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PeopleScout partnered with skills-based workforce management platform provider Spotted Zebra to survey over 100 senior HR and talent acquisition leaders globally, plus over 2,000 employees worldwide, to compare perspectives. Our new research report, The Skills Crisis Countdown, maps the skills landscape and diagnoses the disconnects between employers and their workforce.
According to a study by PwC, 40% of global CEOs believe their business will be economically unviable in 10 years unless they reinvent for the future. Our study revealed that nine out of 10 HR leaders believe that up to 50% of their workforce will require new skills to effectively perform their job in the next five years. Yet, when asked if they are currently undergoing or planning a workforce transformation initiative in the next three years, nearly half (45%) of HR leaders admit to having no plans to undertake one.
So, in other words, half of employees will soon be underprepared for the future, but most companies have no strategy in place to address the issue.
Read the full report here: https://www.peoplescout.com/insights/countdown-to-skills-crisis/
With the new year now in full swing, new research from HiBob uncovers a miserable state of employee mental wellness, as one fifth (20%) of Brits feel burned out at work and more than a quarter (29%) are stressed. Shockingly, only one in seven (16%) would describe their mental state at work as supported.
As a result, the majority of UK workers (70%) are planning on finding a new job in 2024; with over a quarter (28%) planning on finding one in the next six months. Given workers’ current feelings, driving this new wave of resignations is a desire to level out work life balance (17%).
Read the full piece here: https://www.hrgrapevine.com/content/article/2024-01-22-70-of-uk-staff-looking-for-a-new-job-in-2024
Have you met Harriet?
Co-founders Cecily Motley and David Buxton have recently created ‘Harriet’, an AI tool that is designed to automate human resources processes. It has been specifically created to be smoothly integrated into a company’s Slack channels so to provide certain HR-related services.
AI assistants are not necessarily new – especially if Siri, Alexa, and Cortana have something to say about it. But what sets Harriet apart from these helpers is that it is able to scan users’ data – as well as the organizations policies and best practices recommendations – to answer HR-related questions and complete admin-based tasks. For example, she can pull up a specific payslip or book time off on behalf of an employee.
What is even more interesting is that all messages to Harriet from employees are kept anonymous, and the tool does not store any employee data for training. If Harriet deems that it cannot sufficiently deal with a situation, it will loop in a human HR worker (if granted permission by the employee).
Virtual assistants are continuing to increase in popularity, especially in the working world. With generative AI becoming more and more common in the workplace, and many employers eager to incorporate it into their business practices, it is no surprise to see tools like Harriet begin to make their way into HR’s territory. And considering it is very likely that the next generation of workers (Generation Alpha) will expect to have a virtual assistant, ‘Harriet’ may be the beginning of the era of AI helpers.
However, before companies can unlock all the potential of an AI assistant, they first have to ensure that they are offering appropriate learning and development opportunities to their teams around AI so that its use can be effectively optimized.
Whilst it can seem relatively straightforward to interact with a chatbot and with generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, knowing how to create content that evades potential biases will help to generate the strongest materials.
If you would like to discuss how we can help with developing your company’s knowledge surrounding generative AI and virtual assistants, please get in touch with us.
I am delighted to be welcoming Arnold L. Greene to the OrgShakers team!
Since graduating from Cornell University with a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations, Arnold has enjoyed over 30 years as a Human Resources professional leading Human Resources and Training functions.
Arnold’s last corporate role was as the Head of Global Strategic Human Resources Initiatives for Northern Trust Corporation in 2023. In this role, Arnold led the most imperative HR strategic initiatives impacting global business success, engaging cross functional partners and business units to plan and execute these initiatives for 24,000+ employees globally.
In addition to his work with Northen Trust Corporation, Arnold has worked for companies such as Extended Stay America hotels, McDonald’s Corporation, YUM! Brands, Dunkin’ Brands and the Hyatt Hotel Corporation. His expertise lies in HR Strategic Leadership, Culture Building, Employee Engagement, Executive Coaching and Diversity & Inclusion.
Arnold currently serves on the Advisory Council of Sharing Sacred Spaces; and is a Special Advisor for TRU Prep Academy in Miami, Florida. He has served on the Board of Trustees for Talladega College (HBCU) in Alabama; Board of Directors for KIPP Texas (Charter Schools), Board of Directors for Parkland Hospital Foundation, Board of Directors for the American Cancer Society (Dallas Fort Worth Region), to name a few.
– David Fairhurst
Founder & CEO
New research by MetLife has revealed that, besides health, one in five parents’ (18%) biggest concern was taking time off work when their child was taken into hospital.
Of those who had had a child in hospital, one in seven (15 per cent) said they did not get paid by their employer, according to the Censuswide survey of 2,503 parents with at least one child under the age of 23.
When having to attend to having a child in hospital, the last thing employees want to be worrying about is financial stability and job security. Feeling like you must choose between your child and your job can build resentment towards your employer and lead to disengagement, so having support measures in place for workers that are also carers is an imperative for organizations.
Read the full piece here: https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/article/1856427/one-five-parents-fear-taking-time-off-when-child-hospital-%E2%80%93-employers-offer-better-support
Despite the days of in-person client meetings lessening, employees are still finding themselves setting out on corporate trips…just for new reasons.
The pandemic quickly made a lot of businesses see the futility in travelling across countries for client meetings. After being forced to work remotely, it became logical to continue conducting business meetings across international waters via platforms like Zoom and Teams – it was less time consuming, and a much cheaper alternative.
While this initially lead to a huge decline in airlines’ profits due to this drop in business travel, an August 2023 report from the Global Business Travel Association showed that the worldwide business-travel industry is expected to surpass its pre-pandemic spending level of $1.4tn (£1.1tn) in 2024 – two years earlier than some industry analysists predicted.
Data from American Express Global Business Travel may help explain why. In collaboration with Harvard Business Review, Amex GBT researchers surveyed 425 US professionals and found companies are changing why their workers are travelling. Instead of the pre-pandemic focus on sales-driven outings, business trips are now centred on what the report defines as “non-customer travel”: companies are meeting up internally.
Read the full piece here: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20240103-remote-work-business-travel
According to research from Carers UK, it is estimated that 40% of carers gave up work to provide unpaid care, while 22% reduced their working hours.
Nearly half (49%) of these caregivers who had given up work or reduced their hours saw their monthly income reduce by over £1,000.
There are around 2 million employees who are delivering unpaid care according to the Office for National Statistics, and the workforce is losing them in their thousands due to a lack of flexible working policies and the unavailability of carers leave.
Read the full piece here: https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/content/news/thousands-of-unpaid-carers-leaving-the-workplace/
A recent survey commissioned by SnapLogic found that almost half of employees believed that generative AI had the potential to save them a full day’s worth of work per week.
Of those who were already using AI, 67% reported saving one-to-five hours of work on a weekly basis. However, despite this enthusiasm for generative AI, the survey also found that over a third of respondents were not currently using AI in their work – with a correlation being discovered that the larger the company, the less likely employees were to be using artificial intelligence.
The survey goes on to highlight one of the biggest challenges facing AI in the modern workplace – the huge skills gap between employees understanding how to use and optimize it.
Read the full piece here: https://bit.ly/47g4QQe
A new study from health service Working to Wellbeing has found that under half (47%) of line managers said they would be able to offer support to colleagues with cancer with reasonable adjustments in their workplace.
It was also discovered that just one in four (23%) of UK line managers would actively explain a colleague with cancer’s rights at work to them.
With the Equality Act declaring progressive conditions such as cancer a disability as soon as they are diagnosed – even if the employee is still able to do day-to-day tasks – it is important for employers to be well-versed in how to accommodate for their needs from the get-go.
Click the link below to read the full piece at HR Magazine:
I am delighted to welcome Lisa Finkelstein to the OrgShakers team.
Lisa works with C-suite leaders and senior leadership teams to transform how they lead to drive excellence, to compete in disruptive environments, to navigate change and build for the future. She assures alignment to build sustainable practices and deliver measurable impact to achieve business strategies, and transformation goals.
With over 35 years of global strategic leadership advisory and consulting experience gained with firms such as Korn Ferry and Accenture, Lisa is globally recognized as a leader and has published with Harvard Business Publishing on critical topics such as Leading in Times of Crisis, Driving Change, Foundations of Great Teamwork, Breaking Decision-Making Bottlenecks, and The Value of Organizational Networks.
She has also been a featured speaker at conferences addressing global audiences on subjects including Leadership Agility, Leadership and the Transformative Power of Ideas, DE&I as a Competitive Advantage, and Workplace Evolution: Radical People Strategies. And she contributed to the groundbreaking book Driving Results through Social, when it was published in 2008.
Lisa holds an MBA from The Wharton School in Strategy, and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania in Social Psychology.
David Fairhurst, Founder & CEO
Odgers Berndtson and SurePeople Join Forces to Revolutionize Executive Onboarding with Artificial Intelligence (AI), Prism Psychometrics, and World-Class Content by Harvard Business Publishing
New York, 26th September 2023 – Odgers Berndtson and SurePeople are reinventing Executive Onboarding with the launch of a ground-breaking new program leveraging SurePeople’s award-winning platform, powered by the Prism® psychometric algorithm and Harvard Business Publishing content. This revolutionary program accelerates the onboarding process, improves team alignment, and accelerates cultural assimilation, thereby enhancing an executive’s effectiveness during the pivotal transition period into a new leadership role.
“Our Executive Onboarding program complements the Executive Search process by blending the experience of our Human Capital Practice with robust psychometric data to generate actionable insights that help new leaders, and their teams, during the first 120 days,” says Jon Barney, Industrial Sector Practice Leader at Odgers Berndtson. “Powered by SurePeople’s patented technology and Harvard Business Publishing’s world-class content, this innovative program leaps beyond conventional offerings.”
The Corporate Executive Board reports that 50% to 70% of executives fail within 18-months of taking on a new role, regardless of whether they were an external hire or promoted from within, with Harvard Business Review estimating that the cost of this failure equates to 400% of the executive’s salary.
“The key to successful onboarding is that critical moment of truth – the early alignment of the executive with their new team and their effective assimilation into the organizational culture,” says Niko Drakoulis, Founder and CEO of SurePeople. “This innovative new Executive Onboarding program helps to deliver a frictionless transition for executive leaders and their teams by optimizing relationships, accelerating team alignment, and speeding the cycle-time from orientation to productivity.”
The program achieves this by blending SurePeople’s AI-driven technology and integrated premier learning content from Harvard Business Publishing, with the skills and experience of the accredited coaching professionals and business psychologists in Odgers Berndtson’s Human Capital Consulting practice to support new executives and their teams.
“This Executive Onboarding program aligns perfectly with our objective to be a progressive, technology-enabled leader in the global executive search landscape,” says Kennon Kincaid, CEO of Odgers Berndtson. “Effective onboarding is crucial for the success and growth of organizations. By combining powerful insights from SurePeople’s Prism with Harvard Business Publishing’s academic excellence, we are reshaping the onboarding landscape, making it evidence-based, purposeful, and tailored to the needs of individuals and teams. Our new Executive Onboarding program allows executives and their teams to embark on their journey with a shared vision and reinforces Odgers Berndtson’s commitment to being the change-drivers in our industry.“
“Our team at Harvard Business Publishing is excited to integrate our world-class content and thought leadership, leveraging the remarkable depth and breadth of Harvard Business School, Harvard Business Review, and an unrivalled network of industry experts into SurePeople’s patented platform,” says Douglas Beimler, VP Global Sales at Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning. “This synergy enhances executive and leader onboarding by accelerating speed-to-relationships and enriching cultural assimilation. It amplifies leader effectiveness and fosters a cohesive, engaged, and agile team environment. Together, we’re enabling executives to enhance their people skills and perform at their best during critical onboarding and leader transition processes.”
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About Odgers Berndtson
Odgers Berndtson delivers executive search and human capital consultancy to businesses and organizations of all sizes and maturity. We work across 50 sectors, whether commercial, public, or not-for-profit and draw on the experience of partners and their teams in 33 countries. odgersberndtson.com
About SurePeople
SurePeople empowers organizations to build and sustain a people-centric culture. Our patented software platform integrates people science, powered by the Prism® psychometric algorithm, with the latest advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). SurePeople’s solutions include executive onboarding, team alignment and optimization, people skills development, and change management. Our platform has been recognized for innovation and impact by leading research and analyst firms such as Brandon Hall Group, Deloitte Consulting, and Training Industry. Learn more at surepeople.com.
Maxine Lynskey, a former consultant for Direct Line, was recently awarded over £64,000 in damages after a tribunal ruled her menopause symptoms as a ‘disability’ under the 2010 Equality Act when her former employer failed to make the correct reasonable adjustments.
After working there for 4 years, she began to experience consistent menopausal symptoms of concentration and memory loss, feeling frequently tearful, and ‘brain fog’. Maxine was transferred to a lower-paid role which was felt would be less challenging for her.
As she continued to struggle in her new role, she was placed on a performance-improvement plan. Despite mentioning her symptoms repeatedly to her direct report, HR were not informed that there were any reasons for her sudden shift in performance.
Click the link below to read the full piece at HR Magazine:
https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/content/news/menopause-ruled-a-disability-in-direct-line-tribunal