In The News

Published February 2008

Most HR Pros Feel Their Workforces Are Inadequately Prepared

MediaTec Publishing

An unprecedented 94 percent of human resources professionals do not feel their personnel are adequately prepared to meet their companies’ future goals, according to Softscape, a provider of Web-based human capital management software products. This finding comes from its third-annual “State of the Global Talent Nation” report, which offers insight into how organizations are managing their workforces.

With a 30 percent rise in workforce preparedness concerns since 2006, it is no surprise that the top issues facing organizations today are all related to employee retention, development and performance. These concerns also have the full attention of senior management, with the majority of respondents citing talent management initiatives as top priorities for executives.

Softscape surveyed more than 250 human resources professionals from around the world, with the distribution of respondents spread almost evenly across a variety of industries and among small, midsize and large organizations. Participants were asked numerous questions about their workforce skill readiness, perceived process deficiencies, business drivers for integrating human capital management processes and key initiatives being undertaken to ensure staff preparedness.

Other key findings from the report include:

● Workforce productivity is a new focus as organizations seek to do more with less while trying to contain costs.
● Individual roles are becoming more multifunctional and are requiring ongoing skill development and real-time learning and collaboration.
● Whether they are expanding or downsizing, companies are seeking to leverage centralized shared services to support global initiatives.
● As the more tactical HR functions are commoditized, strategic human resources functions are becoming further integrated and outsourced.
● Productivity gains and cost reductions are being realized through systematic focus on improving talent management processes.
● Changing workforce demographics are forcing organizations to deploy new approaches to how they plan, hire, develop and retain their staffs.

“Ongoing business transformation is prompting organizations to look for ways to rapidly evolve their workforces to achieve new levels of productivity and effectiveness, and the connection between effectiveness and shareholder value has clearly reached the executive suite,” said Christopher Faust, Softscape’s executive vice president of global strategy. “To successfully address senior management’s concerns, human resources leadership needs to embrace its strategic role as an executive partner and define and execute a holistic human capital management strategy that builds a superior corporate culture based on performance and accountability.”

The report includes important data about where organizations are struggling, how they are improving and the top priorities for senior management, including the following:

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