Research: the top 4 L&D priorities for 2008
Most of the time we know what we need to change, we just don't know how. To help you see the wood for the trees here's our rundown of the key strategic issues that faced Senior HR professionals in 2007, and to make sure it's a brighter 2008 we've added in our solutions.
Vybrant collected responses from around 200 Senior HR Professionals from a wide range of organisations from different sectors, and of different sizes. Our results show that when it comes to getting the job done, there are common goals for all those dedicated to implementing a successful, effective and inspirational Talent Management Strategy. Read on for a brief summary of our findings and how to tackle each challenge the Vybrant way.
The Four key strategic issues faced by Talent professionals in 2007 were:
- Recruitment & Retention of staff
- Change Management
- Pay & Rewards
- Leadership Development
1. Recruitment & Retention Over 25% of those asked identified recruitment and retention of staff as a strategic issue facing their organisation. Interestingly this was closely followed with 15% stating that employee benefits and rewards were also a major area of concern. With retention and incentives destined to be inextricably linked, it seems it has never been more difficult to provide an attractive environment that satisfies your employees and engenders long term loyalty. Especially for those in the financial and technology sectors where the flow of talent appears particularly rapid. However we also found that 18% of those that identified recruitment and retention as a key issue, operated within the manufacturing industry.
2. Change Management
15% stated that managing and embedding change in their organisation was a key strategic issue. There were many facets to the change management challenge - ranging from managing a cultural change; implementing a new model to a major relocation project. 18% of those that face an issue with change management are operating in the retail sector, and 14% are public sector organisations. Change continues to be an issue for those organisations with fast growing, large employee populations, and geographically disparate locations.
3. Pay & Rewards
15% admitted that Pay and Rewards was a difficult issue within their organisation, primarily the thorny issue of linking pay to performance, and implementing a process that will stand the test of time. Aligning benefits with performance and providing an incentive scheme that feels real to your employees can be hard enough, but communicating your plans effectively adds an entirely new dimension to the challenge. Moving forwards, the Holy Grail for any reward strategy is linking it successfully with the overall Business Strategy and being able to demonstrate that highly prized Win-Win.
4. Leadership Development
12% identified Leadership/Management Development as a strategic issue. Having identified your top talent at a senior level, developing their skills further and providing meaningful and motivational development is a difficult nut to crack – after all, one size certainly does not fit all. Whether you're looking to implement a structured management development programme designed to deliver high impact results, or focus on the individual with one to one coaching for your senior staff, the benefits to the business speak for themselves. It seems that those in the technology sector are definitely focused on Leadership Development, closely followed by the manufacturing industry.
"2008 promises to be an interesting year. With recruitment and retention continuing to be a major theme for all it seems timely that our 'Early Season' research project will be on Career Planning in the 21st Century. The other area that is key for many organisations is how to effectively equip leaders and managers to create, sustain and deal with change; particulary in a volatile environment. It looks set to be a bumpy ride and those that will fare best will be the ones who are prepared." Alan Sears, Co-founder, Vybrant
"I see a significant dynamic emerging. As organisations in both the public and private sectors are being forced to provide more value to customers, they also have to provide more value to their employees. This is a huge challenge for HR as well as for Chief Executives. The ability to provide continuous development, both at an organisational and an individual level, is going to become the critical component of competitive advantage." Julie Goodwin, Co-founder, Vybrant