Roc - Blog

Getting the Best Future for Your Company

Stephen Burr — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Early May saw SAP release the latest “Enhancement Package” (EhP4); these packages are SAP’s way of deploying new software functionality to customers without disruption. Although there are notable improvements in the core HCM module, this enhancement package delivers major improvements in the area of Talent Management.

But in the current global downturn, is this important right now?

Firstly, I’d echo Damian William’s thoughts in the previous blog “Investing in the future” that continual progression of your organisation’s capability, by managing your talented employees, is key to your company’s growth. Les Hayman (ROC Chairman) has previously spoken about how almost every company, via corporate mission statements, tells us that their employees are key to their business. But how many act on this corporate statement? Talent Management is a process that helps deliver on that goal.

It is crucial to realise that Talent Management is a business process that I.T. can help enable. It is about joining up processes across recruiting, learning, performance management, succession planning and compensation management to ensure the right data is collated and available to key decision makers. SAP EhP4 ensures a common data model is used to ensure data is accessible to the right people at the right time using specific roles that are defined for each person in the talent management process; recruiter, learning administrator, managers, etc.

While technology can provide a mechanism to the business to achieve its aims, it needs the business to embrace the process as well as the corporate strategy to re-enforce that commitment.

Talent Management is about getting the best future for your company.

Shared service centres: widening the skill gap

Damian Williams — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

According to a report in Personnel Today, over 56% of HR executives and CEOs believe that shared service centres are killing off the skills of our HR professionals, through lack of exposure to key working practices.

It’s a worrying thought that the next generation of HR professionals might be missing out on vital skills and experience, simply from a lack of exposure. The report expects this to lead to skill gaps further down the line.

I don’t believe for one minute that shared services is the sole cause of this; let’s not forget the many benefits it can bring, through streamlining resource and cost. But there’s clearly a balance to be struck between processes that are shipped out and those kept in-house, so that ‘core’ HR skills are passed on to future HR executives.

We are all aware that,HR faces the challenge of having to prove its value, especially in the current climate. However, HR should be viewed as a ‘business change’ function, rather than simply an admin department churning out expense claims and holiday forms. To help to make that move to establish itself as a legitimate decision-maker in the boardroom, managers need more time to invest in thinking strategically.

So, the time saved through the effective distribution of processes through shared services means that there is now more time available to strategise and start planning for the upturn.

It is crucial, though, that HR managers must also find the balance between utilising resources effectively through shared service centres and not letting the skill set of their colleagues suffer through lack of experience in HR admin and procedures.

Talent Management: Nothing to do with employee benefits?

Damian Williams — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Talent management is the current buzzword in HR. Talent management is the identification, recruitment, development and deployment of a company's most capable employees. It is a strategy used by employers to improve the retention ratio of their best staff, increase employee loyalty and boost productivity.

Talent management is focused on growing the individual; concentrating on their training and development within the company, while ensuring there are always successors in place that are suitable for key positions should someone leave.

Benefits have an important role to play in talent management. They form an intrinsic part of the value proposition that organisations offer new and existing employees. Flexible benefits can be worth their weight in gold in the employee retention stakes. Research published by the Economist this year, called Talent Wars - The struggle for tomorrow's workforce, discovered that salaries and employee benefits still rank extremely highly in designing a new value proposition for tomorrow's workforce (56%), second only to providing for a better work-life balance through offering flexible working arrangements in terms of hours and place of work (62%).

Structuring a flexible employee benefits programme so staff can select the incentives that are pertinent to their lifestyle is a key weapon in the arsenal of talent management and the retention of star employees. When an organisation is attracting new talent and a candidate is deciding between several offers, it can boil down to what an organisation can offer them. Flexible employee benefits allow the employer to appeal to a diverse range of applicants, and attract good quality candidates.

The ability to mix and match benefits, from pensions and childcare, to holiday allowances and gym memberships, performs a key role in organisations' approach to attracting talent. What appears to be a benefit for one employee may be less important to another, for example, pensions are often less attractive to the younger workforce but become important later on in life.

Although talent management is a corporate level strategy and benefits are ultimately employee incentives, the two are inherently linked. The return on investing time and money in attracting, training, nurturing and retaining key players in the company is diminished if a flexible approach to benefits is not offered as well.

Damian Williams is MD of ROC UK