International professional services specialist Hays has released research that found that growth, cloud, social, mobile and analytics are among this year’s top HR trends.

 

According to the company’s 2nd annual Human Capital Trends 2012, Leap Ahead report, these trends will provide businesses the opportunities to accelerate growth for 2012 and beyond.

 

The report examines eight major human capital trends that are reshaping the field of HR, while also highlighting major trends that will have the most potential to impact businesses over the next 18-24 months.

 

According to Lisa Barry, Deloitte Consulting’s National Leader of Human Capital, businesses in Australia need to continue to drive growth by ensuring HR boosts capabilities in three key areas: emerging markets, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and innovation.  

 

“In 2012, these three areas are not only offering significant growth opportunities for organisations but also present a wide range of people-related challenges. For example, within emerging markets there is a raft of capabilities, employability and cultural issues impacting on talent which needs to be prioritised in order for growth opportunities to be met.”

 

“Mergers and acquisitions may be a fast way to expand a business but often specific talents and capabilities can be gained using M&A as a strategy. It is critical that HR’s role in M&A activity also leverages culture, leadership and talent in order to gain from these transactions,” said Ms Barry.

 

The report identified that HR and innovation can actively support an organisation’s growth agenda. However, organisations need to ensure innovation is not narrowly defined and includes HR innovations such as aligning people and talent factors like leadership, capabilities, processes, technology and organisational structures.

 

“Innovation must not be relegated to a specific team of people focusing on product development. A more holistic approach to innovation can drive business growth and leaders need to define innovation broadly to include services, processes, and business model and cost structure improvements across an organisation,” added Ms Barry.

 

The report identified specific steps HR can take now in order to support the CEO’s growth agenda:

  • Manage talent with growth in mind
  • Groom business leaders who can drive growth and innovation globally
  • Counsel the executive team  in people-related areas
  • Build an HR team focussed on informing and enabling growth.

 

“It will be those organisations that use HR teams to deal with people related challenges and adjust their HR and talent priorities accordingly that will leap ahead and drive efficiency and value in an organisation” said Ms Barry.

 

The report can be found here