Businesses today are facing urgent workforce challenges. The pressure is on HR to be at the top of its game. Yet, barriers threaten to hold HR back. In this blog, I share one action (spoiler alert: its closing HR skills gaps) that HR functions and HR professionals will want to take today to get on the path to peak performance.
The global pandemic and its economic and social impacts are presenting organizations with workforce challenges that must be urgently overcome. HR must lead the way in:
- Maintaining business continuity,
- Preserving employee health and wellbeing,
- Tackling staff shortages and turnover threats,
- Preserving hybrid and fully remote worker productivity, and
- Leveraging new remote work policies and capabilities to find the best talent anywhere.
Yet, APQC’s recent survey on the current state of the HR function shows barriers threaten HR’s ability to do its best in addressing these workforce challenges/business needs. The survey asked HR leaders what they see as the top barriers to their HR function making a bigger or better contribution to business goals. Rising to the top are four barriers to better HR.
Top 4 Barriers to Better HR
- Business leaders too focused on cost
- HR employee skills gaps
- Business resistance to HR change
- Business leaders not understanding the value of HR
Addressing barrier #2—HR employee skills gaps—is where HR will want to start its efforts. The top HR skills deficits today (as identified by HR leaders in our survey) tie closely to HR’s ability to address the remaining three barriers.
Top 4 HR Skills Gaps
- Analytics
- Cost management
- HR expertise
- Change management
Closing skills gaps in analytics, cost management, HR expertise, and change management will be required to manage change in ways that lessen the burden on employees and to demonstrate to business leaders that HR is both cost-effective and realizing substantial ROI. Our survey results show three promising steps that HR can take to start closing these critical skills gaps.
3 Steps for Closing HR Skills Gaps
- Provide more development to HR staff overall—Our survey asked HR leaders what types of development their function offered to HR staff. Not one development method received more than 50% of responses indicating a low overall level of investment in developing HR employees.
- Ensure development is provided for each HR career stage—The survey results also revealed a need for development focused on early career HR staff as well as current HR leaders. Just 39% of HR functions offer an HR career path, 37% an HR-specific competency model, and 36% an early-career HR development program.
- Adopt underused, yet potentially powerful, development methods—The least commonly offered development methods for HR are particularly well-suited to developing early-career HR staff as well as emerging and current HR leaders. These are paid support for HR professional certifications and job rotation across the business.
So, the one thing that an HR leader can do to improve HR’s contribution to the business is to develop HR staff capabilities in these areas of greatest need/deficit. Providing more HR development overall, developing HR professionals at each HR career stage, and tapping into “new” methods of development are promising ways to grow these skills.
There are also actions that individual HR staff can take. Early-career HR professionals can pursue opportunities to hone HR knowledge (by seeking HR professional certifications for example), while mid-to-late career HR staff can seek work assignments or projects that take them outside HR to learn about other business areas.
APQC members can learn more about improving HR by watching our webinar: What's Really Happening in HR? I will share more results from our survey on the current state of the HR function Slides; Recording. Watch today to assess the current state of your HR function and learn ways to keep HR performing at its best.