Preliminary Findings: Will HR survive or thrive in the Information Age?

Preliminary Findings Released - HR Skills and Development Study

HR is evolving, with the job descriptions of the future requiring a vastly different set of skills than those of the past. This change highlights a number of issues for HR teams. How much time, money and effort must they dedicate to development beyond their current capabilities, and on what topics should they focus?

To help global HR professionals plan their personal and team development activities, we've partnered with People Collider and Thrive HR Exchange to learn more about how HR professionals are preparing themselves for the future, and their plans for skills development in 2021.

The study will take less than 10 minutes to complete and in exchange, you'll receive a full write-up of our findings, as well as results from the initial research conducted by People Collider and Thrive HR Exchange in the Asia region.

It’s not too late to have your say. 

What we know so far

In 2020, people based in the UK and Europe spent 10% more time than those in Asia participating in development activities. Interestingly, informal learning activities were considered more of a priority to those in Asia, with HR teams in the region spending 24% more time on such activities compared with those in the UK and Europe.

The similarities

In 2020, the top 3 development areas for people in both regions were HR, leadership and soft skills.

The focus for HR teams in 2021

Interestingly, our preliminary findings show some clear differences between the regions as they finalise their areas for development in 2021. 

In Asia, HR teams look likely to invest heavily in development activities in analytics/statistics, technology for HR, and leadership.

The picture in the UK and Europe though is very different. With teams in the region focusing their development activities on leadership, soft skills, and analytics/statistics.  

There's still time to have your say

The survey remains open. It will take less than 10 minutes to complete and in exchange, you'll receive a full write-up of our findings, as well as results from the initial research conducted by People Collider and Thrive HR Exchange in the Asia region.

Thanks in advance and we're looking forward to sharing more in-depth results with you.

A big thank you to Philippa “Pip” Penfold, CEO of People Collider for her contribution to this article.

If you'd like to continue the conversation about the upskilling and reskilling of HR, I'd love to hear from you. You can get in touch with me at leanne.kelly@bps-world.com.