Cost management, talent management and boosting productivity remain top current priorities for HR and non-HR business leaders in 2015, unchanged from 2013, the CIPD have found.
But for the first time, innovation is now a leading business priority for a third of both HR and other business leaders, according to the latest CIPD/Workday HR Outlook leaders’ survey.
The findings highlight that new ways of working and operating is an increasing reality for organisations. However, while there is general agreement about overall strategic priorities, it seems to be less clear to the wider business how HR professionals will contribute to achieving them.
Despite nearly three-quarters of HR leaders saying that their current people strategy will help the organisation achieve its future priorities, just a quarter of other business leaders agreed. Also, although 31 percent of non-HR business leaders thought HR should be focusing on diversity to help achieve innovation in the workplace, just 19 percent of HR leaders said that they were. To address this, the CIPD has recommended that HR needs to look at ways in which it can innovate itself in order to stay relevant and more visibly demonstrate its enabling role as the workplace evolves.
The CIPD’s report also found differing views on the use of HR analytics, particularly due to a lack of awareness of the current and potential value outside of the HR function. For example, when non-HR leaders were asked to describe the analytic capability in their HR department, almost 3 in 10 said they didn’t know. Moreover, 28 percent said their HR department doesn’t share their analytics with key stakeholders, compared to 12 percent of HR leaders who thought this.
Just 14% percent of non-HR leaders were found to be satisfied with the HR analytics provided to them while over three-quarters of HR leaders said analytics were important to HR’s ability to deliver strategic value to their organisation, less than half of non-HR business leaders agreed.
Robert joined the HRreview editorial team in October 2015. After graduating from the University of Salford in 2009 with a BA in Politics, Robert has spent several years working in print and online journalism in Manchester and London. In the past he has been part of editorial teams at Flux Magazine, Mondo*Arc Magazine and The Marine Professional.
