Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Looking forward to a more strategic role

by Personnel Today 13 Jan 2004
by Personnel Today 13 Jan 2004

Over the course of 2003 my columns focused on a range of issues that HR
professionals needed to tackle so that they could provide support and continue
to add value to UK businesses. These included innovation, management and
diversity issues. But what of the year ahead?

Crystal ball gazing can be an unforgiving exercise, particularly when we
look back on our predictions, but we can be sure of a few things. There is
little doubt that one of the most significant developments in the coming months
will be the impact of the Accounting for People taskforce recommendations that
people data must be included in annual reports.

Many businesses will view this requirement as yet more unwanted regulation.
However, it will not be long before the recommendations take effect, with the
Company Law Review requiring the boards of larger companies to demonstrate they
understand the factors, such as people, that are essential to companies’
performance. The inclusion of people data is likely to be compulsory by 2005,
giving HR teams around 18 months to put systems in place.

The recommendations are designed to ensure that human capital reporting is
not a burden for HR professionals by encouraging them to measure generic themes
rather than working to specific definitions. But it will be a challenge for HR
– particularly for smaller organisations with fewer resources – to set up new
systems and to work with the board to bridge the gap between the softer issue
of people management and the harder issue of robust data.

In 2003, we saw increased acceptance of the benefits of outsourcing and this
will continue in 2004. I also expect the war for talent to reignite. The
economic downturn and the difficult job market have meant that the issue of
retention has been almost dormant. But we are now beginning to see signs of the
economy improving.

Since August 2003, Deloitte’s Report on Jobs has found a notable improvement
in the job market. An inevitable consequence is that staff turnover rates will
increase rapidly and HR will be faced with two problems: how to ensure that
talent is retained and how to attract the talent coming into the jobs market?

Tough economic conditions have entailed cuts in training and development for
the workforce and other elements of their reward package have also been
affected. In 2004, HR departments must focus on developing effective retention
policies that attract the skills and talent vital to the success of the
business and create employee commitment to the company and its strategic goals.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

The year will no doubt bring with it a number of other challenges for HR
directors, as all years do. However, what remains clear is that HR’s status is
evolving and 2004 will provide more and greater opportunities for HR to
demonstrate its strategic contribution to the business as a whole.

By John Connolly, Chief executive and senior partner Deloitte

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Call centre survey questions quality of Indian operations
next post
Nuclear workers vote to accept Acas-brokered pay deal

You may also like

Forward features list 2025 – submitting content to...

23 Nov 2024

Features list 2021 – submitting content to Personnel...

1 Sep 2020

Large firms have no plans to bring all...

26 Aug 2020

A typical work-from-home lunch: crisps

24 Aug 2020

Occupational health on the coronavirus frontline – ‘I...

21 Aug 2020

Occupational Health & Wellbeing research round-up: August 2020

7 Aug 2020

Acas: Redundancy related enquiries surge 160%

5 Aug 2020

Coronavirus: lockdown ‘phase two’ may bring added headaches...

17 Jul 2020

Unemployment to top 4 million as workers come...

15 Jul 2020

Over 1,000 UK redundancies expected at G4S Cash...

14 Jul 2020

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+