News & Press

The 2014 edition of our annual "Perspectives" report has now been published. Rather than focus on a specific theme, this year the report covers a wide range of topics. Some could be regarded as hardy perennials, like talent or diversity, but positioned in a new context. Others (eg outsourcing and zero-hours contracts) report on current areas of preoccupation for the HR function that have important antecedents. Then there are the new(er) kids on the block, like big data and crowdsourcing: novel concepts that again, it could be argued, have long-standing roots in business management.

There has long been a concern about HR's capability to deliver against its promise of being more business attuned, more strategic in orientation and able to add more value to their organisation and its performance. As business/organisational conditions have become more difficult over the last few years, the delivery challenge has intensified. In particular HR's change management skills are being fully tested. The distinction between what HR, learning and development and OD do has been blurred in the search for greater organisational effectiveness. It is no longer good enough to say that OD does change, learning and development does training and HR manages the exits, there has to be an integrated contribution to enhance people management during these troubled times.