While the majority of businesses recognise which capabilities are important for their future success, many are failing to take the actions needed today to build or even introduce them into their organisations.
These actions include using data analytics to make workforce decisions and creating a compelling work experience for employees, according to PwC’s latest ‘Future of Work’ report, Preparing for Tomorrow’s Workforce Today.
This gap will put businesses at risk in the future when it comes to attracting, developing and retaining the talent they need to succeed, the report points out.
The report is based on a survey of 1,246 business and HR leaders from 79 countries. It focuses on 45 capabilities and identifies where organisations are most ‘at risk’ by looking at the number of respondents who say a capability is important to the future of their business but indicate that they are not yet taking action.
The key findings from this report corroborate with those of the latest HR Pulse Survey conducted among local organisations through a joint exercise by PwC Malta and Foundation for Human resources Development (FHRD).
The report finds that companies are struggling to use data and advanced analytics to make better decisions about the workforce. The top three ‘at risk’ capabilities all relate to workforce analytics and their use in improving the working environment and people’s behaviours.
Although more than 60 per cent of respondents say using data analytics in workforce decisions is important, only 27 per cent actually use it. In addition, only 38 per cent use data analytics to predict and monitor skills gaps in the workforce, while just 31 per cent use sophisticated workforce planning and predictive analytics and only 28 per cent use data analytics to help limit bias in hiring and to craft incentives tailored to individuals.
The situation in Malta is no different as the lack of ability to capture and analyse HR data was identified among the top three barriers negatively affecting the performance of the HR function (47 per cent). In fact, although top HR priorities for local organisations remain motivating and retaining staff, retention of key talent and managing employee engagement, improving HR technology and developing HR analytics capability also appear among the top 10 HR priorities.
Additionally, results depict that HR functions within organisations are not fully exploiting data analytics to improve their recruitment process, gain better insight into effective skill deployment and facilitate performance management. In fact, only 23 per cent of respondents were found to make use of data analytics, such as employee engagement metrics, to inform business decisions and predict employees’ in-flight risk.
Six of the top 10 ‘at risk’ capabilities relate to the ‘people experience’. In fact, the report highlights that good ‘people experience’ can aid organisations keep and attract talent which is still a critical challenge amongs local firms. One area organisations can do more is around managing workloads. While 76 per cent of respondents believe this is important, only 50 per cent say they are doing something about it – making this the number six ‘at risk’ capability globally.
Organisations most likely to succeed in the future business environment are those that invest in lifelong learning for their employees
While the corporate response in recent years has been to provide company wellness initiatives, sustainable change will only occur if work itself is redesigned so that it delivers vitality and an environment conducive to maintaining productive energy levels. Within the local work environment, creating a high-performance work culture is recognised as one of the top HR priorities in the Malta HR Pulse Survey.
As a result, recent talent attraction activities have been found to include flexible ways of working (63 per cent) and modernising the physical working environment (53 per cent). In fact, aspects of the talent strategies being adopted by local organisations to improve the attraction, retention and engagement of people, also include the health and well-being of the workforce (44 per cent).
Some of the other ‘at risk’ capabilities that relate to the ‘people experience’ include:
Adaptability and agility: While 78 per cent of respondents believe that developing adaptability and agility in their workers is important, just 52 per cent say their talent practices are designed to nurture this. This will be increasingly important as workers will need to adapt to and thrive through change. Locally, adaptability was recognised among the most critical skills necessary to today’s work environment with 93 per cent agreeing that it is an important skill.
Intrapreneurship: Only 56 per cent of respondents say they have avenues present for employees to offer innovative ideas and support them in turning these ideas into action. Organisations that fail to create opportunities for their ‘intrapreneurs’ risk losing innovative team members and their ideas. The Malta HR Pulse survey sheds light on the importance of creating environments that encourage employees to openly share their opinions and suggestions as such environments improve employee engagement and satisfaction. Additionally, local organisations agreed that developing an innovative culture was part of their talent strategy (22 per cent).
Autonomy: Providing autonomy over where and when people work is increasingly important in attracting and retaining talent. While 70 per cent of respondents believe this is important, only 45 per cent currently give their employees a high degree of autonomy.
The way people work and their relationships with organisations are becoming more fluid. The numbers of contractors, freelancers and portfolio workers are on the rise, and more and more partnerships between large organisations and smaller start-ups are providing ready access to innovation and talent on demand.
Identifying where and how to engage this flexible talent will become increasingly important for organisations, yet few are prepared for this shift. Only eight per cent of respondents strongly agree their organisations are able to engage easily with this valuable resource as and when they are needed. In addition, 58 per cent of respondents say they have no capability to use open innovation and crowdsourced ideas and only nine per cent agree strongly that they can do this.
In Malta, 57 per cent of the HR Pulse survey respondents said they actively searched for talent in different geographies, industries and demographic segments. Additionally, 46 per cent of respondents agreed that they have greatly increased reliance on contractors, part-timers and outsourced functions or service agreements.
It’s clear that organisations need to do more to take advantage of the ideas and skills from the wider market – not just from their traditional employee base. In addition, the report highlights that organisations most likely to succeed in the future business environment are those that invest in lifelong learning for their employees. In line with these findings, the Malta HR Pulse survey identifies that 57 per cent of respondents are using continuous learning programmes to develop new skills among their workers.
Claudine Attard, Senior Manager, People and Organisation Advisory, PwC Malta, said: “Organisations most likely to succeed tomorrow’s challenges and capitalise on future opportunities will be those who adopt new ways of working. The risk areas identified in this study are also those being faced by organisations in Malta.”
Michel Ganado, Consulting Partner, PwC Malta, stated: “The dynamic nature of the business environment, economic growth, converging technological, demographic and social forces, are requiring organisations to constantly innovate. The new ways of working are requiring organisations to implement a cohesive strategy around technology, their digital capabilities and their people experience.”
The report was produced in collaboration with Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management Practice at London Business School.