Only a third of UK HR professionals are very confident that they could redeploy staff as necessary within the business to cope with likely political, economic and business change over the next 12-18 months.
 

Instead too many feel that they do not know what skills and experience are currently available within their workforces, a situation that makes it difficult to redeploy personnel effectively or identify potential areas of weakness.
 
These are the findings of a study entitled ‘The Workplace Change Report’ undertaken by talent management software provider Taleo.
 
The survey found that nearly half of respondents believed the one thing that would help them instigate change more effectively within the business was ‘better visibility of employee skills’.
 
But this lack of visibility was a significant barrier for HR in achieving its top priority – retaining top performers. Some 47% of those questioned indicated that staff retention was their company’s key personnel-related goal at the moment.
 
As a result, 62% had already put succession planning processes in place to help develop future leaders and 54% were confident that their next senior hire would come from within the existing team.
 
Alice Snell, Taleo Research’s vice president, said: “As the economic recovery continues, businesses will need to get the most from their current workforce and ensure talent is placed where it can be most effective. Without a high level of visibility into each employee’s skills, HR and management’s ability to effect business change is likely to be severely compromised.”
 
The study indicated that nearly eight out of ten HR professionals were confident that the UK economy would improve over the next year, but 64% believed there was still some way to go before economic confidence was restored.