Taking the Pulse
A poll of HR leaders finds they will continue to focus on talent-management issues in the coming months.
By Michael Felton-O'Brien
A recent survey of 157 HR professionals
finds that they believe the advice of HR is increasingly being sought in their boardrooms on key strategic decisions such as mergers, outsourcing and restructuring, although the number of respondents who think top leadership at most U.S.-based organizations listens "to a great degree" has fallen.
In a survey conducted over the summer by Human Resource Executive® and ERC Dataplus of South Norwalk, Conn., for this annual Forecast edition, 37 percent of the respondents reported their input was solicited "to a great degree" in their companies, up from 31 percent last year. Forty-eight percent said their input was sought "to some degree," while only 15 percent said it was solicited "to no discernible degree."
But this year's poll also found that only 13 percent of HR professionals believe top leaders at most U.S.-based organizations are
seeking input from HR
"to a great degree," a drop of 8 percent from last year's figures. Eight of 10 respondents said they think HR input is solicited "to some degree" at most U.S. corporations, and 7 percent said HR input was sought "to no discernible degree."
When
ranking HR activities
critical to their organizations' success during the next two years, respondents placed talent retention at the top of their lists, with 72 percent saying it was "very important." Leadership development was cited as "very important" by 60 percent of respondents, followed by performance management (57 percent), talent acquisition (50 percent), and employee training (46 percent).
Responding to the question of whether a
talent shortage
was currently under way, 68 percent of the respondents said "yes." Most of those surveyed expect to have a hard time finding,
attracting and retaining talent
in the next year, with about two in 10 respondents (22 percent) saying they expect it to be "significantly more difficult" and 43 percent saying they expect it to be "slightly more difficult." Only 5 percent believe it would be easier in the coming year.
Regardless of difficulties, most HR professionals surveyed
anticipate adding to their workforces
over the next 12 months, with 24 percent planning to add 5 percent or more employees and 34 percent planning to add less than 5 percent to their totals. About three in 10 surveyed (34 percent) predicted no significant change, and 7 percent reported plans to decrease their workforces by less than 5 percent. An additional 1 percent said they plan to trim their workforces by more than 5 percent.
On the topic of workforce planning, respondents gave their companies mixed grades, with 19 percent saying their companies were "very effective" at planning for
future workforce needs
. About six in 10 (64 percent) said their plans were "somewhat effective," while 17 percent said they were "not effective at all."
The
trend toward offshoring
may have abated, according to the survey. Last year, 31 percent of respondents said their companies currently had offshore operations; this year, only 24 percent of respondents answered in the same way, with most expecting little or no change in the scope of those operations. For those companies with offshoring operations ongoing, 92 percent reported being pleased with how they were performing.
When asked about the direction of
HR business-process outsourcing
, 19 percent predicted the HR BPO trend would escalate dramatically within the next three years, which is down from 23 percent last year. The majority (54 percent) predicted a slight increase in HR business-process-outsourcing activity, while 13 percent thought it would flatten out and 14 percent predicted some outsourced HR functions would be brought back in-house.
When asked about changes in retirement benefits over the next 24 months, 42 of the 157 respondents said their companies planned to modify an existing defined-contribution plan. Ten percent of respondents said their companies planned to eliminate retiree health benefits.
Consumer-driven health chart
Finally, when asked about succession planning, 34 percent of respondents said their companies currently had a formal succession plan in place, while 62 percent said their companies did not have a formal plan in place; another 4 percent said they were unsure whether their companies had a plan.
November 19, 2007 Copyright 2007© LRP Publications
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