The Challenges facing HR leaders

by Ian Dowd, Marketing Director Ireland, NGA Human Resources

We often get asked, what are the challenges that HR leaders are working on? Sometimes – the challenges they should be working on. Well, they are many; they are varied and multifaceted.

For instance how does HR play a more strategic role, not just in supporting the business but in being an instigator of change and a facilitator of growth? The CEO wants to know how HR will help engage the employee base and get large sections of a passive workforce actively engaged in the business strategy. The findings of a Gallup Study show that while the engaged employees believe they can contribute to company’s growth, the disengaged employee believes otherwise, i.e. his/her job does not contribute to the organisation. This belief of the disengaged employee creates a negative spiral that affects his work, co-workers, customers, productivity, and eventually both happiness of employee and company performance.

Then how do we plug the skills gap and ensure that the business has the skills it needs to succeed today and in the next few years?

Although Ireland has a highly educated workforce, producing top talent from colleges every year, the European Commission has reported that a digital skills gap amongst the Irish population is halting employment progress. Many business leaders in Ireland believe they are suffering from a skills shortage which is having a negative impact on growth.

Research by NGA also shows that 54% of C level executives believe that HR makes a strategic contribution to the business. It’s a good proportion but it leaves 46%, nearly half, who think that HR doesn’t make a strategic contribution.

How do companies extend their reach beyond the fixed employee base to benefit from contingent labour, crowdsourcing and ‘right-sourcing’ – getting the skills and services needed from the most appropriate source? Your competitors may well be thinking about this. As well as how to tempt your best staff away from you.

Then we have the so called 4th Industrial Revolution. A term first coined by the World Economic Forum to describe “Disruptive changes to business models that will have a profound impact on the employment landscape over the coming years.”

Further “Many of the major drivers of transformation currently affecting global industries are expected to have a significant impact on jobs, ranging from significant job creation to job displacement, and from heightened labour productivity to widening skills gaps.“

The WEF Future of Jobs report seeks to understand these changes by asking Chief Human Resource Officers how they think their industry will change by 2020. So this isn’t as much a prediction of what happens next. The revolution has begun. It did a while ago. It’s about how we respond and how we minimise the switching time and cost from the old ways to the new.

The fourth industrial revolution is from a diverse set of advances in technology that were discrete but have combined to create a multiplier effect. From Big data, mobile technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning, robotics, nanotechnology and 3D printing to genetics and biotechnology. Add to this an equally powerful set of ‘socioeconomic, geopolitical and demographic developments’. It is set to change the way we work, live and relate to each other.

With all of these challenges and opportunities HR leaders can’t afford to get distracted. Whether by the implications of Brexit on Ireland, tactical or trivial issues, or anything else for that matter. Of course, they need to ensure they get the basics right but there are real, present and strategic issues that require collaboration between HR practitioners, researchers, academics, professional bodies and business people to ensure we arrive at the right outcomes.

About NGA Human Resources
NGA Human Resources is a global leader in helping organisations transform their business-critical HR operations to deliver more effective and efficient people-critical services. They help their clients become better employers through smarter, more streamlined business processes — to save money, manage employee life cycles, and support globally connected, agile organisations. This is how NGA makes HR work.
What sets them apart is The NGA Advantage. It’s a combination of deep HR experience and insight, advanced technology platforms and applications, and a global portfolio of flexible service delivery options.
Founded in 1969, NGA has over 44 years of experience in the IT industry. As a recognised global HR services leader, we have offices in 35 countries on five continents, supporting customers in more than 100 countries.

More information:
www.ngahr.ie
www.ngahr.com/blog