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Act today, succeed tomorrow

Act today, succeed tomorrow

Nicola McQueen
Wed Dec 16, 2015 11:48 AM

HR leaders must act today to succeed

tomorrow, says Nicola McQueen,
Managing Director of Capita Resourcing
Our recent Workforce Horizons study
(http://www.capitaresourcing.co.uk/news-andinsight/knowledge-hub/workforce-horizons) found
that, currently, many HR professionals are rethinking
their resourcing strategies in order to attract better
candidates going forward. This is mainly due to the
significant shift in power from the employer to the
employee. From the study, and our own work, we
know that savvy workers are now the driving force
behind organisational change, especially when it
comes to recruitment and retention.
In fact, 94% of HR professionals we surveyed
currently believe that it is important to engage with
the very best talent even before a position is available to them. Further to this, according to over half (54%) of HR
professionals, retention will become as big a challenge for businesses as recruitment over the next ten years.
One of the major factors influencing both recruitment and retention currently is employer branding, or the lack thereof. Our
study found that 73% HR professionals think employees are becoming more demanding and aware of their own skills and
'brand', making it all the more important that their brand matches their employers. Despite this, most organisations are falling
behind employees in realising the importance of employer branding, with only 18% of companies having seriously developed
a comprehensive brand strategy.
The availability of flexible working is becoming a major component of an employers brand - 92% of those surveyed predict it
will be the most important factor for people determining the suitability of a future employer.
In light of the above results its clear that the organisations with the most highly diverse workforce, in terms of both
composition and skill set, in the future will have to have a strong brand, be quick (and able) to embrace and implement
leading-edge technology and methodologies, and be willing to incorporate a more flexible culture.
Achieving this is vital to attracting and retaining the workforces of the future, below I take a look at three ways that
organisations can strengthen their employer brand:

Make use of your data

Data and technology have had an important role in recruitment and management for years now and are set to play an even
bigger part in the future. In particular, theyll be needed more than ever to help make HR a more strategic function, with 31%
of HR professionals we studied saying big data enables HR to deliver more strategic value.
That said, HR teams are still not making the most out of what this insight can offer, particularly in terms of managing their
workforce. According to the study, a lack of analytics skills to understand and interpret the data (36%), data located in
disparate systems (31%) and too much data (30%) are the biggest barriers to getting better value from analytics for
recruitment and retention strategies.
In order to make it work, HR professionals must get up to speed and to a level where they can understand which data is
relevant and which adds true value going forward. This will help to inform future resourcing strategies and will be key for HR to
provide great insights in the future.

Organisations must change their approach to employee retention

In order to retain their best talent, companies need to rethink the current one size fits all approach to their employees. The
future of talent programmes will lean more towards personalised schemes for individual employees. These, along with robust
approaches to embedding diversity and inclusion, need to be implemented across the business to achieve a competitive
advantage and increase retention levels.
It can take years of careful planning to build and secure an enduring reputation for being a great place to work, so the key is to
invest the time and effort now in order for the rewards to follow later.

Be flexible
Despite 92% of HR professionals believing flexibility will become the most important factor for job-seekers determining the
suitability of a future employer only 8% of respondents have workforces that are currently working on a flexible contract.
A significant shift therefore needs to occur to meet demand. With employees becoming more aware of their skills and
'personal brand', the companies that embrace a wide mix of total reward elements, such as working from home or part-time,
will be the ones that attract the best talent in the future.
Millennials are already changing the workplace and, judging by these results, the changes have only just begun. To stay
relevant and successfully recruit and retain talent organisations need to start taking notice before they quickly become
irrelevant to the new generation of talent changing the world.
For more insights, you can find read the full Workforce Horizons report here (http://www.capitaresourcing.co.uk/newsand-insight/knowledge-hub/workforce-horizons).

https://www.i-l-m.com/Insight/Inspire/2015/December/workforce-horizons

13/10/2016

Act today, succeed tomorrow | ILM - Insight

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