Paul Ryder, Write Research and Kate Harper, CEH Workforce Solutions 'Workforce Horizons – Resourcing Challenges In Attracting, Developing, Retaining and Deploying Talent in Tomorrow’s Workforce.' A thought provoking presentation which summarises the findings of a recent qualitative research project conducted amongst senior HR & Resourcing professionals that looks ahead to the challenges that will face resourcing professionals in tomorrow’s workforce and asks what should we be doing today to prepare for such eventualities.

1. Capita Research
Workforce Horizons
Attraction, Development, Retention and Deployment of Talent in
Tomorrow’s Workforce

3. Future Scoping Its Importance to Resourcing
Today Tomorrow 2030
Already aware of
certain trends and
challenges that we
know will be important
into the future:
• Ageing workforce
• Skills shortages
• Changing working
patterns
How will these things
change the way we
need to engage,
attract, develop and
deploy our staff?
And what about the
things that we can’t
plan for?
Are we spending enough time today planning for
the outcomes we do know about…. And thinking
about how to prepare for those we don’t?

4. Economics
• Globalisation
• Shifting patterns of economic
activity
• The hourglass workforce
• New demand and
replacement demand
• War for talent
• Changing contractual terms
Demographics
• Ageing workforce
• Multigenerational workforce
• Increase in workforce
diversity
Legal/Political
• Decreased political action –
and less money to invest,
particularly in training and
education
• Policy change which is
empowering employees
The things we can predict…..
Understanding the Trajectories
People and Society
• With empowerment comes
changing expectations –
engagement and meaningful
work
• Work as a consumer
experience and implications for
employer branding
• Different career pathways and
implications for employee
branding
Technology
• Flexible working
• A different type of workplace
• Work-life balance
• Impact of AI – new jobs
requiring new skills
• Big data

5. 5
What we’ve done… what we plan…
The Research
Exploratory
Face-to-face
Interviews
01 02 03
Group
Discussion
And What Next?
10 Senior
Resourcing
Professionals
(including: car
industry, logistics,
broadcasting, I.T.,
engineering, local
government)
5 HR Directors
(public sector,
utilities, business
services)
10 Senior
Resourcing
Professionals
(including financial
services,
telecommunications,
online retailing, local
government,
building materials)
An on-line survey
with Resourcing and
HR Professionals

7. 7
What will keep you awake at night?
Project Forward 10 Years…
Branding
• Being clear about what the company
stands for and positioning against peers
• What does good look like – matching
people to the brand (skills and values)
• Tailoring the EVP to the target audience
– and tailoring rewards (particularly for
millennials)
• Influencing perceptions at a young age
• Questions over the locus of
responsibility for employer branding
Flexible Working
• Getting the balance right between
meeting employee needs and
expectations and customer needs and
expectations
• Not just about logistics… about culture
• Focus on outputs not inputs
• Agile working – employer led
• Contract workers seen as a necessary
evil and not a solution to flexible
working
Workforce Planning
• High on the agenda
and critical to
successful talent
management….
• But hampered by a lack
of joined up thinking
between corporate
teams and strategic
units….
• And hampered by a
lack of skills/capacity
for data analytics
Engagement and the Passive
Candidate
• Candidates becoming more
discerning and more demanding…
“sell to me and tell me why I should
work for you”
• Early engagement important so the
benefits are understood before the
vacancy becomes available
• Engagement with current staff
critical to retention….
• And improvements in succession
planning required to nurture and
retain top talent
• Do candidates want to stay with one
organisation – or do they want to job
hop?
• Social communication central to this
theme
Holistic Career Management
• People are ‘buying’ careers and
development opportunities – not
just jobs
• Balance between supporting
individuals in their career
aspirations and supporting the
business in its change/development
agenda
• There are barriers
• Line manager lack of
understanding of career
management and planning
• Lack of role models other than
managers
Closer Working with the Business
• Closer alignment of HR planning
with business strategy
• Is HR about protecting the interests
of staff in the workplace or about
aligning people to the needs of the
business?
• The balance is shifting towards the
latter (although not at the expense
of engagement)
• HR professionals need to be more
business savvy
• HR should have a place at the top
table?
Branding and
EVP
Development
(14)
Flexible
Working
(13)
Workforce
Planning
(12)
Engagement
and the
Passive
Candidate
(9)
Holistic Career
Management
(6)
Alignment
with the
Business
(5)

8. …where does it feature in resourcing’s future?
Big Data
Workforce Planning
(14)
Improved
Working with
Senior Managers
(5)
Performance
Management
(4)
Engagement/
Satisfaction
(4)
Innovation
(1)
Workforce Planning
• Big data is key ….but few can
articulate the specific data they will
need
• It must add value and not just
provide some interesting facts
• It should provide clear direction for
action
• Data hard to gather in devolved
structures
• We also need to look outwards
Improved Working with Senior
Managers
• A more legitimate voice at the top
table
Performance Management
• A need to be able to demonstrate
the linkage between people assets
and business performance
Engagement
• Measuring real engagement
(whether or not the organisation is
providing work that enhances
personal value) will remain
important
Innovation
• Not wholly clear how… but in terms
of designing new recruitment
solutions that better meet the needs
of candidates and the business

9. 9
Where will the skills gaps be?
If the war for talent is still raging…
Areas of Skills Shortage
I.T./Technical
Engineering
Project Management
Finance
Languages
Qualified Drivers
Social Workers/Qualified Care Staff
Why are we still
fighting the war for
these skills when they
have been in short
supply for so long?
What is stopping the
development of talent
in these areas?
What do we really
mean by a skills gap/
skills shortage?

10. Supply Channels
In the future, where will talent come from?
Graduate
Recruitment
(13)
Links with
University
(10)
Apprenticeships
(9)
Grow your Own
(9)
Targeted
Communities
(5)
Graduate Recruitment
• A continual supply of high calibre
individuals to fulfil ‘replacement
demand’
• As well as graduate programmes,
developing internships and
placements
Links with University
• But not always leaving the nature
and content of training ‘to
chance’….increasingly developing
relationships with Universities and
even designing bespoke
programmes
Apprenticeships and School Leaver
Programmes
• Talent required through the layers
of multidisciplinary organisations
meaning that these types of
programmes are important in filling
different types of roles
Grow your Own Schemes
• Some organisations have clear
strategies for ‘building from the
bottom’.
• The perennial challenge of retaining
the staff you train remains.
Targeting
• At a business unit level – targeting
particular community groups with
specific skills/values/lifestyles
proves a positive solution

11. 11
What will it look like?
The Future Resourcing Landscape
Holistic Solution
• Solutions more closely aligned to the
business agenda. Shift away from
operational to more strategic
• Workforce planning linked to business
planning
• Better linkages between talent
acquisition and talent development
• Longer term horizons and
engagement with tomorrow’s
workforce
• Personalisation in both recruitment,
reward and wider HR
• Brand and EVP/ differentiation
• Quality of hire/predictive analytics
• Values-based recruitment
• Managing diversity
• ATS improvement & time to hire
• Talent pool building
• Engagement-led communication
• Targeted social media
• Mobile recruitment
• Flexible working
• Using data to inform decision-making
• Talent mapping
• Talent pooling
• Succession planning
• Engagement and retention
More of the Same
• Solutions more closely aligned to the
business agenda. Shift away from
operational to more strategic
• Workforce planning linked to business
planning
• Better linkages between talent acquisition
and talent development
• Longer term horizons and engagement with
tomorrow’s workforce
• Personalisation in both recruitment, reward
and wider HR
Holistic Solution• The HR function becomes the strategic
‘enabler’ of attracting, developing,
retaining and deploying talent
• Data and evidence will drive a better
understanding of workforce trends and
HR will design interventions to fill skills
gaps through engagement, attraction
and development
• Personalisation will be supported by line
managers who will become very
different ‘agents’ within the organisation
– supported by HR personnel intent on
making organisations attractive and
dynamic workplaces
Strategic Enabler

13. 13
The Big Themes We Need to Prepare For….
The Questions
Is Resourcing stuck in
an operational rut
without the right
permissions to join the
top table?
Are we prepared for a
role at the top table?
(Business savvy, market
savvy, au-fait with
analytics)?
Are we resourcers or
talent managers and do
we need to re-define our
discipline?
Are we doing enough to
prepare for the
knowledge and skills the
business will need
tomorrow?
Is our tool kit polished
and honed?
What should we be
doing today to prepare
for tomorrow?
Summary
The Short Term: Getting our House in Order The Longer Term: Being Strategic

14. 14
Thank you!
Does anyone have any questions?