In an era of rapid technological advancement, with the demand for certain skills rising and others becoming obsolete, preparing for the future of work requires foresight and adaptability. 

In this episode, Ravin Jesuthasan, global thought leader and Senior Partner and Global Leader for Transformation Services at Mercer, talks about how HR practitioners can navigate the evolving skills landscape and prepare their organisations and employees for these changes. 

You’ll learn how to take advantage of the shift towards skills-based hiring, how artificial intelligence might reinvent the graduate-level position, and discover models and frameworks to think about skills and job design as a small, medium or large-sized business.

Skip to the section that interests you most:

• 3:40 minutes: Three things HR can do to prepare for the evolving skills landscape
• 6:09 minutes: How to effectively map skills
• 12:51 minutes: The most crucial skills for businesses to focus on
• 16:03 minutes: How AI might change (or remove) graduate level positions
• 22:24 minutes: How to get started as a skills-based organisation
• 29:24 minutes: How to apply these skills as a small to medium-sized business
• 40:44 minutes: Jesuthasan responds to a scenario about a company that is moving towards a skills-based approach and has created agile teams working on project-based assignments.

View the podcast transcript here.

Extra resources:

For more conversations to inspire HR, listen to season one of Let’s Take This Offline here.

If you’d like further information and resources to help put Jesuthasan’s insights into action, check out the links below:

Learning opportunities

• Sign up to AHRI’s National Convention and Exhibition⁠ in Melbourne on 20-22 August to hear more from Ravin Jesuthasan.

• Sign up for AHRI’s new short course, GenAI Integration Essentials.

Further reading

• Learn more about Jesuthasan’s books.

• Read HRM’s article where Jesuthasan talks about the future of leadership skills.

Member-exclusive content

• Join the AHRI LinkedIn Lounge to connect with your peers and for access to a bonus episode later this week.

Subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can follow the podcast on Spotify, Soundcloud or Apple Podcasts. AHRI members receive exclusive bonus content via the LinkedIn AHRI Lounge.

The post Podcast: practical tips to prepare your organisation for the evolution of skills appeared first on HRM online.

Australia’s ongoing skills gaps are hampering productivity for over half of employers (57 per cent), according to a recent report from AHRI.

The report, based on insights from 607 senior business decision-makers across a range of sectors, also found that almost one in five workers (19 per cent) are considered “not proficient” in their role by their employer, a statistic which is consistent with AHRI’s most recent Quarterly Work Outlook report. 

This problem is more significant in the public sector, where 24 per cent of employees aren’t fully proficient, compared to 18 per cent in the private sector.

With the integration of AI and other complex technologies moving at a rapid pace, it’s unsurprising that employers are lacking essential capabilities within their workforces. 

Skills and qualifications that previously sustained a career spanning 40 years or more now demand continuous updates and to remain relevant, posing significant challenges for learning and development teams to keep up with the speed of change. According to the World Economic Forum, the half-life of a skill is currently about five years. 

With that said, AHRI’s findings demonstrate that employers are not resting on their laurels. More than three quarters (77 per cent) are taking active steps to strengthen their talent pipelines. 

Below, HRM unpacks AHRI’s key findings on the driving forces behind Australia’s capability gaps, and how employers are responding.

Common causes of skills gaps

Employers identified a range of driving forces behind current skills gaps, mostly related to the rapid evolution of skill and business needs.

Figure 1 shows that evolving business or strategic needs are cited by 44 per cent of employers, while 42 per cent point to the constantly evolving skills landscape as a significant factor.

The post 57 per cent of employers say skills gaps are impacting productivity, finds AHRI research appeared first on HRM online.

Preparing for the end of the financial year (EOFY) can sometimes feel like a never-ending to-do list for even the most experienced of HR practitioners.

As well as preparing for BAU tax-time tasks, such as supporting business unit leaders to determine FY25 budgets and enabling them to conduct fair performance and pay reviews, HR practitioners also need to stay abreast of a host of upcoming legislative changes. Failing to do so can open your organisation up to unnecessary risk. 

The infographic below can be used as a handy checklist for HR to work through this EOFY. Plus, HRM shares some tax deductions HR practitioners can claim for their business.

Download a PDF of the checklist here.

AHRI members can access a range of useful templates, guides and more via AHRI:ASSIST. Learn about more practical member benefits here.

The post Infographic: HR’s end-of-financial-year checklist appeared first on HRM online.

As a researcher in the intersection of technology and workforce dynamics, I have observed firsthand the transformative impact of technology and digitisation on our work environments. 

However, alongside these benefits, I’ve also witnessed some of the potential pitfalls that come with an overreliance on digital tools. 

As we move into the next iteration of work, there is a critical need for balance as we navigate the integration of technology in our workplaces. HR professionals play a unique and crucial role in maintaining this balance, due to their expertise in human-centric ways of working.

The social impact of new technology and digitisation

One of the most concerning aspects of technological overreliance is its potential impact on human interaction, social skills and emotional wellbeing.

Emerging research suggests a gradual deterioration in interpersonal skills, particularly among younger workers who prefer digital communication over face-to-face interactions. This shift has the potential to undermine team cohesion, making interactions less relational and more transactional, which could impact workplace morale.

What’s more, constant connectivity can take a significant toll on employees’ mental health. Feeling perpetually tethered to digital tools can lead to employee burnout and decreased job satisfaction.

We have observed this in gig economy workers who, to earn an income, must immediately respond to app-driven directives. Stress rises, their sense of autonomy is reduced, and they undertake riskier behaviours to meet algorithm-set goals.

“Digitisation without human-led backup systems can endanger organisations, particularly if they’re reliant on digital safeguards that may themselves be compromised.”

When technology fails

Employers too must grapple with the double-edged sword of automation technology. While robots and automated systems can greatly enhance efficiency, they can also create dependencies that can cripple a business when technology fails (as it sometimes does).

In my research with Australian manufacturers, this vulnerability was starkly highlighted during the pandemic, when a lot of overseas tech support became inaccessible, revealing a significant gap in local expertise. 

Moreover, the increasing risk of cyber threats demonstrates that digitisation without human-led backup systems can endanger organisations, particularly if they’re reliant on digital safeguards that may themselves be compromised.

Keeping humans in the loop

As technology increasingly dictates workflows and decision-making processes, and employees interact with systems rather than humans, there’s potential for innovation and problem-solving capability in the workplace to be hampered. 

New ideas and improvements may become confined to what the system can accommodate. To avoid this, it’s crucial to ensure that technology supports rather than supplants human decision-making. 

Keeping a human in the loop is essential to maximise the benefits of technology, maintain accountability and prevent the dehumanisation of the workplace.

Finding balance in the role of technology

To avoid overreliance on tech, we need to assess its role in our workforce strategically. 

As HR professionals, we play a vital role here. We must understand the strategic benefits of new technology and manage its integration thoughtfully. 

This involves planning for the impact on the workforce, including potential job displacement, new skill requirements or wellbeing hazards, and crafting strategies to mitigate negative effects.

While technology offers tremendous benefits, its integration into our workplaces must be ethically managed to avoid undermining our human workforce, who provide a unique competitive advantage. 

HR professionals can be ethical leaders of technology adoption, fostering an environment where technology enhances rather than replaces human innovation and decision-making, and ensuring that our organisations remain adaptive, globally competitive and fundamentally human.

Dr Penny Williams is an Associate Professor at Queensland University of Technology. 

A version of this article was first published in the June/July issue of HRM Magazine.

Dr Penny Williams will be speaking about addressing efficiency gaps in AI at AHRI’s National Convention and Exhibition in August. Book your spot today.

The post What if we become too reliant on technology? appeared first on HRM online.

HR leaders are often burdened with the everyday. Fresh organisational demands and global crises mean they’re often forced into reactive mode. Rather than being able to focus on leading people through change, their attention is too often pulled into the here and now. 

This is especially the case following an ongoing four-year marathon that’s included the pandemic, talent shortages, rising cost-of-living challenges and widespread burnout. 

While it will always be part and parcel of HR’s job to be responsive to a business’s needs, it’s also possible for HR practitioners to pull themselves out of the detail and be enabled to focus on the future, when given the right tools and resources, says Amantha Imber, organisational psychologist and founder of behaviour change consultancy Inventium.

“It can often feel like a game of whack-a-mole and always being on the defence across schedules, workloads, emails, calendars and team chats,” says Imber, who is speaking at AHRI’s National Convention and Exhibition in August. 

“But we need to learn to play offence with our workdays, at both the individual and organisational level – and change behaviours and mindsets en masse.”

“It’s a hard process,” says Imber. “You need to be clear on where you’re going, where you hope to be, then figure out how to close that capability gap and what long-term success looks like to your organisation.”

Here, Imber and two HR leaders share their best tips to move HR professionals into forward-planning mode.

1. Set realistic benchmarks to map progress

Imber says introducing metrics enables HR professionals to establish their organisational strengths and weaknesses and track changes. 

“If you want to drive change, you first need a baseline: what’s going on right now in the organisation? A starting point allows you to measure progress.”

Key, though, is using metrics that are actionable.

“Many organisations come up with so many initiatives, yet struggle to put in place reliable metrics that measure impact,” says Imber. “For example, a client of ours established a goal around disability representation in the workforce. That’s great, but also almost impossible to track in that it’s not mandatory for employees to [disclose] a disability.”

Instead, metrics should be “diagnostic”, she says. They should flag areas for improvement, leading to a clear pathway in which people leaders have actionable recommendations based on results.

This is the approach Christina King FCPHR, Chief People Officer at Cornerstone Medical Recruitment, has adopted.

“We’ve created metrics that flow down and connect with teams, so we know what we need to focus on, while connecting back to the ultimate organisational goals,” she says. “Metrics are crucial – the data doesn’t lie. For people leaders, that means being able to demonstrate in a quantitative and qualitative sense, the bottom-line impact on the organisation.” 

“We need to learn to play offence with our workdays, at both the individual and organisational level – and change behaviours and mindsets en masse.” – Amantha Imber, organisational psychologist and founder, Inventium

2. Eliminate administrative burdens with AI to create more time for proactive HR

The advent of generative AI, and automation more broadly, may free up schedules so teams have more opportunities to look beyond tomorrow.

“We’re already seeing some organisations delegate some repetitive tasks to generative AI, automating the mundane tasks to free up time for more creative thinking,” says Imber. 

However, organisational pressures mean HR is sometimes left out when it comes to experimenting with new technology.

“HR teams often spend time trying to build capability across their organisation, but forget about themselves. The top people teams are able to invest in their own development, and improve their own productivity, so they can free up time for more strategic problem-solving. That’s where AI comes in: creating huge productivity gains for the repetitive, less valued work often given to HR.”

Some tech-savvy people leaders are using AI today – and already reaping the rewards. For example, Justine Cooper FCPHR, Vice President Human Resources, Pacific Zone at Schneider Electric, uses her company chatbot for content creation.

“Alongside automating processes, AI can be used to draft items such as strategy days and HR policies,” says Cooper. 

“It’s an exciting tool that frees up so much time. I’ve used chatbot suggestions as first drafts, then written prompts that incorporate organisational values and fine-tuned the language.” 

3. Segment your time by importance rather than urgency 

Cooper read The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey, early in her career and still draws on its insights today.

“I apply the ‘Important vs Urgent’ time matrix in planning my daily list of activities. This tool helps you move from urgency to where the real importance lies, meaning you can become more intentional with your time,” she says.  

“Being proactive, and beginning with the end in mind, helps anchor me in terms of the impact I can make, which I think through on an annual and quarterly basis and sense-check on a weekly basis. Time isn’t just given to you – you have to find a way to free it up.”

Imber’s toolkit includes meeting clean-up templates (in which leaders sift through their calendars and identify which calls don’t meet short and long-term goals) and ‘recurring irritant lists’ for regular, tedious and often self-inflicted tasks.

There can also be ‘zombie hunts’, she says, where half-dead products, services and processes that drain time and resources are eliminated. This can enable leaders to work smarter, rather than harder.

4. Move with a rational, systems-driven approach 

Some of the best people leaders adopt a scientific attitude, says Imber.  They come up with a hypothesis, measure data against it, then iterate insights within frameworks supported by systems and processes. This helps HR teams become more strategic and forward-focused, rather than just tackling issues as they arrive in the in-tray.

“From my organisational psychologist background, I see everything through the lens of scientific method, such as using data to measure progress,” she says. “When HR professionals do that, they can measure behaviour – rather than just intentions – and take actions based on metrics.”

King’s team extract data from their HRIS and payroll, which automatically generates month-end reports. They also use a company calendar integrating upcoming events, such as budget planning and quarterly reviews, and established an innovation committee that focuses on finding marginal gains.

5. Get comfortable saying ‘no’

Imber says many of her clients include people leaders who are natural strategists, innovators and holistic thinkers. Where they often come unstuck, though, is taking on too much work.

“Before the pandemic, there were clearer boundaries around which sort of problems fell inside the organisation’s remit, and therefore HR. Today, many people leaders are unclear of their roles. Some are almost acting like therapists for direct reports when that’s not their job.”

If HR leaders want to focus on the future of work, they sometimes have to politely decline present-day challenges. King says this can be done in a way that protects workloads and time, without harming relationships. 

“It’s a learned skill. Many of us in HR feel guilty: carving out two hours for strategic planning while an employee has an issue can feel hard. I’ve learned to go with ‘yes, if’. That means you can say yes to a piece of work, but it will come at a cost to something else. That way, you won’t feel as conflicted and can still manage to demonstrate flexibility.”

Proactive HR leaders also find time in their schedules for deep thinking. 

Every Monday, Cooper blocks out the first hour of her morning to reflect on her organisation’s big-picture IMPACT values: inclusion, mastery, purpose, action, curiosity and teamwork.

“As people leaders building a directional vision, anchoring plans and goals to help inspire our teams and build momentum, making interventions that create time for us to reflect is critical,” she says. 

“Being proactive, and beginning with the end in mind, helps anchor me in terms of the impact I can make. Time isn’t just given to you – you have to find a way to free it up.” – Justine Cooper FCPHR, Vice President Human Resources, Pacific Zone at Schneider Electric

6. Think outside the box when planning for the future

The hope is that by slowly shifting towards a longer-term strategy, people leaders will be better equipped to deal with the challenges of tomorrow, today. 

“In the best organisations, HR teams are able to push boundaries and challenge norms and lean into innovation,” says Imber. 

“They’re able to look at the bigger picture, question what the future of work looks like and prepare for the trends shaping their industry, then build the workplace culture and skills for the next five years.”

The potential benefits stretch far beyond HR teams, though. They extend to the people they lead.

“The workplaces I’ve seen with forward-looking people leaders are often more exciting, inspirational and motivating places to work,” says Imber. 

“There’s just an energy about the place. People are excited to come to work, they’re engaged. They have a deeper sense of meaning in what they’re doing.” 

Hear more from Amantha Imber and Justine Cooper FCPHR at AHRI’s National Convention and Exhibition in Melbourne from 20-22 August. Secure your ticket today.

The post 6 ways to move from reactive to proactive HR appeared first on HRM online.

Executives in Australia are increasingly turning to talent analytics to derive insights on outcomes such as employee attrition, performance and sentiment to influence talent and business decisions. While many leaders value the availability of this data, few feel confident their organisation is maximising its potential.

According to Gartner research, 78 per cent of HR leaders say their organisation relies more heavily on talent data to make decisions compared to four years ago. However, 71 per cent agree that current team structures and capabilities limit their ability to use these insights effectively.

To be successful, HR leaders need to focus on developing the skills of their HR team members to help them become:

1. Analytics experts who manage and prepare the data to produce insights 
2. Decision enablers who interpret the information and apply learnings
3. Strategic consultants who influence broader business priorities as tactical communicators.

Doing so will enable talent analytics to influence HR’s biggest functional decisions and act as a central driver of innovation throughout the organisation by providing objective and timely advice.

Building a culture of analytical learning

Skilled talent analytics experts play a crucial role within any organisation. They are responsible for maintaining data, effectively analysing it and supporting an integrated approach to workforce planning and risk management, among other strategic activities. 

To develop analytics experts, HR leaders must build a culture of technical learning within their team. This can be achieved by fostering collaboration between those responsible for talent analytics and the learning and development (L&D) team. 

This will help HR leaders identify technical skills gaps within the team and create learning pathways that ensure employees stay ahead of new methods and technologies. 

Rotational programs with IT or data and analytics functions can also be introduced to bolster technical skills and knowledge. 

“Traditional earning mechanisms won’t be enough. A core competency that drives effective decision enablement is the business acumen that can only be gained through experience.”

Using data-driven HR to develop strong decision makers

Gartner research reveals only nine per cent of HR leaders feel their department has been truly successful at arming their team with data to enable them to support workforce-related business decisions. 

Given that talent processes can be disrupted by external changes and technology, HR decision-makers need uninterrupted access to relevant data to gain a deep understanding of HR’s priorities and activities. 

The L&D function can also be an invaluable partner here by facilitating regular knowledge exchanges on priorities, emerging trends and insights between talent analytics experts and HR leaders. 

However, traditional learning mechanisms won’t be enough. A core competency that drives effective decision enablement is the business acumen that can only be gained through experience.

Developing true business acumen and the underlying competencies of industry, organisational and financial knowledge is best achieved through a combination of classic development activities combined with high-impact, hands-on learning moments.

For example, providing HR team members with the opportunity to work in cross-functional teams to lead change initiatives, build and execute business cases or play a significant role in delivering a solution can transform by-the-book thinkers into strategic problem solvers and innovators.

From tactical directives that respond to changing business conditions to supporting the entire employee life cycle, this approach ensures leaders can make data-driven talent decisions with confidence.  

Becoming a strategic partner

Executives and business leaders often face many competing priorities, particularly when managing the interests of shareholders, internal stakeholders and customers. As a result, HR leaders can struggle to effectively influence their decision making, even when equipped with data or insights.

According to a Gartner survey, 81 per cent of talent analytics leaders state that it’s important for their team to be proficient in strategic consulting. However, less than half (47 per cent) are currently satisfied with their team’s proficiency.

Rather than focusing on relationship management approaches designed to drive stakeholder satisfaction, strategic consultants should build and hone skills such as persuasion and storytelling with data, which can empower HR to be more effective in their dealings with stakeholders. 

To do this, consultants need to develop a deeper understanding of their business stakeholders’ needs and drivers, along with demonstrating the impact of their interactions. 

Feedback from business stakeholders and measures of consultants’ performance should go beyond the basics of capturing face-to-face time to collect real evidence of when HR insights have resulted in action.

Similarly to decision enablers, strategic consultants benefit from connecting with other department leads or C-suite members, fostering partnerships between talent analytics and other functions. Creating these relationships allows for the sharing of best practices and can help inform talent analytics teams about which HR technologies (e.g., data visualisation tools) are the most effective for sharing insights with stakeholders.

HR leaders who can implement these steps will be well-placed to grow their talent analytics function, increase their credibility, influence innovation and drive critical business decisions. 

Robin Boomer is a Senior Director, Advisory in Gartner’s HR Practice. He provides strategic advice and insights to support HR leaders and strategic workforce planning teams.

Understand the principles of data-driven decision making and learn to apply a data-driven mindset to HR strategies and challenges with AHRI’s foundational short course in People Analytics. Take the advanced course to elevate your workforce data management and analytical skills in a business context.

The post 3 key skills your team needs to build a data-driven HR function appeared first on HRM online.

Amid our nationwide skills shortage, new research from the Australian HR Institute (AHRI) has revealed the scale of this issue at an organisational level.

Employers report almost one in five workers are not proficient in their roles, and a majority (57 per cent) believe skills gaps are having a negative impact on their organisation’s productivity, according to AHRI’s June 2024 Quarterly Australian Work Outlook report.

The report, based on insights from 607 senior HR professionals and decision makers, found that 32 per cent of respondents are experiencing annual turnover of over 20 per cent. This has increased from 25 per cent of respondents in the previous quarter. 

This is likely contributing to productivity challenges, due to high vacancy rates and the time needed to train new hires and support them to be fully proficient in their roles.

Skills deficiencies were a greater issue in the public sector, with nearly a quarter (24 per cent) of respondents citing this as a challenge, compared to 18 per cent in the private sector.

“We see these insights as a call to action to invest in skills development as a top priority to avoid sluggish productivity levels having long-term impacts on our economy,” says AHRI’s CEO Sarah McCann-Bartlett. “We will be watching tonight’s budget closely to see how the government plans to help boost skills development in Australia.”

Addressing skills challenges

Despite the worrying headline statistic in this report, it was encouraging to see that 37 per cent of organisations plan to increase training investment in their organisation in the next 12 months, and that only six per cent intend to cut training budgets.

“We saw a significant difference in this intention when cutting the data by sector,” says McCann-Bartlett. 

Over half (53 per cent) of public sector employers intend to increase skills investment, compared to just 34 per cent of private sector firms.

“It may be that the public sector has decided this type of investment is necessary to improve productivity. It will be interesting to see the outcomes over time.”

Beyond investing in traditional upskilling and training initiatives, employers can facilitate skills building initiatives through strategies such as:

• Setting up internal secondments, allowing employees to spend a few weeks/months working in a different unit of the business to develop new and transferable skills that they can use in their primary role.
• Facilitating skip-level meetings that allow junior employees to connect with someone two levels above them. The junior employee can shadow the senior and learn what their future progression pathway could look like.
• Setting up reverse mentoring programs where younger employees share knowledge with their more experienced colleagues, as a way to inject diverse perspectives and skills into your organisation.
• Using AI to develop customised learning programs for each employee. AI can assess skills, learning pace and preferences to suggest personalised training modules, optimising learning efficiency and engagement.
  
  This doesn’t even have to be a costly exercise; utilising something like ChatGPT can be a great starting point. Entering the prompt: ‘I am a content coordinator and one day want to be an editor. Write me a career profession plan, including the skills that I will need to develop over the next few years,’ resulted in this relatively comprehensive development plan.

On top of facilitating specific skills-boosting initiatives, employers could also look to streamline recruitment processes.

“Our data underscores the importance of speed to competency as part of the induction and onboarding process to help support productivity, employee engagement and retention,” says McCann-Bartlett.

This could look like introducing new technology or using AI to accelerate recruitment or onboarding efforts.

For example, KPMG – a 2023 AHRI Award finalist – reduced its time to hire by 20 per cent by layering AI into its onboarding process.

Prior to implementing an AI solution, KPMG had 19 disparate recruitment systems and a 47-step onboarding process, and just five per cent of the process was automated. Onboarding took between 89 and 156 days to complete. 

“[We had an] opportunity to take stock of a process that had organically grown over decades into something that was really uncontrollable, and wasn’t focused on the candidate,” Rob Dunderdale, Head of Talent Attraction at KPMG Australia told HRM in a previous article.

“Our vision was to deliver talent to the business faster, easier and with purpose.”

Read more about KPMG’s approach to using AI at work here.

McCann-Bartlett stresses the importance of investing in effective line management capability as part of solving this skills challenge.

“This is especially true given that evidence shows that a poor employee-line manager relationship can drive job dissatisfaction. It is well-known that high-quality leadership and management results in higher productivity.”

In fact, research suggests that approximately a third of the world’s productivity gaps could be attributed to poor management, so manager capability uplift should form a key part of lagging organisations’ solutions.

Pay expectations 

As well as grappling with a skills shortage, employers are also feeling the pressures of a cost-of-living crisis; businesses are managing a reduction in consumer spending, an increase in operational costs and, in some instances, supply chain challenges.

All of this is impacting employee wages. AHRI’s report found a fall in pay expectations, showing that employers expect mean basic pay increase (excluding bonuses) to be 3.0 per cent in the 12 months to April 2025, down from the 3.7 per cent previously predicted for the 12 months to January 2025.

“Our data underscores the importance of speed to competency as part of the induction and onboarding process to help support productivity, employee engagement and retention.” – Sarah McCann Bartlett, CEO, AHRI

Wage expectations were higher in the public sector (4.5 per cent) than in the private sector (2.6 per cent). 

“The findings from this quarter’s outlook align with the Reserve Bank of Australia’s view that while the labour market has eased, it remains tight, with wages growth higher than is sustainable at current levels of productivity growth,” says McCann-Bartlett.

Recruitment and redundancy insights

AHRI has reported strong demand for labour in the June 2024 quarter, with net employment intentions of +36, up from +33 in the March quarter.

However, recruitment difficulties continue to plague employers, with 40 per cent of those who are recruiting reporting trouble doing so (up from 38 per cent last quarter).

Redundancy intentions have remained at similar levels to the previous quarter, currently sitting at 23 per cent for the upcoming quarter.

McCann-Bartlett advised organisations wanting to boost productivity to ask themselves what changes need to be made to retain talented employees and attract the best new talent.

“They may need to consider if their offering is sufficient, and whether they need to offer better pay, increased training or greater flexible working opportunities. Each workplace is unique, which is why a nuanced, considered approach is important.

“AHRI’s findings reflect ongoing tightness in the Australian labour market, despite some modest loosening over the past year. They reinforce the imperative for HR professionals and employers to engage, reward and retain employees, with employee retention remaining a key focus for HR professionals.”

For more detailed insights, download the full AHRI report here.

The post Employers say 20 per cent of workers are not proficient in their roles, finds AHRI research appeared first on HRM online.

Picture this: you’re the Chief Learning Officer for a large organisation and have been tasked with addressing a range of critical skill gaps in your workforce. You find a seemingly suitable learning platform and invest thousands of dollars in it, spend hours preparing an internal marketing campaign, and then, when it comes to the roll-out period, no one signs up. What went wrong?

“Investing in a platform is not investing in your people,” says Rod Farmer, Expert Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company. “You’ve thought about the tool before thinking about the desired outcome or impact.”

Before diving into your platform of choice, you first need to ensure you’re designing learning experiences that align with employees’ context of use, he says.

In a recent episode of AHRI’s new podcast, Let’s Take This Offline, Farmer outlined how HR and L&D professionals can do this. Here’s an excerpt of his advice.

1. Contextualise your learning

HR needs to move towards contextualised upskilling and reskilling instead of always defaulting to self-paced learning, says Farmer.

“The global average for self-directed digital learning, from opting in to completing the program, is 13 per cent. That’s a huge amount of wasted capital and emotional energy.”

When learning feels independent from the job at hand, and when it’s not curated for the individual employee’s needs, it’s often deprioritised or, worse, ignored.

“Also, upon completion, there’s very little recognition or reward. We can talk about things like micro-credentials and badges, but, at the end of the day, people just want to apply something in their day-to-day job and be recognised by their managers for it.”

To get on-the-job learning right, it’s critical to first understand the individual employee’s context of use.

“Who are they interacting with? What are the actual set of activities and steps they need to perform to do that job? When you tailor learning to that, that’s when you get a lot more cut-through.”

“The global average for self-directed digital learning, from opting in to completing the program, is 13 per cent. That’s a huge amount of wasted capital and emotional energy.” – Rod Farmer, Expert Associate Partner, McKinsey & Company

2. Three kinds of learning 

The holy trinity of learning, in Farmer’s view, is formal, social and on-the-job learning. 

“We’re very good at formal, but the problem is that we went from face-to-face, classroom-based learning to saying, ‘Let’s just go digital.’ We didn’t consider the social, peer-to-peer and on-the-job element.”

In Farmer’s view, apprenticeships are a fantastic way to capture the peer-to-peer and social elements of learning.

“You want to give somebody something that’s just a little bit harder than what they’re currently able to do, supported by the right structures, people, enablers, content and technology, to enable them to get to that next level of performance.”

3. Demonstrate ROI on learning and development

To show a return on investment in L&D, demonstrate impact and scale, says Farmer. 

“To do this, start small. Be very clear on the outcomes you’re achieving. Have people celebrate their learning outcomes and learning activities. That will build belief that these new ways of working are worth further investing in.

“I go from company to company… and they talk about L&D cost-cutting, and they’re very real concerns. But when I ask if they’re able to equate the learning outcomes to commercial performance and organisational benefits… the answer is typically ‘no’. 

“If you can’t track it, if you can’t measure it, if you can’t link it to benefits, if you can’t show how you’re going to scale it up systematically, it might be challenging to warrant additional funding or to safeguard your existing funding.”

Present this investment in language that budget holders will resonate with, he adds.

“Organisations that invest in upskilling and reskilling see a 2X improvement in retention rates. So if [an organisation] improved retention rates by just two to three per cent, it would save more from implementing upskilling than it would from dealing with churn, with a 30 per cent margin.

“In other words, the cost of churn – the productivity lost, rehiring an employee, recruitment costs, products coming to a halt, cultural issues – is far greater than implementing an upskilling program.

“You have to demonstrate the benefits and then use the maths to say, ‘This is mission critical. It’s not a nice-to-have. It’s fundamental to driving our triple dividend: social benefits, cost-efficiencies and growth.’”

Want to hear how Rod Farmer puts these insights into action? Listen to his podcast episode below, where he shares a practical case study.

A version of this article was originally published in the April/May 2024 edition of HRM Magazine.

The post 3 tips to make your learning and development more impactful appeared first on HRM online.

I have worked in various HR leadership positions in different industries over the course of my 25-year career, but it wasn’t until I joined my current employer, EACH, that I had an opportunity to expand my remit to include more than HR tasks.

EACH is a large, complex community health organisation that runs over 150 different programs across six different program streams: mental health, older adults, NDIS, early childhood, primary care and child, youth and family services. I spent the first four years at EACH leading the organisation’s HR function, but when our CEO, Natalie Sullivan, restructured the executive team, she decided to put all support functions under one leadership role.

Under the old leadership structure, the back-office function consisted of a Corporate Services Director, who was responsible for IT, finance and infrastructure, a Strategy Development and Marketing Director, and an HR Director (my former role). There were also two Directors of Operations to manage the front-end functions of the business.

While this structure previously served us well, as the organisation became more complex over time, we found it was introducing inefficiencies. From the perspective of the back-office support functions, we often struggled to have alignment between the three business units; we were all working towards our own KPIs and strategic plans.

This lack of alignment was having an impact on the people who were delivering front line services to clients and, in some instances, making things more difficult for them.

For example, we might have previously had HR rolling out a training program at the same time finance required managers to work on budget-related tasks and IT was implementing a new system. 

In a for-purpose organisation, funding is lean and the expectations on our operations teams to deliver to the KPIs of the funding contracts means the majority of their time is providing services to clients. 

It’s essential that the back-office support teams that are there to support Operations are not making their jobs harder.

Recognising that the structure was ineffective and inefficient, Natalie made the decision to consolidate responsibility for the back and front-end operations at EACH to sit under two executives, an Executive Director Operations and an Executive Director Organisational Enablement, which is my current role. 

The decision to call ourselves the ‘organisational enablement’ team was very intentional because that was the required shift in how we viewed our back-office function: we exist to enable the business to do great work. 

We saw the Operations teams as the core, as they are providing essential services to our customers, and the Operations Enablement Team wraps around them to enable them to do that. 

No need to be a technical expert

While my remit now expands to include HR, finance, infrastructure, quality and risk, the national intake service, as well as IT, other than the HR remit, I am by no means a technical expert in each area.

Instead, it’s the ways of thinking and my people-centric lens garnered through my years in HR that enable me to make a unique contribution as an executive leader. Pragmatism and a strong dose of common sense certainly helps too!

For example, since having responsibility for IT, I’ve restructured the team, engaging external support to provide advice on the technical aspects. 

I worked with the new IT leadership team to develop a five-year IT roadmap. I’ve been able to contribute skills in translating ‘what needs to be done’ into a strategic plan that justifies the resources required to deliver. 

Not having an IT background can have its benefits, as I had to ask a lot of questions to understand what was needed, and that enabled a roadmap and communications strategy that has been translated into language everyone can understand and relate to. 

We have exceptional talent in our IT team. They know what they need to do, but just require support to be enabled to do it. This means I didn’t immediately put a Chief Information Officer into the structure, as I wanted to see how it worked with the IT leaders collaboratively leading among themselves. 

After six months of working closely with them, I determined there wasn’t a significant gap. The gap that was evident was my lack of technical knowledge, meaning if they needed someone to bounce technical ideas off, I wasn’t particularly helpful. 

To mitigate that gap, we have engaged a fractional CIO to support the team when they need it, provide advice to me and to have external oversight to our IT roadmap and strategy, which gives the board reassurance that we’re on the right track. 

The most critical skills are the ability to listen, bring together different people and perspectives to work collaboratively together and recognise when you’ve got something wrong and need to adapt. My general approach is to put out what is proposed and ask people to tell me what’s wrong with it or what’s missing. If you listen to their responses, you can make better decisions. 

Spreading the word

While I don’t have responsibility for our communications or marketing units, the work of these teams does inform a lot of my role in organisational enablement.

For example, a recent project I’ve worked on with this team is working out how we can make the work of the organisational enablement teams more visible to the rest of the business. 

“We have to demonstrate our ability to see the bigger picture and align with the broader business goals. I wouldn’t be in my position today had I not done that.” – Clare Murphy FCPHR

There’s often a tension between what these teams are asked to do and what they have the capacity to deliver on; they can be pulled in a variety of directions. 

I also work very closely with our Executive Director Operations, Camilla Radia-George, to address these tensions; the relationship with her is critical. When there are competing priorities, we get together to map out the priorities to make sure we’re aligned and are continuing to work towards the same goals.

To create that visibility and transparency, one of the things we have been doing is creating a series of short videos that interview some of our back-office employees about what they’re working on.

We found that this resulted in increased understanding of the demands of the back-of-house teams – like Operations, they have competing demands and by making this visible to the broader team, people are more patient with requests and willing to be flexible with time frames.

As an executive leader, a key part of my job is tying all the threads together and getting teams to see how their effort and time contributes not only to our customers, but also to their fellow teammates. Having a bird’s-eye view of each function makes that much easier to do.

I often say to our leaders, ‘That will impact X team. Have you looped them into this work?’ or ‘We may have to push that time frame back, as X is happening and that will impact staff too.’

The future role of HR

I would love to see organisations moving away from the common move of having the Chief Financial Officer as the next in line for a CEO position. Organisations can benefit immensely from having more HR leaders in executive leadership roles and taking on a broader remit. 

Our ability to navigate complexity, manage stakeholders of all levels in the organisation and apply a people-focused lens to decision-making means we’re able to make unique contributions to the business. 

But we also have to demonstrate our ability to see the bigger picture and align with the broader business goals. I wouldn’t be in my position today had I not done that. 

If you are wanting to move into a broader role, don’t wait to be asked. Get involved in projects outside HR, speak to your CEO about your intentions and see what opportunities are available. For example, you could ask your colleagues in finance or IT if you can join meetings with them to learn about their priorities and ways of working.

To become a future-ready HR leader, it’s about more than just having technical aptitude and understanding how to read a financial report. It’s about how you support people to work in more effective ways – enabling them to make impactful contributions to the business and having a return on investment in the process.

Want to learn more about how to develop executive presence to enhance your HR leadership? Sign up for AHRI’s webinar on this topic on 1st of May. Free for AHRI members.

The post Is it time we expanded the remit of the HR function? appeared first on HRM online.

The need to upskill and reskill employees has never been more important. In a world of work that’s rapidly evolving due to the introduction of new technologies, and as generative AI reshapes the type of work that humans will do, HR and L&D leaders need to cultivate dynamic, agile workforces that understand how to utilise their uniquely human skills to complement the work that technology will do.

Organisations understand the importance of investing in these future-proofing programs. New research from LinkedIn into workplace learning has found that, within the next six months, nine out of 10 global executives plan to either increase or maintain their L&D investments. But how can HR demonstrate a return on that investment? And how can they get employees to see upskilling as more than just a tick-box exercise?

In this podcast episode, our host Shelley Johnson speaks with Rod Farmer, Expert Associate Partner at McKinsey and Company, about how to address common barriers to learning and he talks about how McKinsey worked with the Department of Regional NSW to embed more digital literacy skills into its workforce.

We hope you learn something valuable from this episode. Don’t forget to like and subscribe so you never miss a future episode.

Jump to the section that interests you most

• 2:16 minutes: Rod shares some interesting insights into the percentage of employees who complete self-directed digital learning programs and encourages a shift towards a more contextualised approach.
• 6:18 minutes: Rod discusses the difference between a jobs-based economy to a skills-based economy.
• 7:40 minutes: Shelley notes that learning and development programs are often hard to gain investment for as they can be perceived as not driving value. Rod shares his advice for overcoming this mindset.
• 14:32 minutes: Advice on how to create a learning culture in your organisation.
• 18:05 minutes: Rod walks listeners through a case study: how the Department of Regional NSW embedded more digital literacy into its workforce.
• 33:31 minutes: How to avoid your L&D budget being put on the chopping block.
• 44:53 minutes: Rod responds to a made-up scenario about a CEO who has invested into an expensive learning and development platform and isn’t seeing any uptake from employees.

View the episode transcript here.

Subscribe to AHRI’s podcast on Spotify, Soundcloud or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. AHRI members receive exclusive bonus content via the AHRI LinkedIn Lounge.

The post Podcast: Rethinking learning and development programs appeared first on HRM online.