2015 to be a tough year for project management

ESI International, a project management training company, predicts that project managers (PMs) will see more hybrid environments, an increasing demand for talent management, and a growing need to align project outcomes more closely with organisational strategy this year.

“All too often people talk about strategy and execution independently. In the coming months we will see a heightened focus on managing the critical links connecting the two, as more organisations begin to view strategic execution as a core discipline,” said Raed Haddad, Managing Director for Asia Pacific, ESI International. 

“The impact on project management is substantial. Project managers, who are typically held accountable for delivering project outcomes, will now also be responsible for how those deliverables impact the business. This will require a retooling of their skill sets, but in the end it elevates the PM’s role as a critical enabler of business strategy, and that’s a very good thing for project managers who can make the jump.”

ESI’s top trends for project management include:

• PMs will not get the training they need 
• Gaps remain between the constraints of cloud-based platforms and business expectations
• PMs sacrifice project transparency and avoid difficult conversations  
• Talent management within the PM community comes back into focus, with the ability to find and hire top PM talent dwindling  
• The disciplines of change management and project management continue to merge as PMs become responsible for delivering project and business outcomes 
• Project management and business strategy better align to the benefit of the organisation, with project outcomes linked to organisational strategy 

“The project manager’s role will continue to evolve in 2015,” said Haddad. “Improving interpersonal skills, learning the discipline of strategic execution, and becoming well versed in change management practices should be on every PM’s list of new year resolutions.”

Click here to download ESI International’s top 10 project management trends.

Differing executions of talent management in Asia

Source: ECN.

Talent management has increasingly become a strategic priority for business leaders fighting for managerial talent across Asia. 

A survey of the Economist Corporate Network's (ECN's) 550 member companies across Asia has found that 95% of CEO respondents feel they are actively involved in talent management. However, the nature of their role and the extent of their involvement varies widely.

Aligned for Success? Strategy, talent management and the role of the CEO in Asia reveals that the involvement of CEOs in human capital issues centres most heavily on strategic and planning activities, such as assessing the future shape of their workforce needs, and organisational design. Many CEOs admit to doing less about the developmental aspects of talent management such as nurturing key skills, training programmes and mentoring future leaders.

Highlights from the report include:

· A high proportion (90%) of respondents are raising their investment in internal talent development, but 65% indicate that they have no clear metrics in place to measure the benefit gained from training programmes.

· CEOs identify leadership, strategic thinking and an ability to manage across cultures as the top three skills missing among their current management bench.

· While nearly all CEOs claim to be the leading voice for, and closely involved with, talent management, most currently devote less than 20% of their time to talent-related issues. At the same time, 43% feel they should be giving more time to developing talent in their companies.

· CEOs are most closely involved with the planning aspect of talent management with fewer than half closely involved in actually developing talent.

· Asia-based CEOs indicate that their HR heads are more closely involved in strategy development than their counterparts in Europe and North America.

· 89% of respondents claim that their talent management strategy is informed by and aligned with their core business strategy.

Justin Wood, Director of the Economist Corporate Network in South-east Asia, said: “Competition for talent is intensifying in many parts of Asia. In Southeast Asia, for example, the value of foreign direct investment inflows reached record levels in 2013, overtaking China. These foreign firms are all looking for management talent to drive their investments. At the same time, local firms in Southeast Asia are also growing quickly and investing internationally, both across the ASEAN region, as well as further afield. This makes the battle for top talent especially intense.

“CEOs regularly claim that people are the number one priority at their firms. Yet all too often a gap exists between their rhetoric and the reality. This is usually because of a disconnect between the CEO’s strategic vision and the implementation by HR leads. This new report reveals how business leaders in the region are now looking to bridge this gap by adopting a more strategic approach to talent management, aligned with their core business strategies.”

Read the Southeast Asian edition of the report here. 

*To explore the challenges of securing and developing the right people with the right capabilities, skills and mindset for business leaders in Asia, the ECN surveyed CEO clients about their role in talent management and the extent to which talent management is aligned with core business strategy. Findings of the regional survey were discussed with CEO-level focus groups in Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore and these insights were used to help inform the final report.

IBM Kenexa Talent Suite puts big data to work for HR

IBM today announced a new software-as-service (SaaS) that allows Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs) and C-Suite executives to gain actionable insights into the data shared by their staff. 

With the cloud-based IBM Kenexa Talent Suite, organisations can streamline and add precision to hiring practices, increase workforce productivity and connect employees in ways that impact business results. 

The software allows HR resources to sift through large volumes of employee data – such as work experience, social engagement, skills development and individual interests – to identify the qualities that make top performers successful. They can then use the findings to locate individuals on social recruiting sites whose skills match these qualities. 

“We know people are the lifeblood of an organisation, and business success on today’s stage requires not just talent but social capabilities that can energise, empower and nurture each team member so they can reach their full potential,” said Craig Hayman, General Manager, Industry Cloud Solutions, IBM. “By combining social, behavioural science and analytics in the cloud, we give businesses a clear path to empower their most valued asset – employees.” 


According to an upcoming IBM C-Suite study that surveyed 342 CHROs representing 18 industries, many businesses are not taking full advantage of the insights delivered by workforce big data and analytics. The study found that just over half of organisations are using workforce analytics, with far fewer applying predictive analytics to optimise decision making and outcomes in areas such as sourcing and recruiting (7%), employee engagement and commitment (9%), talent development (10%) and retention (13%).

The CHRO study also found that human resources executives are in the early stages of applying social approaches within the organisation. Currently, 66% are regularly using social for their recruiting efforts, but only 31% are using it for knowledge sharing and 41% for learning.
 
AMC Entertainment, which is majority-owned by China's Dalian Wanda group, uses recruitment technologies from IBM to gain a deep understanding through data analytics of what it takes to succeed at the organisation. AMC then uses that knowledge to attract candidates who are more likely to succeed once they're hired.  

“Harnessing the power of data gives us a better picture of what top talent looks like in our industry. IBM’s talent management solutions allow us to use data in new ways so we can make better informed decisions that have a greater impact on our business,” said Heather Jacox, Director, Diversity, Recruitment & Development at AMC.

The IBM Kenexa Talent Suite includes the following:
·        Talent acquisition: Includes recruitment, skill and behavioural science-based assessments and onboarding. These functions provide a deep understanding of what the best talent looks like and then how to attract, hire and engage them. 

·        Talent optimisation: Includes performance management, succession planning and compensation planning to empower and get the most out of employees. 

·        Social networking:  Increases productivity with expertise identification and knowledge discovery – connecting employees and accelerating the time to productivity.