Key Insights from Global Chief HR Officers

What future challenges do global Chief HR Officers see as being most pressing?  Is it talent retention?   Leadership Development?  Increased productivity or efficiency?   Actually, the key issues identified by these leaders may come as bit of a surprise..

As revealed in a recent study conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value, none of the above issues were mentioned specifically as pressing needs.  Instead, in a far-reaching survey effort (600 face-to-face interviews with Chief HR Officers from around the globe),  the following issues were seen as being of the greatest importance for the next 3-5 years:

• A Shortage of Creative Leaders — organizations need to identify, develop, and empower effective & agile leaders, as leadership candidates will not only have to have solid empirical decision-making skills, but will also need to have the capacity to develop creative solutions to problems.
• Rapid Development of of Workforce Skills and Capabilities — this is not formal training and development activities in the classic sense, but instead involves properly identifying the skills and abilities of new and emergent leaders, on-boarding these new leaders as they begin their careers, and then properly deploying these individuals within the organization.   Most of the Chief HR Officers interviewed said that these areas received very little attention within their organization, although they see them as being vitally important.
• Ineffective Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing — applying collective knowledge and experience is seen as critical to building an agile organization, but organizations lack the structure and the resources to facilitate knowledge-sharing.   Departmental silo-building and political turf wars are seen as exacerbating this problem.

The IBM report, officially titled “Working Beyond Borders”, also details some of the challenges expected to increase in importance as work is done across cultures, geographies, and time zones.   The areas of highest expected growth in headcount?   China at 40% growth, followed by India at 29% and Latin America at 26%.   North America is expected to see headcount growth of 17% .

To read or download the entire research report, go to www.ibm.com/workingbeyondborders  .