2014 COULD BE THE “YEAR OF THE EMPLOYEE”

Recruiting and holding onto the right talent is a top priority for many businesses – and an industry expert believes organisations will place a greater focus on people management this year.

HR research and advisory firm Bersin by Deloitte released its “2014 Predictions: Building a Strong Talent Pipeline for the Global Economic Recovery” report at the end of last year, which forecast some of the top trends in the HR sphere in 2014. One of the key issues it broached was the need for organisations to completely “reinvent and refocus” their talent acquisition practices to secure the best talent for the recovering economy.

Josh Bersin, principal of Bersin by Deloitte, urged that businesses need to put just as much effort in empowering and developing their people as acquiring them in the first place.

“We see a renewed emphasis on growth in 2014 and that means organisations must focus on sourcing, recruiting, competing for talent, building leadership and re-engaging the workforce we have,” he said.

“While unemployment is still high, as the economy picks up and skilled workers see new opportunities, people will start changing jobs.”

Bersin by Deloitte indicated that in light of a recovering global economy, organisations could make sure that they retained their best staff by looking beyond the traditional notion of employee engagement, to inject them with passion for their job.

“As organisations source, manage and develop people this year, they must act boldly, throw away old practices and build a compelling, passion-filled work environment,” said Mr Bersin, adding that traditional HR practices such as performance appraisal had to be “re-engineered to attract and keep great people.”

The need to attract and hold onto top quality staff has rarely been so important, and 2014 could see the rise of HR innovations as businesses look to source and keep the best talent. Personality assessments that gauge a candidate's fit for the role and your company, for example, could be a vital tool in making sure you make solid people investments.