Significant changes in digital technologies, the speed of innovation and the demographic structure of the workforce have made companies change their organizational structures and business and management models towards employee-centered cultures. That is according to Deloitte’s report entitled Global Human Capital Trends 2016: The new organization, Different by design.
Ninety-two percent of the more than 7,000 senior managers and HR professionals from 130 countries who were surveyed agreed on the importance of changing their organizational structure. Only 14% of them, however, believed that their company is ready for such a change.
The Global Human Capital Trends report is one of the largest global studies focused on the current challenges in the field of HR and leadership. This is the fourth year of the study. In the past three years, companies put the greatest emphasis on increasing employee engagement and retention, improving leadership and developing corporate culture. This year the report showed, for the first time, that almost half of companies (45%) were undergoing or planning restructuring.
The new design of HR systems and services
Companies are apparently moving from traditional hierarchical business models to structures in the form of cross-functional networks of teams. Twenty-one percent of the managers in the survey consider themselves to be professionals in creating these teams. Only 12% of the respondents, however, indicated that they understand how their people work together.
The generational diversity of the workforce is growing and so is the use of flexible working arrangements. These changes are further accelerated by the development of digital technologies. Seventy-four percent of the survey respondents consider it a priority to create a new design of their HR systems and services. HR tools should support mobile devices and learning.
A new trend changing the attitude of companies to manage, support and develop employees is called design thinking. It is a way of thinking that goes beyond transactions and processes and focuses on studying employee behavior in order to create tools that will be intuitive and easy to use for their employees. Employees will get rid of some of the stress they experience and become more productive. Seventy-nine percent of respondents marked design thinking as one of their main priorities.
The entire study is available for download on this page.
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