Two key themes around learning and talent management are emerging as this year’s top meta-trends in HR — winning the race for skills and mobilizing the workforce for the future.
Now more than ever, it’s important for leaders to align strategic goals with opportunities for their employees to grow and develop their careers. Organizations will also need to stay informed about what skills they need to recruit or train for in the years ahead.
To do so, they need to look at skills — and shift their focus from filling short-term skills gaps to predicting long-term business needs and engaging in strategic workforce planning. This means finding new ways to fill skills gaps outside of hiring, including improving employee experiences by developing personalized career plans and other motivational tools like learning opportunities and coaching.
Read this short article to learn how to accelerate employee growth and make your talent a competitive advantage.
SAP® SuccessFactors® solutions conducts an annual study of the top HR meta-trends and how these have evolved over the previous year.
The most recent report identifies two key trends around learning and talent management – winning the race for skills and mobilizing the workforce for the future.
By acting on insights, organizations can accelerate employee growth and make talent a competitive advantage. Here, we explain how.
Winning the race for skills
Despite global economic uncertainty and the restructuring we’ve seen in early 2023 across several industries, trends suggest that employees will maintain the upper hand in the job market. Flexible work policies, increased monetary rewards, and non-monetary benefits are anticipated to become the norm. This will also be true for redesigned HR practices that deliver the kinds of experiences employees now expect.
To retain existing talent and sustain optimal business operations, it’s important that leaders align strategic goals with opportunities for their employees to grow and develop their careers. Organizations also need to stay informed about what skills they will need to recruit or train for in the years ahead.
How modern HR solutions can help
Organizations can empower employees to grow their careers with the SAP® SuccessFactors® Opportunity Marketplace solution, provide them tools to learn new skills with SAP SuccessFactors Learning solutions, and drive skills-based talent planning with the Eightfold AI Talent Intelligence Platform™. These solutions give organizations the ability to build an effective talent infrastructure, make data-driven strategic HR and workforce decisions, and confidently plan for the future.
Mobilizing the workforce for the future
Organizations are shifting their focus from filling short-term skills gaps to predicting longterm business needs and engaging in strategic workforce planning to prepare for the future. Global economic uncertainty is shaping this trend in 2023, leading some to focus more on internal mobility than external hiring.
In particular, those facing external hiring freezes and limits to backfilling will focus on upskilling and reskilling their people to create better internal opportunities that foster organizational growth and success.
Organizations are continuing to turn to career development to improve employee experiences. Developing unique, individualized career plans for employees will demonstrate their value and point to a bright future. Supporting long-term career trajectories with a variety of shorter-term developmental activities will motivate employees to reach these goals.
Talent and business leaders are also considering how to provide the right balance of learning and development opportunities within a hybrid work context. Experiential learning and coaching are among the learning methods expected to rise in popularity in 2023.
How modern HR solutions can help
Skills assessments and audits help organizations and employees understand existing and soughtafter skills in a transparent way – but only if guided by a comprehensive skills taxonomy.
Data will become even more valuable and useful across practices if teams include other personal attributes in these efforts, such as employees’ aspirations or working styles. To succeed in the long-term, reskilling and upskilling efforts must be paired with culture-change initiatives.
Employees only feel empowered to prioritize their development if there’s a foundational learning culture that provides the time, rewards, and recognition for learning.
With learning and talent management solutions from SAP and an intelligent skills foundation with Eightfold AI, organizations can provide meaningful upskilling and reskilling opportunities, drive internal mobility, and foster an internal culture of learning.
HR Meta-Trends in Learning and Talent Management
How can modern cloud software help HR prepare for what’s ahead?
As HR leaders continue to navigate the rapidly changing business landscape, it’s become increasingly important to have an agile and adaptable workforce. Organizations are turning to the SAP® SuccessFactors® Talent Management Solutions to proactively plan and prepare, using technology to help develop a skilled and motivated workforce.
In addition, Eightfold AI’s market-leading Talent Intelligence Platform helps organizations to better understand the skills and capabilities of all their talent, and provides personalized upskilling, reskilling, and succession planning recommendations to keep organizations up-todate with modern skills.
