Bersin by Deloitte Predicts that Employers Will Be Challenged to Attract and Retain Key People in 2014

OAKLAND, Calif., Dec. 18, 2013 /3BL Media/ -- Bersin by Deloitte, a leading research and advisory firm empowering Human Resource (HR) organizations to drive bottom-line impact, today announced that it predicts organizations will be challenged to attract, retain and develop people in 2014 as they strive to keep pace with a global economic recovery. These challenges will drive a need to reinvent and refocus on talent acquisition, continuously develop deeper skills, build a work environment that fosters passion and engagement, push for integrated and simplified technologies and analytics, and redesign and reskill the HR function.

Bersin by Deloitte delivers its insights in 2014 Predictions: Building a Strong Talent Pipeline for The Global Economic Recovery. Available both to Bersin WhatWorks® members and on a complimentary basis to non-members, this new report provides an annual review of the key business, training and talent management trends for HR and business leaders to consider in strategic planning and budgeting for the year ahead.

"We see a renewed emphasis on growth in 2014 and that means organizations must focus on sourcing, recruiting, competing for talent, building leadership and re-engaging the workforce we have," said Josh Bersin, principal, Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP. "While unemployment is still high, as the economy picks up and skilled workers see new opportunities, people will start changing jobs."  

To address these talent challenges, organizations need to think of all of the elements of talent management as one integrated "system" – each working together but fitting into a total employee environment.

"As organizations source, manage and develop people this year, they must act boldly, throw away old practices and build a compelling, passion-filled work environment," Bersin said. "Many of the traditional HR practices -- performance appraisal, for example -- have to be re-engineered to attract and keep great people.  Plus this year HR must learn how to become data-driven."

The report includes 10 predictions that highlight many of the big changes taking place in the global economy and the workplace and how they will result in needed modifications to a wide variety of HR programs, including talent acquisition, performance management, leadership and learning. The report also predicts changes in approaches to analytics and HR technologies.

Among the predictions:

• A competitive labor market and rapid innovation will spur a need to reinvent recruiting. Bersin by Deloitte research shows that today U.S. businesses spend more than $110 billion on talent acquisition[1], competing heavily for top skills in every region. In the last year an explosion of social networking, assessment and Big Data tools has transformed recruiting. To keep pace, organizations will reinvent talent acquisition by building a globally integrated employment brand, developing external talent networks and implementing candidate marketing programs. Mobile technology and the use of social networks will become top priorities for recruiting teams.
• As retention concerns mount, organizations will focus on building a passionate, highly-engaged workforce. Our research shows that in 2014 it will be hard to keep talented people.[2] It is time for organizations to stop talking about the annual engagement survey and learn how to build passion in their workforce. To accomplish this, organizations will need to monitor engagement frequently and focus on career development, coaching, creating a flexible work environment and communicating a meaningful corporate mission. U.S. healthcare reform, which will provide more employment mobility, coupled with growing job opportunities will make retention a top priority for most HR organizations.
• Talent Analytics comes to center stage. In 2014 data-driven thinking and infrastructure will become an imperative for Human Resources. Just as analytics has transformed finance and marketing, this year the same will happen to the people side of business. Bersin by Deloitte research ^[1] shows that only 14 percent of organizations have talent analytics programs in place yet more than 60 percent are planning to build this new function over the next two years. Talent analytics has tremendous value: the stock prices of organizations with high-impact talent analytics – those at the highest level of the new Bersin by Deloitte talent analytics maturity model -- outpaced those of the Standard & Poor's 500 by 30 percent in 2010-2013.[3] Bersin by Deloitte predicts 2014 will be a watershed year as organizations build analytics centers of expertise which bring together HR and business data in new and exciting ways. 

To download a complimentary copy of the report, go to 2014 Predictions: Building a Strong Talent Pipeline for The Global Economic Recovery.

Register to join Josh Bersin as he shares his strategic outlook for HR, talent and learning in 2014 through a webinar at 11 a.m.Eastern/16:00 GMT, on February 13, 2014.

Those interested in learning more about Bersin by Deloitte or its WhatWorks® membership may email info@bersin.com or call (510) 251-4400.

About Bersin by Deloitte

Bersin by Deloitte delivers research-based people strategies designed to help leaders and their organizations in their efforts to deliver exceptional business performance. Our WhatWorks® membership gives Fortune 1000 and Global 2000 HR professionals the information and tools they need to design and implement leading practice solutions, benchmark against others, develop their staff, and select and implement systems. A piece of Bersin by Deloitte research is downloaded on average approximately every minute during the business day. More than 5,000 organizations worldwide use our research and consulting to guide their HR, talent and learning strategies. For more information, please visit http://www.deloitte.com/bersin orhttp://www.bersin.com.

As used in this document, "Deloitte" means Deloitte Consulting LLP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP. Please see http://www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. 

[1] Derived from information in the Talent Acquisition Factbook 2011: Benchmarks and Trends of Spending, Staffing and Key Talent Metrics/ Bersin by Deloitte, Karen O'Leonard, November 2011

[2] 2014 Human Capital Trends research coming Q2 2014

[3] High-Impact Talent Analytics: Building a World-Class Measurement and Analytics Function/Bersin by Deloitte, Josh Bersin, Karen O'Leonard, Wendy Wang-Audia, October 2013