Next-generation workforce to fuel business growth

Staff Report
Dubai - Organisations must act now to address the human capital dilemma with technology to attract, engage and support the next-generation workforce to fuel growth, according to a new study.
While millennials are expected to account for 75 per cent of the global workforce by 2025, business executives are not thinking too much about recruiting millennials.
This is one key insight stemming from a new research studyfrom Epicor Software Corporation, a global provider of industry-specific enterprise software, which underscores the need to address human capital and next-generation workforce requirements to fuel business growth.
Only 39 per cent said recruiting millennials was a "fairly significant" or "major" focus for their organisations, revealing a critical disconnect as "technology leadership" and a "skilled workforce" were top growth stimulants identified by those polled-elements that today's highly connected, technologically advanced millennials can well facilitate.
"The relative indifference in recruiting millennials to the workplace is especially surprising considering they are the fastest-growing generation in the US workforce, and are both technology proficient and digital literate. Businesses that recognise and move to leverage millennial talent can gain significant competitive advantage in today's age of digital disruption," said Celia Fleischaker, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, Epicor Software.
"Our research reveals many human resource challenges stand in the way of business growth that technology can help address. Organisations must re-think their relationship with digitally-literate workers and retool their organisations to attract, connect and empower this next-generation workforce via cloud, mobile, analytics and other enabling technologies."
Fortunately, many organisations are working to develop the technology infrastructure that is necessary to attract and support the workforce of the future. Nearly 80 per cent of business leaders surveyed have made, or are making, investments in integrated IT infrastructure.
Sitting at the intersection of workers and systems to unite information and execution, technology plays a vital role in reducing complexity, improving the quality of work life, and enhancing productivity. Freeing valuable staff from mundane tasks was considered important by 68 per cent of those polled whereas using technology to automate key processes, along with allowing key individuals to focus on more stimulating tasks, was cited as a top goal of 67% of those surveyed.
What's more, technology is necessary to prepare businesses for the next iteration of work encompassing robotics and artificial intelligence. "Today we're talking about workforce strategies concerning millennials; tomorrow we'll be talking about key considerations in the next workplace evolution-when millennials meet machines," said Fleischaker.
Digitally enabling the workforce
One-quarter of executives surveyed said they struggle to retain the best staff, and 59 per cent said they are concerned about staff retention.
Without the right technology in place, organisations can run the risk of staff overload resulting in burn out and attrition. Forty-three per cent of business execs are concerned that growth can increase workloads to a level that places too much pressure on staff prompting key people to leave to work in a more strategic, knowledge-centered role at a larger competitor (40%), or at a company with better technology support (29%). Ensuring access to all the information employees need to do their jobs was considered to be an important factor in retaining key staff by three-quarters (77%) of those surveyed.
Intuitive systems and user interface design can help employees get up and running quickly-especially beneficial for millennials who want to have an immediate impact in the workplace. On-screen guided assistance, embedded training can ensure systems are easy to learn and use. Organizations can support access to information anytime, anywhere via mobile and social capabilities and streamline insights to action through analytics and dashboards.
Global virtual talent pool
Nearly 19 per cent of those surveyed say they currently do not have enough skilled or experienced staff and nearly a quarter of business executives surveyed say it is difficult to recruit skilled workers.
A full 50 per cent of the US workforce is expected to be freelancers by 2020; and with long-term, full-time employment no longer the norm, organisations need to make crucial adjustments.
Capturing the innovation upside
"Ironically, the upside of an ever-shifting workforce is that organisations can benefit from a constant 'revolving door' of talent to capitalise on an influx of new ideas, new perspectives and out-of-the-box disruptive thinking that can be key to commanding market share," said Fleischaker. "Ambition and entrepreneurial spirit was cited by 30 per cent of CEOs surveyed as a key stimulant to growth. Industry research shows a strong positive correlation between collaboration and innovation. Leveraging the cloud and enterprise social networking can support anytime anywhere collaboration for business that knows no boundaries, allowing organizations to capture innovation upside."
As a vital enterprise business system of engagement, Enterprise Resource Planning can be key to supporting the next-generation workforce. Epicor offers a modern ERP platform to capture and automate best practice processes, and integrate data to reveal key insights for better faster decision making and improved collaboration at every level in the organisation.
abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com