May 1, 2014
The Business of People – Six Trends to Capitalize On
HR as a strategic business partner? Absolutely. It’s no longer simply a support function for hiring and firing, and I made this point clear to a room full of senior executives during a recent workshop that I delivered. I even reinforced the point with the one trend that is music to the ears of everyone in business — happy, engaged and well-trained team members can move top-line growth.
This was only one of the six trends that I highlighted that are impacting business and the teams that we build. As a senior business leader, I view these as a great opportunity to maximize the impact your people practices can have on the bottom line. I wanted to take the opportunity to share them with you so that you can leverage them in your businesses:
1. The Leadership Gap
The top business issue reported in Deloitte’s “Predictions for 2014” was that more than 60 percent of executives are struggling with leadership gaps at all levels. Organizations need to have a strategy to develop the talent required to deliver corporate goals today and in the future.
2. Big Data
The call for Big Data is starting to ring in all facets of business. And while Big Data tells you the analytics at a quantitative level there is an absence of qualitative data associated with it. For example, Big Data can tell you that someone drove five miles but it can’t tell you how the driver enjoyed the ride. As the human element of Big Data evolves and using data to make decisions permeates organizations it will be imperative to establish and utilize people metrics.
3. Hyper Connected Consumer
With 91% of U.S. adults online using social media regularly and the average person checking their cell phone 150 times per day, it is driving a frantic consumption of information and a rapid pace of change. With this pace of change it is essential to have processes in place that makes change “sticky”.
4. Experience Seekers
Customer loyalty is no longer a singular function of product satisfaction. Customer experience now plays such a substantial role that customers are willing to pay a premium for a better experience. The Disney Institute and McKinsey Company recently reported companies whose employees consistently offered exceptional customer experience realized a 2-percentage point advantage over their peers in revenue growth along with an increased employee satisfaction and engagement of 30 percent. Companies need to focus on employee engagement to drive employee satisfaction and create customer loyalty.
5. Customer Disloyalty
According to Forbes, among unhappy customers, 86 percent will stop doing business with a company because of bad service, 51 percent will give a company only one chance and only 4 percent will ever voice their dissatisfaction. Even 24 percent of content customers continue to seek out new vendors. It is more challenging now than ever to get and keep satisfied customers and we know the key to customer satisfaction is employee engagement.
6. Investing for Growth
There is a further shift away cost reduction and towards investment in growth. Deloitte is reporting that 24 percent of companies will be investing for growth this year; this is up from only 16 percent the past three years. To take advantage of this investment in growth, senior HR leaders need to have readied a business case for increased spending.
Now, more than ever, there are profound possibilities for people practices to have a significant business impact through:
• Crafting a talent development strategy
• Establishing and utilizing people metrics
• Making your change management process “sticky”
• Building employee engagement to create customer loyalty
• Having a business case for increased spending
Being able to seize the opportunity these business trends offer can have a significant impact on your bottom line!
Category: Culture
