HR departments are ill prepared to deal with a potential economic upturn, new research has revealed.
Almost a third of 100 HR directors polled expressed concern that they did not have the appropriate plans to deal with a recovery in the economy.
And nearly half said they were unable to provide strategic data back to the business – more than 40% had little or no data available to forecast accurate personnel talent requirements in the next six months, the Logica-commissioned survey showed.
Over a third of respondents were not confident that they had the appropriate HR software or personnel in place to deal with an upturn – and a staggering 70% of businesses have suffered skills shortages in areas of the organisation due to a lack of foresight.
Patricia Taylor, Logica’s head of HR services and business process outsourcing director, said HR professionals should take the opportunity to become strategic business leaders as the economy moves out of the recession.
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“Key to this transformation will be the ability to utilise the data already available within the organisation to make calculated decisions,” she said.
“Too frequently we have found that this sophisticated HR intelligence has proven to be the missing link that has held back HR leaders from playing business planning roles within the organisation. Access to the data in itself is not enough – HR professionals must understand how to act upon this information in order to enable the business to perform and grow.”
