What Generation Y thinks of HR The end of the headhunter? The millennials … · 2015-06-03 · The...

HR management

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HRD profileDoreen Tyburski

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Recruitment

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Education

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HOURGLASSHR

Issue 16 – December 2009 Enhancing value through people

What Generation Y thinks of HR

The end of the headhunter?

The millennials are coming

Manage tomorrow’s people today.

© 2009 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. All rights reserved. ‘PricewaterhouseCoopers’ refers to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (a limited liability partnership in the United Kingdom) or, as the context requires, the PricewaterhouseCoopers global network or other member firms of the network, each of which is a separate and independent legal entity. Design Services 23747 (06/09).

A constantly changing business environment is forcing companies to make some important and difficult choices about how they manage and motivate people. As part of our Managing Tomorrow’s People series, we explore the impact of these changes on people management, the different options open to companies and some of the scenarios we believe will play out of this time of great change.

To download a copy of Managing tomorrow’s people: how the downturn will change the future of work, visit pwc.com/managingpeople2020

Manage tomorrow’s people today.

© 2009 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. All rights reserved. ‘PricewaterhouseCoopers’ refers to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (a limited liability partnership in the United Kingdom) or, as the context requires, the PricewaterhouseCoopers global network or other member firms of the network, each of which is a separate and independent legal entity. Design Services 23747 (06/09).

A constantly changing business environment is forcing companies to make some important and difficult choices about how they manage and motivate people. As part of our Managing Tomorrow’s People series, we explore the impact of these changes on people management, the different options open to companies and some of the scenarios we believe will play out of this time of great change.

To download a copy of Managing tomorrow’s people: how the downturn will change the future of work, visit pwc.com/managingpeople2020

We have heard it said often enough that Generation Y — this mysterious, Facebook and Bebo-addicted, IT-superliterate wave of youngsters who are just entering the workplace — are unlike any other working generation before them. We have been warned that dealing with Generation Y, particularly from the HR point of view, will require an entirely new mindset. Are we ready? As a new wave of these new recruits enters the workplace — at least, those lucky enough to win a coveted job in the current climate — we are about to find out.

This latest edition of Hourglass examines the effect Generation Y and the technological innovations that surround us all will have on the way we work. On

page 14, Sally O’Reilly looks at the implications of the new communication channels on recruitment, while on page 18 Clare Gascoigne asks how HR professionals can be expected to assess the potential of young workers who hold a confusing array of qualifications that many of us have never previously encountered. And, if you’re feeling really brave, on page 22 you can find out what Generation Y really thinks of HR.

It often feels that everything around us is changing. But while change can be intimidating for some, it’s important to remember that it happens for a reason. A few short years ago the HR profession was buzzing with discussions about David Ulrich’s HR transformation model but, as Liz Fisher explains on page 6, even the mighty Ulrich model can be improved upon. And that is what change is all about — improving the way we do things. Without change, how can we expect to become better at what we do?

Douglas BroomChief Editor

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Chief EditorDouglas [email protected]

Editorial CommitteeMichael Rendell, Isabel McGarvie and Lydia Ruffles(HR Services Consulting, PricewaterhouseCoopers), Douglas Broom, Liz Fisher (Croner, Wolters Kluwer)

Commissioning EditorLiz Fisher

Advertising SalesSP Media LtdOld Byre House, East Knoyle, Salisbury SP3 [email protected]

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© Wolters Kluwer 2009

Thought leadership without the padding, Hourglass cuts through the clutter to reach the key issues.

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The articles and content within this magazine have been prepared as general information on matters of interest only, and do not constitute professional advice. No representation or warranty (express or implied) is given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this magazine, and, to the extent permitted by law, the authors, sponsor and publisher accept no liability, and disclaim all responsibility, for the consequences of you or anyone else acting, or refraining to act, in reliance on the information contained in this magazine or for any decision based on it.

© 2009 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. All rights reserved. ‘PricewaterhouseCoopers’ refers to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (a limited liability partnership in the United Kingdom) or, as the context requires, the PricewaterhouseCoopers global network or other member firms of the network, each of which is a separate and independent legal entity.

What’s your greatest asset – your employees, or your relationship with them?

At PwC our Human Resources Services team take an end-to-end view of employee engagement. Whether you need to diagnose the effectiveness of your HR and communication functions in driving engagement, you want to measure engagement and its effect on business performance or need to implement effective engagement strategies, we have the experience to help.

To find out more, contact Angela Mohtashemi on 0207 804 0952 or at [email protected]

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Looking forward The economic downturn has taken its toll on the relationship between employer and employee. As the climate improves, the winners and losers will emerge.Michael Rendell 04HR management The ongoing transformation of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ own HR function gives a fascinating insight into how the Ulrich management model has developed.Liz Fisher 06HRD profile — Doreen Tyburski The software multinational Misys has had a turbulent few years in the wake of a painful separation from its founder. As its HR director explains, HR was at the centre of its transformation.James Ashton 10Recruitment The way we work is changing, thanks to the economic environment and the entry of the technologically-savvy Generation Y into the workforce. But what are the long-term implications for recruitment?Sally O’Reilly 14Education With an increasingly global workforce and the educational system under constant review and development, HR professionals are increasingly being asked to assess candidates with qualifications they have never before encountered.Clare Gascoigne 18The future of work HR professionals sometimes complain that they find the latest intake of Generation Y difficult to understand and to deal with. But what do these youngsters think of work, and of HR? Brace yourselves...Elizabeth Corning 22International mobility The workforce in the 21st century is internationally mobile as never before. But as a new report shows, dealing with the expectations of Generation Y presents some serious challenges for HR.Liz Loxton 26Non-executive directors The economic crisis has turned the spotlight on the role of non-executive directors. But with their responsibilities on the increase, are good candidates still prepared to take the risk?Beth Holmes 30Company cars Contrary to popular opinion, company cars continue to form an important part of benefit packages, though environmental awareness and tax policy are now in the driving seat.Philip Smith 33A letter from Singapore The Olympics in Beijing are just one event over the past five years that has put Asia firmly on the map.Joanna Hall 36

Description Page No.

topic author

The economic downturn has taken its toll on the relationship between employer and employee. As the climate improves, the winners and losers will emerge.

Time to rebuild trustLooking forward Michael Rendell

04

If a week is a long time in politics, then a year must count as an eternity in business. And what a year it has been. During 2009, we’ve seen unprecedented drops in equities around the world, experienced deflation in the UK for the first time in 40 years and seemingly healthy businesses have gone to the wall. While the banking system has not quite fallen over, the public reputations of many organisations and people in various sectors have been damaged.

Just as critically, relationships within the walls of some organisations have suffered as many individuals perceive their employer’s actions during the downturn as rescinding on written and unspoken elements of their ‘employment deal’. As Sally O’Reilly’s article on recruitment (page 14) points out, employers seek total commitment from applicants. Similarly, while it’s clear that different groups of employees have contrasting approaches to work, they are bound by the expectation that their commitment is reciprocated by their employer.

As patterns of work change, the perception of employers as trustees to people’s careers and livelihoods may well shift. But, in the current world of work, the bonds of trust in some organisations have been eroded by pay freezes, changes to pension schemes, cuts in recruitment and slashed training budgets, exacerbated by poor communication. Trust has also declined where insight into the personality and values of leaders has been lost, while some employers have made huge efforts to articulate the presence of a shared organisational culture, identity or beliefs. This shared vision cultivates a sense of security and, in turn, encourages employees to be honest and accountable for their actions.

Recognising the obvious business benefits, some organisations have excelled at doing more with less during the downturn to grow a trusted employer brand. In helping their employees develop despite a period of uncertainty, where many individuals viewed their career prospects as stagnant or diminishing, these employers will be rewarded with improved engagement and innovation.

The outcome is that many employers, regarded as the most powerful brands in the past, will have been overtaken by the firms that have managed to excel during the downturn. This will mean that different firms will hold the power to attract and retain top talent in the next decade — with those who continued to focus on investment and employee engagement emerging as clear leaders. Some of the UK supermarkets and technology firms are a great example of where brave people management decisions have paid off to help them secure the next generation of leadership cadre and pick up top-performers at all levels from different industries. Sustaining or increasing graduate intake at competitive or above market salaries, as some FMCG (fast moving

consumer goods) and professional services firms have done, will also pay off — providing the best performers are retained. Some companies are showing their top performers how much they value them in lower cost ways, such as explaining their succession plans or offering smaller ad-hoc awards for specific projects. These winners in the war for talent are proof that a flexible people strategy is both attainable and valuable.

At the end of an undeniably tough year, we can also take comfort in the strides taken in terms of global co-operation to restore public trust in broken systems and practices. But, while the macroeconomic picture looks brighter today than it did a year ago — more so in some countries than in others — the future will always be uncertain. Future-proofing business and people strategies mean taking a robust look at different scenarios for how the future will play out. Taking tough decisions now to mitigate any risks and capitalise on opportunities can help secure a competitive position for the future. The downturn has compounded an already challenging gap of key talent in many markets and, with the increasing focus on accountability that will characterise the new order, shared values and trust will be a growing differentiator.

Clear heroes and villains have revealed themselves in the downturn but, with things changing daily, we all still have everything to play for. Restoring, and ensuring we merit, trust is the first step in staying ahead.

Time to rebuild trust‘‘� ’’

Different firms will hold the power to attract and retain

top talent in the next decade — with those who continued

to focus on investment and employee engagement emerging as clear leaders.

Michael Rendell is global head of the Human Resource Services practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

topic author

A change for the betterHR management Liz Fisher

06

The ongoing transformation of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ own HR function gives a fascinating insight into how the Ulrich management model has developed.

In 1997, a book written by university professor and management consultant David Ulrich transformed the HR profession. Human Resource Champions argued that in order to position itself as a value-added business function, HR needed to act as a strategic partner. Ulrich’s work led many of the world’s largest organisations to transform the structure and operations of their HR function and has become the foundation of many a successful HR function.

PricewaterhouseCoopers was an early adopter of Dave Ulrich’s HR organisation model. In 2001, it set up a transactional shared service centre, business-facing HR teams and expert recruitment, reward, policy and learning and development teams (the strategic thinkers), following closely the Ulrich model. Initially, PwC found that the centralisation of all transactional HR activity delivered a more automated service at a lower cost, with reduced headcount. In recent years, however, it became apparent that the transformation had not worked as efficiently as had been hoped as the headcount grew back.

Sally Mitton, leader of PwC’s HR function, says that while the Ulrich model undoubtedly brought benefits, one of the barriers to complete success was a lack of buy-in from all parts of the business. “I think the problem was that we focused very much on developing the transactional shared service centre but probably didn’t spend enough time explaining to our people how their interaction with the business process would change,” she says. As a result, some business units and teams simply retained their old way of working. “Gradually, the model was undermined to the point that we were becoming expensive for the level of service we were delivering.”

“It’s not an uncommon problem,” says Matilda Venter, director of PwC’s HR Consultancy practice. “As a consultant I’ve seen it happen with many clients. Ulrich himself has admitted that there are weaknesses in his initial model, and that those weaknesses are in the area of managing operations.” The model effectively separates activity into strategic and administrative but, Venter argues, “a lot of work in the field of delivery activity does not fit into either category. A lot of organisations have struggled with that.”

In 2008, PwC carried out a review of its HR function and concluded that headcount and cost had increased but that the service provided was inconsistent. A second HR transformation programme was developed, this time with an approach that was much more aligned with the broader strategic agenda. “We had a new board pushing for greater quality and efficiency across all departments in order to align to its wider strategic agenda,” says Mitton, “but it was a big project, so we decided that we had to do it properly, and that meant calling in PwC’s own specialist HR consultants.”

With top-drawer HR consultants on its own doorstep, perhaps the decision to call in the experts was not so difficult. But, says Venter, too

often organisations assume that HR issues are best sorted out internally: “Facilitating a culture change on this scale internally is very difficult. You need objectivity and a structure around the programme. We were also able to anticipate the problems and barriers. It might have been our own organisation, but the value we brought was the same as for any other client.”

“It was very comforting to hear Matilda say that every organisation faced many of the same problems, but here is how to get through it,” says Mitton. Building on the initial 2001 implementation of the Ulrich model and its move to transactional HR services, the objectives of the second project were to improve the quality of the HR function as a priority, rather than leading with cost reduction. One of the other objectives was to create a leading HR function that was recognised by all. “We began by looking at the operating model and at ways of ensuring the best flow of information through the business,” explains Venter. “Then we looked at the organisational structures that needed to be in place to underpin that.” Gaining central control of all components of the HR model was seen as imperative, allowing a single reporting line to the HR director and encouraging ‘one firm’ standardisation across the business. This reorganisation to a central reporting model was replicated in the other PwC support functions at the same time.

“One of the things we have done was to take all the operational activities and create a group that provides that support to the business-facing HR teams,” says Venter. “That is a move away from the concept of a shared service centre only for transactional rather than operational activity.” So, for example, the delivery of training, previously managed through a larger centre of excellence, has become part of the shared services centre on the basis that the activity is about operational delivery across all departments. And rather than delegate many similar tasks to junior members of many teams, a new, centrally managed team has been created within the HR Services team to provide support for all business-facing teams. On the strategic side, four “centres of expertise”, based around the key priorities outlined in the

A change for the better‘‘� ’’

One of the things we have promised is that it will become clearer what the function does

and what people can expect from their career with us – that

is one of the project deliverables.

HR business strategy (recruitment, engagement and diversity, reward, and learning and development) and each with a small team, were created to concentrate on thought leadership but with no operational responsibilities.

“Effectively what it means is that administration and delivery have been put together and the intention is that there is less danger of duplication of admin,” adds Mitton. “It also means that those people who are responsible for strategy are only responsible for strategy. They know what they are there to do.”

The challenge for Mitton is ensuring that the HR function continues to operate efficiently throughout the change programme and beyond. “The team are still going through the change curve — you can see the ones that are more comfortable with living with the ambiguity that change can bring and those that need more support, which we are providing through workshops and communication,” she says. “One of the things we have promised is that it will become clearer what the function does and what people can expect from their career with us — that is one of the project deliverables.”

PwC learnt from previous experience that the HR team needed to understand thoroughly the reasons for the change programme, and the benefits it would bring. As part of the transformation process business-facing HR teams took a two-day training course which covered the new model, their new roles and how the newly designed function would support the business. “It meant that everyone had a common understanding of how they were expected to work,” says Venter. “It has really helped them come together as a community.” Mitton wholeheartedly agreed: “I’d say the training has really helped towards achieving our aim that everyone feels supported and can work together towards a common goal. It should be clear to everyone now what our strategy is.”

The changes have also had a direct effect on the way the function operates, and its efficiency. “We operate much more as a single function now, and as a result we will be able to have a much greater impact on people management and, ultimately, on business performance.”

‘‘� ’’I’d say the training has

really helped towards achieving our aim that

everyone feels supported.


Are you leaving money on the table?

By maximising tax-efficient benefits in your reward strategy, you can realise savings both for your business and your employees. Offering a wide range of services and expertise our employment solutions specialists are on hand to help. Stay ahead – contact Matthew Hunnybun on 0207 212 6297.

pwc.com/hrs

topic author

The software multinational Misys has had a turbulent few years in the wake of a painful separation from its founder. As its HR director Doreen Tyburski explains, HR was at the centre of its transformation.

HRD interview James Ashton

The tale of a turn around10

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When he stepped down as chairman of Misys recently, Sir Dominic Cadbury told shareholders who had gathered to bid him farewell at the company’s annual meeting that he had enjoyed the last two and half years immensely.

The fact that the City veteran had been chairman of the banking and healthcare software company for a full five years only served to remind investors how tough the first half of his tenure had been. Going back to 1998, long before Cadbury arrived, Misys blazed a trail by becoming the first technology company to break into the FTSE 100. But in more recent years it had been far from a stock market darling.

The story of Misys shows that separating a firm from its founder tends never to happen without growing pains for the business and its staff. Breaking its links with Kevin Lomax, who set up the company in 1979, proved to be a messy business. The former boss had a fractious relationship with shareholders and had left after failing to put together a management buyout. As he prepared for his own exit, Cadbury paid tribute to Mike Lawrie, the chief executive he recruited at a meeting in a budget hotel close to John F Kennedy in New York in early 2007.

The new team that Lawrie, an IBM veteran, had installed to lead a turnaround were also praised, including Doreen Tyburski, executive vice president and head of human resources, who arrived in July 2007. “I’ve done a few other turnarounds,” said Tyburski. “What was clear to me was that this was a significant challenge and that it was very exciting.”

Misys was a business of scale, run by a dominant leader. Staff had become dispirited and it was underperforming its rivals. On the plus side, it had developed useful niches that could be built on. The company provides software systems to the banking, treasury and healthcare industries. That could be programmes that power a bank teller’s screen or help physicians in America to digitise patient records. Its brands include Almonde, Bankmaster, Eagleye and Risk Vision. Recently, it launched a carbon trading solution, heralding its entry into a new market.

Misys is a global organisation, with 6000 staff serving 1200 banking customers and more than 150,000 physicians and 700 hospitals. It sounded straightforward to run, but it wasn’t. On arriving, Tyburski found a company that was lacking a common purpose. “As I remind my HR staff often, we were a conglomerate of 34 companies,” she said. “Even though they wouldn’t have described themselves as that, it was more or less set up as a holding company, not an operating company.”

At a group level, it was close to having a blank sheet of paper to work with. “To say that there wasn’t really any HR is not exactly the truth. When I came

in it was still very disparate. We didn’t have one common platform. The companies that were part of the portfolio all did smatterings of things their own way.”

Tyburski’s first task was to get to grips with the culture of Misys. “We had a lot of conversations with a lot of employees to figure out where they were, where the pain points were. I had to try and identify what the culture was. It was very fragmented.”

The plan was to introduce commonality across the board, in tandem with a rationalisation. For example, Misys used to have 34 development sites that were slimmed down to just six. Something similar happened in other departments, such as finance and HR: “We moved to a much more functional HR organisation: business partners down one axis and centres of excellence across the top. That is how we started to introduce a common practice, common platform and common policy — by having centres of excellence and HR business partners in each one of the larger regions or assigned to a business line or function.”

Getting everyone on board was a challenge when they were so far flung and involved in everything from product development to sales and support. Misys has 3000 staff in the US, mainly in Raleigh, North Carolina, Chicago, Vermont and New York, with sales people everywhere in between. There are another 3000 in 79 other countries around the world, with notable centres in London, Bangalore in India and Manila in the Philippines. Some small offices in Asia have between one and five employees.

Tyburski points to how she handles inductions and remuneration as two examples of how staff should feel part of a bigger group now, wherever they are. Every new recruit goes through the same online induction process

The tale of a turn around11

‘‘� ’’We had a lot of conversations

with a lot of employees to figure out where they were, where the

pain points were. I had to try and identify what the culture was. It was very fragmented.

to learn about the business. The last salary review, in August, was carried out in exactly the same way for all staff. “They know that Mike’s scorecard is cascaded down to the executive vice presidents and then within their own divisions. There is a central driving force about making this company successful.”

Putting in common practices might have been disrupted last year when Misys merged its healthcare arm with Allscripts, a US firm. The $1 billion deal gave Misys majority control of Allscripts, folding another 1700 staff into its healthcare business, but it kept a separate US stock market listing. “Misys was the larger organisation and they were used to the changes that we had been making along the lines of One Misys,” said Tyburski. “We had a big group of employees already going down that road so we just had to incorporate the Allscripts group into that. They had some very definite visions for themselves in the healthcare arena. We tried to incorporate those and refined our values.”

The deal was timely; just before Barack Obama took office as the new US president with a pledge to increase healthcare spending. As a result, Tyburski is staffing up, with a target of adding several hundred new US staff, in sales, services and support.

The same is not true for the banking side of the business, which has been hit by the financial crisis and a global spending freeze. Looking on the bright side, it means that staff attrition has been less of a problem. “We have been relatively watching our costs, as most companies have, so we are not necessarily looking at a high volume of recruiting. From that standpoint, we are in good shape.”

The same applies to the graduate scheme. In a recession year, the only place where Misys continued to take on graduates was Bangalore, where it took on 40. The year before it had been 60 globally. Typically they undergo a six-week training programme that culminates in recruits working on an assigned

Doreen Tyburski

Doreen Tyburski has over 25 years experience in the financial services industry. She was chief executive of Renaissance Inc, a charitable remainder trust based in Indianapolis. She has also held roles with Somerset Hills Bank, Business Perspectives and Continental Insurance (now CNA), mostly in HR, but sometimes to prepare a bank for sale.

• Other experienceShe serves as a board member for the Deltennium Group, the leadership training group. She is also an advisory board member of Personal Mail International.

• SpecialismsOrganisational development, culture, aligning the people to the needs of the business and talent development.

• My schedule“Typically, I go to Manila and India and some of the smaller Asian sites once if not twice a year and then London usually every other week.” Tyburski lives in New Jersey but is based in the New York office and sits on Misys’ 12-strong executive committee with a team of 80 beneath her.

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project for a panel of senior leaders. “That is nerve racking in itself. But it is all done with some product training and has been really very well received.”

Tyburski’s team was recently asked to quickly ramp up a treasury capital team of 65 in Beijing, including training them in soft skills. “Our challenges are typically to make sure that in places like Manila and Bangalore we have the right people coming on board. And in some of our products we have a tight-knit group of intellectual capital. That is something we watch really closely from a competitive standpoint. We try to always build new bench strength under those products that have limited intellectual capital.”

She took the decision to outsource recruiting in some of Misys’ larger locations and continues to examine whether it is something they should be doing everywhere. “It works very well in the UK but it doesn’t always work in every location. I look at the region to see, number one, if the leadership can handle it from an HR perspective — if they are good leaders and can monitor because you have to constantly in an outsourcing situation.”

In the UK, two people from Resource Solutions sit among her own HR staff. The experience has been a positive one. “Sometimes I forget that they don’t belong to me. They have taken learning the business very seriously, they have gotten involved and the ratings are unbelievably high. They have saved us a lot of money on outside agencies.”

Even in the face of tough conditions for the banking industry, the overall effect of Lawrie and his team has been to drive margins higher. Last year, underlying operating profit rose 14% to £135m, on sales 3% higher at £748m. Today, Misys has a market value in excess of £1 billion. Tyburski paid tribute to Lawrie for putting HR high up his priority list. “Mike uses HR the right way. I am very much a strategic partner to him as we look at growth in other areas such as through mergers or acquisitions.”

Tyburski is well-advanced with the second phase of her turnaround plan. She has just set up a programme, called Essential Management Skills (EMS), for 600 of Misys’ mid-level managers. As part of that process, she is looking to identify 100 leaders that will go onto another programme, Leadership Excellence, which begins in January. “You can see the progression now,” she said. “In a turnaround, you are not really focusing for a couple of years on training. Now that we have these programmes, we can actually do some very good work combined with the talent process.”

EMS courses cover issues such as managing within law, working with the finance department, managing and growing your talent, maximising team performance, maximising individual performance and effective communications. “For some of those more tenured managers it may just be

a refresher but we have a lot of new managers as well and we want to give them the Misys experience in how to do things.” Leadership Excellence will be run by an outside contractor and include a staff from across divisions and geographies. They will be formed into teams and given a business issue to tackle together for two days, a challenge that has been formulated with input from the board of directors. Then they are given between 30 and 60 days to work on the task, before presenting a solution. “Hopefully the solution they come up with we will embed into the business.”

It is no irony that the HR director of a software company thinks that it is not the people, but the IT systems that often present the greatest challenge to her job. “The financial systems are usually the robust systems. The HR system is usually just thrown in for good luck when you are purchasing financial systems in a large company.” Frustrated in one job, Tyburski built her own IT system. “That was good until we got a little larger and then we had to have arms and legs built around it. It is always complex — I haven’t found the perfect system yet.”

Overall, Tyburski says that her recipe for success is built on good relationships: “I think there has got to be a buy-in with any relationship and partnership between the chief executive and head of HR. If that exists and they know how to work well with one another and get the best out of the HR staff, then I see that working very well.”

13

‘‘� ’’Our challenges are typically to make sure that in places

like Manila and Bangalore we have the right people coming on board. And in some of our

products we have a tight-knit group of intellectual

capital. That is something we watch really closely from

a competitive standpoint.

topic author

The way we work is changing, thanks to the economic environment and the entry of the technologically-savvy Generation Y into the workforce. But what are the long-term implications for recruitment?

Recruitment Sally O’Reilly

Is this the end of the headhunter?14

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Will the final months of 2009 see a real recovery in the jobs market? So far, the jury is out. And survey data seems to indicate that the answer depends very much on where staff are located. While prospects are looking increasingly positive for the emerging economies, the US and Europe are still in the doldrums.

According to the quarterly Employment Outlook Survey from recruitment company Manpower, employers in half the countries surveyed — 17 out of 35 — expect some positive hiring activity in the quarter ahead. In contrast, those in 15 countries report negative hiring expectations and 10 reported their weakest hiring plans since the survey was established in 1962. Employers in India and Brazil are leading the way as far as recruitment confidence is concerned, with Australia, China, Singapore and Canada also showing signs of recovery.

So where does this leave senior HR staff? The 2009 Recruitment, Retention and Turnover survey, carried out by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), found that half the 755 organisations who responded said the recession has had a negative effect on their resourcing budget.

“Organisations need to think more creatively about how to recruit for the skills they need,” says Dr Jill Miller, research officer, HR Practice Development at the CIPD. “A very reassuring finding from our survey is that organisations are concentrating more on developing and retaining talent, rather than recruiting from outside.”

And when they do recruit, organisations should not assume that there are so many people out there looking for a job that they will automatically see high quality candidates. “More than 50% of our survey respondents said that even with fewer roles to fill, they had seen an increase in unsuitable candidates,” says Miller.

The majority of firms are addressing this, though there is still more work to be done. “56% of employers say they are taking account of a broader range of qualities, instead of just looking at qualifications, when they want to fill a role,” says Miller.

This is borne out by the experience of the London Business School. “The biggest change we’ve seen is an emphasis on very specific skills,” says Diane Morgan, director of career services at the school. “Companies are willing to go without rather than fill a role with someone who doesn’t meet their exact requirements. In fact, some employers are taking this to the extreme, and have raised their expectations so much that they are looking for the ‘perfect candidate’.

“It is still difficult to find someone that has most, not all, of the skills an

employer needs as well as the right fit for the corporation. We’ve seen a slight shift in the number one trait desired from ‘general communication skills’ to ‘positive energy’.”

Employers are also looking for total commitment from applicants. “The number one reason we’ve been told candidates are not getting jobs is because they didn’t display enough passion for the role, company and/or industry. Companies need to see that desire to work for them or else they are prepared to wait and find the candidate that can demonstrate the energy they think their business needs to move it forward in a recession.”

Professor Paul Sparrow, director, Centre for Performance-led HR at Lancaster University Management School, believes that employers are also being more tactical this time around. “Unlike previous recessions, in this one we see organisations doing three things in parallel: restructuring, recruiting and making redundant. The recruitment market is therefore becoming more tactical.

“But to be tactical, you have to have control. We have seen changes that were made in the ‘good times’ — with the outsourcing of various stages of the selection process — that might make it more difficult for some of these organisations to manage these changes as well as they might.”

15

Is this the end of the headhunter?‘‘� ’’

The biggest change we’ve seen is an emphasis on very specific

skills. Companies are willing to go without rather than fill a

role with someone who doesn’t meet their exact requirements.

In fact, some employers are taking this to the extreme, and have raised their expectations so much that they are looking

for the ‘perfect candidate’.

The real question, says Sparrow, is whether this will help or hinder organisations when it comes to recruitment. He fears that the trend to outsource recruitment may have made HR less able to assert control over hiring decisions.

And while social media such as Facebook can be useful, they are not a panacea, stresses Sparrow: “Social networking sites can be useful for some aspects of recruitment, such as helping to manage employer brand and corporate reputation, or helping provide potential candidates with a more realistic job preview.

“However, the self-promotion on these sites is often hard to reality-test, and the sheer volume of networks and people promoting their profiles often makes their use as a source for candidates not very efficient. There is still no substitute for the ability to assess and draw upon direct experience of people’s previous performance.”

Adam Sorensen, global practice leader at total reward consultancy WorldatWork, a not-for-profit association based in Washington DC and Scottsdale, Arizona, agrees that social networking has yet to prove its worth. “The blurring of personal and professional that often happens in the social networking context can be a challenge to job seekers and prospective employers alike,” he says.

“To what extent should the personal information posted on a job seekers’ Facebook profile influence an organisation’s hiring decision? How should a company position itself in a less formal situation — such as MySpace or Second Life — without damaging its brand or impacting other types of public interaction?”

Simon Mitchell, director of global talent management consultancy DDI would like to see more clarity from senior HR managers about the

precise nature of the recruitment challenge for their organisation.“At the start of the recruitment

process, what they need to do is sit down and say — what does this person need

to do to be successful in this role? Let’s try and find a match for this. People don’t do it. They tend to say — here is

the role, let’s look at some CVs.”

The key to success is to make sure that HR has ownership of recruitment. Without that, any innovation will ultimately be of little value. And this extends to the use of head hunters.

“Using a head hunter routinely to fill senior posts is a sign that your succession management policy is failing,” says Mitchell. “Again, looking at

issues of culture and motivation; you might not get the fit that you need, and the person may only stay in post for a short while. The nuances and networks of an organisation can take time to understand. It may take a couple of years.

“One US company we work with hired a headhunter to fill one post, and then found that its own senior executives had been headhunted for roles outside the organisation! They commented that ‘it was like letting the fox into the hen-run’. You can grow your own talent, and the best companies are doing this with employees when they are still at quite a junior level.”

This is certainly a complex issue for companies with employees all over the globe, because local customs and conditions do make all the difference, he concedes. “In the Far East, for example, it’s very difficult indeed to fill senior posts, and this tends to be done with word of mouth and networking. But in the US and Europe, there is more emphasis on using technology. And we are also seeing a trend for more online screening processes, and using IT for CV screening.”

So how is this picture developing — and what new trends are likely to emerge? WorldatWork’s Sorensen says there is no shortage of new developments: “Innovative practices include targeting non-traditional workers (such as those looking for part-time, freelance or contract work), contacting former employees or those who have retired or been laid off by the organisation, participating in industry groups or volunteer organisations and hosting virtual hiring events in Second Life or other online venues.”

Other new approaches include providing referral bonuses to employees to recommend friends and colleagues; offering education assistance to

individuals who are looking for a career change but may lack a specific skill set; and sourcing candidates from different locations with the intention of allowing them to telework and work remotely.

As for the future, recession or no recession, organisations will continue to look for low-cost methods of sourcing and recruiting the best talent. Technology solutions will continue to play a leading role, and social networking sites and technology are likely to continue to gain in popularity and sophistication.

But will we see HR really taking control? Sorensen sees this as a collaboration, rather than a function which is run by any one group. “Organisations will continue to look for low-cost methods of sourcing and recruiting the best talent,” he says. “Technology solutions will continue to play a leading role, and social networking sites and technology are likely to gain in popularity and sophistication.

“And within organisations, recruiting is likely to continue as a function that is co-owned by various functions, including HR and line management. Finally, the shift toward a more global workforce and the ability to have a geographically dispersed workforce will require organisations to think on a much larger scale about how and where they source and attract talent.

“There will always be incremental changes in processes and approaches across organisations, but the fundamental assumptions about ownership of recruitment decisions seem to be fairly stable — in spite of a rapidly changing environment. HR will almost always have some role to play in the recruitment process, but it is unlikely to own the entire process in most large organisations.”

‘‘� ’’One US company we work

with hired a headhunter to fill one post, and then found that its own senior executives had

been headhunted for roles outside the organisation! They

commented that ‘it was like letting the fox into the hen-run’..

With an increasingly global workforce and the educational system under constant review and development, HR professionals are increasingly being asked to assess candidates with qualifications they have never before encountered.

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It’s changed since my dayEducation Clare Gascoigne

topic author

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What qualifications do you look for in a new employee? Formal, nationally accepted examinations like A levels or the International Baccalaureate? Maybe you specify a degree or are happy to accept employees on to an apprenticeship? But, given the sheer quantity of qualifications available — and the quantity of new vocational qualifications that are being introduced by many governments — are you sure you really understand the many different bits of paper that potential staff bring into your office?

The past 10 to 15 years has seen a huge expansion in the qualification options for young people, an expansion that shows no signs of stopping. And with labour mobility on the increase, the average HR professional has a good chance of being presented with a candidate with a French BEP (a vocational studies degree) or a German Hochschulreife (the equivalent of A levels in the UK).

Fortunately, the European Union (EU) saw the comparison problem coming, and has put in place the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) to help compare and contrast different country’s education systems. It was adopted by the EU in April 2008, and will be implemented throughout by 2012. The EQF has eight levels, and by 2012 all new qualifications will carry a reference to the appropriate level.

The increasing mix of vocational qualifications thrown in by various governments, however, has only added to the confusion. There is a European credit system for vocational education, which describes qualifications in terms of “units of learning outcomes”. Individuals can equip themselves for employment outside their home country via the Europass system: a suite of five documents that help employers in different countries understand qualifications. These might include a CV, a ‘language passport’, a special supplement that adds information to make a qualification, whether vocational or not, more understandable, and a record of any training undertaken in another country.

Even so, many experts argue that some of the newer qualifications developed by various governments are seen, often unfairly, as inferior by employers. “There is definitely a perception issue, a concern that there is a lot out there that people don’t understand,” says Dr John McGurk, adviser on learning and talent development at the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD). “Often people see the newer qualifications not as qualifications at all but as government initiatives; it takes a long time for them to be seen as comparable with, say, A levels in the UK, which have been around for a long time and have credibility.”

Awareness of the delivery of newer qualifications can be pitifully low. A recent CIPD survey found that, although most employers agreed that there were

clear business benefits in employing apprentices, only 7% knew “a great deal or a fair amount” about the setting up of the National Apprenticeship Service, which supports and funds apprenticeships in the UK.

“There are stereotypes attached to qualifications,” says Tom Mursell, a recent school leaver whose own experience led him to set up the website notgoingtouni.co.uk, offering advice to young people on their options. “When I was at school, the nickname for NVQs [National Vocational Qualifications, introduced in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 1986] was ‘Not Very Quick’. Dispelling the myths about the non-academic route will not happen overnight.”

The pace of change is certainly not helping. In the UK alone, last year diplomas for 14 to 19-year-olds were added to the list of qualification possibilities — a mix of classroom and job experience, basic training and vocational training that has even British people mystified. “UK training and skills policy is an area that’s subject to continual experimentation,” says Michael Davies, director of strategy and performance at the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), an independent government adviser on skills and employability. “One of the challenges is that, although we all go through broadly the same system up to age 16, we don’t have a common way of describing what happens after that if you don’t go down the ‘academic’ route of A levels and degree. Further education does not have its own ‘signature’ qualification, something everyone would really identify.”

The sheer quantity of potential qualifications is enough to give anyone a headache. Take the term “electrician”, a job description that most of us feel

19

It’s changed since my day‘‘� ’’

Businesses are employing for attitude not aptitude. That’s not to say that qualifications

aren’t important; they are a signal that people are

trainable. But qualifications are not as important as the skills to do the job..

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we understand. According to Davies: “Type ‘electrician’ into the UK’s national database of qualifications and you’ll get a list of 84 accredited qualifications. These qualifications are offered by 11 different awarding bodies, in turn drawing from 292 different occupational standards under the heading of ‘electrical trades’. These standards have been developed by 13 different standard setting bodies or Sector Skills Councils. If we then look to funding, inspection and auditing, [there are] an estimated further 30 organisations involved here. In total this means potentially over 50 different bodies to design, fund, assure and develop the competent changing of a light bulb.”

It adds up to a nightmare for HR professionals, many of whom went through a very different educational system many years ago. That the UK government understands the problem is shown by the fact that it is undertaking a major revamp of the vocational qualifications system, to make it simpler to understand and use. But according to Joy Mercer, quality manager at the Association of Colleges, an organisation that represents further education colleges, “It is the duty of HR to understand better the qualifications that are available.”

Mercer believes employers will miss out on good quality staff by not getting to grips with the acronyms. “Vocational qualifications are much more geared to employers’ needs. HR needs to be involved, in order to drive the direction of education.”

She is not alone in this view. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has long argued the case for a strong link between education and the workplace, and its most recent Employment Trends survey found that improving education standards remains at the top of firms’ list of concerns: half (51%) of employers are dissatisfied with school leavers’ basic skills, and a fifth (23%) with graduates’ functional abilities. More than half (51%) of employers want

qualifications to be reformed to better deliver the skills that business needs. This was confirmed recently by Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco, the UK’s largest employer, who complained that educational standards were “woefully low” and that employers were being left to “pick up the pieces”.

“It is really important that an employer can see whether someone has literacy and numeracy skills,” says Fiona Murray, a senior policy adviser at the CBI. “There are some qualifications that employers value very, very highly, such as GCSEs; they know and understand these. With qualifications such as diplomas, it’s very early days; a lot will depend on how successfully the diploma develops skills that employers value.”

So what are those skills? The CBI, in a Department for Education and Skills’ sponsored report, Time well spent, identified seven core competencies (self-management, team working, business and customer awareness, problem solving, communication and literacy, application of numeracy and application of information technology) but prefaced that by saying that “a positive attitude is the key foundation of employability”. McGurk agrees. “Businesses are employing for attitude not aptitude,” he says. “That’s not to say that qualifications aren’t important; they are a signal that people are trainable. But qualifications are not as important as the skills to do the job.”

The question for many is whose responsibility it is to develop employability skills: government, education or business? The CBI’s members (98% of whom have offered training in the last 12 months) believe it is a function of government — 85% of employers believe that the government’s priority must be to ensure young people leave school or college literate and numerate.

But in compiling a report on employability published in February, the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) “heard complaints [from universities, colleges, schools and employment training providers] along the lines of ‘our institution is different — we can’t do that — it’s not our role — somebody should make this happen — it’s not as simple as that’. Many cited the apparent unwillingness of employers to co-operate as a stumbling block”. Yet many within education are working hard at tying in classroom and workplace. Liverpool John Moores University has, after discussion with employers, come up with a “world of work” programme, to teach students a set of skills that includes business ethics, negotiation and an understanding of customer needs.

On one point everyone is agreed: in the increasingly competitive workplace, qualifications are critical to the success of individuals and business. Those HR professionals who understand which qualifications best provide for their business needs will be going a long way towards ensuring the success of that business.

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‘‘� ’’

It is really important that an employer can see whether someone has literacy and

numeracy skills. There are some qualifications that employers value very, very highly, such as GCSEs.

topic author

HR professionals sometime complain that they find the latest intake of Generation Y difficult to understand and deal with. But what do these youngsters think of work, and of HR? Brace yourselves…

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Meet the young pretendersThe future of work Elizabeth Corning

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The new generation of young people entering the workforce might as well be an alien species for all they have in common with previous generations. Not only are their educational and childhood experiences markedly different from those who have come before, but they join a working environment that is throwing up particular challenges; the recession being just one.

With fewer casual jobs around and companies cutting back on work experience, many youngsters have missed out on what is often seen as a crucial introduction to the workplace. They have had no chance to learn about workplace relationships that will help them advance in their careers, or opportunity to deal with the office environment. The swathe of school-leavers and graduates currently coming into the jobs market are also more technologically savvy than any generation before them and this has changed the way they interact (both professionally and socially) — something that can be a culture shock for anyone working with them for the first time. One HR director recalls a time when the face of a shiny new intern was pressed against her office window waiting patiently for her to finish a phone call and, when she asked what they wanted, was questioned by the intern as to why an email that had been sent half an hour earlier hadn’t been answered.

Add to this the lack of jobs and low morale caused by the current economic climate and one can see that young employees find themselves in a very different position from many of their predecessors. So what do they think about this state of affairs? How do they view their employers and HR in particular? And can understanding the different expectations of today’s young workers help build the important foundations of their future success in the workplace?

Academic and business strategist Richard Scase believes that the ‘iPod Generation’, as he labels them, has very different expectations, not least because they start from a point of fully expecting to enjoy their work — by which he means they expect to find it rewarding — and therefore have a totally different mindset to previous generations.

Dr Rob Yeung, corporate psychologist at leadership consultancy Talentspace and author of Successful Interviewing and Recruitment believes that the younger generation have a much more rounded view of what they want from a career. So while Generation X may have been more narrowly focused on career success in terms of salary progression, advancement up the hierarchy, and job stability, he thinks that Generation Y see their careers as only part of their overall lives.

“One thing that hasn’t changed is that young people always expect to be given much more responsibility than they end up with,” Yeung says. “They may have done a three or four year degree and maybe done a postgraduate

course or additional training to become a lawyer or whatever, but they don’t realise that they are at the bottom of the food chain. They don’t have enough perspective and often get fed up with the fact they may end up doing most of the photocopying and grunt work.”

Yeung points out that one worrying shift is that younger people increasingly feel an even greater sense of entitlement than their counterparts from perhaps 10 years ago: “People entering the workforce now are often the products of an upbringing in which their every need was catered for,” he explains. “Their parents tried to give them the best in life and often there hasn’t been the same degree of struggle in their early years that previous generations had to deal with. It’s too early to say whether this is a major trend or just an anecdotal observation, but it’s something that I would keep an eye on.”

Alexander Bolton, a geography graduate who works in the recruitment industry, is a good example of someone whose upbringing has impacted his workplace ethos. “We were all very competitive at school,” he says. “This was drummed into us through sport and through the continual testing and grading. So it doesn’t matter if its a game of Pro Evo, an English exam, or beating your competitors in the work place — I want to win and I will do anything I can to make sure I do. And by doing this, not only will I secure myself better pay from work and be noticed by my bosses, I’ll also have bragging rights with my mates.”

23

Meet the young pretenders‘‘� ’’

Where previously, five or ten years ago, I would have felt like

an in-demand resource, I now feel the opposite; my company would have little trouble finding

an enthusiastic replacement for me, but I would find it a lot harder to find an enthusiastic

employer to replace them.

Ruth Wilkins, an economics and marketing graduate who writes internal communications for a large telecoms company, explains how her expectations have changed because of the current climate. “Where previously, five or ten years ago, I would have felt like an in-demand resource, I now feel the opposite; my company would have little trouble finding an enthusiastic replacement for me, but I would find it a lot harder to find an enthusiastic employer to replace them.”

For that reason, she says, her timelines have been stretched; promotions and development are a lot harder to come by. “A pay freeze across the whole company scuppered any plans I had to discuss a pay rise that I felt was earned after I took on the work of two colleagues who had left and had not been replaced.”

Wilkins’ views are very much coloured by the recession. A recent report, A Lifeboat for the Lost Generation, by the Liberal Democrats flagged up the dangers to young people of the current economic situation. “Young people are being hit the hardest by the shrinking jobs market; graduates and school leavers can’t find jobs and young people are generally the first to be made redundant. We cannot afford to turn our backs on a generation . . . we must maintain and improve the skills of young people so that they do not become the lost generation of this recession,” it warned.

Yeung agrees that work experience can provide invaluable insight and understanding for young people. “I am often frustrated that universities and careers services at colleges do not place far greater emphasis on work experience,” he says. “No employer wants to hire a green school leaver or graduate who only knows how to write essays or whose only experience of having worked on a team was in running some student committee. Even a couple of weeks of unpaid work experience in the right kind of environment can help someone to improve vastly their chances of getting the right job,” he says.

Bolton may not agree that his work experience has helped him deal with office politics: “I think I learnt more about office politics by watching The Office and speaking to my parents than I did by actually working during the holidays,” but he does admit that those jobs did help him relate to an eclectic variety of cross generational work colleagues in an effective manner.

The challenge for HR is to manage this intriguing workforce with, arguably, unrealistic expectations, successfully. “I suppose one of the plus points of being in a recession is that it’s a buyer’s market,” warns Yeung. “Not many employers are hiring so HR departments can be much more picky about the people they take on.”

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There is significant mistrust to be dealt with though. “I don’t trust employers to make decisions for the benefit of their employees,” says Wilkins, “but I don’t really blame them for that either. It’s unfortunate though that our early experiences of the job market have made us very cautious about seeking opportunities outside of our current places of work. I imagine it will be particularly difficult for employers to recruit people into their business at my level of experience — we’re terrified of leaving fairly secure jobs for something that seems high risk.

“HR seems just as unlucky as the rest of us,” she adds. “They have no real power, but are given the tough task of trying to keep everyone else reasonably happy and compliant with the various government and company regulations. They’re sticklers for doing things by the book (as they should be), but I do wonder if it’s at the expense of a little compassion in certain cases. To me they don’t quite feel like colleagues, but they’re certainly not the employers; they’re something else in between.”

“In my experience companies that have a well run and efficient HR team are often very well run in general. However whether a company does well because of their HR team or in spite of their HR team is still to me undecided,” adds Bolton.

And while there is perhaps understandable scepticism from some, HR departments face a somewhat less kind appraisal from other quarters. One 22-year-old graduate with a large law firm admits: “I think some people see HR as a good place to work, as no-one really seems to know what they do and as such think it could be bit of a cushy, nice 9-to-5 option. They also seem to be paid relatively well — particularly at the larger firms. I think many people think that you can get into HR, not be too progressive and coast through life. HR are not fee-earning parts of any company and as such I think some people think it would be quite a relaxed environment to work.”

It’s a damning summation but even if it’s way off the mark, Scase for one does not believe that companies or HR departments are up to speed on the

revised requirements of attracting and retaining the (obviously increasingly judgmental) iPod generation. He argues that in order to get the best out of Generation Y, companies will have to develop new methodologies for recruitment which assess the extent to which, for example, candidates are comfortable working in teams, and address the culture clash between management that depends on a command and control model and young employees who expect freedom and thrive on self-management. “Many companies will have to abandon their traditional HR practices,” he warns, or suffer the consequences. “Because if young people walk out of the door of a company, they take the intellectual talent with them.”

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‘‘� ’’

To me HR don’t quite feel like colleagues, but they’re certainly

not the employers; they’re something else in between.

topic author

26

The workforce in the 21st century is internationally mobile as never before. But as a new report shows, dealing with the expectations of Generation Y presents some serious challenges for HR.

International mobility Liz Loxton

On the move

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Economic crisis, the ongoing war for talent, demographic pressures and a continued focus on emerging markets — the tendency on the part of organisations to move their top employees around the globe will accelerate and today’s employees are set to be on the move as never before.

A new report in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ “Managing tomorrow’s people” series explores the array of socio-economic factors behind the upsurge. In Talent mobility 2020: Preparing for the next generation of international assignments, PwC consultants argue that international mobility is becoming more commonplace and diverse. An ageing workforce and falling numbers of younger employees in Europe and the US are causing multinationals to review mobility strategies and source talent from far and wide.

While the current crunch in financial services has caused some organisations to operate their international mobility programmes on a more modest scale, Alan Johnson, director in PwC’s Human Resource Services UK practice says that particular trend will soon reverse. “In the ex-pat programmes that we manage for clients, we have seen a fall in international assignments of around 15% to 20%, as companies come under pressure to cut costs. Once we get over those current cost constraints, we expect to see a sharp increase,” he says.

Yesterday’s model, however, will remain as only a part of the picture, he says. “The traditional assignment, with largely managerial, older employees moving in order to import skills and often the culture of the head office to overseas locations will become less predominant,” he says. Tomorrow’s assignments will be shorter and less costly for organisations, he adds.

The report argues that international assignments will increasingly be filled by millennials or Generation Y — individuals born after 1980 — whom the authors refer to as “the most important generation to fuel business growth and stability by 2020”. These individuals show a hunger for experience, desire to travel and a familiarity with technology and with networking internationally. “Millennials will increasingly view the organisation and the world without boundaries,” the report says. “They will happily begin their careers outside their home countries if the employment prospects are greater abroad. A significant majority of the young workers we surveyed — 80% — want to work abroad, with 70% expecting to use non-native languages in their careers and 94% stating they believe they will work across geographic borders more than their parents did. The typical millennial employee might also expect one to three secondments over time.”

Not only that, but destinations for the international assignee are evolving. As the report sets out, between 1970 and 1990, multinationals in Europe and the US led the way on global mobility — typically sending individuals from the US

into Europe and vice versa. Assignments generally lasted for periods ranging from two to five years.

From 1990 to 2010, we have seen demand for globally-mobile talent increase as companies have sought to sell products and services in emerging markets and also exploit those territories — Asia Pacific in particular — as low-cost centres for manufacturing. And looking forward to 2020, global mobility becomes the norm, with individuals moving east to west and west to east with increasing ease. International regulatory frameworks, the report’s authors argue, will become more closely aligned and information technology will help HR departments track and administer their mobile workforces.

So what will tomorrow’s workforces look like? Johnson says that as well as company-sponsored moves we are likely to see more individuals from China and India moving of their own volition as skills and experience from these powerhouse economies come under increased demand. We will see even more diversity in ethnicity and gender in locations across the world, and technology will play an important role with virtual teams managed by millennials. He also sees much more willingness to move to places not traditionally covered by ex-pat programmes, such as Africa and Eastern Europe, as well as a continued focus on Asia, especially China, Indonesia and

27

‘‘� ’’Generation Y see assignments as their next opportunity. They value the idea of relocating as

development experience, so they do not necessarily expect

parity on things like cost of living. We’re suggesting that if

companies are not providing as generous a package as

previously, that is not necessarily a disincentive for the employee.

Vietnam. “Potentially the biggest growth is likely to come from developing economies,” he says.

While there are signs of the global economy beginning to emerge from the downturn, cost pressures are unlikely to ease just yet, and multinationals will continue to seek out lower-cost models wherever possible. “This is a different world now: offshoring and outsourcing have had an impact,” says Johnson. “Also at an economic level, very well-funded executive remuneration and pension and benefit packages are under pressure. So salaries will start to harmonise in the Western world to start with. That means mobility will become even easier.”

With their international outlook, millennials are a good fit for today’s organisations, he argues. “We expect more short-term assignments that cost the organisation less. Traditional international assignment models have used a balance sheet approach, which protects disposable income and builds in benefits to compensate assignees on matters like housing and schooling. So [these packages] have been high cost and generously funded — sometimes three or four times salary.” With millennials prizing experience and development, and prepared to move more than once, that model is as outmoded as it is costly. “They see assignments as their next opportunity. They value the idea of relocating as development experience, so they do not necessarily expect parity on things like cost of living. We’re suggesting that if companies are not providing as generous a package as previously, that is not necessarily a disincentive for the employee.”

International assignments are unlikely to provide answers to business leaders’ current talent woes without the right strategic approach and without strong managerial input both from HR and from line managers, however. In fact, as international programmes become more complex and diverse the need for sound talent management becomes even greater. “The challenge for the organisation will be providing the right career-focused opportunity to the individual while balancing the economic realities with business opportunity. Organisations are less willing to spend at the kind of levels they have in the past, but they still want individuals to have the opportunity because that is important to the culture of the organisation and to the individual,” says Johnson.

Organisations will also need to become adept at selecting assignees who will deliver value. “For instance a 12-month assignment might require much more management,” says Johnson. “The individual will need to understand what is required of them, whether they are expected to evolve into a particular role and then teach that role or function to a local hire before moving on at the end of their assignment.”

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While millennials, broadly speaking, may view international opportunities as a rite of passage, there are dangers to assuming it as the right course of action in all circumstances. Chris Roebuck, consultant and former global head of talent at UBS, argues that the fit between business need and individual circumstances must be a good one. “We have to get out of this mindset of global moves being the best solution for all. The idea that everyone needs a new role or a change in location every two years is erroneous. Those organisations that fall into that trap really are not looking at how they are tailoring opportunities to individuals to get the best performance. Organisations need to ask themselves about the objectives they are trying to achieve. And if their end is to develop a particular person, they then need to ask whether that could be achieved by moving them to another function in another part of the business, but across the road rather than on the other side of the world.”

When managing the careers and expectations of the very top performers, HR directors and senior managers will need to bear in mind that these individuals will be in demand. “Businesses will come under pressure to impart to millennials the reward structures they desire,” argue the report’s authors. “It is not outlandish to suggest that, rather like the professional sports arena, highly-prized millennials will have their own agents. Their remuneration packages and employment terms will be subject to frequent negotiation.”

In this kind of scenario, employment loyalty may be in short supply, says Johnson. “Millennials won’t necessarily have that same level of loyalty that we have seen in the past. People will be prepared to move company more

frequently, going wherever they perceive the best opportunites to be, including internationally.” That coincides with the now quite different picture that is emerging in long-term employee benefits, argues Johnson. “Many defined benefit pension schemes are now closed to new members. These often generously-funded schemes lent themselves to employees participating over a great length of time, encouraging loyalty to the company and, in some circumstances, acting as a barrier to international mobility. The shift to defined contribution schemes means there is more onus on the individual to save over the long term, but the nature of these schemes makes them more flexible and transferable. That takes away another loyalty barrier and we’ll see millennials being more mobile and focusing on the next opportunity rather than the longer term.”

So how can organisations engage with a more flexible, but potentially less loyal, workforce? Alan Johnson says that the focus on international assignments as part of the development programme for senior individuals will be swapped for closer attention to the aims of the organisation. “In the past, organisations have looked at international assignments as part of individuals’ development programme. In the future, international experience will still tend to get you further up the ladder. On the other hand, there will need to be better management of these assignments so that assignees get up to speed quickly in their new location, whether technically or culturally. Organisations will also need to make sure they leverage the experience in the next assignment. There has been an element of ‘out of sight out of mind’ in the past and there will perhaps need to be greater focus on keeping tabs on international assignees, determining what that assignment is doing for the organisation.”

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In their own words ...“We are seeing an increase in the number of locations that I expect will continue, focusing on emerging markets and particular regions in Europe, Africa and Asia.”

Lisa Wiley, Senior manager, international assignments, corporate tax, Oracle Corporation

“It used to be a big deal for someone to leave and to go to another country . . . now it’s becoming an expectation on one’s resumé in order to demonstrate the global experience needed to advance in global organisations.”

Julie Molloy, Tax manager, international assignment services, Bank of America NA

topic author

We may be emerging from the gloom of recession, but the worldwide economic downturn, caused in part by financial mismanagement at the very top end of business, has shone the spotlight on corporate governance with an intensity only matched by the scandals of Enron and Worldcom at the turn of the century. As such, the role of non-executive directors (NEDs), as custodians of the governance process, is under increased scrutiny.

NEDs face pressure from both sides — their responsibilities are increasing (particularly if they sit or are chair of the remuneration committee, a role which, as we will see, has become much tougher), and at the same time much of the public anger surrounding corporate governance post credit-crunch has been aimed squarely at them.

“Clearly there has been greater attention on the NED role following the economic downturn. Questions were being asked about whether they were fulfilling their role in challenging [the decisions made by management] enough,” says Liz Smith, director with PricewaterhouseCoopers’ HR Consultancy. “There is a level of public interest after the economic crisis,” continues David Wright, chair of PwC’s NED programme, “and pressure from the press. A lot of people lost a lot of money. The problem is that the public doubts the competence [of non-executive directors].”

So how are NEDs managing their increasingly difficult role? And are people with the right skills and experience still willing to take on the position?

The role of a NED is “critical” in ensuring the health of the business sector “by undertaking a monitoring role as representative of shareholders,” says Sean O’Hare, partner, PwC Human Resource Services. “The role is difficult — for most of the time they want to be supportive of the management in both developing and implementing strategy, but at other times they need to be challenging to ensure that management is sticking with the core strategy and is not being distracted.”

Once seen as a relatively cushy option for the recently retired, a NED appointment has become a serious commitment. According to the PwC Monks report Non-Executive Director Practice and Fees, the average time commitment for the non-executive chairman of a financial company has increased significantly in 2009 from 80 days to 110, while even a NED in a smaller company, (defined in the report as one with revenue up to £75m) can expect to devote 15 days to the job, a figure that is bound to rise.

Experts believe that NEDs sitting on remuneration committees will be the next to feel the pressure. “They will be feeling particularly anxious,” says Smith. “It’s always been thought that sitting on the audit committee was the tougher role but that’s been overtaken by the pressures on those NEDs sitting on

The economic crisis has turned the spotlight on the role of non-executive directors. But with their responsibilities on the increase, are good candidates still prepared to take the risk?

Who would be an NED?Non-executive directors Beth Holmes

30

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Who would be an NED?31

the remuneration committee. Because everybody focuses on you and really you’re in a no-win situation.”

As a result many NEDs have expressed concern that current fee levels do not reflect their time commitment or the reputational risk of sitting on a company board. But an increase in their fees would be difficult to justify when many companies are making large-scale redundancies, employee pay cuts and closing pension schemes. According to the survey, nearly half of FTSE 100 companies have not increased the fees over the past year.

HR has invariably found itself caught up in the heated debate over pay, particularly when it is called in as advisor at remuneration committee meetings. “It’s a big challenge for an HR director and one that has come to the fore in the last two years,” says O’Hare. “While it was relatively easy before to look at targets and benchmark data in order to make a decision, they now have to say if we’re closing factories globally and imposing pay freezes on the general workforce, should we be sanctioning this level of pay adjustment at the senior level just because our competitors are?”

The changing environment has created a very different dynamic between the parties, believes O’Hare. “[HR directors] need to be demonstrating technical and behavioural ability,” he says. “And not seen to be siding with either the chair or the CEO.”

The role of NEDs in setting remuneration strategy has been highlighted recently in the financial sector by Sir David Walker’s report on the corporate governance of UK banks and other financial institutions. Sir David Walker recommended substantial changes to the way the boards of these institutions function, in particular through boosting the role of non-executives in the risk and remuneration process.

Specific recommendations of the Walker review, which at this stage is still a consultative document, include proposals that the chairman of the board should face annual re-election; that the remuneration committee should oversee the pay of high-paid executives not on the board; and that the chairman of the remuneration committee should face re-election if the report gets less than 75% approval.

O’Hare believes that some of the Walker review will have an impact, but mainly for the financial sector. It is though, he says, “more prescriptive than many thought it would be. Many thought his report would be light touch — it isn’t.”

With so many difficult issues to keep up with, it’s critical that NEDs are made of the right stuff. “NEDs needs to be challenging; they need to have it in

their DNA,” says Wright. As a result, potential candidates with a successful track record as executives are in high demand, particularly CEOs and finance directors.

The burning question, of course, is what being an NED brings to their career. For some, says Wright, it is a simple case of career progression: “You sometimes find that CFOs feel the need to make the choice of whether to go for the CEO role or switch to a NED and then become chairman,” he says. “It’s a challenge, it keeps networks going, it gives personal satisfaction and then there is altruism — giving something back,” adds Smith. That’s not to say that taking on a non-executive directorship is not without its challenges. “Some find it difficult to adjust,” says Smith. “Someone said to me it’s a case of ‘noses in and fingers out’.”

There are some very important non-executive jobs to be had, but is there a danger that, with the increased scrutiny, mounting regulation, greater reputational risk and perceived little reward, talented would-be NEDs will be put off? “It’s too early to say,” says Smith. “but people are definitely thinking longer and harder about doing it.”

“It’s fair to say that it appears to have taken companies longer to appoint a non-executive chairman over the last two years than perhaps has been the

‘‘� ’’Many NEDs have expressed

concern that current fee levels do not reflect their time

commitment or the reputational risk of sitting on a company

board. But an increase in their fees would be difficult to justify when many companies

are making large-scale redundancies, employee pay cuts

and closing pension schemes.

case in the past,” adds O’Hare. “This however may be due to the fact that companies are flagging sooner than before their intention to change the incumbent in the chairman position and, therefore, perhaps, it is in the public domain a little longer than has historically been the case.”

Although, as Smith says, “today’s NEDs do take the role seriously; it’s a very professional role, and the majority take it very carefully and diligently”, improving the quality of the NED pool is key to the future success of the position.

Whether good governance or more regulation will avoid poor performance is debateable, but what is necessary is getting the right people to become NEDs.

According to the PwC survey, four ways in which quality can be improved are:

• more diversity in the boardroom

• better development and education of directors

• improved access to external and individual advice

• higher non-executive fees to attract the best skilled and experienced.

Certainly some of these have been, and continue to be, addressed by companies. “While there’s been much written in the press around the whole diversity issue of non-executive directors (namely that they are mainly white males), the range of nationalities and related skills of individuals who had been appointed non-executive directors has changed over the last five years,” says O’Hare. “In the UK, for instance, there are more non-UK nationals on the main company board than was the case some 10 years ago. Partly this is a reflection of the international reach of UK businesses, but it’s also a reflection of the fact that younger executives are taking on non-executive director positions earlier in their career.”

Help is at hand too from initiatives such as the PwC Non-Executive Director programme, the demand for which is growing rapidly, according to Wright. The programme includes a series of briefings and workshops designed to assist NEDs in the challenges they face — covering everything from whistleblowing to corporate manslaughter. It also meets the growing need for peer-to-peer networking and the exchange of information with specialists.

If the quality of the NED candidate pool is improving, companies still need to access it efficiently. “Companies continue to find the right people by a number of different methods — word of mouth and personal recommendations continue to be an important element,” says O’Hare. Headhunters tend to be used widely, but this can actually limit access to all good candidates, believes Smith. “They’re not getting to the wider pool,” she says. “Getting into the

FTSE 100 is very difficult if you haven’t already got FTSE 100 experience so it’s rather a catch 22, and there are a lot more people out there.”

Initiatives such as the PwC NED programme and personal networks are part of a way of getting access to a wider pool, as are websites such as The NEDExchange and groups aimed at helping women break through the glass ceiling. These include the FTSE 100 Cross-Company Mentoring Programme and the Professional Boards Forum, which runs two major UK events each year for “board-ready” women non-executive director candidates.

With a successful infrastructure in place for getting quality NEDs, keeping them up-to-date with all the challenges of the business environment, and allowing companies access to them, the NEDs of the future can continue in their important work towards a robust, if not infallible, corporate governance system.

topic author page

Company cars Philip Smith 33

Contrary to popular opinion, company cars continue to form an important part of benefit packages, though environmental awareness and tax policy are now in the driving seat.

Driving incentivesIs the end of the company car nigh? One would be forgiven for thinking that one of the most visible of corporate perks was under threat, as businesses seek to control costs and environmental concerns drive demand. Indeed, as Lloyds TSB Autolease has found, one in four company directors would be prepared to cut all forms of employee benefits, including company cars. In fact, the car leasing company’s survey showed that the company car, one of the most popular employee reward schemes since the 1980s, is the benefit most at risk. Some 14% of directors polled would, given the choice, opt to cut this scheme first, while a further 5% would add car allowances to the hit list.

Even so, Autolease believes that such views are based purely on the financial costs of such schemes, and ignore the important role they have as an employee reward. As Claudia Rose, corporate sales director at Autolease, says: “The perceived value of a company car is often higher than the hard cash value, so it remains a great tool for rewarding and motivating staff.” The implication is that, despite growing environmental awareness and an increasingly complex tax regime, both in the UK and across Europe, company cars are as popular as ever.

“Rightly or wrongly, company cars are still very high on the list,” says Matthew Hunnybun, head of employment solutions at PricewaterhouseCoopers. “This is simply because they are a demonstrative way of showing how you are doing, and they remain an important perk.” However, figures suggest there has been a gradual decline in company cars in a number of developed countries over the last five years. According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) the number of cars in the UK registered as business or fleet cars — fleets are classed as 25 vehicles or above — dropped from 1.37m in 2004 to 1.24m in 2008, a fall of nearly 10%. Of course, not all of these will have been “perk” cars by any means, as there are many organisations where staff need a car to carry out their business. And the drop is nothing like the fall in registered private cars — in 2004 1.2m cars were registered, in 2008 that figure fell to 0.9m.

Much of the decline in company cars in the UK and in Europe has been put down to the changes in tax legislation. In 2002 the percentage used to calculate the benefit was first based on carbon emissions in the UK and, thanks to an European Commission Directive, all European Union Member States will have to meet similar requirements by 2012 (see box, page 34). Hunnybun has seen how this change has affected both employers and employees in the UK: “There is more of a consciousness towards lower CO2 emission vehicles. More and more, people are becoming astute to choosing vehicles that are going to reduce the tax charge, but still give them kudos,” he says.

This is certainly backed up by available statistics. According to research from

the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA), whose members operate a combined fleet of nearly 2m cars, the average CO2 emissions of vehicles coming on to their fleets in 2008 fell to 149.9g/km. In 2007 the average contract hire vehicle had emissions of 157.4g/km. The reductions seen by BVRLA members outstrip those seen across new car registrations as a whole. According to the SMMT, average new car emissions in 2008 fell to 158g/km. “These figures show that drivers are choosing low emitting cars to optimise their personal tax while companies are encouraging them to take more fuel-efficient cars to save on running costs,” says BVRLA chief executive, John Lewis.

In fact, many employers are now putting an emissions cap on the choice of car offered to staff. With 35% of companies now having a green transport plan, PwC found that a similar proportion of companies that offered company car benefits placed a CO2 emissions limit on the employees’ choice of car. Many companies will be looking for cars that are below the 160g/km threshold for CO2 emissions, the point at which, under the new capital allowances legislation in the UK, company cars attract a writing down allowance of 20% per year — above 160g/km the allowance is only 10%, while below 110g/km it attracts 100%.

Ian Tilbrook, managing director of ING Car Lease, believes that a new culture, focused on the sub-160g/km CO2 category, has begun to take hold. He says: “The new tax laws, along with the impact of the current financial climate, have really focused minds on the search for lower fleet costs. We are seeing a big shift in the number of fleet managers who are opting for cars that are under the magic 160g/km threshold, which has been made easier thanks to the rise in the number of models that now fall within this bracket.”

But it is not just tax and capital allowances that are driving the need for companies to look at their company car costs. For instance, second-hand car values have dropped. This means that residuals — the amount a car is worth after three years, expressed as a percentage of its original list price — have dropped, which in turn means the car leasing companies that run many company car schemes are offering very cautious terms to their clients. This has the net effect of increasing costs for the companies concerned. A move to encouraging employees to take a cash alternative then becomes very attractive. “We are at a very interesting situation with employers,” says Alistair Kendrick, director at accountancy firm Mazars, “because they don’t want to spend. The bottom has dropped out of the second-hand car market Europe wide, and that has made company cars a very expensive commodity. Companies are trying to see whether they really do still need to provide company cars, and ask if they can provide a cash alternative.”

This move may also come about indirectly — as companies push their

Emissions taxes in EuropeAll EU member states have agreed to reduce CO2 emissions in new cars to 120g/km by 2012. Under a new EU Directive, 50% of car taxes within the EU must also be related to CO2 output by 2010. Here is how some key EU member states have approached the new requirements:

France

The French government has taken CO2 emissions into consideration when calculating registration tax since 2006, with a surcharge for vehicles with emissions over 200g/km. Company car tax is based on CO2 emissions on a scale basis, ranging from €2 per gramme for cars emitting 100g/km to €19 for cars emitting more than 250g/km. Cars that run on electricity, LPG and other similar fuels are exempt from emissions-related company car taxation for the first two years.

Germany

The car-loving Germans have been slower than much of Europe to embrace emissions-related taxation but converted to a system of annual circulation tax based on CO2 emissions in January 2009.

Belgium

Company car tax is based on CO2 emissions, as is the deductability of expenses related to the use of a car. Tax incentives worth up to €4,300 are available to individuals who buy a car that emits less than 115g/km.

Ireland

Registration tax is based on CO2 emissions and hybrid vehicles receive an additional tax relief worth €2,500.

Italy

Anyone purchasing a new car with emissions less than 140g/km receives a tax incentive and a two-year exemption from annual circulation tax.

page

employees towards lower emission cars, these employees, especially those that receive a company car purely as a perk, may opt out of the scheme if the style of car becomes unattractive. There are real parallels here with defined benefit pension schemes, since company car schemes can effectively become closed to new joiners.

However, Kendrick observes that a move to lower emission cars, or even the scrapping of car company cars as a perk altogether, has to have buy-in from the board. If the chairman is unwilling to give up a flash car, this does not send a good message to the rest of the company. Then there is also the serious aspect of duty of care legislation — companies could be at risk if they are not able to control the quality of vehicle used on company business. “If you tell a member of staff that they need to drive to a meeting in their own car, and they have an accident, the Health & Safety Executive will say that you had a duty of care and should have checked the car,” Kendrick argues. Of course, it is right that companies are careful, so if you have staff doing essential business mileage, then you have to think about whether you are comfortable with them taking the cash alternative. And, according to Hunnybun, companies are concerned about their so-called ‘grey’ fleet of private cars used for business purposes. This is becoming an increasing worry in the public sector.

A further problem with cash alternatives is that, as Kendrick puts it, “companies are making fundamental errors in how they calculate the cash

that they offer instead of a car”. Companies often don’t understand the tax implications and what can be written off against tax with a company car. And then there is the issue of reimbursing fuel costs for staff that drive on company business in their own cars. “A lot of companies still pay AMAP rates but if you are paying these, and you are also giving staff a generous cash allowance, you are giving your employee a double whammy relief,” Kendrick says. This creates an interesting paradox, especially if staff do not appreciate the full cost of a company car. Cash alternatives might look unappealing to staff while at the same time being overly generous from the company’s point of view. This is why ‘whole life’ calculations on the cost of a company car are important, rather than relying simply on list price calculations. “Cash alternative arrangements are not quite as simple or straightforward as people seem to think,” says PwC’s Hunnybun, “and there can be better ways of giving staff the means to provide a vehicle than in cash.”

Perversely, one such scheme could see the number of company cars increase in the future. Salary sacrifice schemes, where staff are able to forego pay in exchange for a company car, no matter what level in the organisation, are becoming more popular. “Employees will give up a certain amount of their salary, which would have been subject to income tax and national insurance, and instead take a company car,” explains Hunnybun, “and the tax charge on that company car, providing they choose the right one, is less than they would pay for the amount of salary they have given up. It’s a very tax efficient way of getting a car.” Perhaps the rumours of the demise of the company car are, if not exaggerated, then at least premature.

35

‘‘� ’’Cash alternatives might look unappealing to staff while at

the same time being overly generous from the company’s

point of view. This is why ‘whole life’ calculations on the cost of a company car are important,

rather than relying simply on list price calculations.

topic author

Hosting the 2008 Beijing Olympics was a major coup for China and something that has definitely put the People’s Republic, and Asia as a whole, firmly on the global map. The world-class delivery of the games and the gold medal-winning achievements of the country’s athletes demonstrated that the region is well ahead of the game in many areas. As Asia emerges as a major player on the world stage, the pace is set for China to become a major hotspot.

So has this renewed focus on Asia had any effect on HR? Certainly, the emphasis on adding value has led to a greater need for efficiency and effective delivery models, leveraging on the skills of the labour force to deliver a more customer-driven service — not something you would readily have expected in China even a few decades ago. Competition from global retailers has led to a steep rise in demand for high customer service levels as international brands dominate the high street.

As Asia steadily increases its global economic presence, there is an increasing need within financial services for a capability balance between commercialism and risk management, financial innovation and relationship-building.

There are other pressures which are shaping the focus of HR professionals, among them an ageing population which is placing increased pressure on healthcare, with a growing need for specialised professionals in this sector. The growth of information communications has led to a refocus of growth priorities for telecoms with a need to attract new talent and the food and beverage sector is expanding into newly-developed areas as a result of the need for innovation and differentiation within a crowded market.

China alone is favoured as the number one outsourcing destination for pharmaceutical manufacturing, with cost savings ranging from 50-80% and the East region’s pharmaceutical annual market growth assumption expected to be 10-15%. Mergers and acquisitions activity in China has also continued to outpace activity in other BRIC nation (Brazil, Russia, India and China).

The statistics are impressive and it doesn’t stop there: China leads as the preferred retail opportunity and is on track to surpass Japan to become the second largest retail market by 2013. Market size for clothing and footwear is set to increase from US$155 billion to $256 billion by 2013.

Demand in HR consulting is due to a growth in merger and acquisition activities, an appetite for key human capital services as companies review their top talent, coupled with escalating reward packages, and an increased demand to advise on the growing demographic and immigration issues.

Just as Olympic divers, such as the UK’s own prodigy Tom Daley, create a ripple effect in their efforts to be number one, competing organisations are experiencing the knock-on effects of their own performance. They need to make an impact and it isn’t necessarily about making a big splash. Companies which are aiming to be market leaders need to place talent at the top of the agenda and, if they wish to stay at the top, this will mean placing great emphasis on creating sustainability within their workforce.

A rise in workforce and talent redeployment shifts the focus from short-term recruitment to longer-term resourcing of key capabilities and skills — recruiting for future potential. Forecasting resourcing and capability requirements allows businesses to adapt more easily to changing markets and competency redefinition shifts the mindset to driving an increased contribution from people, establishing new ways of working and creating a high performing culture. Talent is seen as a business-wide responsibility — focusing on organisational and individual competency, contribution and commitment. Alignment of talent programmes to the wider business and aligning performance with reward provides a coherent, consistent and connected strategy.

Above all, continuing the measurement of talent to address challenges before they hit the bottom line is a strategy which will pay dividends for China and Asia as a whole. Taking the world title means looking over your shoulder at the next generation: being Tom Daley is certainly better than giving yourself a headache!

The Olympics in Beijing were just one event over the past five years that has put Asia firmly on the map. Joanna Hall explains how the ripple effect is being felt all over the region.

The ripple effectHR around the world Joanna Hall

Joanne Hall is a senior manager in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Singapore Financial Services Industry practice, specialising in People and Change.

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References and further reading

Page 14

Manpower’s quarterly employment survey can be seen at:http://www.manpower.com/press/meos.cfm

Page 18

The CBI’s report Time Well Spent can be found at:http://www.cbi.org.uk/pdf/timewellspent.pdf

The UKCES report The Employability Challenge can be found at:http://www.ukces.org.uk/tags/employability-challenge-full-report

Page 22

The Liberal Democrats’ paper A Lifeboat for the Lost Generation can be found at: http://www.libdems.org.uk/siteFiles/resources/PDF/Lost_Generation.pdf

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The stakes are high.

Insufficient insight into your payroll operations is a gamble not worth risking. At PwC our HR Technology team can help you make the most of your systems, save money and improve compliance.

Stay ahead – contact Christian Murray on 020 7212 6604.

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