Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/94708
Upside NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF WORK Is It Your Forte? Korn/Ferry International announced a strategic partnership with SuccessFactors in October when it unveiled Forte, a career and leadership development application that it will integrate with the SuccessFactors' Business Execution (BizX) suite. As part of the agreement, Korn/Ferry will join SuccessFactors' partner programme. The partnership brings together Korn/Ferry's 20 years of research, intellectual property, and talent management- focussed content with SuccessFactors' offering. Korn/Ferry Forte, commercially available to customers in December 2012, is designed to help clients improve employee engagement and professional development by helping executive-level successors close professional development gaps for upward mobility and improved performance. According to Korn/Ferry, Forte automates, monitors, and advances the leadership development of global professionals and provides a complete career roadmap, available anytime, anywhere, from any device. The application includes solutions for performance management, career transition, learning, assessments, goal setting, and more. Training Wheels Coming Off Lumesse, an integrated talent management solutions provider, in September announced the results of an independent survey it commissioned of 750-plus HR leaders from across the globe. The survey found that 39 per cent of all HR respondents and 35 per cent in the United States cannot sufficiently prepare their workforce for tomorrow's skills demands, leaving 32 per cent of employees overall and 26 per cent in the U.S. feeling insecure in their jobs as a result. The survey also found that 82 per cent of respondents overall agreed that employees have to learn more and faster to succeed in their roles than they did five years ago; yet 51 per cent of HR leaders confirmed that they are some way from delivering to their full potential when it comes to providing employees with the right training programmes and knowledge for their roles. Further key findings: • Only 10 per cent of leaders believe HR is seen as an 'extremely useful partner' by employees for skills development. • Some 71 per cent of HR leaders believe that employees see HR as providing little or no learning, or just the minimum skills for them to succeed. • Some 40 per cent of HR leaders believe that employees would not seek help from HR if they needed to develop new knowledge or skills quickly. • The majority of employees see their colleagues as a more valuable resource for acquiring new skills or knowledge than their internal learning management systems. 13 Healthy Companies According to a new report, for workplace health promotion and wellness programs to succeed globally, senior management must be convinced that these programmess provide value to the business, such as boosting productivity or improving safety, in all regions of the world. Although such programmes are rapidly growing worldwide, lack of employee trust and buy-in are amongst the greatest potential impediments to global success. Released in October, the new report is from Buck Consultants, A Xerox Company which partnered with International Health Consulting (IHC) to complete the research with support from Integrated Health, a Pfizer Solution. It delves into some of the most successful multinational workplace health promotion programs, profiling 13 large multinational employers, such as Intel, Novartis and Chevron, collectively representing over one million employees. Amongst the critical success factors identified for organisations implementing global health promotion, based on the major commonalities uncovered amongst the 13 participating companies: • Focus on value. Articulate a value proposition that has sufficient emphasis on health and well-being factors, in addition to the financial business case. A successful global health strategy recognises that employee health and well-being is a desirable corporate asset—one that impacts everything from recruitment and retention to engagement and employee productivity. For example, Intel has correlated worker productivity with health metrics such as weight and blood pressure. • Communicate goals and benefits. Spend adequate time and effort explaining to employees the reasons, goals, and benefits for providing a health promotion programme. Recognise that not every employee accepts the notion that their employer should be concerned about or involved in their personal health and lifestyle, especially in countries where health benefits are provided by the state. For example, Novartis avoids references to diseases, and instead focusses on positive health behaviors such as exercise, diet, and avoiding tobacco. They believe that this "de-medicalised" approach is more readily accepted by employees. • Leverage personal connections. Engage local resources for cultural adaptation and implementation. Success requires a balance between global strategy and local autonomy. Programmes managed by local staff with personal connections will outperform programmes that are activated through central corporate offices. For example, Chevron has "cardio champions" in West Africa — union or general employees who function as ambassadors for the company's wellness programmes by educating their co-workers and encouraging them to participate. [8] HRO TODAY GLOBAL | FALL 2012