Part 4.

The challenges:

people, data,

and performance

^[1] By 2039, the number of people in the UK aged 75 and over is expected to double from 5 million to nearly 10 million. Source: The Office of National Statistics.^[2] The population of older people (defined here as those aged 65 years or more) in the EU-27 will increase significantly, rising from 90.5 million at the start of 2019 to reach 129.8 million by 2050. Source

This question prompted a wide variety of responses, but they do break down into four rough categories:

Talent
Data and technology
Human behaviour
Business performance

Talent is the most widely cited category, covering recruitment, retention, development, and reacting to or anticipating skills shortages. Some mentioned the evolution of the business landscape, and hiring or developing people with “future-ready” skills. It comes back once again to the idea of people being an organisation’s most valuable asset: the better the organisation understands the skills it needs, the more focussed and cost-effective their recruitment and development strategies will be.

Age is also a factor. The UK^[1] and Ireland, like their European neighbours^[2], have an ageing population and many employers are looking carefully at succession planning and how to mitigate the effects of natural attrition through retirement.

Technology has a role to play in the talent conundrum, with plenty of optimism about AI products saving time and resources through (for example) talent screening, or automation of routine tasks such as scheduling interviews. Data-driven insights are expected to drive recruitment strategies and identify skills gaps.

There’s also an acknowledgement that these tools are still being developed, however, and more than one person mentioned inherent bias in machine learning systems, and the importance of the human factor in what is, after all, a fundamentally personal process. Over-reliance on technology, especially when it comes to finding, nurturing, and retaining talent, is absolutely seen as a pitfall to be avoided.

Key challenges in the year ahead.

That warning has a broader resonance too. We heard concerns about the impact of technology on jobs and mental health: that the pace of change, both in business and wider society, risks leaving some people behind.

There’s a generational piece here, and it’s the older generation who may be most exposed to this. But these are also the people most likely to be long-term experts in their field - holders of vital knowledge, whose thoughts may be turning towards retirement. They may need help to navigate new ways of working.

They may be suited to taking on training roles, or acting as mentors and coaches. This, in turn, suggests that tailoring responsibilities, managing goals and objectives, and more flexible job design could prove to be powerful tools in HR’s efforts to keep these important skills

. Although the methods might seem typically “HR” in nature - encouraging training and developing, coaching, and nurturing younger employees - there’s a hard-headed realism at work here. It’s not a fluffy, nice-to-have strategy to ensure that essential information is kept within the business when a long-serving team member considers retirement.

Finally, and consistently across all our interviews, there was a clear focus on broader business performance. How can talent strategy support growth? How does our tech stack free us up to focus on revenue contribution? What are we doing to support our teams in performing? A number of the HR leaders we spoke to mentioned that a revenue number featured in their personal and team objectives: as clear an illustration of HR’s profile within the organisation as you could wish for.