SHL, a global leader in talent measurement, has found that 77 percent of HRD professionals worldwide do not know how its workforce potential is affecting the company’s bottom line, and less than half of organizations surveyed use objective talent data to drive business decisions. The study of nearly 600 HR professionals worldwide, suggests that HR is overwhelmed by the volume of employee data and struggle to elicit meaningful insight that will help drive businesses forward and deliver results. These findings are revealed in SHL’s annual Global Assessment Trends Report 2013.
With organizations focused on restructuring, cost-cutting and growing the top line in tough markets, HR’s 2013 priorities reflect the organization’s need to engage their talent (55 percent of those surveyed) and cultivate strong leaders (52 percent) to drive change. The report reveals the other priorities of HR professionals are
- performance management (49 percent)
- workforce planning/talent analytics (43 percent)
- training (42 percent).
HR priorities reflect the contention between balancing short-term employee productivity and performance with longer-term strategy of aligning talent to the needs and vision of the business.
“Our research shows that even though organizations measure employee performance, they have historically focused on efficiency data, like how well an employee is performing versus data that allows them to make a strategic talent decision,” said Ken Lahti, vice president of product development and innovation at SHL. “This means key information on talent potential and future capability is overlooked, effectively making targeted programs that identify the next generation of leaders and nurture talent for critical roles ineffective. This increases succession risk for organizations, putting business performance and continuity in jeopardy.
The report also revealed that HR professionals are facing a “big data deluge” with confusion over how to manage talent data to impact company performance. As of 2012, around 2.5 exabytes of data are created each day, which is set to double every 40 months2. Two major challenges for HR to overcome are data quality and accessibility, and respondents indicated that there is room for improvement in these areas.
Despite workforce planning and talent analytics being referenced among the top five priorities, less than half of respondents (44 percent) said their organizations use objective data on employees’ competencies and skills to make workforce decisions and only 18 percent of HR professionals are currently satisfied with the way their organization manages talent data. However, according to the upcoming report from CEB, SHL’s parent company, organizations that are effective at using talent analytics can boost employee bench strength, performance and retention by up to 19 percent.
Social media is one source of data which is adding to the deluge and distracting HR from the metrics that matter; despite 88 percent of employers claiming a lack of confidence in the quality of candidate data from social media sites, 20 percent use that information to make hiring decisions and 30 percent believe the data is useful in determining candidate fit.
“HR is still grappling with its ability to provide strategic data to the business on its workforce and is ill-equipped right now to take advantage of big data. They do not yet have the systems and tools required to identify people intelligence, create metrics, and link HR data sources together,” said Lahti. “The ability to analyse greater volumes of complex workforce data and translate in to meaningful talent metrics offers HR the opportunity to identify skill shortages, development opportunities and answer the most pressing talent questions, such as whether the company has the talent to execute on its business plan and grow at the expected rate.”
About the Report
The 2013 report is based on data from an online survey of 592 HR professionals representing organizations who work with SHL and/or its affiliates. The survey was conducted in late September 2012.
The majority of respondents were located in China (42 percent), South Africa (13 percent) and the United Kingdom (11 percent), with 18 percent from other countries. Respondents represented both emerging and established economies. For the purposes of this report we have defined the Emerging economies as those countries in the BRICS bloc from which we received responses. These are India, China and South Africa, to which we have added responses from countries in the Middle East. The Established grouping comprises Europe, Australia and New Zealand, the Americas, Singapore, and Hong Kong. As in previous years’ surveys, respondents represented a variety of company sizes and industry sectors. Most respondents report into a Human Resources function within their organizations and represent a variety of roles, including HR or staffing managers, HR leadership, and HR generalists.
You can download the complete report here.
