Editor’s Note
By Debbie Bolla, Editor-in-Chief
As we gear up for the HRO Today Forum in May, there is definitely an air of excitement for the networking, knowledge sharing, and fun that will be had at our annual confab. I had the opportunity to get to know our outstanding lineup of 12 CHRO of the Year finalists when writing this month’s cover story, Making on Impact. The accomplishments of this dozen is impressive. The numbers speak for themselves:
• Engagement survey scores over 80 percent
• Between 30 and 40 percent of open positions filled internally
• Employee satisfaction in 90th percentile
• HR cost structure reduced by 30 percent
• Overall employee engagement 10 percent higher than the public sector average
This group is committed to making outstanding transformational efforts for their workforces and many of their initiatives are truly something to aspire to. Find out more on page 10.
One of the key metrics above -filling positions internally -seems to be gaining more and more traction. Is it new? No. Is it more popular in today’s landscape? Yes -at least it seems that way. Could it be driven by the skills gap? The desire to retain employees? The hot talent market? These are certainly all factors encouraging organizations to put real efforts around succession planning. Internal Investments (page 38) explores how organizations are leveraging learning initiatives in order to develop and retain leaders. Today’s multinationals want to source their leaders from within. According to Deloitte’s 2015 Global Human Capital Trends report, 78 percent of respondents feel leadership is very important -which is up 32 percent from last year.
Martha Soehren, chief learning officer and senior vice president for talent management at Comcast University and Comcast Cable, says: “We have found more engaging and supportive leaders have really helped us in our retention efforts.”
Leveraging learning as a retention strategy is a sound investment. New research also shows that a more traditional way of keeping employees happy -compensation -will be more important as the economy continues to recover. Payscale’s 2015 Compensation Best Practices Report finds the primary reason people leave medium and large organizations is to seek higher pay. Companies are taking note: 89 percent say raises are in the plans for 2015. See more findings on page 35.
We will definitely be talking everything HR at the HRO Today Forum, May 4-6, in Philadelphia. Hope to see you there!
