Is There a Skills Shortage Among Business Leaders When Dealing With People?

Do business leaders suffer from a shortage of skills?

Headline findings from the latest HR Outlook Survey research partnership between CIPD and Workday, reveal that many HR professionals believe leaders in their organisation don’t have the behaviours and skills needed to get the best from their people.Their technical, financial and operational competence is high, but many leaders are deemed ineffective at performance management, people management and developing people.

The team at b2b developed the partnership between CIPD and Workday across this research programme for our client CIPD, working to align thinking, brand, relevance, reach and messaging. CIPD and Workday have been working together across the HR Outlook for the past two years.

The report has shown Senior management professionals lack the right balance of effective people management competencies and technical skills. And although ‘performance management’ and ‘people management’ were voted as the top leadership behaviours and skills needed by organisations over the next three years, many of the 629 HR professionals surveyed said leaders’ skills were lacking in these crucial areas. Of those who cited performance management, more than half (53 per cent) said senior leaders’ current skills in this area were ineffective. A further 44 per cent of those who named people management as a crucial skill felt senior leaders’ abilities in this arena were lacking.

The CIPD Workday HR Outlook found that leaders were rated as being most effective on technical ability (30 per cent), budgeting and financial management (19 per cent) and operational management (15 per cent). Only one of these skills – budgeting and financial management – was named by HR professionals in the top 10 leadership behaviours and skills needed in the next three years. The survey is based on responses across all levels of seniority, and examines the topics, trends and challenges currently affecting the HR profession.

Learn about our work with CIPD and our content partnership marketing work and the research programmes and research partnerships we develop for organisations or contact Ali@b2bpartnerships.org to talk to us about how we can help you.