HR Management & Compliance

Top Consultant Sets HR Priorities for 2007

An international consultant forecasts that, in the coming year, corporate leaders will focus on retention, ethics, self-development, and “bonding with employees.”

What human resources priorities will America’s corporate leadership (with the help and guidance of their HR people, of course) be focusing on in 2007?

One of the key prognosticators on this topic has been Christopher Rice, CEO of BlessingWhite, an international HR consulting firm with a long list of Fortune 500 clients. Rice has made it a practice of setting HR priorities for executives for the next 12 months.

Let’s see what he says will top the agenda as this year rolls on:

–Executive Self-Development. Rice believes that the skills of today’s executives are not keeping up with the demands placed on them, and execs know it. For this reason, many are looking intensely at self-development programs, and especially those designed to make them “compelling and inspirational” to employees and other stakeholders.

–Erasing Corruption. Ethics, says Rice, is coming up fast on the corporate radar. Leaders are looking for ways not only to meet regulatory requirements, but also to instill a corporate culture built on ethics at every level. They’re also seeking ways to continually audit that culture.

–Building Retention. Rice emphasizes to clients that if you want to keep high-value employees, find ways to make work more meaningful for them, and always do what you promise to do. Those who put their all into a job expect the same dedication and trustworthiness from their leaders.

On the other hand, he also sees a coming effort to rid business of what he terms, “subversives,” perpetually negative workers who drag morale down. He believes that such naysayers make up 5 percent to 8 percent of the workforce in large organizations.

–Increase Employee Engagement. Rice advises keeping workers satisfied on their jobs, but also building their individual levels of contribution. One way to do this is to …

–Close the Knowledge Gap between employees’ understanding of the strategy of the business and of their individual roles in making it happen. “Closing the gap improves engagement, productivity and profitability,” Rice says.

–Inspire All Generations. “Most organizations today were built by and for baby boomers,” notes Rice. But with today’s workforce increasingly multigenerational, he says leaders need to understand the needs and interests of many age groups. He sees flexible HR policies as way to increase both motivation and retention among younger workers.

–Fill the Leadership Pipeline. Succession planning must be a priority, with new leaders constantly developed and trained before they’re needed, declares Rice. “With global competition so intense,” he warns, “there’s no time to learn on the job.”

Building a Personal Connection

In a continuing theme of these forecasts, Rice calls for a constantly improving personal relationship between leaders and the workforce. Power and communication are both diluted as they cascade down through an organization, he says, to the point where this factor can “transform your original statement into an unrecognizable message.

“It’s no longer enough to be capable,” Rice concludes. “Senior executives need to build an authentic bond with their employees … admittedly a daunting challenge for most leaders.”

Do you agree with Rice? Would you set different priorities? Use the “Share Your Comments” button and let us know.

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2 thoughts on “Top Consultant Sets HR Priorities for 2007”

  1. Welcome, I am Ahmed Ragab who is Motivated one not to interested in HR context in a certain category in business but also live it in every field I act through where the fields that I act through are engineering, training, and development on an international level.

    As the rich context mention before from Mr. Rice I see that;
    Could we add some fruitful points which are highly related to what was mentioned? Like:-
    • Concerning “Increase employee engagement”; this attitude is interpreted into “Ownership.” How could we make employee feel his/her ownership for the organization and keeping in the mind its vision and challenges. By making this, we can guarantee the sincere efforts with high spirit of motivation.

    • I always dream with the model of organization that make the employee feels that he/she spends happy and interesting times in the work more than even in the home. And I am faithful that designing the “proper environment” is the most effective tool to treat a lot of problems like; compensations, erasing corruption, friendship atmosphere,…etc. Could we imagine that environment in every organization and we may put some measures for this “healthy environment.”

    If anyone is interested in spending some of time towards treating the points I mentioned, it’ll be a great opportunity to build on ourselves’ ideas and I’ve already some useful track of thinking in this context.

    Thanks to HR daily advisor …. The best collecting space for HR thoughts.

    Ahmed Ragab
    HR-junior advisor
    +2 012 28 27 823
    Hr.ahmedragab@yahoo.com

  2. respected sir,
    Regards.I am quite agree with your suggestions.a work environment which makes employee attached with the organisation like home only ca give above expected productivity in positive. It makes corporate environment better enough for the job satisfaction & allied factors.

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