| | 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
devised strategies to | |
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| | 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
the future importance of | |
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| | 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
company should introduce
a job family structure to | |
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| | 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
work arrangements. They
will also need to appeal | |
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| | 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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