We are a research organization, and one of the most important thing we do is share information, data, and perspectives. Over the coming weeks there will be a lot of new insights coming, and I want to highlight some important things you can do to help. First, we are in the final stages of producing the Bersin Talent, HR and Learning Predictions for 2015, which will be out soon. I have personally spent countless hours on this research, and it brings together our combined perspectives on the ten biggest imperatives we believe HR and talent professionals should consider in the coming year. I won't give away any secrets, but stay tuned it's coming soon. The second big project I want to highlight is one you can participate in right now: Deloitte's Third Annual Global Human Capital Trends study. This is a massive global project I lead with two other partners, and it represents one of the biggest (if not the biggest) global studies of talent and HR issues around the world. Like last year, we expect to have data from more than 90 different countries and we have already found some dramatic shifts in the issues and capability gaps in HR around the world. Right now we are in the final stages of closing the survey, and we would like your help. Please take the survey here - it will help give you (and your peers) great insights into the global issues we face in 2015, and I greatly look forward to sharing results with you. I am excited to start sharing our perspectives for 2015 in the coming weeks!

Most HR organizations have been slow to adopt analytics - too slow, in fact, in the minds of many impatient business leaders.  Our research conducted last year showed that just 14% of HR organizations in the U.S are using advanced or predictive analytics to make talent decisions. These companies have created strong analytics teams with a diversity of skill sets and have established data governance processes for data quality and integration.   Despite the prognostications that 2014 would be "the year of predictive talent analytics," things haven’t changed all that much. I keep hearing the same questions from HR leaders over and over again: "How do I get started with analytics?" "How do we clean and integrate our data?" "How do we upskill our staff to be more data savvy?" If HR continues to drag its feet, it risks losing control over its data, and its chance to gain some real power within the organization. Witness the articles in support of CFOs owning analytics within corporate America. CFOs understand the value of data and are already using analytics to help them understand and predict margins, pricing models, and potential new revenue streams. For decades Finance has been using analytics to better understand where the business is strong and where it needs improvement. CFOs could be a natural fit to lead analytics across the organization - taking over responsibility for HR analytics, marketing analytics, and operational analytics. Most CFOs are in a position of power within their organizations. They already control much of that data on company financials and operations.  They have credibility and are seen (in many companies) as the source of truth.  They understand data and know how to use it. In many organizations, HR falls short on all of the above. Which is why HR risks losing control of its talent data to CFOs, who may be looking to further expand their leadership roles and spheres of influence throughout the company - and who are tired of waiting for HR leaders to "get it" when it comes to analytics.  I’ve already talked with several companies over the past two months that have centralized their analytics across functions. In a some cases, the CFO is running the analytics organization. In others, it  falls under the COO or CIO.  This should be a wake-up call for HR leaders. The battleground over corporate data is threatening to heat up, and HR can’t throw up the white flag and  lose its stake in the one area that promises to bring it credibility with executives and power over talent and business decisions. If your HR organization is still new to analytics, here is one thing you can do: Find a business leader who is willing to partner on an analytics project to solve a problem (e.g. reducing turnover, improving engagement, reducing accidents/theft/leakage, etc.) Put together a skunks works team, borrowing talent from another department if necessary or partnering with a university or external supplier, and look to get a small ‘win.’  After that, evangelize the results and find another internal stakeholder or two to partner with on another, slightly larger, project. After you have a few small wins and have built some credibility with business leaders, you can ask for some additional resources and start building an analytics team. Many HR people say, "I can’t get the funding for analytics,"  and it's no wonder...since they haven’t proven the value and their credibility yet.  So start small - look for a  supportive business leader with a pain point  - and grow from there. Any don’t wait too long, or before you know it, your CFO may be managing your talent data.  

Competencies are the language of talent management.  They provide guidance to managers and direct reports alike on the behaviors that are expected.  They also are a way to assess those behaviors, whether for the purpose of hiring, development, or performance appraisal.  Yet, for all that can potentially be right about competencies, so much can also potentially be wrong.  In many organizations we talk to, competencies are too numerous, ill-defined, or too complex.  The result is the competencies are infrequently used and ultimately cast aside.  Therefore, we have to ask ourselves, "Are competencies dead?" We are currently in the midst of a new research initiative on this question (and we’d like your help on it - see details below).  Our initial research reveals, no, competencies are not dead - in many organizations they are alive and well, working as intended.  In the organizations that are not using them effectively, though, the competencies seem to be collapsing under their own weight, dying a very slow death.  These organizations have "zombie competencies" - or "zompetencies," if you like.    So, how do leaders keep their organizations from creating zompetencies?  Here are a few suggestions: Design for criticality:  Focus on what is essential to success - not every competency necessary for doing a job.   Design for impact:  Focus on competencies that align to the organization’s business strategy and greatest areas of need.  If your organization is making a major transformation from one focused on execution to one focused on innovation, competencies should be a part of the bedrock of the change effort. Design for simplicity:  Constantly ask yourself if the competencies are necessary or can be expressed more simply.  Further, in an effort to reduce competencies, do not combine two competencies into one.  "Visionary leadership and tactical execution" is not one competency. Design for acceptance:  Avoid the trap of developing competencies in a vacuum.  Competencies need to be broadly socialized and amended as they are developed, to ensure both broad understanding and agreement on their content.  Ultimately, managers and direct reports need to understand the competencies, what they mean, and how to use them - and integrate them into how they talk about talent on a regular basis.  How does your organization keep competencies alive and well?  Or how has it gotten rid of zompetencies in the past?  We are currently looking for examples of effective approaches to competency models and how they support talent management.  Please email me at sgarr@deloitte.com if you have any examples from your or other organizations you can share. Special thanks to Joe Folkman and Candace Atamanik for their contribution to some of the concepts in this blog.

Impressive this year is the software creator’s mantra "develop for mobile first." Our survey of providers indicated that solutions are created and in the market for every area of talent:  learning, rewards, performance management and appraisal approval, succession and hiring management and many more.  Even core HR. Even content authoring tools. There is employee self-service and managerial self-service, and for hourly workers, the ability to clock in and clock out—all on their mobile phones. And the applications available for mobile use in HR vary in both number and sophistication. Oracle offers a company directory, Organization Navigator, predictive analytics, goal management, talent profile, and a personalizable dashboard on mobile devices. SumTotal offers a Smartphone app for every one of the 18 content areas we surveyed.  Close to 70 percent of the providers surveyed have mobile learning management capabilities today. Nine of 48 support the ability to supervise people and take notes on the experience for sharing later. Mobile apps are pretty much everywhere. But are companies actually using them for human capital management?  We decided that would be an interesting question to pursue! What is your company’s stance on HCM apps on Smartphones?  Do you use them today? Will you add mobile apps in the year ahead?  Or do you have no need nor plans to deploy mobile HR apps in the future? Whatever your stance, please let us hear from you!  Take this short survey (just a few minutes, promise!) on use and intended use of human capital related apps on Smartphones by clicking on the link below.     This publication contains general information only and Deloitte is not, by means of this publication, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such professional advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional advisor. Deloitte shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person who relies on this publication. As used in this document, "Deloitte" means Deloitte Consulting LLP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Copyright © 2014 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.  

How is your week going?  If you are anything like many of the people I have spoken with this week, you are having one of the most productive weeks of the year.  Your focus is like a laser, your to-do list is pared back, and your eyes are on the prize:  to finish up the most critical items before the end of the year.  So, I have to ask you:  why is every week not more like this one? The likely answer is that in other weeks you lack the goal clarity that is helping you focus now.  Our new research, High-Impact Performance Management: Using Goals to Focus the 21st-Century (Not a Bersin member?  Click here for the summary), which we launched yesterday, supports this hypothesis: that many employees lack the clarity they need.  Here are a few findings from the study: Though 76 percent of organizations cascade goals, only 36 percent of organizations have a standard, enterprise-wide approach, which often results in inconsistencies in approach and, potentially, the goals themselves. While more than half (51 percent) of senior leaders convene a series of meetings throughout the year to discuss goals with business leaders, only six percent of team managers /  middle managers receive their goals in the same way, which can result in inconsistent goal messaging.  Though nearly 60 percent of organizations said senior leaders revise their goals during the course of the year, only 36 percent of respondents indicated middle managers make similar revisions to align to new directions being defined by their supervisors.  This can result in the organization’s leaders thinking the company is headed in one direction, but the day-to-day actions of employees taking it in an entirely different one. Our research finds that having that goal clarity - both at the start of the year and on a continuous basis - is a critical factor in predicting business performance.  Specifically, we found that employees with a high level of goal clarity were four times more likely to score in the top quartile of business performance.  Further, organizations that have employees revise or review their goals quarterly or more frequently were three-and-a-half times more likely to score in the top quartile of business performance. This new research summarizes the current state of goal-setting and management, including an overview of common goal-setting practices; a review of the academic debate around goals; our analysis of the challenges of modern goal-setting and management; current trends in goal-setting and revising; and the three key principles and seven related practices that our data indicate are critical to effective goal management (see Figure 1). Figure 1:  Three Principles and Seven Practices for Effective Goal Management Source:  "High-Impact Performance Management: Using Goals to Focus the 21st-Century," Stacia Sherman Garr / Bersin by Deloitte, December 2014. I hope that if you are taking some time off in the coming weeks, that you have an opportunity to unplug and reflect.  When you come back to set your goals - and help your organization set its goals - for 2015, I suggest analyzing your organization’s current goal setting approach and asking yourself: To what extent does your organization’s goal setting process enable you and your employees to have that "end-of-year" clarity on your goals and objectives? To what extent do your organization’s systems, processes, and culture support continued clarity? What can you and your organization do differently to enable greater goal clarity, both in January and throughout the year? If you are able to move the dial on any of these elements, you truly will have given yourself and your employees a gift - the gift of clarity.

My colleague Robin Erickson, Ph.D. and I just completed a webinar called "Get Ready for 2015: Ten Top Actionable Talent Acquisition Trends." In the question and answer period at the end, one of the almost 1,000 registrants asked about the ability to actually apply for a job via a smartphone:  Will it make the recruiter’s job harder or easier? It’s a good question, isn’t it?  Is ease in applying for a job a goal?  If it is really easy, will recruiters just be flooded with junk applications?  Or should the act of applying be laborious enough that only the truly committed apply?  Is it different by industry? By age group? A poll during the webinar showed that over a quarter of participants used mobile in the recruiting process—but we really don’t know how many supported the ability to apply with a mobile phone.  And this moves us to the broader consideration—how do we in human capital management (HCM) plan to use smartphones with not only applicants but also with our existing employees? What is your company’s stance on HCM apps on smartphones?  Do you use them today? Will you add mobile aps in the year ahead?  Please let us hear from you!  Take this short survey (just a few minutes, promise!) on use and intended use of human capital related apps on Smartphones by clicking on the link below. https://bersin.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_4Oe9ZKgWotNWEVT&Source=BLG   This publication contains general information only and Deloitte is not, by means of this publication, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such professional advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional advisor. Deloitte shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person who relies on this publication. As used in this document, "Deloitte" means Deloitte Consulting LLP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Copyright © 2014 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.  

You know you will need to hire new employees in the new year—but are you ready? Will your competition out-engage you in your marketplace? And what will you do if you cannot find the talent you need when you need it?   This afternoon, my colleague Katherine Jones, Ph.D. and I presented a webinar that outlined ten actionable trends that we think will make a difference in talent acquisition (TA) in 2015. If you missed it, you can check out the live tweets at #PFLiveChat and here is a brief recap: Manage Your Employment Brand: Your employment brand reflects your organization and is your strongest asset for attracting new employees and continuously attracting/retaining the high-performers you don’t want to leave. Is your employment brand simply irresistible? And are your employees brand ambassadors for your organization? Craft a Strategic Social Media Campaign: Recruiters need to "go where the puck will be" and understand where candidates are spending their time (pssst: they’re not just on social networks and job boards!). Our recently published High-Impact Talent Acquisition (HITA) industry study found that mature TA functions are five times more likely to have an effective social media campaign.[1] And leading-edge companies have dedicated social media strategists to curate content. Develop a Candidate Experience Strategy: Just like in dating, recruiters should create a good first impression with candidates. Check out my September 28th blog, It’s All About the Candidate Experience, for some suggestions on how to differentiate your organization’s candidate experience. Reimagine the On-Line Application: Unfortunately technology hasn’t kept up as job seekers today are faced with first-generation hiring management systems. Face it: many applicants are searching for jobs on their mobile devices and they’re not going to fill out a 25-page application on their phone. Want to know what’s happening with mobile? Take a short survey and check back in a couple of months for the results. Reinvent Candidate Communications: Ever applied for a job and wondered if your resume went into a black hole? Or worse, applied for a job and received an auto-reject notification within minutes? In a world where we can personalize our M&M’s (yes, I did it for Christmas!) and even our phones know our names, recruiters should be sending personalized content to candidates. Make sure the messages are authentic and representative of your employment brand. Engage Hiring Managers: According to our HITA research, recruiters developing effective relationships with hiring managers is the most influential drive of TA performance outcomes—and a staggering 97% of mature TA functions report that they have strong relationships with hiring managers.[2] And guess what? Developing relationships doesn’t cost your organization much money—just time and mindfulness! Develop Talent Pipelines: Not to be overlooked, developing candidate pools is the second most influential driver of TA performance outcomes.[3] The task of recruiting has moved from the reactive filling of requisitions to proactively courting high-quality talent. Ultimately, with talent pools done well, recruiters can deliver talent on demand. Up the Ante on Onboarding: Did you know that 22% of staff turnover occur in the first 45 days of employment and that 4% of new employees leave after a disastrous first day?[4] Organizations should customize their onboarding programs for various job roles and generational groups, but should include a consistent experience and messaging. In addition, automation is critical to both efficiency and consistency, and some onboarding can be done online before the first day (aka "preboarding). Make Your Metrics Matter: Understanding the importance of metrics and analytics is a significant challenge for the talent acquisition function. With an array of metrics available, organizations should first decide what they want to measure, then determine if they have the technology in place to support the need. The next big thing? Going beyond historical reporting to predictive analytics. Plan for Global TA: Regardless of organizational maturity level, our research found that 68 percent of TA functions were not globally prepared.[5] TA leaders should consider their unique talent landscape—which includes candidate availability and engagement, as well as technology solution and services providers—as they look to take their functions to a global level.   So what else do you think will be important for Talent Acquisition in 2015? Feel free to add a comment below, connect with me on Twitter @RAEricksonPhD, or by email at rerickson@deloitte.com   [1] High-Impact Talent Acquisition, Key Findings and Maturity Model, Robin Erickson, Ph.D., Kim Lamoureux, Denise Moulton / Bersin by Deloitte, September 2014. [2] Ibid. [3] Ibid. [4] Help New Hires Succeed: Beat the Statistics, SHRM Presentation by The Wynhurst Group, April 2007, www.masteryworks.com.; Egon Zehnder International, 2007, as quoted in http://selectmetrix.com/ blogs/category/onramping/. [5] High-Impact Talent Acquisition, Key Findings and Maturity Model, Robin Erickson, Ph.D., Kim Lamoureux, Denise Moulton / Bersin by Deloitte, September 2014.       This publication contains general information only and Deloitte is not, by means of this publication, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such professional advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional advisor.   Deloitte shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person who relies on this publication. 

This year our Predictions for 2015 has some hard-hitting new ideas to consider - in this article I will give you some highlights, and you can download the report here. Top Line: Enormous Changes are Ahead 2015 is going to be a big year in the world of corporate talent. The economy has improved (near full employment in the US), the job market for technical and professional skills is hot, and technology is radically changing the whole nature of work. Thinking back over my 35 years as a working professional, I barely recognize what work is like today. I was joking with my children about how I used to go to work with a briefcase filled with papers, there were no computers, no voicemail, and only an office of people and a telephone to work with. We had a steno pool (people who typed letters for us), and I had an old-fashioned boss who sat in the corner office with his tie on and his jacket buttoned.  He was really a wonderful manager, but it was all about "doing your job" and getting a good performance appraisal. Today we work at home, in coffee shops, on airplanes, and often late at night. We interact with people all over the world easily, and we have tools and technologies at our fingertips to find information, write, communicate, and analyze data like never before. And thanks to the growth of cognitive computing technologies, we will all soon have thinking machines in our phones, machines that monitor where we are, what work to do, what customer problems to solve, and even what HR problems to address. Much of this transition has been positive, but much has also been difficult. Many of us are "overwhelmed employees" and our research shows that employee engagement and retention is at an all time low. While many people are still looking for work, more and more people are getting fed up with the 24/7 work environment around us, so they go to social websites like LinkedIn or Glassdoor and jobs are offered to them. The concepts of "integrated talent management" are rapidly changing, with most HR practices being reinvented.  In fact I'd say that talent management as we've known it over the last ten years is about to go away and be reinvented, with a focus on what I call Engagement, Experience, and Environment.  (Read my latest article "Is Corporate Talent Management Dead?" if you want more on that topic in particular.) The ten predictions we write about for 2015 cover topics from employee engagement to new technologies for HR, a whole new focus on culture, renewed strategies to develop leadership, and the need to revitalize HR and invest much more heavily in analytics. But overall the big trend is this:  almost everything we've done traditionally in HR has to be adjusted (or re-engineered). The younger, more mobile, more agile workforce and workplace we now live in demands new approaches: flexible work policies, more focus on empowerment and skills development, a more humane work environment, and both financial and workplace benefits which are locally relevant. As we look at 2015, we see five fundamental shifts which dramatically impact corporate talent, leadership, and HR strategies. 1. Technology has removed the barrier between work and life. Companies have to focus on culture, environment and simplification. We are working all the time, emails and messages are streaming in 24/7, and information, conversations, and content is literally streaming at us wherever we go. The work "environment" we live in today is radically different: people work wherever they want, leading to a huge wave of open offices; over-work is a tremendous challenge, and people are not sure how to deal with the overwhelming amount of information they receive each day. Design thinking, simplification, and ease of use are the new mantras for corporate talent programs. 2. Employee engagement, culture, and leadership are lifeline issues. Glassdoor data shows a split in companies. There are huge segment of companies who are "highly engaged" and a similarly large number of companies whos employees are "actively disengaged." The highly engaged companies are attracting the best people, delivering greater customer service, and innovating better. These companies are focused on mission, culture, and leadership - and they understand that people are not "talent," they are people - with their own personal needs and aspirations. This focus on engagement has impacted everything we do, because ultimately employee engagement is all a business has. Companies have to rethink their coaching and development strategies, their career mobility strategies, and how they develop and select leaders. Today's leader focuses on "building a highly engaged team" not just "delivering on business results." Unfortunately our research shows that the gaps in corporate leadership are wider than ever. Research by Deloitte and others (highlighted in the report) will show you how leadership development, assessment, and coaching has to be a top focus for 2015. 3. Learning, capabilities, and skills are the currency of success. From both an individual and organizational standpoint, technical and professional capabilities are now the currency of success. If you can attract or develop better scientists, engineers, sales people, or functional experts you will beat your competition. And once you attract these people you must give them a compelling learning environment to stay current, as technology advances at an accelerating rate. L&D organizations and strategies have not kept up, and we are in an era where corporate learning is going through as much change is we witnessed in the early 2000s when e-learning hit the scene. 4.  HR as a function is at a crossroads and must reinvent itself. Underlying most of these issues is the need to reskill and re-energize HR. It's interesting that the US organizations SHRM and HCI are now competing to sell HR certifications. The problem is not one of certification, it's one of redefining what HR professionals do. Company after company I talk with is going through a restructure of their HR team, moving HR closer to the business, and reskilling generalists into finely tuned business consultants.  I believe this is a decade-long transition taking place within the HR function. 5.  Data is now integral to all decisions HR must make. Finally, we are entering a talent world where people data is now central to every decision we make. Organizations that are investing in analytics teams, analytics tools, and analytics expertise are going to far outperform their peers. Who to hire, who to promote, how much to pay, how to develop, what next job to take - all these decisions are now "data enabled" and we expect HR technology, which is becoming more integrated every day, to become more and more like "instrumentation of your organization"- giving you data to improve organizational performance every day. Read our predictions and join me on our webinar on Friday, January 23, 2015, at 2PM EST. (Register Here.) This is my eleventh year writing the Bersin Predictions for the coming year, and I think the changes ahead are more transformational than ever before. I hope you find the report educational, inspiring, and helpful as you plan your year. I am thankful to the world community of talent and HR leaders I get to work with every day. And as always I look forward to your comments and feedback.  (Click here to download report.)

This year our Predictions for 2015 has some hard-hitting new ideas to consider - in this article I will give you some highlights, and you can download the report here. Top Line: Enormous Changes are Ahead 2015 is going to be a big year in the world of corporate talent. The economy has improved (near full employment in the US), the job market for technical and professional skills is hot, and technology is radically changing the whole nature of work. Thinking back over my 35 years as a working professional, I barely recognize what work is like today. I was joking with my children about how I used to go to work with a briefcase filled with papers, there were no computers, no voicemail, and only an office of people and a telephone to work with. We had a steno pool (people who typed letters for us), and I had an old-fashioned boss who sat in the corner office with his tie on and his jacket buttoned.  He was really a wonderful manager, but it was all about "doing your job" and getting a good performance appraisal. Today we work at home, in coffee shops, on airplanes, and often late at night. We interact with people all over the world easily, and we have tools and technologies at our fingertips to find information, write, communicate, and analyze data like never before. And thanks to the growth of cognitive computing technologies, we will all soon have thinking machines in our phones, machines that monitor where we are, what work to do, what customer problems to solve, and even what HR problems to address. Much of this transition has been positive, but much has also been difficult. Many of us are "overwhelmed employees" and our research shows that employee engagement and retention is at an all time low. While many people are still looking for work, more and more people are getting fed up with the 24/7 work environment around us, so they go to social websites like LinkedIn or Glassdoor and jobs are offered to them. The concepts of "integrated talent management" are rapidly changing, with most HR practices being reinvented.  In fact I'd say that talent management as we've known it over the last ten years is about to go away and be reinvented, with a focus on what I call Engagement, Experience, and Environment.  (Read my latest article "Is Corporate Talent Management Dead?" if you want more on that topic in particular.) The ten predictions we write about for 2015 cover topics from employee engagement to new technologies for HR, a whole new focus on culture, renewed strategies to develop leadership, and the need to revitalize HR and invest much more heavily in analytics. But overall the big trend is this:  almost everything we've done traditionally in HR has to be adjusted (or re-engineered). The younger, more mobile, more agile workforce and workplace we now live in demands new approaches: flexible work policies, more focus on empowerment and skills development, a more humane work environment, and both financial and workplace benefits which are locally relevant. As we look at 2015, we see five fundamental shifts which dramatically impact corporate talent, leadership, and HR strategies. 1. Technology has removed the barrier between work and life. Companies have to focus on culture, environment and simplification. We are working all the time, emails and messages are streaming in 24/7, and information, conversations, and content is literally streaming at us wherever we go. The work "environment" we live in today is radically different: people work wherever they want, leading to a huge wave of open offices; over-work is a tremendous challenge, and people are not sure how to deal with the overwhelming amount of information they receive each day. Design thinking, simplification, and ease of use are the new mantras for corporate talent programs. 2. Employee engagement, culture, and leadership are lifeline issues. Glassdoor data shows a split in companies. There are huge segment of companies who are "highly engaged" and a similarly large number of companies whos employees are "actively disengaged." The highly engaged companies are attracting the best people, delivering greater customer service, and innovating better. These companies are focused on mission, culture, and leadership - and they understand that people are not "talent," they are people - with their own personal needs and aspirations. This focus on engagement has impacted everything we do, because ultimately employee engagement is all a business has. Companies have to rethink their coaching and development strategies, their career mobility strategies, and how they develop and select leaders. Today's leader focuses on "building a highly engaged team" not just "delivering on business results." Unfortunately our research shows that the gaps in corporate leadership are wider than ever. Research by Deloitte and others (highlighted in the report) will show you how leadership development, assessment, and coaching has to be a top focus for 2015. 3. Learning, capabilities, and skills are the currency of success. From both an individual and organizational standpoint, technical and professional capabilities are now the currency of success. If you can attract or develop better scientists, engineers, sales people, or functional experts you will beat your competition. And once you attract these people you must give them a compelling learning environment to stay current, as technology advances at an accelerating rate. L&D organizations and strategies have not kept up, and we are in an era where corporate learning is going through as much change is we witnessed in the early 2000s when e-learning hit the scene. 4.  HR as a function is at a crossroads and must reinvent itself. Underlying most of these issues is the need to reskill and re-energize HR. It's interesting that the US organizations SHRM and HCI are now competing to sell HR certifications. The problem is not one of certification, it's one of redefining what HR professionals do. Company after company I talk with is going through a restructure of their HR team, moving HR closer to the business, and reskilling generalists into finely tuned business consultants.  I believe this is a decade-long transition taking place within the HR function. 5.  Data is now integral to all decisions HR must make. Finally, we are entering a talent world where people data is now central to every decision we make. Organizations that are investing in analytics teams, analytics tools, and analytics expertise are going to far outperform their peers. Who to hire, who to promote, how much to pay, how to develop, what next job to take - all these decisions are now "data enabled" and we expect HR technology, which is becoming more integrated every day, to become more and more like "instrumentation of your organization"- giving you data to improve organizational performance every day. Read our predictions and join me on our webinar on Friday, January 23, 2015, at 2PM EST. (Register Here.) This is my eleventh year writing the Bersin Predictions for the coming year, and I think the changes ahead are more transformational than ever before. I hope you find the report educational, inspiring, and helpful as you plan your year. I am thankful to the world community of talent and HR leaders I get to work with every day. And as always I look forward to your comments and feedback.  (Click here to download report.)

Do you have a family member or friend who has been unemployed for six months or longer? Or perhaps underemployed for the last few years? It’s no secret that U.S. workers were hit hard by the Great Recession. One feature that has distinguished this recession from many past ones has been the persistence of long-term unemployment. Indeed, many workers who lost jobs during the recession have yet to find work, and many more have dropped out of the labor force completely. As of October 2014, 3 million Americans have been looking for work for six months or longer.[1] The long-term unemployed are much more likely to drop out of the workforce altogether and are also much less likely to find a job than their short-term unemployed counterparts.[2] What makes long-term unemployment so frustrating is that traditional (and even logical) explanations for unemployment seem to have no bearing on the issue. As we move toward a skill-based economy, it would make sense that under-educated workers are having a more difficult time finding work. But research has found that long-term unemployment does not discriminate. Job-seekers are just as likely to be college educated as not, and even relevant work experience does not seem to help the long-term unemployed.[3] In January 2014, the White House unveiled its plan that calls for employers to develop leading practices for recruiting and hiring the long-term unemployed, seeks to ensure that federal agencies give the long-term unemployed a fair shot, drives innovation around the issue through a Department of Labor grant competition, and enables workers to seek out training resources to increase their job-competitiveness.[4] The White House long-term unemployed initiative has received a positive reception from the business community, with over 300 companies signing the pledge. Many of these companies have already employed some leading practices with regard to recruiting the long-term unemployed, and others are sponsoring initiatives aimed at getting more Americans back to work. In response to the White House call to action, Deloitte Consulting LLP collaborated with The Rockefeller Foundation to develop three handbooks aimed at helping 3 million Americans get back to work: ·        For Employers: A Guide to Recruiting and Hiring the Long-Term Unemployed: A Handbook for Employers—this guide enables employers to leverage industry leading practices aimed at the long-term unemployed and includes a case for change, the long-term unemployed maturity model, recommendations for recruiting, an implementation toolkit, vignettes, and case studies. ·        For Job Seekers: New Guide, New Destinations: Navigating Out of Long-Term Unemployment—this guide for job seekers includes recommendations for retooling a job search, including personal stories and lessons learned from employers and the previously long-term unemployed. Also included are an overview of available resources, a checklist for successfully finding a job and interactive exercises and activities. ·        For Community Leaders: Engage Your Community: A Local Guide to Addressing the Long-Term Unemployment Challenge—this guide for local community leaders includes a four-step plan to help mobilize support in local communities, recommendations to develop a local strategy for addressing long-term unemployment, guidelines on identifying a local long-term unemployment ecosystem, sample action items for each ecosystem partner to mitigate long-term unemployment and talking points on how to advocate for the long-term unemployed. I’ve been happy to support this initiative for four reasons. First, according to leading economists, the United States’ current level of long-term unemployment could cause lasting damage to the U.S. economy as a result of skills deterioration, lower labor force participation, and higher levels of structural unemployment (the unemployment resulting from industrial reorganization, typically due to technological change rather than fluctuations in supply or demand). Second, I believe that the long-term unemployed are an overlooked labor pool. Despite decreasing unemployment, as of August 2014, there were still 4.8 million unfilled jobs in the United States.[5] It makes business sense for organizations to target the long-term unemployed with their recruiting strategies and the employer handbook will help them develop the business case for doing so. Third, like hiring veterans and the disabled, it’s a good thing to help Americans find work who may not have been given a fair shot (good from both the feel good perspective and for your employment brand!). Fourth, and much more personally, I also have family members and friends who are long-term unemployed or underemployed and I’m hopeful the job seeker handbook will help them. What can you do today to help our nation’s long-term unemployed? ·        Download a copy of the handbooks here for yourself ·        Help us get the word out: o   Share the link with your organization’s Talent Acquisition leader and recruiters and ask them to download A Guide to Recruiting and Hiring the Long-Term Unemployed: A Handbook for Employers o   Share the link with your family and friends and encourage them to download the New Guide, New Destinations: Navigating Out of Long-Term Unemployment handbook o   Share the link with your community leaders and encourage them to leverage the Engage Your Community: A Local Guide to Addressing the Long-Term Unemployment Challenge handbook ·        Tweet about the handbooks—please help us make these resources go viral! Here’s a shortened URL: bit.ly/1sIqdn7 ·        Look for the upcoming, complimentary Bersin research report Unemployed but Not Unemployable: Recruiting & Hiring the Long-Term Unemployed on www.bersin.com ·        Join me for the upcoming, complimentary Bersin webinar: Unemployed Long Term, Not Unemployable:  What Companies Can Do To Help on Thursday, November 13th at 2:00 pm ET [1] Source: "Employment Situation Summary," Bureau of Labor Statistics, September 5, 2014, www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm. [2] Source: "More Gloom for the Long-Term Unemployed, from Alan Krueger," Wall Street Journal / Jon Hilsenrath, May 22, 2014, http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/05/22/more-gloom-for-the-long-term-unemployed-from-alan-krueger/?KEYWORDS=long+term+unemployment. [3] Gretchen Gavett, "The American Way of Hiring Is Making Long-Term Unemployment Worse," Harvard Business Review (Online) (13 December 2013) http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/12/the-american-way-of-hiring-is-making-long-term-unemployment-worse/ [4] For more information, see the White House website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/02/10/more-300-companies-pledge-help-long-term-unemployed-0 [5] Source: "Job Openings and Labor Turnover—August 2014," Bureau of Labor Statistics, October 7, 2014. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/jolts.pdf This publication contains general information only and Deloitte is not, by means of this publication, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such professional advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional advisor. Deloitte shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person who relies on this publication.