Recruitment, change management and morale are chief HR challenges in 2017 ⁰

While a fifth of respondents to a study commissioned by Cascade HR revealed the topics most likely to keep HR awake at night in 2017 said they don’t foresee any challenges as Brexit begins to unfold, the remainder highlighted recruitment, managing organisational change and staff morale as the overriding struggles they expect to encounter. While 80 percent of participants said their organisation is OK, good or excellent at managing major change, significant areas for improvement were also identified, with 61 percent stating better communication is required, 57 percent striving for greater staff involvement/engagement and 50 percent highlighting the need for improved planning. Of the 275 industry professionals questioned in the survey, to uncover their plans and fears surrounding Brexit and other significant economic developments,  59 percent said they will rely on technology to help them manage such change.

Commenting on the findings, Cascade’s CEO Oliver Shaw said: “The media has, understandably, been dominated with talk of Brexit in recent months. Yet we must acknowledge that change is now commonplace within the business environment. In fact, nearly three quarters of the HR professionals we polled (73 percent) said that they encounter change on a frequent basis.

“So, whilst we must all develop plans to equip ourselves with the challenges – and opportunities – that Brexit may bring, we cannot become fixated on this issue alone. HR departments, in collaboration with senior management teams, need to analyse the ‘temperature’ of their workforce, and develop strategies to overcome all of the changes that may lie ahead.”

Shaw continues: “HR professionals hold a wealth of data at their fingertips and tech vendors should be working hard to ensure clients make smarter use of the intelligence within their HRIS.

“The findings we uncovered from this research correlate with many of the topics our clients are asking us for help with. Recruitment, change management and morale/engagement are certainly hot topics for our customer base at the moment, but these are certainly areas that savvy HR teams are equipped to handle.”