While the commitment from UK CEOs on developing and retraining staff is encouraging for future talent strategies and employee engagement, failure to up-skill and support the HR function could be detrimental to these plans. That’s according to global talent acquisition and management firm, Alexander Mann Solutions.
In response to a recent PwC report, which reveals that 81 per cent of UK CEOs are amending their people strategies for the future but only 51 per cent are rethinking their HR function, Alexander Mann Solutions has urged business leaders to consider investing in the development of talent management teams as well.
Lisa Forrest, global head of talent acquisition, at Alexander Mann Solutions, explains, ‘Given the growing emphasis that employees place on working for a company that gives back to its staff (and communities), the fact that more CEOs want to invest in people development in order to retain the best talent is certainly something that the HR community will welcome.
‘In particular, the commitment to adding digital training to learning programmes, which is identified in the report, is encouraging at a time when these skills are in high demand but low availability.’
Forrest adds, ‘However, for any successful changes to be implemented in people management, the HR function also needs to have the full training and support required, otherwise success can be limited. Of course, HR teams will welcome this commitment from CEOs, but implementing such change is not done overnight.
‘It’s likely to require an investment in new human resources software, up-skilling HR teams to effectively identify and implement new training needs, and, in some cases, increase headcount in the talent management team itself.
‘If CEOs want to truly cement their pledge to improving the development and training of staff, they need to start with those who will be responsible for delivering any changes and expand from there.’
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