“Talent troubles – can HR fill the gaps?” That was the headline for the CIPD’s “star article” in the February edition of “In a nutshell”; their pick of the best HR thinking for their members. The piece covers the findings of the 15th Annual Global CEO Survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which – as the headline suggests – shows that there is no sign of the talent war abating.
According to the survey, the talent challenge is beginning to “have a direct impact on company revenue growth.” Statistics that bear this out reveal that:-
- Two fifth (40%) of IT companies have missed a market opportunity because they did not have a suitably skilled workforce.
- One in three CEOs claim the skills shortage is helping their ability to innovate.
- 53% of CEOs see talent shortages as a top threat to business expansion.
So what is the CIPD take on this? “The opportunity this presents for the HR profession to finally get its due seems more promising than ever.” (My emphasis.) It seems that the profession cannot stop seeing itself as hard done by. Is it possible that you earn “due”? And, if so, that perhaps this lack of “due” is an indictment of historic performance? If that is the case, then these findings damn the profession even more. Particularly when only a small minority of CEOs say their HR metrics provide enough information about their workforce for important strategic decisions.
Of course you cannot blame the CIPD for putting a positive spin on the findings. And they are right; they do present a wonderful opportunity. And you can certainly not blame them for not emphasising past shortcomings, even though this might have added a greater sense of need to take action – and even urgency. But it might have carried greater weight if they had simply said, “What a wonderful opportunity this presents to the HR profession.” The implicit victimisation does the profession no favours.
Anyway, putting that aside, the findings do present an opportunity. The information gap identified includes:-
- Staff productivity;
- Employees views and needs;
- ROI on human capital;
- Costs of employee turnover;
- Skills gaps and how to identify where to invest in employee development.
If you think about it, none of these are new requirements. Clearly, however, they are becoming more critical. And the HR profession is under the spotlight to see if it can deliver. In fact it is possibly Last Chance Saloon for the profession, because it will never “get its due” if it fails.
Fortunately you have a solution at your disposal right now. The Zealise proposition to value your people as human assets gives you the foundation to meet all those needs and close the gap completely. Let’s take a closer look at the reasons for this claim.
- It provides the catalyst to improve staff productivity by creating a framework for a partnership between employee and manager to optimise human asset value, which in turn will be maximised by performance. This is cemented by the unique employee ownership model it offers.
- It simultaneously provides a framework for identifying employees needs because the need to optimise his/her asset value will impel the employee to voice their needs.
- The inclusion of employees as human assets provides the means to consistently determine the ROI on human capital, as well as a benchmark for internal and external comparison.
- The variation in human assets from one period to the next, combined with the above ROI capability, will provide an effective means to consistently assess the effect of employee turnover.
- The assessment of staff productivity will simultaneously help to identify skills gaps and training needs.
It may not be a complete solution, but it is likely to be as effective as any tools you use currently. In addition, it will also provide you with a capability for conducting proper cost-benefit analysis on training, and will also create the capability to measure the ROI on training and development.
There you have it. If you are looking to close the gaps that your CEO is finding a challenge, you have the solution you need right here. So what are you waiting for?