The study shares insights from over 7,500 global perspectives and compares the views of senior business executives, HR leaders and employees from organisations around the world, including 462 replies from South Africa. The report assesses significant gaps in alignment, identifies several critical disconnects concerning change, and makes recommendations to capture growth.
As the competition for talent continues to rise and business models are disrupted by technology and socio-demographic shifts, organisations are still taking an evolutionary approach to their talent strategies in the face of revolutionary changes. According to the study, nearly all organisations globally (93%) report they are planning to redesign their structure in the next two years and South Africa is no different (100%).
“In an age where digitisation, robotics and AI are wreaking havoc with traditional business models, it is easy for executives to focus on superior technology as the solution to ensuring the competitiveness of their organisations and to overlook the human element,” said Ilya Bonic, president of Mercer’s Career business. “Growth rests on engaging and empowering today’s workforce in ways that we are just beginning to uncover. It takes employees armed with the right skills and opportunities to develop innovative solutions to advance the business and themselves.”
Most notably, despite organisations’ plans to transform, HR leaders do not have organisation or job redesign on their list of priorities for 2017. In fact, the top priorities of HR leaders – specifically developing leaders for succession, optimising performance management, supporting employees’ career growth and attracting top talent externally – reflect the priority of evolving employee capabilities, but may not align with executive’s goals for more substantial workplace change.
Additionally, while HR leaders express confidence in the talent management processes they have in place (68%), employees are still looking elsewhere for new opportunities. Slightly more than one-third (37%) of employees say they plan to leave their current role in the next 12 months, even though they are satisfied in their jobs. Equally concerning is that those employees not planning to leave their current roles report they are less ‘energised’ in terms of bringing their authentic selves to work and therefore, less likely to thrive in a collaborative and innovative workplace.
Moreover, business executives view talent scarcity more acutely than HR professionals; with all executives surveyed (100%) expecting a significant increase in competition compared to just one in five HR professionals.
“Organisations need to prioritise a culture of agility to stay ahead of rapidly changing market trends,” said Kate Bravery, global leader for Mercer’s Career business. “Those employers that empower their workforce – by helping them plan for the unknown, mitigate risk and thrive at work – will be more successful in building a responsive and successful organisation.”
What is not on the HR agenda for 2017 demonstrates misalignment and perhaps missed opportunities to leverage what employees report as important:
“Despite the desire to cling to more traditional methods, the landscape for the workplace, the workforce and the future of work are changing too quickly and drastically to do so,” said Bravery. “To stay competitive, it is imperative that business executives and HR leaders collaborate and that organisations take new approaches to how employees access knowledge, adapt to technology, manage, communicate and leverage their careers.”