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The Future of Work is Now

The way we work is changing fast; organizations are transforming to meet evolving business and customer needs—and transforming their workforces to meet these new needs. Unfortunately, a lot of businesses haven’t found the key to preparing their employees to meet changing demands. What will it take to build a workforce with the critical skills and capabilities to help drive the future business imperatives of an organization? To find out, we surveyed 1,200 HR professionals—in virtually every industry from over 20 countries—on the state of workforce transformation. The results are alarming!

10
%

Greater than

58% of organizations are struggling to find employees with new or different skillsets to meet future business needs.

58%

Greater than

58% of organizations are struggling to find employees with new or different skillsets to meet future business needs.

Addressing the Key Barriers to Successful Workforce Transformation

25%

Greater thanBuildings

25%

Greater thanBuildings

Only 25% of organizations say HR plays a major role in workforce transformation.

Yet, HR is much more likely to play a major or significant role when we look at high-performing organizations. Workforce transformation initiatives fall into many of HR’s core strengths, like L&D, talent management and recruiting. It’s critical for HR to make itself central to the development of the transformation strategy.

BuildingsLess than

85%

BuildingsLess than

85%

85% of participants say their organizations don’t have the leadership skills they need to drive transformation.

Only 15% of organizations say their leaders are “very skilled” at leading change, creating cultures of commitment, influencing others, challenging the status quo and driving employee engagement. These competencies are key to differentiating the high-performing organizations from low-performing ones.

91%

Greater thanTarget

91%

Greater thanTarget

91% of participants say their organizations are not meeting employees’ development needs.

To meet new demands, workforce transformation efforts require finding ways to improve the overall performance and skill level of the entire organization. Create a talent ecosystem that supports business needs by increasing agility, embedding continuous learning and supporting mobility.

People separated by a wallLess than

54%

People separated by a wallLess than

54%

54% of participants cite their organization’s culture as the single biggest barrier to workforce transformation.

Culture and strategy are intertwined—they influence each other. The workforce mindset needs to match the organizational mission and have a shared understanding of goals, tactics and vision so everyone is pulling in the same direction.

Seize the Opportunity

People, practices, processes and technology must work in sync to drive successful transformation. Our report offers five key strategies to help you turn your people into catalysts for transformation.

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