The two challenges Organizations are
facing today are the combination of growing markets (a need to expand globally or into new products and
services) coupled with a need to hold back costs. While the economy is expanding, business executives remain
afraid of committing large sums of cash to growth - a problem well documented
in the business press. What this has done is create a talent
squeeze. Organizations are finding skills
gaps, headcount gaps, and leadership gaps in their workforce which they must
fill to grow - yet they do not have the resources to dramatically increase
salaries to compete for labor. As a result, we are seeing a tremendous focus on
sourcing and recruiting strategies, internal career development, and leadership
development.
These problems are very business and
organization-specific. In some cases the challenges involve a shortage of
critical skills which create shortages in particular job roles. This takes the
form of shortages of production engineers in the oil and gas industry, regional
managers in the retail industry, nurses in the healthcare and insurance
industries , or mid-level managers in manufacturing and most industries.
Human Capital is becoming increasingly
important for organizations of all sizes and shapes across the world. The
workforce is made of Gen Y and Gen Millennium at the entry& mid levels, who
are more adept at technology than any others, who will be more than happy to
spend time on internet learning new things than spend time in class rooms. The
learnability is attaining different and new meanings. The
retention of high potentials, increasing engagement, gender balance and
equality, and age diversity will continue to dominate the happenings as it has
always been, I feel 2013 will be marked by this increased phenomenon of
people management, where technology plays a vital role.
1. Employee- Led & Manager- Supported Career Planning: Organizations can explore deploying organic (viral)
strategies which assess both the employees’ “needs” & their personal
“offer” (skills, abilities, intangibles) against the “offer” & “needs” from
their organization. While this assessment allows for an evaluation of
employee-organization alignment and/or gaps, it serves a few more purposes,
including increased communication, enhanced development planning, assessment of
cultural and performance fit for achieving shared success.
2. Increased Engagement Initiatives: The initiation of mindfulness at work to let managers deal
with stress and anxiety more effectively. In other words, more attention to
well-being at work; The growing focus on intercultural awareness and leveraging
diversity to achieve individual, team and organizational goals. Companies are
starting to recognize and harness diverse leadership approaches and
perspectives.
3. Talent Acquisition:
The ability to search companies’ career pages and apply through smart phone
will be a one to look out for. I also think more companies will be investing in
their employee value proposition for 2013, followed by making sure they are
working through internal barriers for hiring top talent. Customer relationship
management tools to build future talent pipelines will still remain hot. But I
believe more companies will start to invest in SEO strategies to attract top
talent.
4. Talent Management is a Business Problem, not an HR Problem : I feel there is a critical need to
understand that talent management is not an "HR process " but rather
a "business process" which must be implemented through line of
business executive leadership. Talent management strategies, should be
developed in the context of your particular business strategy.
