| | European companies will
face five major human
resources challenges in
the future, with
managing talent being
the most critical,
according to a recent
survey of more than
1,350 executives from 27
countries in Europe. The
survey was conducted
jointly by The Boston
Consulting Group (BCG)
and the European
Association for
Personnel Management
(EAPM).
While the top five
topics that emerged in
the survey are all
long-range and
strategic, HR executives
seeking to gain the
trust of senior
executives also need to
focus on basic HR duties
such as recruiting and
hiring. One of the key
findings of the survey
is that executives
outside of HR are much
more likely to approve
of the performance of
their HR department if
the department masters
basic HR activities.
In some countries,
specific circumstances
are catapulting topics
other than talent
management to the top of
the HR agenda. Managing
demographics, for
example, was the top
future HR issue in
Germany, Austria, and
Switzerland, where 250
executives participated.
"Corporate executives in
Europe generally agreed
that they have a
demographic problem and
that they have not yet | |
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| | devised strategies to
fully combat it," said
Rainer Strack, a BCG
partner and managing
director based in
Dusseldorf.
BCG and EAPM are
releasing the survey
results in a report,
The Future of HR: Key
Challenges Through
2015, a thorough and
highly comprehensive
look at European HR
practices. The report
provides in-depth
analysis of the most
important HR issues in
nine focus European
countries and a quick
overview of HR
conditions in other
European nations. In
addition to taking a
quantitative view of the
European HR scene, BCG
and EAPM rounded out
their research by
conducting more than 100
interviews with senior
executives in 12
countries.
"Human resources has
never played a more
important role in
business than it does
today," said Hans Böhm,
general secretary of
EAPM. "We live in an age
of intellectual property
and knowledge-based
industries; we live in
an ageing society; we
live in a global economy
offering multiple job
opportunities for
individuals. HR
executives must face
these challenges to draw
on human capital as a
major source of
competitive advantage."
The survey examined | |
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| | the future importance of
17 HR topics. Five
topics emerged as the
most important in
future, but they also
represent the
capabilities that the
companies are weakest
in. So far only 30% of
the respondents have
begun to tackle all five
of the top challenges
for the future. The
report highlights
concrete action steps
that HR professionals
should take in the
following areas.
● Managing talent:
Talent shortages
loom, both in Europe and
in new markets abroad,
and companies must take
steps now if they hope
to address these
shortages. To fully
exploit global labour
pools of highly skilled
professionals, companies
should source their
talent from throughout
the world. Companies
should also ensure that
they target their
offerings to meet the
needs and goals unique
to different ethnic
groups and
nationalities, women,
and older workers.
● Managing
demographics:
With the workforce in
western Europe greying,
European companies must
mitigate two different
risks: the loss of
capacity and knowledge
as workers retire and
the loss of productivity
as the workforce ages. A | |
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| | company should introduce
a job family structure
to de-average the
demographic risk and to
identify specific
initiatives that address
recruiting as well as
cross-job qualification,
and transfers.
● Becoming a learning
organisation:
Corporations must
prepare their employees
to cope with the
complexities and
accelerated speed of an
increasingly global
economy. Simply spending
more on training
programs won't
automatically translate
into enhanced
productivity. Rather,
executives must clearly
define and measure the
return on investment
that they expect from
learning initiatives. By
making programme goals
and programme outcomes
tangible, companies can
ensure tangible
improvements.
● Managing work-life
balance:
As the boundaries
between private and work
life blur, employees are
increasingly selecting –
or rejecting – jobs
based on how well they
can help the individuals
achieve work-life
balance or advance
personal goals and
values.
In order to attract
and retain highly
talented individuals,
companies will therefore
need to offer flexible | |
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| | work arrangements. They
will also need to appeal
to employees' growing
desire to derive a sense
of greater purpose from
their work.
● Managing change and
cultural
transformation:
As companies hire
workers from around the
globe and enter new
markets with increasing
speed, managing
corporate and cultural
change will become a
critical capability.
Already, the research
showed, executives
expect their company's
HR functions to develop
tools and methodologies
that aid line managers
in communicating to
employees the need for
change – and empower
them to bring about such
change.
To help enhance their
HR capabilities,
companies should secure
highly visible support
from top management for
HR projects: even though
only about one-third of
HR departments reported
having the support of
top managers behind
their projects, those
that garnered it
appeared to benefit
considerably. These HR
functions received
performance scores that
were 65% higher on
average than those
received by functions
lacking such support.
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