Last fall, Deloitte continued its research into human capital trends and summarized the results titled: Engaging the 21^st century workforce. They undertook on of the largest global surveys of its kind by surveying 2532 business and HR leaders in 94 countries.

With an optimistic outlook toward reinvestment in human capital, and certainly with the needs of being technologically astute serving as a boilerplate for any and all operations, executives have realized the shortcomings of their workforces. “There are different demographics, different demands, and different expectations.”

Baby boomers are not retiring. Millennials don’t want a career, they want an experience and they are ready to take over. By 2025, millennials will comprise more than 75% of the workforce. So how are these executives digesting this information and what do they intend to do about it?

Three key areas of strategic focus

The researchers organized this year’s twelve critical human capital trends into three broads areas:

• Lead and develop: The need to broaden, deepen, and accelerate leadership development at all levels; build global workforce capabilities; re-energize corporate learning by putting employees in charge; and fix performance management.

• Attract and engage: The need to develop innovative ways to attract, source, recruit, and access talent; drive passion and engagement in the workforce; use diversity and inclusion as a business strategy; and find ways to help the overwhelmed employee deal with the flood of information and distractions in the workplace.

• Transform and reinvent: The need to create a global HR platform that is robust and flexible enough to adapt to local needs; reskill HR teams; take advantage of cloud-based HR technology; and implement HR data analytics to achieve business goals. (p. 3-5, Global Trends) 

This is an attempt to provide you with enough information to investigate your own human capital perspective and determine how you will integrate these findings into your company’s workforce development plans.

Top Findings’ Highlights

You can digest the top findings and recommended action in a complete 146-page report by going to Explore the Human Capital Trends Dashboard at http://www.deloitte.com/hcdashboard.

Finding 1:  Leadership , retention, HR skills, and talent acquisition are the top global trends in perceived urgency. In ranking order for urgency, they found: Highly urgent (25%)-  Leadership; Retention and engagement; Reskilling HR.  Urgent characteristics:  (20 – 24%)  Talent acquisition and access; Global HR and talent management; HR technology; Overwhelmed employee; Talent and HR analytics.  Finally, those considered important by respondents (10 – 19% of respondents ranked as urgent) Performance management; Workforce capability; Diversity and inclusion; Learning and development.

Interesting, that Leadership is the most urgent, yet, learning and development, is least urgent. How are you supposed to secure and sustain great leadership without training?

The importance of the dearth in leadership is critical to competitiveness in a global society. Is this information relevant in your workplace and what do you intend to do about it?

Additional Findings Snapshot

Leadership was identified as the top concern in five of the seven regions of the world.  In North America, it garnered a 40 percent concern.  

Program needs vary according to region with North America reporting the highest concern with the overwhelmed employee.

Human capital priorities vary according to industry, with one exception — Leadership, followed closely by retention and engagement. Technology firms, for example, were most concerned about technology training.

Business leaders have less confidence in their organization’s readiness to deal with future trends than HR leaders. Wow! Are the business “leaders” out of touch with their employees?  This was particularly true in larger organizations.

HR and talent executives grade themselves a C-minus for overall performance. Who is responsible for sustaining the impossibility of creating a world-class workforce? You cannot fault the HR department for that one alone.

It is refreshing that leadership and developing others to their fullest potential is on the forefront. We have seen horrific examples of companies with great managers that lack true leadership values and perspectives. 

You cannot shame people into performing for you. You can motivate them through personal empowerment and acknowledgement.

What’s Next?

The snapshot provided was purposeful.  Provide you with basic findings in an effort to spark a conversation within your leadership team.

As with most surveys, Deloitte doesn’t only provide the hard core statistics and leave folks to deal with them blindly. The opportunities for improvement in leadership and development, acquisition and engagement and transforming and inventing HR to support business priorities have been outlined in a carefully crafted agenda.

What will be interesting to watch, is which firms in our region, will embrace these findings, align their own priorities to that of the global community and embrace the move forward to developing great leaders.

The Human Capital dashboard is there for your organization to better itself to become a world-class competitor and retain satisfied employees. What would be the harm to you, to take a closer inspection and put it on your leadership team agenda for the next year?

Kayte Connelly, Best Principled Solutions LLC, is an award-winning author, leadership coach, and organizational development consultant specializing in personal, professional and community leadership. She facilitates corporate retreats and conversations with dissimilar parties and helps individuals and organizations identify and eliminate what stands between themselves and their goals. Enriched customized services are designed to create and sustain generations of leaders for our community and your company, based on research and global development. Call 484.769.2327  for more information on how your company could become more collaborative, flexible, imaginative, and innovative and/or to discover your leadership “edge.” www.facebook.com/BestPrincipledSolutions.  @leadercoachKT