SHL
Talent in Innovation. Innovation in Talent.
  • Solutions
    • Virtual
      • RemoteWorkQ
      • Coding Interview
      • Smart Interview Live
      • Smart Interview On Demand
      • Assessment & Development Centers
    • Talent Acquisition
      • Tech
      • Volume
      • Graduate
      • Professional
      • Manager
    • Talent Management
      • Leader Assessment & Development
      • High Potential
      • Succession Planning
      • Workforce Review
      • Mobilize
    • Services
      • Professional Services
      • Managed Services
      • Training Services
      • Integrated Solutions
  • Assessments
    • Assessments
      • Behavioral Assessments
      • Personality Assessments
      • Cognitive Ability Assessments
      • Job-Focused Assessments
    • Assessments Catalog
    • TalentCentral™
  • Resources
    • View by Type
      • Blogs
      • Podcasts
      • Webinars
    • View by Topic
      • AI in Talent Assessment
      • Navigating the New Normal
      • The Promise of Gen Z
      • Transforming Talent Management
      • U.S. Programming Skills Report
  • Customers
    • Success Stories
    • ROI Calculators
  • Company
    • Careers
    • Leadership Team
    • Global Offices
    • Newsroom
    • Awards & Accolades
    • Channel Partners
  • Get Started
  • English
    • Deutsch
    • Français
    • Italiano
    • Nederlands
    • 简体中文
  • Contact Us
  • Buy Online

Can we help you?   1-800-899-7451 (US)   0330 100 3435 (UK)

SHL Blog Our Insights on the 21st Century Workplace

  • View By Recent
  • View By Category
    • Assessment and Selection
    • Data and Analytics
    • Develop and Accelerate
    • Diversity and Inclusion
    • Leadership
    • Life at SHL
    • Workforce Trends
  • View By Popular Topic
    • AI
    • HR Technology
    • Candidate Experience
    • Talent Strategy
    • Digitalization
    • Organizational Culture
    • Workplace Diversity
  • Subscribe
Workforce Trends

Insights by Andy: How Our Customers Are Rethinking Talent Strategy

Transformations are impacting the entire employee lifecycle – SHL is partnering with customers across the globe to address their most pressing needs.

July 29, 2020 Andy Bradshaw Organizational Culture, Talent Strategy, Vlog

For this month’s vlog, I thought I would talk about what we are seeing here at SHL regarding the changing dynamics of our customer’s business amid COVID-19 as well as the Black Lives Matter movement. We will cover the people answers our customers have asked for and need. 

We have seen most organizations mobilize their internal resources to respond to the initial crisis of the pandemic. Now, we are experiencing a period where organizations are making more strategic and certainly more mid and long-term decisions. Some of those decisions are different from what we saw before this crisis began. There are three major decision points that many are considering in their talent management strategies… 

#1—Transformation 

The first area is around transformation — many organizations are using this period to either accelerate transformations that were already underway. Digital transformations have increased so most of those programs have accelerated. 

In addition, organizations are taking this time to look at how they restructure their leadership and what capabilities they have within their talent pool for the future in this new environment. They are looking for different skills and new skills to meet their digital business needs. They are considering how to hire people with those skills (i.e. technical and coding skills).  

And finally, several organizations are coming to us to ask how they align resources and restructure their company for the mid to long term. Obviously, some of that is driven by what will inevitably be recession period and organizations are getting ahead of that to make the right decisions about their people sooner rather than later. And I think as government subsidies start to drop off — we will continue to see that increase more.  So, the first area is about continued and increased business transformations. 

#2—Employee Wellbeing 

The second decision point is a shift in consideration around the workforce — what I mean by that is a lot of organizations are trying to make themselves more human with their employees. They are thinking about remote working and the impacts it has on people; thinking about employee wellbeing, and about work-life balance and how that impacts productivity. They are exploring the types of support employees need. So, we are seeing a lot of activity around how organizations are trying to be more human towards their employees. 

In addition, organizations are increasingly looking at their diversity and inclusion efforts. The murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter campaign has increased the momentum around this area. We are getting a lot of inquiries from our customers about how they can improve their processes and how can they eliminate and reduce bias withing their hiring and promotional decisions across the whole of their organization. This is leading to some organizations to rethink their culture and reconsider the values they have. Again, all these things are big people questions that organizations are looking to address. 

#3—Vendor Consolidation 

The third area is more specific to SHL – We are seeing a lot of organizations take the opportunity to consolidate the vendors they use for human capital management. Now, a lot of that is driven by overall cost reductions, but also a lot of it is driven by organizations desiring strategic partnerships throughout this period.  

Human capital within organizations are key for success over the coming months and years. So, leaders are looking to develop deeper partnerships with other companies that can help them understand their people questions and provide the people answers that they need for the transformations they seek. This effort will help to lead them to having the right culture and values. 

Talent Acquisition 

So, those are the three areas primarily on Talent Management that SHL is seeing, but if we look at Talent Acquisition — it is slightly different. Most organizations have some reduced level of hiring. That is not unusual, but in contrast, we are seeing some organizations at almost the opposite as they are in the process of mass hiring.  

They lost a lot of their employees, having furloughed them for several months, and are now needing to get large chunks of their workforce to be rehired into those positions. It is a big challenge for these organizations.  

And even more, so a challenge because they are mass hiring virtually! How do you make sure that the candidate experience is still a great one when you’re attracting, assessing, interviewing, offering, and onboarding all within a virtual environment?  

So, it is important for organizations to make sure that the candidate journey is as good as ever. And we are seeing orgs take this opportunity to look at their end to end hiring and talent acquisition systems and processes to see how they can be streamlined. 

I think we are entering into an interesting period where for many years now we have had low unemployment. Organizations were looking for candidates and had to push hard while attracting them and bringing them out of current positions. Now the tide is likely to turn as unemployment increases, we will see more applications, more candidates going for positions, so organizations will need to have a very robust and efficient solution to make sure they get the best talent into their organization. 

So that’s a few observations we have seen in the market. I hope that is helpful, and I look forward to catching up with you next month. 

Share

Author

Andy Bradshaw

Andy Bradshaw

Andy has spent over 25 years in technology and services businesses, over half of which has been in Human Capital Management (HCM). His career started performing a variety of roles for Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft, including running industry teams and building new customer segments. More recently taking senior leadership positions in mid-market organizations undergoing transformation. These included IT security, assessment and employee benefits segments. He returned as CEO of SHL 2 years ago, working with CEB and Gartner to establish SHL as an independent business. Andy is passionate about using people insight to improve business and individual performance.
A New Opportunity for Human Resources—as Transformation Curators 3 Types of Bias That Derail Diversity and Inclusion Efforts

Related Posts

blog-woman-on-phone-SH008

5 Ways to Set Your Leaders Up for Success in 2021

How to drive behavioral change and sustain leadership performance in an unpredictable world.

blog-woman-smiling-SH012

Develop and Accelerate

Lessons in Onboarding: Insights from Both Sides of the Trenches

5 important steps to include when onboarding a new employee during a global pandemic.

blog-people-meeting-SH013

Develop and Accelerate

How to Lead Transformation through Your Talent Management Strategy

Advice from hundreds of talent professionals on how to truly transform your organization with your greatest asset – your people! 

Recent Stories

  • 5 Ways to Set Your Leaders Up for Success in 2021

    5 Ways to Set Your Leaders Up for Success in 2021

    3 hours ago
  • 4 Key Factors to Recruit Top Tech Talent

    4 Key Factors to Recruit Top Tech Talent

    2 days ago
  • Social Connection – the Missing Link in Virtual Assessment?

    Social Connection – the Missing Link in Virtual Assessment?

    1 week ago

Related Stories

Insights by Andy: How Talent Management Is Evolving to Serve Employers and Employees Alike
Insights by Andy: SHL’s CEO Discusses Our Vision and Roadmap for 2020
How to Lead Transformation through Your Talent Management Strategy

© 2021 SHL and its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Follow SHL

LinkedIn Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram

Keep Up with Our Blog Follow SHL on social media to find out when a new article has been shared.