A new report finds that while a majority of companies, 63 percent, have a “Future of Work” plan in place, several roadblocks are impeding companies from truly transforming their workforce to be more dynamic.
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The report, “Reimagining Work 20/20,” is from Catalant, a provider of agile workforce solutions. It is based on a survey conducted by Survata on behalf of Catalant and includes responses from 100 senior HR professionals in the United States at organizations with revenues of $100 million in more and at least 2,000 employees.
Current Environment
Driven by dramatic and irreversible trends in labor demographics and technology, today’s organizations are faced with massive pressure to rethink the role of talent. For HR leaders, this is so significant that developing an agile workforce (53 percent) outranks investing in artificial intelligence and automation (19 percent).
According to the survey, training (44 percent), planning and budgeting (38 percent), and technology (37 percent) are the top three challenges standing in the way of companies trying to evolve their workforce in order to take advantage of the Future of Work.
While companies have started to address these challenges, there’s a realization that traditional methods of finding talent aren’t working – with 47 percent of companies reporting that it takes more than 90 days to fill critical roles.
Additionally, the survey finds there are gaps in functionality and awareness of tech solutions that could very well remedy the talent situation: 36 percent of companies plan to increase the number of technology tools to manage their talent supply chain in 2018, while 25 percent of companies that do not currently use online talent marketplaces plan to start using them in 2018.
Within organizations, CEOs (10 percent) and CHRO/Chief Talent Officers (38 percent) are both considered stakeholders driving the conversation around the Future of Work, but most respondents (52 percent) see both as drivers – meaning that the responsibility for preparing a company for the Future of Work lies with both parties.
Moving Forward
But operationalizing the Future of Work must go beyond conversations around rethinking the role of talent, the report notes. To fully realize the potential of the Future of Work, companies will have to make bold and tough changes to their internal cultures and reimagine how talent and strategy are interlinked.
Companies that plan to overcome these roadblocks, by developing a change management strategy and adopting new technology, believe there are significant benefits, including:
- Access to highly skilled or specialized talent (75 percent of respondents)
- Finding the right talent to get work done faster (62 percent of respondents)
- Increased speed of talent acquisition (57 percent of respondents)
- Reduced reliance on brand name consulting firms (40 percent, compared with 66 percent of respondents who say their companies are overspending on consulting)
“Our experience with the Fortune 100 and leading global companies suggests we’ve reached a critical transformation point, as they prepare for what the Future of Work actually means for their business in the present. We’ve found that they believe the Future of Work is radically agile; going forward, talent strategy will mean accessing the right skills inside or outside their company, at the right time, without the constraints of job descriptions, office walls or geographic boundaries,” said Rob Biederman, co-CEO and co-founder of Catalant. “Those that embrace this future and develop an on-demand mindset in managing their workforce will be positioned to innovate faster and adapt more quickly to changing market conditions. Those that do not may fail.”