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- Rob Walker
Rob Walker looks at some of the challenges for 2015 as seen through the eyes of senior executives.
Although there will always be debate about exactly where the economy sits on the upward curve towards full recovery, there can be no doubt that 2014 represented a turning point for the recruitment market.
The mood has definitely changed – and with it, employment behaviours. This shift has been particularly evident in the interim space, which has seen sustained growth in the requirement for business transformation specialists, together with a subtle change in the skills required of them. The driver for this appears to be a distinct move away from ‘transformation for survival’ towards ‘transformation for growth’.
A number of core themes are beginning to emerge. The first is an acknowledgement that the whole concept of ‘reward’ is in a state of flux. Of course, reward has always been key to successful recruitment and retention in a competitive environment, but the feeling on the ground seems to be that we are entering a new phase at an alarming speed.
The exponential growth of communications technology is changing expectations more quickly than at any time in history. The result is a workforce for whom reward is a fast changing concept. For interims as well as full-time employees genuine flexibility – both in terms of financial and work/life benefits – has never been more important.
As one senior executive put it recently: “Who, in a world where someone like Tesco can lose a quarter of its value almost overnight, would tie a key executive into a five year deal without the flexibility to be able to respond to a crisis or a major change in market conditions?”
The lessons of the banking crisis appear to be encouraging HR directors to stand back and focus on longer-term business goals when developing their reward strategies, rather than concentrating on mechanisms to retain a small number of senior people.
Linked closely to reward are issues relating to the emergence of more sophisticated and effective performance management mechanisms.
Executives increasingly point to companies like KPMG and Microsoft who, conscious of the focus on corporate transparency and accountability, are developing innovative new approaches to workforce management that shape reward and performance around a distinct set of core company values.
Another strong theme across a number of disciplines is the strong sense of change fatigue, particularly in larger organisations. ‘Initiative overload’ is a natural reaction in times of turbulence, but it’s important not to underestimate the after-effects of constant change.
“The brain is a certainty-making machine,” one highly respected interim executive observed. “A lot of people are battered and bruised from the last five years and sometimes it’s really difficult to inspire and motivate them.”
Acknowledgement of this has led a number of employers to begin to re-evaluate the qualities they are looking for in both permanent and interim executives.
The hard-nosed crisis-manager, adept at identifying threats and fighting fires, is giving way to the visionary – the strategic thinker who can communicate a long term vision and inspire staff to become part of a journey.
The focus on this strategic leadership often has to take place in the midst of major organisational change which has created, and will continue to create, opportunities for business transformation specialists.
Partnership was a much used word in 2014 and is likely to remain so this year. There appears to be a growing consensus among interims working across functions that developing more formal partnering arrangements with key suppliers is both desirable and inevitable. According to one leading HR interim: “Organisations are reducing the number of suppliers in order to get closer to a smaller cohort and educate them properly about their business. They see up-skilling of suppliers as a key differentiator in a cut-throat market.”
The final major anecdotal trend for 2015 sits at the door of the financial directors – and again it relates to being fleet of foot in a fast-changing world.
We have heard a number of warnings about the risks associated with cumbersome financial systems that are simply not agile enough to respond to the speed of technological change in the world around us.
For many FDs, an increased focus on cash flow management in response to bank belt-tightening will be the main priority going into 2015. But it will be a short-sighted finance director who doesn’t also have an eye on the embedded costs and associated risks that come with soon-to-be-outdated large scale financial systems.
In conclusion, there’s every reason to believe that this year will present as many, if not more, challenges than 2014. But with commercial and economic difficulty comes opportunity for skilled and adaptable interim specialists.
There are expectations that there will be a spike in demand for HR interims to oversee the changes necessary to compete for an increasingly multi-generational talent pool with radically different career aspirations. Re-thinking outsourced recruitment and creating more ‘blended’ models is likely to be a core component of this.
There are likely to be huge opportunities in the finance function as some businesses attempt to fill significant skills gaps in cash-flow management while others seek to cash in on the current tide of optimism by tidying up their affairs to prepare for exit.
The debate about precisely where we sit in the recovery cycle will no doubt gather pace as we approach the general election. But one thing is clear – wherever you choose to stick your pin on the economic graph, 2015 looks set to be a significant year for major business transformation.
Rob Walker is CEO of BIE.
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