

• The necessity of bridging the generation gap. The Baby Boomers exodus will put the focus on the Millennial generation (often, the Baby Boomers’ kids) and managers who know how to bridge the generation gap between much of senior leadership and these up-and-comers.
• Increased competition from China and India for jobs. These countries not only provide markets for US and Australian goods, but they are global competition for skilled workers. Interestingly enough, these HR professionals were not at all certain that the Millennial and X generations will have the skills necessary to replace retiring baby boomers.

Responses to the US survey questions give us an idea of what might be in store for organisations in other countries over the next year. Results pointed to workplace trends being influenced if not driven by the following factors:

• 85% of HR professionals will be expecting workers to be more productive in 2011. There will be more emphasis on linking employee performance to company-wide goals.
• 60% say co-pays for health insurance are going up
• 80% will implement wellness programs for employees
• 75% will invest more in employee training and development
• 59% will train line managers to respond to and overcome generational differences
• 67% say there will be more flextime in 2011
• 63% will be increasing the size of their workforce over the next year
• 63% say wages are going up

So where does this leave us in terms of strategic resource planning? For Personnel Today, strategic resourcing is more than an important luxury that merely goes with business planning now and then:

“Encompassing a range of activities from workforce planning to recruitment and the creation of employer 'brands', it [strategic resourcing] is one element of HR strategy that has an immediate impact on organisational ability. If human capital management is fundamentally about leveraging employee talent, then the starting point is identifying, acquiring or transferring the right people to the right positions."

We can no longer afford to respond in a knee jerk fashion when employees resign, are let go, go on long-term leave or retire. If you want your organisation to be resilient and able to nimbly step through economic and social change, pay attention to your people. Align human resources with strategic business plans and budgets as part of your overall strategic planning process.

Resilient organisations focus on what really matters - their people - because they know this talent can pay big dividends to their bottom line, and yes - to their corporate fitness, sustainability and success.

What will your strategy be to face the coming shift in demographics and the on-going reality of our mixed market economy? Will it take your organization to where you want to go?

Tell a friend

From:

Your name
Your email address

To:

Subject	Thought you might be interested in this.
Friend email address
Friend email address
Friend email address
Friend email address
Friend email address
Friend message
Enter word verification: