Week 6 Managing Human Talent and Teams

Week 6

Assignment 1: Employ Strategies to Advance Employee Satisfaction and Performance.

Bottom of Form

This assignment calls for you to read the article in this week’s resources, “ENABLE: A solution-focused coaching model for individual and team coaching” (Adams, 2016). Next, you will select a peer or someone in your current or former organization who you are familiar with and arrange to conduct a coaching session. You can meet with the person face-to-face, virtually by phone or through a Skype call. In a role-play situation, pretend you are the manager providing coaching to the person using the ENABLE Coaching Model you read about.

Finally, reflecting on your meeting with the employee, briefly summarize the coaching session in a paper. Evaluate your performance during the session. Were you pleased with the outcome? Do you feel the information you provided in the coaching session was effective? What benefits do you believe were derived from the coaching session for the employee and the organization? What would you do differently? Be sure to use at least 3 scholarly resources in the plan.

Length: 3-4 pages, not including title and reference pages

Assignment 2: Managing Team Conflict

You are a manager of a work team of ten people in various generations. Anthony is 24 and a relatively new employee to your company and your team. He’s definitely thought to be an asset to both. He is very talented, works hard and shows much potential. The company believes he will have great opportunities and doesn’t want to lose him. His work is completed and done well, and he contributes to team goals. He comes into the office late and often leaves early which bothers several of your older employees to see Anthony’s behavior as showing a lack of commitment to the company and disregard for the understood working hours. Heather has worked in the company for seven years.. She prefers to complete projects on her own even when the assignment calls for her to work with others. Her work meets team deadlines and is done as expected. She seldom participates in discussions in team meetings but does not claim credit for completing the assignment alone. Arthur, a twenty-five-year employee, think Anthony is a slacker and Heather is not being “team player,” and Anthony and Heather think that Arthur micromanages. They often refuse to work on team projects with each other. What strategies might you use to help them understand each other and to work together as a team?

In a paper, using at least 3 scholarly resources, discuss the strategies you will impose to bring your team members together as a cohesive and productive team.

Length: 4-5 pages, not including title and reference pages

Week 6: Mini Lecture

Managing Human Talent and Teams

Since human capital is the most important organizational asset, businesses must continually invest in the securing and development of its people. Data from Selvarajan et al. (2007) indicates that human capital enhancement paves the way for greater business innovativeness and in turn offers positive implications on firm performance. It can also be argued that the emphasis on human capital enhancement results in personal improved performance that leads to greater career opportunities.

Not all training and development take place in a classroom. One of the most effective strategies for employee development today is one-to-one business coaching. Leaders and organizations alike have come to understand how valuable coaching can be, and they’re adding coaching skills to the skills they require for managers. Based on asking and clarifying questions rather than telling, on provoking thought rather than providing advice and on holding a person accountable for his or her goals, coaching employees help them learn in ways that let them keep growing afterwards.

Evered and Selman (2012) suggest that we view the manager as a coach, and coaching not as a subset of management, but rather at the heart of management. Successful managers who coach shift their thinking from a traditional paradigm of control, order and prescription to a paradigm designed to acknowledge and empower people and teams towards positive action.

Just as individuals benefit from coaching so does teams. Effective teams that fit and work together are the result of hard work and thoughtful leadership- they don’t just happen. Teams need good leadership to set an example, motivate team members, nurture the soft skills, provide effective feedback and ensure the team is on task. Still, teamwork presents challenges because individuals must work together who have different viewpoints. Managers who coach teams can help them learn how to listen, communicate, understand and appreciate how their teammates see the work and how they prefer to work. Without such an understanding, team members can have conflicts with each other or the manager. It is also important to remember that team conflict can lead to new ideas and approaches to team processes, and increase interest in dealing with problems.

The Coaching Psychologist, Vol. 12, No. 1, June 2016 17
© The British Psychological Society – ISSN: 1748–1104

Introduction

T
HERE ARE a number of well-known
coaching models that can be used in
coaching conversations or engage-

ments. These include:
� I-GROW (Issues, Goal, Reality, Options,

W rap-Up; Whitmore, 2002);
� PRACTICE (Problem Identification,

Realistic goals, Alternative actions,
Considering consequences, Target
feasible solution, Implement Chosen
action, Evaluation; Palmer, 2007, 2008).

� SPACE (Social context, Physiology,
Actions, Cognitions, Emotions; Edgerton
& Palmer, 2005).

Models such as these can provide structure
and momentum to a coaching conversation,
while acting as an aide-memoire to both coach
and coachee as to possible areas of inquiry.
In some cases the acronym can also be useful
as a reminder of specific components of a
particular approach to coaching.

The solution-focused approach ‘places
primary emphasis on assisting the client to
define a desired future state and to construct
a pathway in both thinking and action that
assists the client in achieving that state’

(Cavanagh & Grant, 2014, p.51). From the
solution-focused perspective, it is said to be
counterproductive to spend too much time
and energy on what could be described as
‘problem talk’ – for example, articulating
the detail of ‘the problem’, exploring the
history that led to the client’s current state of
affairs, and hypothesising about causal expla-
nations (de Shazer & Dolan, 2007). Instead,
the emphasis is on the construction of a
preferred future, while supporting the client
to harness their existing resources in the
pursuit of their desired outcome (Berg & De
Jong, 2002; de Shazer, 1985, 1988). The
OSKAR coaching model (Outcome, Scaling,
Know-how, Affirm and action, Review) was
developed by Jackson and McKergow (2002)
to specifically capture some key components
of a solution-focused approach to coaching,
while O’Connell, Palmer and Williams
(2012) have more recently introduced the
SOLUTION coaching model to this end
(Share updates, Observe interests, Listen to
hopes and goals, Understand exceptions,
Tap potential, Imagine success, Own
outcomes, Note contributions). This article

Article

ENABLE: A solution-focused coaching
model for individual and team coaching

Mark Adams

A number of coaching models exist that can add structure, direction and momentum to coaching
conversations, including I-GROW, PRACTICE, SPACE and OSKAR (Whitmore, 2002; Palmer, 2007,
2008; Edgerton & Palmer, 2005; Jackson & McKergow, 2002). This paper introduces a new coaching
model – ENABLE – which captures some of the key components of Solution-Focused Coaching (SFC) while
reflecting a central underlying principle of a solution-focused orientation. The evidence base for the
application of a solution-focused approach to coaching is explored, with specific reference to the impact of
solution-focused practices on the coachee’s sense of hope that change can be achieved. Possible applications
for the ENABLE model are discussed, while caveats about its use are considered. It is suggested that the
ENABLE model could represent a helpful tool for coaches and coaching psychologists, given the versatility
of the solution-focused approach.
Keywords: Solution-focused coaching; coaching models; ENABLE model; hope.

introduces an additional solution-focused
coaching model developed by the author –
ENABLE – that can be applied in coaching
work with individuals and teams.

Solution-focused coaching
A Solution-focused coaching (SFC)
approach is underpinned by a number of
core principles adapted from Solution-
Focused Brief Therapy (Berg & De Jong,
2002; de Shazer, 1985, 1988). A guiding
philosophy of solution-focused working is –
to paraphrase the axiom of William of
Occam – that it is vain to use more to do
what can be achieved with less (see Iveson,
George & Ratner, 2012; O’Connell & Palmer,
2007). In other words, if coaches can help
coachees to achieve change with the applica-
tion of a few simple principles, then the
application of complex theoretical or thera-
peutic approaches/analysis is seen as an
unnecessary self-indulgent luxury. Instead,
the emphasis is on what might be described
as a minimalist or parsimonious approach
(in terms of the theoretical or therapeutic
expertise brought to the relationship by the
helper) that attempts to tap into and harness
what is already working in the coachee’s situ-
ation. Specific principles and techniques
include:
� It is not necessary to understand the

origin of a ‘problem’ in order to begin
constructing a solution; instead, the
coach can support the coachee to obtain
clarity about the preferred future they
would like to see happening.

� There are always exceptions in the
coachee’s life or experience – times when
aspects of the preferred future are
already happening (even if only in part).
These represent valuable sources of
learning, and the coach can actively
guide a search for such exceptions.

� Coachees are resourceful people who
bring strengths, skills and qualities to the
engagement. The coach can attempt to
elicit these and support the coachee to
harness their resources as they begin to
move towards their preferred future.

� Coaches can work with coachees to
support them to build on what is already
working in their life or situation, and to
look for new opportunities to utilise their
existing strengths and resources.

� Throughout the session, the coach can
listen for examples of successes and
strengths. At the end of a coaching
session, the coach can provide the
coachee with feedback about these in an
attempt to enhance the coachee’s sense
of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977; Maddux,
2005).

For further detail about each of these
avenues of exploration, see Iveson, George
and Ratner (2012), O’Connell and Palmer
(2007) or O’Connell, Palmer and Williams
(2012).

The above components of Solution-
Focused Coaching can be represented using
the acronym ENABLE, thus:

Elicit preferred future;
Notice exceptions;
Activate strengths and resources;
Build on what’s working;
Look for opportunities;
Efficacy-supportive feedback.

The acronym itself reflects a fundamental
principle of a solution-focused approach,
specifically that of making change seem
possible by igniting hope in the client
(O’Connell, 2002). Indeed, with its
emphasis on how coachees can harness and
amplify their existing resources to take small
steps towards their desired future, the solu-
tion-focused approach is truly enabling in its
orientation.

The different stages of the ENABLE
model will be described in further detail
below. Before unpacking the model,
however, it is important and instructive to
consider the existing evidence-base for the
solution-focused approach to working.

Evidence of the impact of a solution-
focused approach
Studies in the therapeutic domain have indi-
cated the positive impact of a solution-
focused approach in areas such as child and

18 The Coaching Psychologist, Vol. 12, No. 1, June 2016

Mark Adams

adolescent counselling (Corcoran &
Stephenson, 2000) and in working with
depression (Dahl, Bathel & Carreon, 2000).
O’Connell, Palmer and Williams (2012)
summarise that studies of the impact of the
solution-focused approach in therapeutic
contexts have indicated comparable effec-
tiveness to other therapies while being more
efficient in terms of time and costs (see
Macdonald, 2007, for more details). In ther-
apeutic settings, then, the evidence base is
strongly supportive of a solution-focused
approach to practice.

The evidence base for SFC as specifically
applied to coaching relationships is less well-
developed, but nonetheless the indications
are positive. For example, Green, Oades and
Grant (2006) report that a 10-week
cognitive-behavioural/solution-focused life
coaching programme for adults was associ-
ated with ‘significant increases in goal
striving, wellbeing and hope, with gains
maintained up to 30 weeks later on some
variables’ (p.142). Similarly, Green, Grant
and Rynsaardt (2007) examined the impact
of a combined cognitive-behavioural/solu-
tion-focused life coaching programme for
senior female high school students, and
found that participation in the programme
was associated with ‘significant increases in
levels of cognitive hardiness and hope, and
significant decreases in levels of depression’
(p.24). In both of these examples the overall
conclusions that can be drawn about the
effectiveness of SFC are limited by the fact
that the intervention comprised a combina-
tion of approaches; however, when
discussing the findings from their studies
both sets of authors specifically note that the
use of solution-focused techniques seemed
to enhance hope by helping participants to
determine possible pathways towards their
goals. At the very least, then, these two
studies suggest that solution-focused prac-
tices represent a valuable component of
coaching engagements for enhancing what
might be termed as ‘pathways thinking’
(Green, Grant & Rynsaardt, ibid; c.f. Snyder,
1995).

In summary, then, the evidence base
suggests that the solution-focused approach
lends itself to a variety of applications in both
clinical and coaching contexts, with the
application of solution-focused techniques
being specifically related to increased levels
of hope in coachees. A solution-focused
coaching model that draws upon such prin-
ciples and practices could, therefore, repre-
sent a valuable component of the coach/
coaching psychologist’s toolbox if the aim is
to leave coachees with the sense that change
is both possible and practical. The detail of
the ENABLE model will now be illustrated.

The ENABLE model of solution-
focused coaching
The ENABLE model draws upon the previ-
ously described evidence-informed solution-
focused principles and techniques,
specifically the work of: Berg and De Jong
(2002); de Shazer (1985, 1988); Iveson,
George and Ratner (2012); O’Connell
(2002); O’Connell and Palmer (2007); and
O’Connell, Palmer and Williams (2012).
Readers are referred to those texts for
further details regarding the approach.

Elicit preferred future
Key question: ‘Imagine a time in the future when
you have achieved the goal you want to achieve…
What does that look like?’
A preferred future description captures the
coachee’s vision of life when the hoped-for
outcome has been achieved. Eliciting a
description of the coachee’s preferred future
provides focus and direction to the engage-
ment, and can also serve as a powerful moti-
vator. The coach can support the coachee to
describe a vision of their preferred future
that is clear, specific and sufficiently detailed;
for a summary of how coachee preferred
future descriptions can be further shaped,
see Iveson, George and Ratner (2012).
The preferred future also serves as a bench-
mark against which future progress can be
measured.

The Coaching Psychologist, Vol. 12, No. 1, June 2016 19

ENABLE: A solution-focused coaching model for individual and team coaching

Notice exceptions
Key question: ‘What are the signs now of your
preferred future already happening?’
In solution-focused parlance, exceptions are
either: (i) times when ‘the problem’
happens less; or (ii) times when the
preferred future is already happening, even
if only in part. At this stage the coach can
support the individual or team to identify
specific examples of times when their preferred
future is already happening, or times when
‘the problem’ (if there is one) isn’t quite as
bad. Scaling questions can be used to good
effect to support this exploration, for
example:

‘On a scale from 0 to 10, where 10 is that your
preferred future is already happening, where
are things now? Why there and not any lower?’

These exceptions then become a platform
for the activation of the individual or team’s
resources, and a starting point from which
further change can be considered (see
below).

Activate strengths and resources
Key question: ‘What helped to achieve those
successes?’
A fundamental principle of the solution-
focused approach is that coachees bring
strengths, skills and experience to the
engagement, and it is the role of the coach
to help the coachee to tap into and harness
such resources. Therefore, having brought
exceptions to the coachee’s attention, the
coach can guide an exploration as to what
helped to achieve them. The coach can
listen for strengths and qualities shown by
the coachee, and can ask questions to
further probe for existing resources. It is
here that it can be helpful for the coach to
have a vocabulary of strengths and qualities
so as to support the coachee in naming and
recognising the nature of what it is they are
doing well.

Build on what’s working
Key questions: ‘What would a [n+1] on the scale
look like?’; ‘How can you build on your existing
successes to move forward?’.

Having identified where the coachee is ‘at’
on a scale, and having identified the
resources that have taken the person to that
point, the coach can support the coachee to
identify what their reality might look like if
they were to move a step closer to their
desired future. Scaling questions can be
returned to at this stage, with the coachee
asked to imagine and describe how a small
change in the direction of their preferred
future would manifest (e.g. ‘What would
[n+1] on the scale look like?’). The aim is to
help the coachee to describe in detail the
signs of this movement, in the hope that the
answers will be informative.

At this stage the solution-focused coach is
presented with a choice about whether or
not to ask questions that are specifically
focused on helping the coachee to plan
actions that will take them in the direction of
their desired future. Some writers suggest
that a commitment to a concrete action plan
is an essential component of the solution-
focused coaching process (e.g. Greene &
Grant, 2003); others suggest that implying
the need for action may run the risk of
limiting the coachee’s freedom of thought
or compounding any sense of hopelessness
that the coachee may be experiencing
(Iveson, George & Ratner, 2012). It is impor-
tant to emphasise that the ENABLE model is
more reflective of the former position, in
that it explicitly incorporates action-plan-
ning questions/stages. However, the solu-
tion-focused coach must be aware of both
positions and, crucially, be willing to change
approach to suit the needs of the coachee
before them.

To support the coachee in planning how
to further build on their existing successes,
the coach can ask the coachee to think of
actions that could be taken to help make the
step forward on the scale a reality (‘What
might help you to get to [n+1] on the scale?’; ‘How
can you further use your existing resources?’).
At this stage of the model, the emphasis is on
diverging, that is, considering a range of
possible alternatives in open exploration
(Downey, 2003).

20 The Coaching Psychologist, Vol. 12, No. 1, June 2016

Mark Adams

When coaching with teams, this stage can
also support the cross-fertilisation of
successful practices. In such circumstances,
the key question can become: ‘How can you
learn from each other’s successes to further develop
your practice?’ For example, team members
can each reflect on strategies used by their
colleagues and then consider the extent to
which they can take on such strategies them-
selves.

Look for opportunities
Key question: ‘What are you going to do in the
coming days or weeks?’
If the preceding stage of the model is about
possibilities, then this stage is about
converging on particular ideas and turning
those possibilities into action (c.f. Downey,
2003). The coach can support the coachee
to identify specific times or situations when
the ideas generated at the previous stage can
be made a reality. The emphasis is on identi-
fying specific, concrete actions that the
coachee can implement, in an attempt to
enhance the likelihood that the coachee will
take action in the direction of change.

Efficacy-supportive feedback
Throughout the conversation, the coach can
listen for strengths and qualities shown by the
individual or team, and then provide specific
feedback about these at the end of the
session. The aim is to affirm aspects of the
coachee’s behaviour, and to strengthen the
coachee’s belief in their capacity to achieve
success through their actions. For example:
‘I’ve noticed that, as a team, you’ve previously
been able to successfully embed a common
approach to working’ or ‘In my view that
seemed to take both courage and integrity’.

Structured coaching models: A caution
While the ENABLE model is helpful in terms
of delineating some of the key components
of the solution-focused approach, it is impor-
tant to emphasise a number of caveats about
its application. Firstly, the model does not
capture every solution-focused practice
described in the literature, and there are

other important aspects of solution-focused
working (e.g. exploring pre-session change,
engaging in problem-free talk, contracting
as to the coachee’s best hopes for the
meeting, setting a ‘noticing’ task in which
the coachee looks for signs of their preferred
future happening) that are not reflected in
the ENABLE model. Coaches will, therefore,
need to ensure they are familiar with these
other aspects of solution-focused working,
and to then make their own decisions about
if and when to integrate the ENABLE
approach into their conversation. Moreover,
application of the model needs to take place
within the context of a sound collaborative
alliance to enhance the likelihood of
achieving positive outcomes; that is,
coaching needs to take place within the
context of a constructive interpersonal rela-
tionship, with agreement about the goals
and tasks that will be explored (see Bordin,
1979; Murphy & Duncan, 2007). Application
of the model should not distract the coach’s
attention away from these vital considera-
tions. Finally, as is the case with any coaching
model, the ENABLE structure should not be
rigidly adhered to in the order described in
this paper; rather, coaches should feel free to
move fluidly around the components of the
model as is relevant to the needs of the
coachee and the conversation. In this way
the ENABLE model is a guide rather than a
prescription of a set sequence of conversa-
tional elements.

Applications
O’Connell and Palmer (2007) draw upon
the existing literature and research base to
summarise multiple possible applications of
the solution-focused approach, including:
� education;
� coaching;
� mental health;
� substance misuse;
� parent training;
� supervision;
� business and management;
� organisational change;
� team coaching and development.

The Coaching Psychologist, Vol. 12, No. 1, June 2016 21

ENABLE: A solution-focused coaching model for individual and team coaching

The model described in this paper could,
therefore, be applied in any of the afore-
mentioned contexts. Readers who would like
to see a more detailed description of a
specific application of the ENABLE model
are referred to Adams (2015), which reports
on how the model was applied in an educa-
tion setting to help a team of Early Years
practitioners to develop their working prac-
tices for supporting children with Special
Educational Needs and Disabilities.

Conclusions
The solution-focused approach has long been
recognised as an optimistic and respectful way
of working with clients to help them to move
towards their desired futures. The ENABLE
coaching model described in this paper
captures some of the core components of the
solution-focused approach, while the
acronym itself reflects a central principle of
this enabling way of working. It is hoped that
the ENABLE model described in this paper
will support coaches, coaching psychologists
and other professionals in remembering and
applying some of the key components of the
solution-focused approach, which is suffi-
ciently versatile to have applications in a
broad range of contexts. If one of the aims of
coaching is to enhance the coachee’s strength
of belief that change is both possible and
practical, then the ENABLE model (either on
its own in combination with other
approaches) could represent a helpful tool in
the coach’s repertoire.

Correspondence
Mark Adams
Educational & Coaching Psychologist,
Adams Psychology Services,
Box 39, 42 Triangle West,
Bristol BS8 1ES.
E-mail:
mark@adamspsychologyservices.co.uk
Website:
www.adamspsychologyservices.co.uk

22 The Coaching Psychologist, Vol. 12, No. 1, June 2016

Mark Adams

Adams, M. (2015). Coaching psychology in schools:
Enhancing performance, development and wellbeing.
Oxon: Routledge.

Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying
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Bordin, E.S. (1979). The generalisability of the
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252–260.

Cavanagh, M. & Grant, A. (2014). The solution-
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complete handbook of coaching (2nd ed., pp.51–64).
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Corcoran, J. & Stephenson, M. (2000). The effective-
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Dahl, R., Bathel, D. & Carreon, C. (2000). The use of
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The Coaching Psychologist, Vol. 12, No. 1, June 2016 23

ENABLE: A solution-focused coaching model for individual and team coaching

References

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Week 6

Assignment

: Employ Strategies to Advance Employee Satisfaction and Performance.

Bottom of Form

This assignment calls for you to read the article in this week’s resources, “ENABLE: A solution-focused coaching model for individual and team coaching” (Adams,

016). Next, you will select a peer or someone in your current or former organization who you are familiar with and arrange to conduct a coaching session. You can meet with the person face-to-face, virtually by phone or through a Skype call. In a role-play situation, pretend you are the manager providing coaching to the person using the ENABLE Coaching Model you read about.

scholarly resources in the plan.

Length: 3-4 pages, not including title and reference pages

Assignment 2: Managing Team Conflict

Bottom of Form

In a paper, using at least 3 scholarly resources, discuss the strategies you will impose to bring your team members together as a cohesive and productive team.

Length: 4-5 pages, not including title and reference pages

References:

https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/podcast-tips-for-managing-conflict-at-work

https://blog.shrm.org//blog/five-generations-in-the-workforce-scenarios-to-consider

Also references attached.

MBA-5110: Week 6 Grading Rubrics

Content (8 Points)		Points
			1	Details are included regarding the coaching session using the ENABLE model.	3
		2	An analysis and personal assessment on the outcomes of the coaching session is discussed including the benefits derived for the employee and the organization.
There is discussion regarding reason your level of satisfaction with the coaching session and what you would have done differently.	2
	Organization (2 Point)
Organized and presented in a clear manner. Included a minimum of three (3) scholarly references, with appropriate APA formatting applied to citations and paraphrasing; 3-4 pages in length.
	Total	10

Week 6 – Assignment 2: Managing Team Conflict

Points

Organization (2 Point)

Total

Content (3 Points)

The assignment sufficiently discusses strategies imposed with evidence in an effort towards a cohesive and productive team.

Organized and presented in a clear manner. Included a minimum of three (3) scholarly references, with appropriate APA formatting applied to citations and paraphrasing; 4-5 pages in length.

www.humancapitalonline.com ■30 � November 2015

T
experience, of different gender and
ages shouldn’t be underestimated.
In fact managing diverse teams
continues to remain one of the
success factors (and challenges !!) of
large and old organisations. But,
managing these teams can
sometimes prove to be an Achilles’
heels for many organisations.

he challenge of leading
groups of people from
different backgrounds, with
wide ranging aspirations and

L E A R N I N G & D E V E L O P M E N T

collaborative interaction. These
teams work best where operations
are multi-product, multi-function
and multi-location. And companies
have realised that in order to foster
organisational agility and ensure
quick response times, having diverse
and cross-functional teams is the
way to go.

Challenges of managing
diverse teams
Nowadays, workforces are becoming

In today’s dynamic and fiercely
competitive business environment,
diverse teams have to be realised
and leveraged as a competitive
advantage as organisations are
increasingly using work teams as
functional tools to achieve their
strategic objectives. As per Stephen
Covey, “Strength lies in differences,
not in similarities.” The rationale for
using diverse teams is that there are
inherent synergies as teams allow
both functional specialisation and

The rationale for using diverse teams is that there are inherent synergies as

teams allow both functional specialisation and collaborative interaction.

These teams work best where operations are multi-product, multi-function

and multi-location. – by Saurav Ray

Unity in diversity –

Managing
diverse teams

Unity in diversity –
Managing
diverse teams

www.humancapitalonline.com■ November 2015 � 31

L E A R N I N G & D E V E L O P M E N T

increasingly diverse with a mix of
cultures, languages, functionalities
and geographies that would not have
been possible two decades back.
Although this mix will bring increased
range, expertise and adaptability to
a company, it also presents several
unique challenges for today’s team
leaders and HR managers.

One of the major challenges
facing organisations promoting
diverse teams is resistance. Every
workplace has people who resist
diversity and the changes it brings,
even in the most positive of
environments. Negative attitudes can
damage morale, slow down positive
changes and decrease employee
productivity.

Although gender diversity is now
pretty much balanced in sectors like
IT/ITES and service, women
employees are still considered to be
an unacceptable norm in
manufacturing sectors. The
manufacturing sector is heavily
skewed towards male employees and
the percentage of women employees
in this sector is dismal. That too,
whatever female employees are
found in manufacturing are in
support functions. You would see a
rare instance of a female employee
working in the shopfloor, which is
quite unlike some countries like
Europe and Japan where the number
of women employees on the
shopfloor are quite significant,
although the trend now seems to be
changing in India. Organisations like
IBM have acknowledged diversity as
a strategic imperative and have
created special task forces to ensure
that diversity is well accepted and
encouraged in the organisation
through forums like WILL (Women
in Learning and Leadership).

Employee resistance can be
handled through workshops on team
building and employees getting to
know each other in formal and
informal settings.

Another challenge that greatly
differing backgrounds can present is
communication difficulties, which
sometimes cause disruptions in the
collaborative fabric of the team.
Assuming you don’t have team
members who are overtly prejudiced
against other cultures or nationalities,
you could still face the challenge of
strongly ingrained belief systems and
expectations. Methods of
communication that are normal for
one group of people may appear
ineffective or improper to another
group. For example, Americans tend
to be informal compared to many
other cultures and may come across
as excessively friendly to someone,
particularly an older person, from
Europe or Japan. A person from a
culture where loud voices and
interrupting are not intended to be
aggressive may intimidate someone
from a culture that teaches a more
reserved manner of expression.
Learning in advance about the

cultures of co-workers before you
work on a team with them can help
you understand their methods of
communication. As the leader,
you’re the one expected to overcome
these challenges and ensure that the
team achieves the stated goals.

If you are an expatriate – leading
an organisation in a country to which
you are not native – the potential
challenges take on a new aspect. The
requirements for multi-national
leaders can be daunting. Global
executives need the same knowledge
and capabilities as domestic
executives, as well as special
attributes and skills to deal in
unknown and often radically different
cultures and environments. Multi-
national organisations like Honda, LG
and Tata Motors, to name a few, have
developed cross-cultural training
modules which an expatriate is
expected to attend when he or she
comes to India. Likewise Indian
employees being sent on a global
deputation is also taken through these
training sessions which focuses on
cross-cultural diversities and
etiquettes. This enables the individual
to overcome challenges of settling
down in a new country with a new
team.

Doing it right
Twenty-first century organisations
are challenged by diversity in many
arenas. Demographic changes in
workforce composition and
customer populations, combined
with globalised markets and
international competition are
increasing the amount of diversity
organisations must manage, both
internally and externally. Leaving
aside whatever challenges diversity
management may pose, the cultural
diversity in today’s scenario adds lot
of advantages to an organisation.
Organisations like Accenture have
embraced diversity and leveraged it
for competitive advantage.
Accenture’s enduring core values –
stewardship, best people, client value
creation, one global network, respect
for the individual and integrity – have
worked in support of inclusion and
diversity since the organisation’s
founding. In 2003, Accenture

www.humancapitalonline.com ■32 � November 2015

In a career spanning over 16 years,

Saurav has worked in various diverse

industries and cultures across different

HR systems and sub-systems. His areas of

interest include leadership development,

change management, talent

management and organisational

development. He can be reached at

saurav.ray1973@gmail.com

Saurav Ray
Dy. General Manager – HR

Federal-Mogul India

L E A R N I N G & D E V E L O P M E N T

formally established a ‘Global
Inclusion and Diversity’ corporate
function to provide strategic
guidance and support for
Accenture’s diversity programs and
activities in all countries around the
world. Companies like Hindustan
Unilever is changing the paradigm
of diversity in India. It’s nail products
factory in Haridwar is run by an all-
women’s team. Other companies in
the FMCG space like Gits Food
Products and P&G are also following
suit.

Another company which has
always ensured that its workforce has
always reflected the communities in
which it does its business is Ford
Motors. Recognising the company’s
day-by-day growth in diversity in the
company, Ford realised that it needed
to strategically and effectively
manage the diverse workforce to
enable its implementation continue
to work to the company’s advantage.
Ford therefore recognised some
measures like its global diversity
vision of diversity and inclusion to
attract new diverse workforce.

Way Forward
To summarise, on the one hand,
workplace diversity not only covers
the differences between coworkers
and colleagues, but also the
acceptance, understanding and
celebration of those differences.
Diversity in a company offers a

variety of perspectives during
decision making, access to a wider
audience or client base and increased
productivity, according to an article
on Multicultural Advantage, an online
business resource. On the other
hand, establishing and managing a
diverse environment has preventable
and curable challenges that can be
damaging to the company.

The only way of ensuring
effectiveness towards diversity
management is accepting it and
embracing it with open hands. A
first step towards popularising
diversity management within an
organisation is creating awareness
amongst the employees through
various communication channels
and living it in letter and spirit.
Employees should realise and
appreciate that diversity and
inclusion is a way of life within the
organisation. The New Companies
Act 2013 mandates greater
representation of women on boards
in India Inc., which will pave the
way for including more women in
the Indian workforce.

Diversity must be supported by a
truly inclusive workplace, in which
individuals are acknowledged and
valued for all the different
perspectives, ideas and experiences
that they bring to their workplace.
Only then can a diversity
management program work for an
organisation.

� One of the major challenges facing organisations promoting diverse teams is

resistance. Every workplace has people who resist diversity and the changes it

brings, even in the most positive of environments.

� Learning in advance about the cultures of co-workers before you work on a team

with them can help you understand their methods of communication.

� As the leader, you’re the one expected to overcome these challenges and ensure

that the team achieves the stated goals.

� Diversity in a company offers a variety of perspectives during decision making,

access to a wider audience or client base and increased productivity.

� The only way of ensuring effectiveness towards diversity management is accepting

it and embracing it with open hands.

� A first step towards popularising diversity management within an organisation is

creating awareness amongst the employees through various communication

channels and living it in letter and spirit.

takeaways

Copyright of Human Capital is the property of Oswal Printers & Publishers Pvt. Ltd and its
content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the
copyright holder’s express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email
articles for individual use.

Global Human Capital Trends

The new organization

: Different by design

Deloitte’s Human Capital professionals leverage research, analytics,

and industry insights to help design and execute the HR, talent,

leadership, organization, and change programs that enable

business performance through people performance. Visit the

“Human Capital” area of www.deloitte.com to learn more.

http://www.deloitte.com

Contents

Introduction

: The new organization | 1
Different by design

Organizational design | 1

The rise of teams

Leadership awakened |

Generations, teams, science

Shape culture |

7
Drive strategy

Engagement |

7
Always on

Learning |

7
Employees take charge

Design thinking | 67
Crafting the employee experience

HR |

Growing momentum toward a new mandate

People analytics |

7
Gaining speed

Digital HR |

7
Revolution, not evolution

The gig economy |

5
Distraction or disruption?

The new organization: Different by design

Introduction

Sweeping global forces are reshaping the workplace, the workforce,
and work itself. To help organizations and their leaders understand
these changes, Deloitte presents the

16 Global Human
Capital Trends report, based on more than 7,000 responses
to our survey in over

0 countries around the world.

THE theme of this year’s report—“The new organization: Different by design”—
reflects a major finding: After three years of
struggling to drive employee engagement
and retention, improve leadership, and build
a meaningful culture, executives see a need
to redesign the organization itself, with

percent of survey participants rating this as
a critical priority. The “new organization,” as
we call it, is built around highly empowered
teams, driven by a new model
of management, and led by a
breed of younger, more globally
diverse leaders.

To lead this shift toward
the new organization, CEOs
and HR leaders are focused on
understanding and creating
a shared culture, designing a
work environment that engages
people, and constructing a new
model of leadership and career
development. In competition
for skilled people, organizations are vying for
top talent in a highly transparent job market
and becoming laser-focused on their external
employment brand. Executives are embrac-
ing digital technologies to reinvent the work-
place, focusing on diversity and inclusion as a
business strategy, and realizing that, without a
strong learning culture, they will not succeed.

Amidst these changes, the HR
function is taking on a new role as
the steward and designer of these new
people processes. The mission of the HR leader
is evolving from that of “chief talent execu-
tive” to “chief employee experience officer.” HR
is being asked to simplify its processes, help
employees manage the flood of information
at work, and build a culture of collaboration,
empowerment, and innovation. This means

that HR is redesigning almost everything it
does—from recruiting to performance man-
agement to onboarding to rewards systems.
To do this, our research suggests that HR
must upgrade its skills to include the areas
of design thinking, people analytics, and
behavioral economics.

The new organization
Different by design

After three years of struggling to drive
employee engagement and retention,
improve leadership, and build a
meaningful culture, executives see a need
to redesign the organization.

The new organization: Different by design
1

The forces of global change
What are the forces driving this demand to

reorganize and redesign institutions around
the world? We see a series of drivers coming
together to create disruptive change in the
talent landscape:

First, demographic upheavals have made the
workforce both younger and older, as well as
more diverse. Millennials now make up more
than half the workforce, and they bring high
expectations for a rewarding, purposeful work
experience, constant
learning and develop-
ment opportunities, and
dynamic career progres-
sion. At the same time,
Baby Boomers working
into their

s and

s are
being challenged to adapt
to new roles as men-
tors, coaches, and often
subordinates to junior
colleagues. Also, the
global nature of business
has made the workforce
more diverse, demanding a focus on inclusion
and shared beliefs to tie people together.

Second, digital technology is now every-
where, disrupting business models and radi-
cally changing the workplace and the way work
is done. Technologies such as mobile devices,
3D printing, sensors, cognitive computing,
and the Internet of Things are changing the
way companies design, manufacture, and
deliver almost every product and service, while
digital disruption and social networking have
changed the way organizations hire, manage,
and support people. Innovative companies are
figuring out how to simplify and improve the
work experience by applying the disciplines
of design thinking and behavioral economics,
embracing a new approach that we call “digital
HR.”

Third, the rate of change has accelerated.
Fifty years of operating under Moore’s Law—
the axiom that computing power doubles every

two years—have not only propelled technol-
ogy innovation forward but also significantly
increased the pace of change in business as
a whole, requiring organizations to be more
agile. Rapid business-model innovation from
companies such as Uber and Airbnb is forc-
ing organizations to respond and reposition
themselves quickly to meet new challenges.
In our highly connected, fast-changing world,
“black swan” events (those of low probability
and high impact) also seem to be more signifi-

cant, reinforcing the need
for agility.

Fourth, a new social
contract is developing
between companies and
workers, driving major
changes in the employer-
employee relationship.
The days when a majority
of workers could expect
to spend a career mov-
ing up the ladder at one
company are over. Young
people anticipate working

for many employers and demand an enriching
experience at every stage. This leads to expec-
tations for rapid career growth, a compelling
and flexible workplace, and a sense of mission
and purpose at work. Today, contingent, con-
tract, and part-time workers make up almost
one-third of the workforce,1 yet many compa-
nies lack the HR practices, culture, or leader-
ship support to manage this new workforce.

Our global research

Now in its fourth year, Deloitte’s 2016
Global Human Capital Trends report is one
of the largest longitudinal studies of talent,
leadership, and HR challenges and readiness
around the world. The research described in
this report involved surveys and interviews
with more than 7,000 business and HR leaders
from 1

countries. (See the appendix to this
chapter for details on survey demographics.)

We see a series of
drivers coming
together to create
disruptive change in
the talent landscape.

Global Human Capital Trends

2016

The survey asked business and HR respondents
to assess the importance of specific talent chal-
lenges facing their organization.

The top 10 human capital
trends for 2016

In 2016, organizational design rocketed to
the top of the agenda among senior executives
and HR leaders worldwide, with 92 percent
rating it a key priority. Perennial issues such
as leadership, learning, and HR skills con-
tinue to rank high in importance, as they
have in each of the four years of this annual
study. Yet this year, a key shift is under way,
as corporate leaders turn a more focused eye
toward adapting their organization’s design to

compete successfully in today’s highly chal-
lenging business environment and competitive
talent market.

Culture and engagement are also a major
concern for the C-suite. This reflects, in part,
the rise of social networking tools and apps
that leave companies more transparent than
ever, whether they like it or not. Top executives
increasingly recognize the need for a conscious
strategy to shape their corporate culture,
rather than having it defined for them through
Glassdoor or Facebook.

Figure 2 presents this year’s trends ranked
in order of their importance as rated by
survey respondents.

Figure 1. The 2016 Global Human Capital Trends research identified 10 important trends

Graphic: Deloitte University Press | DUPress.com

The new organization: Different by design
3

Organizational design:
The rise of teams

As companies strive to become more agile
and customer-focused, organizations are shift-
ing their structures from traditional, functional
models toward interconnected, flexible teams.
More than nine out of ten executives surveyed
(92 percent) rate organizational design as a top
priority, and nearly half (45 percent) report
their companies are either in the middle of a
restructuring (

percent) or planning one (6
percent).

A new organizational model is on the rise: a
“network of teams” in which companies build
and empower teams to work on specific busi-
ness projects and challenges. These networks
are aligned and coordinated with operations
and information centers similar to command
centers in the military. Indeed, in some ways,
businesses are becoming more like Hollywood

movie production teams and less like tra-
ditional corporations, with people coming
together to tackle projects, then disbanding
and moving on to new assignments once the
project is complete.

This new structure has sweeping implica-
tions, forcing programs such as leadership
development, performance management,

Graphic: Deloitte University Press | DUPress.com

Figure 2. The 10 trends ranked in order of importance

Organizational design

0%-10%-20%-30% 10% 20% 3

Percentage of total responses

Somewhat/not important Very important/important

% 70% 80%

Leadership

Culture

Engagement

Learning

Design thinking

Changing skills of
the HR organization

People analytics

Digital HR

Workforce management

8% 9

% 86%

15% 8

16% 8

% 77%

26%

Global Human Capital Trends 2016

learning, and career progression to adapt.
Challenges still remain: Only 14 percent of
executives believe their companies are ready to
effectively redesign their organizations; just 21
percent feel expert at building cross-functional
teams, and only

percent understand the way
their people work together in networks.

Leadership awakened:
Generations, teams, science

Fully 89 percent of executives in this year’s
survey rated the need to strengthen, reengi-
neer, and improve organizational leadership as
an important priority. The traditional pyramid-
shaped leadership development model is
simply not producing leaders fast enough to
keep up with the demands of business and the
pace of change.

More than half of surveyed executives (56
percent) report their companies are not ready
to meet leadership needs. Only 7 percent state

that their companies have accelerated leader-
ship programs for Millennials, although

percent report making progress—a jump from

percent last year. While investment in lead-
ership development has grown by 10 percent
since 2015, progress has been uneven. In fact,
more than one in five companies (21 percent)
have no leadership programs at all.2

Our findings suggest that organizations
need to raise the bar in terms of rigor, evi-
dence, and more structured and scientific
approaches to identifying, assessing, and devel-
oping leaders, and that this process needs to
start earlier in leaders’ careers. This is likely to
also involve teaching senior leaders to take on
new roles to make way for younger leaders.

Shape culture: Drive strategy
Last year, “culture and engagement”

ranked as the most important issue overall.
This year, we asked executives about culture

Graphic: Deloitte University Press | DUPress.com

Figure 3. The relationship between culture and engagement

Culture:
The way things

work around here

Mission and purpose

Hands-on management

Inclusion

The work environment

Clear goals

Recognition

Meaningful work

Compensation

Development and career

Risk and
governance

Courage

Trusted leadership

Innovation

Reward systems

Engagement:
The way people feel
about the way things

work around here
The new organization: Different by design
5

and engagement separately—and both placed
near the top of the importance list, with 86
percent citing culture as an important or very
important issue.

Why the separate rankings? Both are
critical human capital issues today, and each
requires a CEO-level commitment and strong
support from HR if they are to be understood,
measured, and improved. However, they are
different concepts and need a different focus
and set of solutions. Culture describes “the
way things work around here,” while engage-
ment describes “how people feel about the way
things work around here.”

That said, culture and engagement are also
linked. When a company’s culture is aligned
with its values, it attracts those who feel com-
fortable in that culture, which in turn helps
companies to motivate people, leading to a

high level of engagement (see figure 3).
In this year’s survey, the percentage of

executives who believe their companies are
driving the “right culture” rose from 10 percent
to 12 percent—a small sign of progress. Yet
fewer than one in three executives (

percent)
report that they understand their organiza-
tion’s culture.

Engagement: Always on
Employee engagement is a headline issue

throughout business and HR. An overwhelm-
ing majority of executives in this year’s survey

(85 percent) ranked engagement as a top prior-
ity (that is, important or very important).

Building a compelling and meaningful work
environment is a complex process.3 At the
same time, the world of employee engagement
and feedback is exploding. Annual engagement
surveys are being replaced by “employee listen-
ing” tools such as pulse surveys, anonymous
social tools, and regular feedback check-ins by
managers. All these new approaches and tools
have given rise to the “employee listening”
officer, an important new role for HR.

In terms of readiness, companies are mak-
ing progress. The percentage of executives who
believe their organizations are “very ready” to
deal with engagement issues increased from
10 percent in 2015 to 12 percent in 2016, while
those who feel they are “fully ready” rose from

percent to

percent. These are hope-

ful signs, but even with this increase,
only 46 percent of companies report
that they are prepared to tackle the
engagement challenge.

Learning: Employees
take charge

This year,

percent of executives
rated learning as important or very
important. This focus on learning
seems appropriate, as learning oppor-
tunities are among the largest drivers
of employee engagement and strong

workplace culture—they are part of the entire
employee value proposition, not merely a way
to build skills.

Compared to last year, companies appear to
be making strides in adopting new technolo-
gies and embracing new learning models. The
percentage of companies that feel comfortable
incorporating massive open online courses
(MOOCs) into their learning platforms rose to

percent from 30 percent last year, while the
percentage who said the same about advanced
video tripled from 5 percent to 15 percent.

These gains signal increasing recognition
among executives and HR leaders that learning

Culture describes “the way things
work around here,” while engagement
describes “how people feel about the
way things work around here.”

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
6

must adapt to a world where employees
demand continuous learning opportunities
through innovative platforms tailored to their
individual schedules. A new type of employee
learning is emerging that is more “consumer-
like” and that brings together design thinking,
content curation, and an integrated model
offering an end-to-end designed learning expe-
rience. However, companies still face tremen-
dous challenges in realizing this vision. Even
as spending on learning rose 10 percent last
year (to over $140 billion),4 only

percent of
companies believe their programs
are effective, and only 30
percent believe corporate
learning is the center of
learning today.5

Design thinking:
Crafting the
employee
experience

Design think-
ing is emerging as a
major new trend in
HR. Global Human
Capital Trends
highlighted the first
inklings of this issue
two years ago when we identified the “over-
whelmed employee” as a significant talent con-
cern, with employees struggling to deal with
a flood of emails and information, grappling
with demanding work assignments and being
on

/7. Last year’s Global Human Capital
Trends report identified HR’s attempts to “sim-
plify” the work environment as a response to
the overwhelmed employee situation.

Now, innovative HR organizations are tak-
ing their efforts a step further by incorporating
design thinking into their approach to manag-
ing, supporting, and training people. Instead of
building “programs” and “processes,” lead-
ing HR organizations are studying people to
help develop interventions, apps, and tools
that help make employees less stressed and
more productive.

In this year’s survey, 79 percent of execu-
tives rank design thinking as a high priority
when it comes to meeting talent challenges.
While only 12 percent of respondents overall
believe that design thinking is prevalent in
their current talent programs, 50 percent of
those executives who rate their talent programs
as excellent state that they apply design think-
ing well, and self-identified high-performing
companies are three to four times more likely
than their competitors to be applying design
thinking to their people practices. Clearly,

design thinking is emerging as a best practice
for leading companies and innovative

HR organizations.

HR: Growing
momentum
toward a new
mandate

Many HR organiza-
tions appear to be “get-
ting it” when it comes
to upgrading the skills,

capabilities, and experi-
ence of their teams. Compared to

last year, the percentage of execu-
tives who rank HR skills as a top priority fell
slightly. More than two-thirds of executives
in this year’s survey (

percent) report their
companies have solid development programs
for HR professionals, and 60 percent believe
they are holding HR accountable for talent and
business results—both a higher proportion
than a year ago.

Best of all, HR organizations’ scorecard
shows a marked and steady improvement. Four
out of ten executives report their companies
are ready to address the skills gaps in HR—an
increase of 30 percent over 2015. And the
percentage of executives who rate their HR
organizations as “good or excellent” in deliver-
ing business-relevant talent solutions increased
as well.

For the first time in the four years of the
Global Human Capital Trends report, there are

The new organization: Different by design
7

http://dupress.com/articles/hc-trends-2014-overwhelmed-employee/

http://dupress.com/articles/work-simplification-human-capital-trends-2015/

real signs of change and progress: HR teams
are learning to experiment with new ideas;
they are making significant steps to upgrade
skills; and a new generation of younger, more
business-savvy and technology-empowered
people is entering the profession.

People analytics: Gaining speed
As technology makes data-driven HR

decision making a possibility, 77 percent of
executives now rate people analytics as a key
priority, up slightly from last year. In response,
companies are building people analytics teams,
rapidly replacing legacy systems, and combin-
ing separate analytics groups within HR into
one strategic function. In 2016,

percent of
companies are now correlating business impact
to HR programs, up from

percent in 2015.
Forty-four percent are now using workforce
data to predict business performance, up from
29 percent last year.

One of the biggest new trends in people
analytics is also starting to accelerate: leverag-
ing external data—such as data from social
networking platforms, employment brand
data, data on hiring patterns, and external
turnover and demographic data—to predict
workforce trends and target top talent. Today,
29 percent of companies believe they are
performing well in this area, and 8 percent rate
themselves excellent.

A variety of new tools and data sources
have entered this domain. Employee feedback
and engagement systems, real-time narrative
analysis, and off-the-shelf predictive models

from almost every talent management
vendor are now available.

Companies are entering
a “golden age” of people
analytics—and progress

could accelerate.

Digital HR: Revolution,
not evolution

The all-digital world is changing how we
live and work, creating two major challenges.
First, how will HR help business leaders and
employees shift to a “digital mind-set”—a digi-
tal way of managing, organizing, and leading
change? Second, how will HR itself revolution-
ize HR processes, systems, and organizations
to adopt new digital platforms, apps, and ways
of delivering HR services?

This year’s chapter on digital HR focuses
on the second part of the challenge: how to
reimagine HR and the employee experience
in a digital world. Innovative HR organiza-
tions are integrating mobile and cloud tech-
nologies to build an app-based set of services
designed to incorporate HR programs into an
employee’s daily life. More than simply replac-
ing old HR systems, digital HR means creating
an entire platform of services built around ease
of use. By bringing together design thinking
and mobile technology, companies can now
develop their own custom apps to make work
easier, more productive, and more enjoyable.

This year, 74 percent of executives identified
digital HR as a top priority, and it will likely
be a major focus in 2016. The trend is moving
rapidly:

percent of companies are adapting
their existing HR systems for mobile, device-
delivered, just-in-time learning;

percent are
developing mobile apps that integrate back-
office systems for ease of use by employees;
and 51 percent are leveraging external social
networks in their own internal apps for recruit-
ment and employee profile management.

Companies are entering
a “golden age” of people
analytics—and progress
could accelerate.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
8

The gig economy: Distraction
or disruption?

When it comes to meeting heightened
talent needs, top HR organizations must
increasingly learn to integrate and leverage
the part-time and contingent workforce. More
than seven out of ten executives and HR lead-
ers (71 percent) ranked the trend as important
or very important.

Operating effectively in the gig economy
poses a number of questions. How can com-
panies best use and schedule external staff to
improve the productivity of their own workers
and increase profitability? How can com-
panies leverage contingent work-
ers to access some of the most
talented and highly skilled
people in the workforce?

Many companies are
struggling with the chal-
lenge. Only

percent
of executives surveyed
believe their companies fully
understand the labor laws
that govern contingent workers,
and only 11 percent have com-
plete management processes for the
contingent part of the workforce. This

suggests that companies need to take a more
deliberate approach as the size and scope of
the contingent workforce continues to grow in
the coming years. Workforce management will
also have to address the tremendous growth in
cognitive computing and other smart tech-
nologies that are likely to eliminate jobs, create
new jobs, change the nature of work, and
disrupt the workforce.

A year of change and disruption

Taken together, the 2016 Global Human
Capital Trends report sketches out

a vast and varied series of
changes and challenges. As

the pace of change accel-
erates, business and
HR leaders who move
aggressively to address
these trends will likely
gain an advantage over

their competitors and
find themselves on the

winning side in the global
competition for talent.

The new organization: Different by design
9

Figure 4. Importance of challenges in different regions

AMERICAS EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST, & AFRICA ASIA PACIFIC

Region

North

America

Latin &
South

America

Nordic
countries

Western
Europe

Central
and

Eastern
Europe

Middle
East

Africa Asia

Oceania

Southeast

Asia

Organizational design 90 92

95 88

Leadership 87 89 89 87 89 87 90 90 93

Culture 87 86 87 84 86 90 87 89 93

Engagement 86 85 79 85 84 80 86 86 91

Learning 79 87 75

89 87 88 80 91

Design thinking 70 80 71 75 78 83 85 85 81

Changing skills of
the HR organization

78 67 76 81 73 86 80 78

People analytics 78 77 76

78 76 80 81 83 85

Digital HR

71 74 73 74 74 79 74 77 83

Workforce
management

67 74

74 67 73 72 81 80

Appendix

SELECTED data from this year’s survey can be viewed by geography, company size, and industry using an interactive tool, the Human Capital Trends Dashboard. This tool, available at http://
www.deloitte.com/hcdashboard, lets you explore the data visually to see how talent priorities vary
around the world.

This year’s survey results showed remarkable consistency across geographies.

Graphic: Deloitte University Press | DUPress.com

US 90

Australia

Brazil

Japan

China

India

France 90

Mexico 87

Germany 84

North
America

Latin & South
America

Nordic
countries
Western
Europe

Central &
Eastern Europe

Middle East Africa Asia Oceania
90 92 87 92 88 93 95 95 88

Italy 90

UK 92

Canada

Belgium 96

Netherlands

Spain 92

South

Africa

China

Belgium

Japan
Brazil
Netherlands

Spain

United Kingdom

India

South Africa

France

Italy

United States

Canada

Australia

Mexico

Germany

Percentages in
selected countries

Percentages by region:

94
92
92
91
91
90
90
90
89
87
87
84

Europe, Middle East, and AfricaAmericas Asia-Pacific

Southeast
Asia

Figure 1. Organizational design: Percentage of respondents rating this trend “important” or “very important”

Lower percentagesHigher percentages

Note: Figures represent the percentage of respondents who
rated each issue “important” or “very important.”

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
10

http://www.deloitte.com/hcdashboard

Figure 5. Importance of challenges in different industries

Industry

Consumer
business

Energy &
resources

Financial
services

Life
sciences &
health care

Manufacturing
Professional

services
Public
sector

Technology,
media, &

telecommuni-
cations

Organizational design 93 92 93 92 94 91 87 92

Leadership 88 86 91 89 92 90 85 88

Culture 89 83 89 88 86 86 80 85

Engagement 86

87 87 88 85 83 85

Learning 83 81 86 84 83 86 83 83

Design thinking 77 75 81 79 79 82 74 83

Changing skills of
the HR organization

81 79 81 83 80 71 74 76

People analytics 79 77 80 80 76 74 73 78

Digital HR 73 72 76 75 68 72 73 78

Workforce
management

69 73 65 68 73 71 74 69

Graphic: Deloitte University Press | DUPress.com

As with global regions, survey results were also similar across different industries, suggesting
broad agreement on key trend priorities.

Graphic: Deloitte University Press | DUPress.com
US 90

87 Australia

94 Brazil

95 Japan

97 China

91 India

France 90
Mexico 87
Germany 84
North
America
Latin & South
America
Nordic
countries
Western
Europe
Central &
Eastern Europe
Middle East Africa Asia Oceania
90 92 87 92 88 93 95 95 88
Italy 90
UK 92

Canada 89

Belgium 96

94 Netherlands

Spain 92

91 South Africa

China
Belgium
Japan
Brazil
Netherlands
Spain
United Kingdom
India
South Africa
France
Italy
United States
Canada
Australia
Mexico
Germany
Percentages in
selected countries
Percentages by region:
97
96
95
94
94
92
92
91
91
90
90
90
89
87
87
84
Europe, Middle East, and AfricaAmericas Asia-Pacific
Southeast
Asia
91
Figure 1. Organizational design: Percentage of respondents rating this trend “important” or “very important”
Lower percentagesHigher percentages
Note: Figures represent the percentage of respondents who
rated each issue “important” or “very important.”
The new organization: Different by design
11

Graphic: Deloitte University Press | DUPress.com

Figures may not total

100

percent due to rounding.
Source: Data from Human Capital Trends 2016 survey.

Latin & South America

Western Europe

Asia
Africa

North America

Central & Eastern Europe

Nordic countries

Southeast Asia

Middle East

Oceania
United States
China
Brazil
Mexico
India
Belgium
France

Costa Rica

South Africa
Germany
Spain
Canada

Kenya

Japan
United Kingdom

Ireland

Colombia

Austria

Australia

Norway

Switzerland

Uruguay

Chile

Luxembourg

Finland

Ivory Coast

Greece

Tunisia

560
378
243
239
230
229
215
213
209
203
196
163
150
140
1

131
123

114

111

102

102
90
87
86
86
79
79

Netherlands

Singapore

Peru

Trinidad and Tobago

Turkey

Ethiopia

Nambia

Nigeria

Thailand

Argentina

Cyprus

Ecuador

Jamaica

Italy

Denmark

Romania

Guatemala

Malaysia

Russian Federation

Poland

Dutch Caribbean

Gabon

New Zealand

Senegal

Panama

United Arab Emirates

Indonesia

All other countries

78
71
68
60
60
59
59
59

53
51
50

44
42
42
40
38
38
37
37
35
35
34

385

Region

23%

14%

12%

12%
5%
4%
3%
2%
2%

Country

Our survey includes data from 7,096 business and HR leaders.

Other, 14%
Life sciences
and health
care, 5%

Energy and
resources,
8%

Public
sector, 8%

Industry

Professional
services,15%

Financial
services,
15%

Consumer
business,
13%

Manufacturing,12%

Technology,
media, and
telecommunica-
tions,11%

Non-HR,

HR, 68%

Respondent job function

Large (10,001+),
24%

Medium
(1,001 to
10,000),
29%

Small
(1 to 1,000),

Organization size

Respondent level

C-suite, 28%

Individual
contributor,
21%

Mid-level,
51%

Figure 6. Survey demographics

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
12

Endnotes

1. Elaine Pofeldt, “Shocker: 40% of workers now
have ‘contingent’ jobs, says U.S. government,”
Forbes, May

, 2015, www.forbes.com/sites/
elainepofeldt/2015/05/25/shocker-40-of-work-
ers-now-have-contingent-jobs-says-u-s-govern-
ment/.

2. Karen O’Leonard and Jennifer Krider, Leader-
ship development factbook 2014: Benchmarks
and trends in US leadership development, Bersin
by Deloitte, 2014, http://marketing.bersin.com/
leadership-development-factbook-2014.html.

3. Josh Bersin, “Becoming irresistible: A new
model for employee engagement,” Deloitte
Review 16, January 26, 2015, http://dupress.com/
articles/employee-engagement-strategies/.

4. Raju Singaraju, Ben Carroll, and Eunyun Park,
Corporate learning factbook 2015: Benchmarks,
trends, and analysis of the US training market,
Bersin by Deloitte, 2015, http://marketing.bersin.
com/corporate-learning-factbook-2015.html.

5. Ibid.

The new organization: Different by design
13

Authors

Josh Bersin, Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP | jbersin@deloitte.com

Josh Bersin founded Bersin & Associates, now Bersin by Deloitte, in 2001 to provide research and
advisory services focused on corporate learning. He is a frequent speaker at industry events and a popular
blogger. Bersin spent 25 years in product development, product management, marketing, and sales of
e-learning and other enterprise technologies. His education includes a BS in engineering from Cornell,
an MS in engineering from Stanford, and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of
California, Berkeley.

Jason Geller, Deloitte Consulting LLP | jgeller@deloitte.com

Jason Geller is the national managing director for Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Human Capital consulting
practice in the United States. In this role, he is responsible for overall strategy, financial performance
and operations, talent recruitment and development, and service delivery. He is a member of the global
Human Capital executive committee and the US Deloitte Consulting management committee, and has
also served as a US Deloitte Consulting board member, Deloitte India board member, global and US
leader for HR Transformation, and US Human Capital chief strategy officer. Geller advises organizations
on their HR and talent transformations.

Nicky Wakefield, Deloitte Consulting Pte Ltd | nwakefield@deloitte.com

Nicky Wakefield is a partner and the leader of the Southeast Asia Human Capital consulting practice.
With over 20 years of business consulting experience with clients across the globe, she is recognized as
one of the leading strategic thinkers on complex organizational change and is admired by her clients as a
practical, hands-on advisor and implementer. Wakefield has spent her career focused on the execution of
business strategy and helping organizations make it real for their people.

Brett Walsh, Deloitte MCS Limited | bcwalsh@deloitte.co.uk

Brett Walsh leads Deloitte’s global Human Capital practice and also serves as the HR Transformation
practice leader for Deloitte UK. As a Deloitte UK partner, he consults with executives around the world
on HR strategy, merger integration, and major transformation and technology programs, including back-
office shared services and outsourcing. His particular expertise is in HR and change management. Walsh
has an MBA from Warwick University and is a fellow of the Institute of Business Consultants.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
14

Fast-moving global markets and digital disruption have forced companies to
innovate rapidly, adapt their products and services, and stay closer than ever
to local customers. This has prompted a resurgence of interest in business
organization. Our findings in this area are startling: 92 percent of companies
believe that redesigning the organization is very important or important, making
it No. 1 in ranked importance among this year’s respondents. Companies
are decentralizing authority, moving toward product- and customer-centric
organizations, and forming dynamic networks of highly empowered teams
that communicate and coordinate activities in unique and powerful ways.

IN his book Team of Teams, General Stanley McChrystal describes how the US mili-
tary’s hierarchical command and control
structure hindered operational success dur-
ing the early stages of the Iraq war.1 After
watching Al-Qaeda disrupt his army and win
battles, McChrystal’s solution was dramatic:
Decentralize authority to highly trained and
empowered teams and develop a real-time
information and operations group to cen-
tralize information and provide all teams
with real-time, accurate data about war
activities everywhere.

McChrystal did not change the formal
structure of the military. Rather, he created a
new structure that allowed for dynamism and
flexibility within the overall organizational
structure. This new structure enabled officers
to quickly move from their administrative
positions to mission-oriented projects for a set
purpose, knowing that they would once again
have a home to return to within the larger
organizational structure after the mission
was completed.

This new mode of organization—a
“network of teams” with a high degree of

Organizational design
The rise of teams

• Many companies have already moved away from functional structures: Only 38 percent
of all companies and 24 percent of large companies (>50,000 employees) are functionally
organized today.

• The growth of the Millennial demographic, the diversity of global teams, and the need to innovate
and work more closely with customers are driving a new organizational flexibility among high-
performing companies. They are operating as a network of teams alongside traditional structures,
with people moving from team to team rather than remaining in static formal configurations.

• Over 80 percent of respondents to this year’s global survey report that they are either currently
restructuring their organization or have recently completed the process. Only 7 percent say they
have no plans to restructure.

The new organization: Different by design

empowerment, strong communication, and
rapid information flow—is now sweeping busi-
nesses and governments around the world. It is
built on several fundamental principles:

• Move people into customer-, product-, or
market- and mission-focused teams, led
by team leaders who are experts in their
domain (not “professional managers”).

• Empower teams to set their own goals and
make their own decisions within the con-
text of an overarching strategy or business
plan, reversing the tradi-
tional structure of goal and
performance management.

• Replace silos with an
information and operations
center to share integrated
information and identify
connections between team
activities and desired results.

• Organize these teams around
mission, product, market, or
integrated customer needs
rather than business func-
tion. (For instance, a health
care company might have an “Orthopedic
and Rheumatology Institute” to bring
together orthopedic surgeons, rheumatolo-
gists, and counselors, rather than have them
siloed in functional groups.)2

• Teach and encourage people to work across
teams, using techniques like “liaison offi-
cers” (the US military), “hackathons,” open
office spaces that promote collaboration
(Apple Inc. and Cleveland Clinic), and job
rotation to give teams a common under-
standing of each other.3

• Enable people to move from team to team
as needed—similar to the way experts
come together on Hollywood movie sets
or in global consulting firms—and then

ensure that people have a home to return
to once a team-based project is done. This
changes the concept of a “job description”
to that of a “mission specialist” or “technical
specialist.”

• Shift senior leaders into roles focused on
planning, strategy, vision, culture, and
cross-team communication.

Examples of this new structure are appear-
ing throughout business and government, in
each case dramatically changing the effec-
tiveness of the organization. The Cleveland

Clinic reorganized its entire hospital network
around patient medical problems, moving
beyond traditional functional medical prac-
tices—which separated surgeons and medi-
cal specialists—to combine personnel into
patient-centric teams, dramatically improving
patient outcomes. Hospitals and health care
organizations around the world are similarly
reorganizing around patient needs and away
from traditional medical specialties.4 3M,
Nestlé, and other innovation- and service-
centric companies are decentralized and use
shared service centers and information centers
to help teams maintain productivity and
alignment with overall business strategy.5 And
companies like GE and IBM now post leaders
in regional centers of excellence, dispensing

This new mode of organization—a
“network of teams” with a
high degree of empowerment,
strong communication, and
rapid information flow—is
now sweeping businesses and
governments around the world.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016

with the notion that “leaders” only operate out
of corporate headquarters.6

This new type of organization, which we
call a “network of teams,” moves beyond the
concepts of the unwieldy 1960s-era matrix
organization. Integral to an effective network
of teams is to define the mission of each team
clearly, delegate responsibility, assign strong
team leadership, and build a shared culture and
set of information and communication tools
that help teams align with each other.

Why is this trend so prominent now, with
92 percent of our survey respondents rating
redesigning the organization very important
or important? (See figure 1 for our survey
respondents’ ratings of organizational design’s
importance across global regions and selected
countries.) Two major factors are driving
change. First, the pressure to get products to
market quickly, combined with a generally
greater sense of empowerment among the

workforce, is making small teams a more natu-
ral and productive way to work. Small teams
can deliver results faster, engage people better,
and stay closer to their mission.

Second, the digital revolution helps teams
stay aligned. Today, teams can easily use web
or mobile apps to share goals, keep up to
date on customer interactions, communicate
product quality or brand issues, and build a
common culture. Rather than having to send
messages up and down the corporate pyra-
mid, people can access information immedi-
ately, with companies using roles like “liaison
officers” to make sure teams know what other
teams are doing.

Academic research supports this strategy.
Sociologist Robert Dunbar proved that the
optimum number of people any individual can
know well and communicate with is around
150, a phenomenon known as the Dunbar
Effect.7 Smaller organizational units tap into

The new organization: Different by design
19

the human strengths of communication:
People simply know each other better. As Jeff
Bezos, CEO of Amazon, puts it, “If I see more
than two pizzas for lunch, the team is too big.”8

To prevent silos from impeding effective-
ness and to improve collective thinking, digital
information centers help teams share common
knowledge and see the relationships between
elements. In the Iraq war, McChrystal set up
an information center to monitor seemingly
random attacks by Al-Qaeda so he could
help teams see the patterns. Each team had a
“liaison officer” responsible for communicat-
ing with other teams when information was
needed quickly.

The same principle applies in business.
At Nestlé, a digital information center brings

together social network, TV, and news infor-
mation about all of Nestlé’s food brands
around the world to help product businesses
see where a brand is succeeding or failing
to gain traction. Corporate headquarters in
Switzerland serves as a clearinghouse and stra-
tegic planning center, distributing information
everywhere and empowering the businesses
to grow.9

A team-based organization structure
can itself enable rapid business disruption.
For example, in each new city into which
it expands, Uber relies on a three-pronged
leadership model consisting of a city general
manager, a community manager, and a driver
operations manager. The rest of the organiza-
tion is built out based on the unique needs of
the city.10

As organizations shift to this new model, so
must vendors and consultants who serve them.

One major health product and pharmaceutical
company is completely reorganizing its sales
force to sell integrated solutions to meet the
needs of its health care clients’ outcome-based
organizations.11 A major IT provider that sells
computers and servers is going through the
same transition to meet the integrated needs of
IT departments that are also now organized by
team rather than technology.12

Team-based operating practices are part of
a larger trend toward new models of manage-
ment. Hierarchically structured organizations
were designed around traditional management
thinking in which leaders “tell people what to
do, set goals, and create standards.”13 In con-
trast, in many new management models, goals
are set at the bottom, leaders are evaluated by

performance and not span
of control, and perfor-
mance management occurs
continuously rather than
once per year.14 (More than
two-thirds of the compa-
nies polled in our survey
this year are redesigning
their performance manage-
ment practices.)

Middle management is continuing to thin
out. Research shows that US companies today
have an average span of control—the number
of people reporting to a supervisor—of 9.7, ris-
ing as high as 11.4 at large companies.15

Despite the massive changes underway, in
this new world, formal and flexible structures
will continue to coexist. Perhaps ironically,
it still takes formal structure to ensure that a
structure of teams works effectively. Putting
this insight into practice, the ability to quickly
build, deploy, disband, and reform teams is a
critical skill for today’s organizations.

Functional organizations, then, are not
going away, but they are being supplemented
by “service centers” and “centers of excellence”
to provide scale and consolidate administrative
tasks. To enable this kind of operating model,
functions like IT, HR, and finance must all be
reorganized to support such teams locally.

Smaller organizational units tap into the
human strengths of communication: People
simply know each other better.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
20

What does the “new organization” look like
in practice? We envision a management model
that draws clear distinctions between two
necessary roles and types of management: the
administrative or talent manager (reflecting
the traditional, formal structure) and the mis-
sion or project manager (representing the new,
team-based structure) (see figure 2).

Managing two different types of functions
in an organization can be challenging, but
a few principles illustrate the shift in mind-
set necessary to make this work. Companies
should view employees fundamentally as
resources of the organization rather than
as resources of the manager. This is why
the military developed the parallel ideas of
administrative control and operational control.
Administrative control refers to the employee’s
home structure and to how an employee is
developed and supported, the home to which
an employee returns when a team-based
project is finished. Operational control, by
contrast, refers to the process of ensuring that
the mission to which an employee is assigned
is accomplished successfully. By its nature, it

includes performance management for the
employee during that period.

Companies’ definitions of the line between
administrative and operational control will
vary, but the fundamental concept will not. In
every organization, an important key to the
success of this model is that each employee has
a “home” to which he or she can return. Fear
that one will not have such a home can weaken
strong teaming and lead to perverse incentives
for employees—an obstacle to success in a
network of teams.

For HR, the implications of such changes
to organizational design can be profound. Job
titles and descriptions, to cite an example, are
becoming more flexible and broad to account
for an individual’s potential to be deployed to a
variety of teams. HR organizations will need to
adapt to address the concept of administrative
and operational control as companies switch
from highly functional and hierarchical mod-
els to project-based organizations in which
employees are constantly embedded in teams
and ecosystems that form teams.

Performance management in an organiza-
tion designed around empowered teams also

Figure 2. Two types of managers in a network of teams

Administrative or talent manager Mission or project manager

Focuses on the individual’s career and development goals Focuses on the project and mission objectives

Measures an individual’s achievement against individual goals
capabilities, and potential

Measures an individual against contribution to mission, team,
project, and organizational results

Listens to individuals’ long-term career goals and helps them
reach those goals

Listens to individuals’ desires for that mission or project and
helps align them with the project or mission needs

Gives the individual coaching and development toward their
career capabilities, career goals, and specialization objectives

Gives the individual coaching and development toward their
role in the team and the project, focusing on how they can
contribute more and how they can work better with the
team

Makes sure the individual has “rights of return” to another
organization and takes care of “return trip” after each project
completes

Focuses on getting the right people into the project or
mission, regardless of their individual career journeys at the
moment

Tracks and monitors the individual’s career progression and
patterns of success or weakness

Tracks and monitors individuals’ contribution to the project
or team and how they can improve their value to that team

The new organization: Different by design
21

looks significantly different. Traditionally,
managers rate employees with little input
from others, but this is not a sufficient test of
performance under a team-centric approach.
The critical question now, with all team
members invited to weigh in, is: “Would we
want this person on our team again?” It is
not, “Did you make your manager happy?”
In such an environment, engagement can
improve as well, because employees generally
feel more connected to their “team” than their
“organization.”16

Lessons from the front lines

Cisco, one of the world’s most successful
and enduring technology companies, sees a
team-based organizational model as fun-
damental to its strategy. According to John
Chambers, executive chairman and former
CEO, speed and time to market are central to
the company’s success: “We compete against
market transitions, not competitors. Product
transitions used to take five to seven years; now
they take one to two.”17

To address this continued disruption and
the highly competitive nature of its business,
Cisco has set up a new talent organization,
Leadership and Team Intelligence, focused
entirely on leadership and team development,
team leader selection, performance manage-
ment, and intelligence-gathering for Cisco
teams and their leaders around the world.
Ashley Goodall, the senior vice president who
runs this group, is leading a wide-ranging
redesign of Cisco’s talent practices and tech-
nologies to focus on the optimization of
team performance, team leaders, succession
management, and talent mobility between
teams. He plans to use real-time performance
conversations, ongoing pulse surveys, and text
analytics to monitor and benchmark team
performance. The intent is to build informa-
tion about how the best teams work together
and how they drive results, and then embed
these insights into the company with a direct
focus on employee engagement, strengths,
and empowerment.18

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
22

Where companies can start

• Revisit your organization’s design: Look
at ways to bring functional experts into
“mission-driven” teams focused on custom-
ers, markets, or products.

• Set up a real-time information network: A
successful network brings together dispa-
rate information on customers or products
to give team members integrated data on
performance in real time. Look at how
people seek and find information today
using design thinking.

• Eliminate organizational layers:
Departments whose mandate is to fix or
service other parts of the organization
should be converted to shared-service
groups. Question the role and the need for
middle managers.

• Rethink your rewards and goals: Optimize
performance management around “team
performance” and “team leadership” rather

than focusing solely on individual per-
formance and designating individuals as
leaders simply by virtue of their title or role.
Reward people for project results, collabo-
ration, and helping others.

• Adopt new team-based tools: Put in
place tools and measurement systems that
encourage people to move between teams,
and share information and collaborate with
other teams. Consider performing an orga-
nizational network analysis.

• Let teams set their own goals: Teams
should be held accountable for results—but
let them decide how to perform and social-
ize and communicate these goals among
the team.

• Communicate shared vision and values
from top leaders: Encourage senior leaders
to focus on strategy, vision, and direction,
and teach them how to empower teams to
deliver results.

BOTTOM LINE

The days of the top-down hierarchical organization are slowly coming to an end, but changing
the organization chart is only a small part of the transition to a network of teams. The larger,
more important, and more urgent part is to change how an organization actually works. Now,
more than ever, is the time to challenge traditional organizational structures, empower teams,
hold people accountable, and focus on building a culture of shared information, shared vision,
and shared direction.

The new organization: Different by design
23

http://dupress.com/articles/employee-experience-management-design-thinking

1. General Stanley McChrystal et al., Team of
Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex
World (New York: Penguin Publishing Group,
2015).

2. Gillian Tett, The Silo Effect: The Peril of Exper-
tise and the Promise of Breaking Down Barriers,
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015).

3. Ibid; McChrystal et al., Team of Teams.

4. Tett, The Silo Effect.

5. “3M investments in Wroclaw,” November 2014,
http://www.wroclaw.pl/en/3m-investments-in-
wroclaw; Nestlé company executives, in meet-
ings with Josh Bersin and others, May 2014.

6. Raghu Krishnamoorthy, “The corporate HQ
is an anachronism,” Harvard Business Review,
March 13, 2015, https://hbr.org/2015/03/the-
corporate-hq-is-an-anachronism.

7. Drake Bennett, “The Dunbar number, from
the guru of social networks,” January 10, 2013,
Bloomberg Business, http://www.bloomberg.
com/bw/articles/2013-01-10/the-dunbar-num-
ber-from-the-guru-of-social-networks.

8. Vivian Giang, “The ‘two pizza rule’ is Jeff Bezos’
secret to productive meetings,” Business Insider,
October 30, 2013, http://www.businessinsider.
com/jeff-bezos-two-pizza-rule-for-productive-
meetings-2013-10.

9. Nestlé executives, in meetings with Josh Bersin
and others, May 2014.

10. Gwen Moran, “How Uber changed the way they
hire,” Fast Company, April 1, 2014, http://www.
fastcompany.com/3028390/bottom-line/how-
uber-changed-the-way-they-hire.

11. Company executives, in conversation with Josh
Bersin, October 2015.

12. Company executives, in conversation with Josh
Bersin, October 2015.

13. Stacia Sherman Garr, High-impact performance
management: Using goals to focus the 21st-cen-
tury workforce, Bersin by Deloitte, 2014, http://
marketing.bersin.com/high-impact-perfor-
mance-management.html.

14. Ibid.

15. Karen O’ Leonard and Jennifer Krider, Leader-
ship development factbook 2014: Benchmarks
and trends in U.S. leadership development (PPT),
Bersin by Deloitte, 2014, http://marketing.ber-
sin.com/leadership-development-factbook-2014.
html.

16. Josh Bersin, “The five elements of a ‘simply
irresistible’ organization,” Forbes, April 4,
2014, http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshber-
sin/2014/04/04/the-five-elements-of-a-simply-
irresistible-organization/#5a26d70f4cf3.

17. Krithika Krishnamurthy, “We compete against
market transitions not competitors: John Cham-
bers, Cisco,” The Economic Times, December 14,
2015, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/
opinion/interviews/we-compete-against-mar-
ket-transitions-not-competitors-john-chambers-
cisco/articleshow/50168070.cms.

18. Ashley Goodall, personal communication to the
authors, February 11, 2016.

Endnotes
Global Human Capital Trends 2016
24

Authors
Tiffany McDowell, Deloitte Consulting LLP | tmcdowell@deloitte.com

Tiffany McDowell is a principal in Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Human Capital practice and serves as the
national leader for the Organization Strategies practice. She has 16 years of business and consulting
experience, delivering operating model, organizational design, talent strategies, decision optimization,
and change management solutions. Her focus is on helping executives in health care effectively lead
their organizations through transformation. McDowell holds an MBA and a doctorate in industrial/
organizational psychology.

Dimple Agarwal, Deloitte MCS Limited | dagarwal@deloitte.com.uk

Dimple Agarwal is the global leader of Organizational Transformation and Talent for the Human
Capital practice. She consults at the C-suite level on operating model and organizational design, HR and
talent strategies, leadership strategies and development, merger integration, and major transformation
programs. Her 20-plus years of consulting experience includes working in the United Kingdom,
Netherlands, France, Switzerland, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, and the UAE.

Don Miller, Deloitte Consulting LLP | domiller@deloitte.com

Don Miller has more than 15 years of industry and consulting experience. In his current role, he
serves on the global leadership team of our Organization Strategies practice, which focuses on helping
clients improve performance by building organization structures to execute new capabilities through
their people and on aligning a business’s capabilities, metrics, processes, and culture with its structure,
leadership, roles, and talent. Miller also helps clients solve some of their top business challenges
by creating tailored workforce transition, strategic change management, talent, and leadership
development solutions.

Tsutomu Okamoto, Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting LLC | tsokamoto@tohmatsu.jp

Tsutomu Okamoto has almost 20 years of consulting experience with Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting
Human Capital. He leads the Talent Management and Workforce Planning and Analytics practice
in Japan and has delivered HR consulting services in areas including HR management and strategy
planning, headcount/labor cost management, talent management, organization design, restructuring,
and simplification.

Trevor Page, Deloitte Africa | trepage@deloitte.co.za

Trevor Page is the global leader of Organization Design for the Human Capital practice and is leading its
organization design methodology and global capability development. As a partner in Deloitte’s Human
Capital consulting practice in Africa, Page focuses on business transformation in large companies and
on improving the effectiveness at people at work. He has directed projects related to HR strategy, process,
and technology; strategic organizational change; and large-scale organizational redesign.

Contributors
Andrea Derler, Ben Dollar, Amir Rahnema, and Yves Van Durme

The new organization: Different by design
25

Leadership continues to be a pervasive concern among HR and business
leaders around the world, ranking higher in importance than it did in last
year’s global survey. As organizations become increasingly team-centric, the
workforce becomes both younger and older, technology catalyses faster change,
and business challenges grow more global and diverse, fresh challenges in
leadership development emerge. Organizations need to refocus on leadership
as a whole to build versatile leaders earlier in their careers, form leadership
teams that mix different generations and varieties of leaders, and develop
leaders deeper in the organization—all with a structured and evidence-
based foundation for leadership priorities, programs, and investments.

LEADERSHIP remains a top priority in C-suites worldwide, ranking second in
overall importance in this year’s survey. (See
figure 1 for our survey respondents’ ratings of
leadership’s importance across global regions
and selected countries.) The percentage of
companies that rate this issue as important or
very important grew to extremely high lev-
els. Nor is this surprising, as the challenges
are immense.

Today, organizations need to explore new
approaches to leadership development. They
should seek to apply rigorous, structured,
scientific approaches to succession planning

and development, aiming to identify poten-
tial leaders earlier and fast-track them into
leadership positions. Also important is to find
ways to develop leaders who can collaborate
extensively, recognize the need for new leader-
ship skills (such as conceptual thinking), and
focus on new leadership cohorts (Millennials,
women, and diverse individuals). All of this
requires implementing a comprehensive cul-
ture around leadership to address the leader-
ship gap continuously and systemically.

While companies believe they are making
progress in some areas—for instance, the per-
centage of companies with strong role-based

Leadership awakened
Generations, teams, science

• The leadership challenge is urgent and growing in importance. In 2016, 89 percent of companies
see leadership as an important or very important issue (up from 87 percent in 2015), and

percent
cite leadership as very important (up from 50 percent).

• Twenty-eight percent of respondents reported weak or very weak leadership pipelines.

• The profile for top leaders is complex and evolving. Organizations need to develop fundamental
leadership capabilities among critical individuals and teams—capabilities that include the ability to
collaborate across boundaries, conceptualize new solutions, motivate diverse teams, and develop
the next generation of diverse and global leaders.

The new organization: Different by design
27

and experiential leadership programs grew
from 9 percent last year to 20 percent this
year—many major gaps remain:

• Only 7 percent of companies believe
they are “excellent” at building
Millennial leaders.

• Only 13 percent of companies report they
are “excellent” at building global leaders.

• Only 14 percent of companies surveyed
described themselves as “strong” at succes-
sion planning throughout the business.

These data, along with the data gathered
by Global Human Capital Trends over the
past three years, suggest that the leadership
development paradigm that many companies
around the world follow is simply not deliver-
ing what is expected and necessary.

Last year, companies spent nearly $31 bil-
lion on leadership programs.1 Yet, as Barbara
Kellerman of Harvard University (The End
of Leadership) and Jeffrey Pfeffer of Stanford
University (Leadership BS) have recently
written, the leadership world continues to be
dominated by stories, myths, and fads, often
promoting superficial solutions that appear
effective but fail to address the issue of help-
ing leaders to learn and that do not deliver
measurable impact and results.2 Indeed, 40
percent of our survey respondents believe that
their current leadership programs provide only
“some” value, and 24 percent report that they
yield little to no value.

Why do organizations find this issue so
intractable, even after investing heavily in
leadership programs? If investment in IT and
learning delivers results, why can’t HR show
similar benefits from investments in leadership
development? Why is it so difficult for so many

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
28

organizations to identify potential leaders and
develop them?

First, despite a 10 percent increase in
spending on corporate leadership programs
last year,3 the quality, rigor, and investment
for leadership efforts remain uneven across
companies. High-performing companies
outspend their competitors on leadership by
almost four times.4 Not only do they spend
more, they spend smarter. Surprisingly, most
leadership programs are evaluated primarily
by so-called “smile sheets”—in effect, feedback
from participants on how they enjoyed the
leadership program, instructor, and venue.
Too few leadership programs are designed on
a foundation of research, clear priorities, and
assessments of needed leadership thinking
and outcomes. Best-practice organizations are
developing an integrated system of leadership
that includes a specific leadership strategy,
detailed pre- and post-program assessments to
measure effectiveness, research-driven content,
and blended learning programs with stretch
assignments, intensive coaching, and continu-
ous opportunities for leadership develop-
ment—all relying heavily on data, evidence,
and science-based approaches.

A second reason leadership remains a chal-
lenge may be that, as organizational design
shifts from a structured hierarchy to a network
of teams, companies require different types of
leaders and inclusion capabilities. As organi-
zations grow flatter and more diverse, and as
the global operating environment becomes
increasingly more complex, there is a stronger
demand for people who can lead at all levels
of the company. Companies in this environ-
ment are finding that they must identify

potential leaders much earlier in their careers
and accelerate their movement through the
leadership ranks.

Yet another challenge is that the entire
concept of leadership is being radically rede-
fined. The whole notion of “positional leader-
ship”—that people become leaders by virtue of
their power or position—is being challenged.
Leaders are instead being asked to inspire team
loyalty through their expertise, vision, and
judgment. The number of employees super-
vised by each first-line manager is increasing,
to more than 10 among US companies and as
high as 13 in industries such as health care.5
This broad span of control demands leaders
who are skilled coaches, not strictly supervi-
sors—leaders with the ability to attract, inspire,
and retain great people, not just make the
numbers. Collaboration, too, is becoming a
critical leadership skill: With organizations
continuing to evolve rapidly beyond vertically
integrated enterprises to networks and eco-
systems, groups of leaders are being forced to
work together in new ways, including collabo-
ration across generations, geographies, func-
tions, and internal and external teams.

Lastly, the demographic realities of an aging
population cut in different directions, causing
a leadership shortage at some companies and
limited leadership opportunities for younger
employees at others. At companies where
senior leaders are reluctant to yield up their
responsibilities, HR should develop solutions
that promote development among up-and-
coming leaders. These solutions could include
implementing active career management for
high-potential employees, constructing teams
with multigenerational leadership, and offer-
ing other opportunities for younger leaders
to develop experience before they are ready.
The goal is to create a robust pipeline of new,
more innovative leaders that takes advantage
of the strengths and skills of both younger and
older leaders.

Surprisingly, 59 percent of respondents
to our survey report little to no investment
in diverse leaders, with similar findings for

Why is it so difficult for
so many organizations to
identify potential leaders
and develop them?

The new organization: Different by design
29

http://dupress.com/articles/organizational-models-network-of-teams

Millennials (59 percent) and women (

per-
cent). Such investments, though, are extremely
important to allow companies to leverage the
strengths of Millennial leaders—often well-
suited to fast learning and conceptual think-
ing—and Baby Boomer leaders in their 50s and
60s—who often bring strengths in behavior
and influence along with valuable institutional
knowledge. The challenge is to combine and
build the strengths of leaders at all levels and of
all descriptions.

This leads to an important question: Are
companies ready for the new leaders who are
needed today? Many organizations may not
be prepared to accept a new generation of
leaders, or even to build an environment that
allows them to emerge. Yet consider some of
today’s leaders. Google’s Larry Page was 38 at
the time of his appointment; PetSmart’s David
Lenhardt, 43; GameStop’s J. Paul Raines, 46.
This new breed of CEOs is younger, more
global, and more digitally savvy than their pre-
decessors. They rose up from the ranks, often
leapfrogging incumbents to go on to transform
their businesses.6

At the same time, the impact of leaders is
too high to simply jettison one generation of
leaders for another. As organizations become
flatter and more dispersed, companies need
better strategies for developing leaders to
perform both as individuals and in teams—
to operate in dyads and triads as well as on
one’s own.

Important to this effort is to think system-
atically about leadership. A portfolio approach
that simply assembles a selection of offerings
from different vendors is unlikely to promote
consistency in leadership development or to
ensure that future leaders receive the train-
ing they need to direct today’s team-focused
organizations. Identifying and developing
exceptional leaders require a far more rigorous
process, including:

• The use of evidence and analytics to
identify game-changers who may be
going unnoticed

• Expanding the use of online tools to enable
organizations to identify high-potential
employees earlier in their careers and
potential leaders around the world

• Better use of leaders in the later stages of
their careers to team with, mentor, and
develop the next generation of leaders

• The development of a comprehensive
leadership system—not simply a collection
of training packages—that can effectively
assess talent across the organization; focus
training on high-potential employees; and
provide opportunities for younger leaders
to gain the skills, experiences, and insights
they need to thrive in leadership roles

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
30

Every aspect of leadership—from strategy
and assessment to leadership development
and program evaluation—should be executed
with a degree of rigor and the use of data
that is simply not part of most leadership
programs today.

Lessons from the front lines

In 2012, Macquarie Group Limited, a global
investment banking and diversified financial
services group, reevaluated its leadership
development programs.7 The company’s goal
was to ensure that leadership offerings contin-
ued to build capability
at the director level
in order to allow
Macquarie to identify
and take advantage of
new opportunities in
a complex and rap-
idly evolving market.
Macquarie aimed to
design and deploy a
best-in-class global
leadership develop-
ment experience. The
new program would
have a clear focus on fast-tracking leaders and
on further broadening its leaders’ perspectives.
The program needed to be highly practical
and business-focused, while also underpinned
by a strong scientific foundation and rigorous
learning methodology.

Following a six-month analysis and design
process, Macquarie launched a pilot program
in early 2014. Offered to a selection of associate
directors located in Macquarie’s major hub cit-
ies in Europe, Asia, Australia, and the United
States, the program consisted of two three-day
workshops delivered over a 12-month period,
supplemented with a series of one-on-one
coaching sessions, a 360-degree assessment,
and a skilled volunteering experience.

Recognizing that Macquarie staff lean
strongly toward intellectually challenging
and practical learning, the associate director

program provided Macquarie leaders with
a strong mental framework as well as easily
digestible and readily applicable tools for their
day-to-day work. The cornerstone of the pro-
gram’s success was to not give participants a set
of generic answers, but instead to teach leaders
a set of questions they could ask themselves to
help solve their own unique challenges. They
were not taught how to behave, but how to
think: The program’s catchphrase is “Think.
Lead. Act.” Built around six core capabilities
such as “setting direction,” “inspirational lead-
ership,” and “collaboration,” this flexible and
innovative approach to learning allowed the

content to be applied
easily across business
lines and geographies.

Since 2014, over
500 associate direc-
tors have enrolled
in the program.
Feedback from both
participants and the
business has been
overwhelmingly posi-
tive, indicating that
the program’s com-
mercially focused and

cognitive approach to development was much
more effective than more traditional, static
approaches. Participants reported the ability
to readily apply their newly gained knowledge
to their roles, enabling directors to thus focus
more on commercial priorities. In addition, in
Macquarie’s recent global staff survey, alumni
of the program were significantly more posi-
tive in their attitudes toward career progres-
sion and development opportunities than
their peers.

Based on the success of the associate direc-
tor program, Macquarie designed and piloted
a program at the division director level in
2015. This program builds upon the associate
director program’s highly practical approach
to broadening participants’ thinking through
simple and memorable concepts, while
integrating several new learning innovations.

Rigorous analysis
and evidence should
inform every step
of the leadership
development process.

The new organization: Different by design
31

These include a “lab-based” approach to learn-
ing in which participants work on challenges
as a group, supported by several coaches in the
room. The program also focuses on establish-
ing greater connections between participants,
giving them a more integrated understanding
of each arm of the business as well as help-
ing them identify commercial synergies and
potential client opportunities.

Where companies can start

• Take a fresh, hard look at leadership
development strategy: Many companies
find that this is the best place to start.
Nearly two in three of our respondents (61
percent) report that they have updated their
leadership strategy in the last year or are
currently doing so. Perhaps most impor-
tant is to challenge the current strategy: Is
it delivering the impact, results, leadership
pipeline, and caliber of leaders the business
needs now and in the future?

• Cast a wider and deeper leadership net:
Many organizations are trying to broaden
the definition of leaders and leadership, yet
too often that definition is still not broad
enough. The potential leadership pool
must expand teams and networks of teams
beyond organizational boundaries.

• Build leadership programs on a founda-
tion of evidence, data, and analytics:
Insights from data can help organizations
identify the DNA of successful leaders.
Rigorous analysis and evidence should
inform every step of the leadership devel-
opment process, including candidate
identification, development, coaching, and
career progression. Leadership programs
should be evaluated by their impact—
their ability to strengthen leaders and the
results they deliver—and rapidly move
beyond the edutainment focus of many of
today’s programs.

• Broaden and deepen leadership capabili-
ties: Today’s leaders need both traditional
leadership capabilities and new skills.
Rotational programs may be an effective
way to identify and develop future leaders.
Stretch programs across functions and busi-
nesses, as well as in nontraditional areas
(for example, the social and not-for-profit
sectors), can offer opportunities to develop
and test emerging leaders.

• Identify and foster teams of leaders: An
important goal for most organizations is to
develop new models of leadership teams,
combining leaders of different generations
and perspectives. For many organizations,
this is a new focus and will be critical in the
future, when organizations will need both
teams of leaders and leaders who can drive
and motivate teams.

• Focus on young, diverse leaders:
Identifying great leaders as early as possible
is an important way to deepen the leader-
ship bench and promote dramatic change.

• Rethink leadership investment: Simply
spending more money on leadership pro-
grams is unlikely to be enough. To deliver
a superior return on investment, leadership
spending must be far more focused on and
targeted at what works. Leading companies
both spend more and spend more wisely,
with a focus on evidence and results.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
32

BOTTOM LINE

We have written in the past of the “overwhelmed employee.”8 Today, perhaps the theme should
be the “overwhelmed leader”—underscoring the need to identify new leaders early and develop
them appropriately.

Is the organization’s leadership strategy, pipeline, and programs up to the task? Our data on this
question over the past several years suggest not. To make progress on the perennial and pervasive
challenges of leadership, companies need to ask hard questions. Who in the organization is likely
to be a true game-changer? Does the organization tend to promote people who look and think
like current leaders? Do current leaders conduct deep analyses to identify and develop people with
potential, wherever and whomever they may be? How much time do leaders in the organization
spend on elevating team effectiveness? Are the strategy, focus, and rigor of leadership programs
up to the needs, skills, and challenges of the future? Only by answering such questions can
organizations find ways to effectively cultivate the leadership talent that they will need to
compete—today and in the future.

The new organization: Different by design
33

http://dupress.com/articles/hc-trends-2014-overwhelmed-employee/

1. Karen O’Leonard and Jennifer Krider, Leader-
ship development factbook 2014: Benchmarks
and trends in U.S. leadership development, Bersin
by Deloitte, 2014, http://marketing.bersin.com/
leadership-development-factbook-2014.html.

2. Barbara Kellerman, The End of Leadership (New
York: HarperCollins, 2012); Jeffrey Pfeffer, Lead-
ership BS (New York: HarperCollins, 2015).

3. Raju Singaraju, Ben Carroll, and Eunyun Park,
Corporate learning factbook 2015: Benchmarks,
trends, and analysis of the US training market,
Bersin by Deloitte, 2015, http://bersinone.bersin.
com/resources/research/?docid=19202.

4. O’Leonard and Krider, Leadership development
factbook 2014.

5. Ibid.

6. Roselinde Torres, “The rise of the not-so-experi-
enced CEO,” Harvard Business Review, Decem-
ber 26, 2014, https://hbr.org/2014/12/the-rise-
of-the-not-so-experienced-ceo.

7. Murray Priestman (global head of talent, Mac-
quarie Group Limited), in conversation with
Juliet Bourke, January 2016.

8. Juliet Bourke, The overwhelmed employee: Sim-
plify the work environment, Deloitte, 2014, http://
www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/human-capital/
articles/overwhelmed-employee-simplify-envi-
ronment.html.

Endnotes
Global Human Capital Trends 2016
34

Authors

Nicky Wakefield, Deloitte Consulting Pte Ltd. | nwakefield@deloitte.com

Anthony Abbatiello, Deloitte Consulting LLP | aabbatiello@deloitte.com

Anthony Abbatiello is a principal in Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Human Capital practice and the global
leader of Deloitte Leadership. He specializes in leadership development, culture transformation, and HR
strategy. Abbatiello has led industry and functional human capital practices, provided thought leadership,
and developed practitioners to deliver business results to clients. He serves global clients as a senior
advisor in leadership development, talent strategy, and digital HR.

Dimple Agarwal, Deloitte MCS Limited | dagarwal@deloitte.com.uk
Dimple Agarwal is the global leader of Organizational Transformation and Talent for the Human
Capital practice. She consults at the C-suite level on operating model and organizational design, HR and
talent strategies, leadership strategies and development, merger integration, and major transformation
programs. Her 20-plus years of consulting experience includes working in the United Kingdom,
Netherlands, France, Switzerland, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, and the UAE.

Karen Pastakia, Deloitte Canada | kapastakia@deloitte.ca

Karen Pastakia has over 15 years’ experience in the area of HR and talent consulting. Currently, she leads
the integrated Talent Management Strategies practice across Canada. She works with her clients to ensure
alignment between their talent objectives and investments and overall business strategy. Pastakia is also
one of Deloitte Canada’s marketplace inclusion leaders and has been intimately involved in the evolution
of Deloitte University globally.

Ardie van Berkel, Deloitte Consulting BV | avanberkel@deloitte.nl

Ardie van Berkel is Deloitte’s Human Capital practice leader for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa
(EMEA) region and a member of Deloitte’s global Human Capital executive committee. Van Berkel is
also a member of Deloitte’s supervisory board in the Netherlands, as well as an active market-facing client
service partner. She consults on merger integrations, organizational design, HR strategies, and change
management to support major transformation programs, primarily in the public sector.

Contributors
Juliet Bourke, John Crump, Andrea Derler, Marjorie Knight, Jeff Schwartz, and Yves Van Durme

The new organization: Different by design
35

Culture has become one of the most important business topics of 2016. CEOs
and HR leaders now recognize that culture drives people’s behavior, innovation,
and customer service: 82 percent of survey respondents believe that “culture
is a potential competitive advantage.” Knowing that leadership behavior
and reward systems directly impact organizational performance, customer
service, employee engagement, and retention, leading companies are using
data and behavioral information to manage and influence their culture.

FEW factors contribute more to business success than culture—the system of values,
beliefs, and behaviors that shape how real work
gets done within an organization. Its close
connection to performance is not lost on HR
and business executives: Nearly nine in ten
(87 percent) of our survey respondents say
that culture is important, and 54 percent rate
it as very important, nine percentage points
more than last year. (See figure 1 for our survey
respondents’ ratings of culture’s importance
across global regions and selected countries.)

Culture brings together the implicit and
explicit reward systems that define how an
organization works in practice, no matter
what an organizational chart, business strat-
egy, or corporate mission statement may say.

A staggering number of companies—over
50 percent in this year’s survey—are cur-
rently attempting to change their culture
in response to shifting talent markets and
increased competition.

In an era in which bad news travels instan-
taneously and an organization’s culture is both
transparent and directly tied to its employment
brand, great companies consciously cultivate
and manage their culture, turning it into a
competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Have you ever wondered why certain compa-
nies hire great engineers, deliver seemingly
endless innovations, and generate consistent
growth, while others always seem to be rein-
venting themselves? A large part of the answer,
in one word, is culture.

Shape culture
Drive strategy

• Culture is a business issue, not merely an HR issue. The CEO and executive team should take
responsibility for an organization’s culture, with HR supporting that responsibility through
measurement, process, and infrastructure.

• While culture is widely viewed as important, it is still largely not well understood; many
organizations find it difficult to measure and even more difficult to manage. Only 28 percent of
survey respondents believe they understand their culture well, while only 19 percent believe they
have the “right culture.”

• Culture can determine success or failure during times of change: Mergers, acquisitions, growth,
and product cycles can either succeed or fail depending on the alignment of culture with the
business’s direction.

The new organization: Different by design
37

http://dupress.com/articles/employee-engagement-culture-human-capital-trends-2015/

The importance of culture is readily appar-
ent when things go wrong. When two large
companies merged last year, for example, it
became clear that one company had a culture
of “low cost” while the other had a culture of
“quality service.” Employees received mixed
signals for months until the new management
team took the time to carefully diagnose and
redefine many business processes throughout
the company.

Given the importance of culture and the
consequences of cultural issues, many com-
panies are proactively defining culture and
issuing culture “manifestos.” The Netflix cul-
ture presentation,2 often used as an example,
has been downloaded more than 12 million
times since 2009.3 The presentation clearly
describes a culture that combines high expec-
tations with an engaging employee experience:
Generous corporate perks such as unlimited
vacation, flexible work schedules, and lim-
ited supervision balance a strong focus on

results with freedom and appreciation for the
expected achievement.4

The financial services industry, still restor-
ing its brand after the 2008 financial crisis, is
sharply focused on culture. One organization
is using a variety of initiatives to help employ-
ees understand “how the bank does business,”
including offering speaker series on topics such
as compensation packages, customer satisfac-
tion, and maintaining regulatory standards.
Citigroup has an entire committee focused
on ethics and culture and has implemented
a series of web-based videos detailing real
workplace ethical dilemmas. Bank of America
is focusing its corporate culture transformation
on encouraging employees to report and esca-
late issues or concerns, as well as incorporating
a risk “boot camp” into their current training.
Wells Fargo is increasing its efforts to gather
employee survey feedback to understand cur-
rent trends and potential areas of weakness in
its culture.5

This year, unlike in past reports, Global Human Capital Trends treats culture and engagement as two distinct
topics. Why? Because, while the two issues are intimately connected, the differences between them are significant,
and the importance of each has risen to justify a separate treatment and a separate, well-defined approach to
tackling it.

Culture describes “the way things work around here.” Specifically, it includes the values, beliefs, behaviors, artifacts,
and reward systems that influence people’s behavior on a day-to-day basis. It is driven by top leadership and
becomes deeply embedded in the company through a myriad of processes, reward systems, and behaviors. Culture
includes all the behaviors that may or may not improve business performance. Today, culture is a CEO-level issue
and something that can be measured and improved to drive strategy.

Engagement, in contrast, describes “how people feel about the way things work around here.” It is a way
of describing employees’ level of commitment to the company and to their work. According to our model,
engagement encompasses five broad areas: meaningful work and jobs, management practices and behaviors, the
work environment, opportunities for development and growth, and trust in leadership.1 When engagement is poor,
employees feel uneasy or uncommitted, resulting in high turnover, low performance, and low levels of innovation
and customer service. New tools are enabling companies to monitor engagement on a detailed, real-time basis,
delivering specific, actionable information to continuously improve the work environment.

The two are connected. When a company’s culture is clearly aligned with business strategy, it attracts people who
feel comfortable in it, which in turn should produce a high level of engagement. Conversely, programs to improve
engagement often discover cultural issues, forcing the company and its leadership to question and change its
values, incentives, programs, and structure. Both culture and engagement require CEO-level commitment and
strong support from HR to understand, measure, and improve.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
38

A new industry of culture assessment tools
has emerged, enabling companies to diagnose
their culture using a variety of well-established
models.6 Yet despite the prevalence of these
tools, fewer than 12 percent of companies
believe they truly understand their culture.7
That’s where HR can help. As businesses try
to understand and improve their culture, HR’s
role is to improve the ability to curate and
shape culture actively. An organization’s capa-
bilities to understand and pull the levers of cul-
ture change can be refined and strengthened.
HR has a natural role to play in both efforts.

As operations become more distributed
and move to a structure of “networks of
teams,” culture serves to bind people together
and helps people communicate and collabo-
rate. When managed well, culture can drive
execution and ensure business consistency
around the world. HR has an opportunity to
assume the role of champion, monitor, and

communicator of culture across, and even out-
side, the organization. Once culture is clearly
described, it defines who the company hires,
who gets promoted, and what behaviors will be
rewarded with compensation or promotion.

To effectively understand and manage their
organization’s culture, business and HR leaders
must collaborate to answer a daunting set of
questions. For example:

• How do we create more high-impact
customer and employee experience
moments and ensure that we deliver
them consistently?

• How well does our performance manage-
ment or compensation system reinforce or
improve our culture?

• Are we willing to reduce productivity tem-
porarily to invest the time it takes to build a
culture of learning?

The new organization: Different by design
39

http://dupress.com/articles/organizational-models-network-of-teams

• What cultural issues lie behind problems
such as fraud, loss, or compliance issues?
Is punishing the offenders and reinforcing
good behavior enough, or does supporting
ethical conduct require changing cultural
norms that enable or even encourage
bad behavior?

• In M&A situations, how can cultural
barriers to integration be identified and
addressed before they become problematic?

• In today’s competitive talent environment,
how does our culture affect our employ-
ment brand and ability to attract, hire, and
retain top talent?

CEOs and senior business leaders should
work with HR to take a hands-on, data-driven
approach to managing culture. To monitor and
reinforce culture, companies must regularly
assess employee behavior and revisit reward
systems and business practices in all areas of
the company.

The good news is that there are many new
ways to research, measure, and monitor cul-
ture, enabling companies to approach the issue
rigorously and systematically. Just as employee
engagement is being transformed by internal
and external tools for feedback, corporate
culture is now transparent and open. Indeed,
many companies’ cultures are constantly being
discussed, shaped, and rated for the entire
world to see on social media platforms like
Glassdoor and LinkedIn.8

Some companies are taking action to
actively manage and change their culture:

• Nordstrom has formed a People Lab
Science Team in an effort to define and
curate a culture that will attract top talent
and enable the retailer to compete with tech
companies such as Tableau and Microsoft.
The team takes a multidisciplinary
approach to designing programs to define
and reinforce Nordstrom’s culture.9

• Starbucks analyzed thousands of social
media entries to gain an objective view
of its culture through the eyes of its
employees and take specific actions to
reinforce its cultural strengths and address
cultural weaknesses.10

• Securitas Belgium has defined the behaviors
associated with its vision for culture, per-
formed an analysis of its current state, and
developed a detailed, measurable change
plan for 150 of its managers.11

• Software giant SAS was recently rated the
best place to work by the Great Place to
Work Institute. It is also highly successful,
with 37 consecutive years of record earn-
ings (it earned $2.8 billion in 2012). SAS
has identified trust as a critical cultural
attribute and regularly surveys its employ-
ees on elements of trust: communication,
respect, transparency, and being treated as a
human being.12

Once an organization develops a clear
understanding of its culture and decides on a
direction for cultural change, it is critical to
move rapidly from analysis to action. Moving
from talking to doing is the only way to build
momentum. For companies pondering a
cultural transformation, the time to start is
now—because many companies are already
way ahead.

Given the importance of culture
and the consequences of cultural
issues, many companies are
proactively defining culture and
issuing culture “manifestos.”

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
40

http://dupress.com/articles/employee-engagement-and-retention

Lessons from the front lines
Culture is particularly important dur-

ing times of great change, such as mergers
and acquisitions or corporate divestitures,
which offer an opportunity for a fresh start
on culture.

Take the example of HP Inc., a global
technology company headquartered in Palo
Alto, CA, which began when Hewlett-Packard
Co. split into HP Inc. and Hewlett-Packard
Enterprise on November 1, 2015. The company
used the separation as a unique opportunity to
reinvent the sales culture and create an envi-
ronment that supports high-performing sales
organizational behaviors for the entire global
sales team of more than 6,500 employees. It
took a systematic approach, using a quantita-
tive tool to assess sales behaviors for all regions
and sales roles. Analyzing the complex inter-
section of sales behaviors, activities performed
by salespeople, sales competencies, and com-
pensation has provided insights that create
top-performing sales representatives, sales
managers, and teams. The findings from
this multifaceted analysis has enabled HP’s
top sales leaders to make “culture commit-
ments” at their global sales meeting in an
effort to begin to transform the company’s
sales culture.13

As another example, following its July
2015 spin-off of PayPal, eBay took the
opportunity to implement a deliberate
approach to redefining and actively manag-
ing its culture.14 eBay’s CEO has declared
himself to be “chief culture officer” to
emphasize his personal commitment to
driving change. On the first day of the new
company, he introduced a refreshed com-
pany purpose and five new values that are
intended to create a more brand-focused,
inventive, and bold work environment.
eBay is relying on new company values
to turn its culture aspiration into reality.
The value statements are being monitored
using a quantitative approach to measur-
ing and disseminating them: eBay’s team

of organizational development experts and
data scientists actively measures the strength
and adoption of these new values, regularly
surveying eBay employees on over 50 cultural
attributes that are mapped to the five recently
formulated values, and conducting employee
engagement surveys. This data is then com-
bined with operational metrics to assess the
extent to which compliance with cultural
values impacts the business.

To compare the internal view—that of
eBay’s employees—with an external view,
the analysts also conduct both thematic and
natural-language analysis on news articles
and Glassdoor content, to gain a data-driven
understanding of the ways that people discuss
eBay’s culture in the open market. This strong
effort has enabled eBay to quantify elements
of its culture and gain a more accurate under-
standing of how people both inside and outside
the company view it.

The new organization: Different by design

Where companies can start

• Culture cannot be delegated—it must be
on the CEO’s list of top priorities: C-suite
executives must clearly understand their
company’s cultural values, determine how
they relate to business strategy, and take
responsibility for shaping them, while also
analyzing whether their own behaviors
reinforce the desired culture.

• Understand both the current and the
desired culture: Business leaders should
closely examine current business processes
step by step to identify which practices are
aligned with the desired culture and which
are destructive and require change—which
begins by uncovering the values and behav-
iors that allowed those practices to develop.
While many HR organizations are building
teams to better communicate leaders’ vision
of the desired culture, these teams do not

always connect cultural change programs to
behaviors and business strategies.

• Examine the organization to determine
whether the targeted culture is taking
hold: Executives can drive permanent
cultural change throughout the organiza-
tion by reminding employees that culture
is a tangible set of attributes and behaviors
that can be clearly recognized at visible
“touchpoints” among employees and people
outside the firm.

• Measure culture: Use empirical tools to
understand employee attitudes and actions.
If measurement reveals that current behav-
iors conflict with desired cultural values,
refine the program to communicate and
model culture throughout the organization.
HR should take the lead in this effort.

BOTTOM LINE

Although HR has a distinct and proactive role to play in driving cultural change—one that leading
HR organizations have already embraced—the challenge of culture should be owned at the
highest level: by the leaders who are responsible for business strategy. Just as the CEO is ultimately
responsible for business strategy, the CEO is ultimately responsible for culture.

In short, leaders must understand that their beliefs and actions are the primary drivers of the
organization’s culture. In the “new organization,” senior leaders must drive cultural change
just as they do other cross-organization issues, reinforcing the behaviors necessary to support
the business strategy. Start by identifying the practices that need to change before any cultural
transformation can take hold, and then use the new tools available today to measure and manage
culture toward alignment with business goals.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
42

http://dupress.com/articles/human-capital-trends-introduction

Endnotes

1. Josh Bersin, “Becoming irresistible: A new
model for employee engagement,” Deloitte
Review 16, January 26, 2015, http://dupress.com/
articles/employee-engagement-strategies/.

2. Netflix, “Netflix culture: Freedom & respon-
sibility,” www.slideshare.net/reed2001/cul-
ture-17

, accessed December 31, 2015.

3. Steve Henn, “How the architect of Netflix’s inno-
vative culture lost her job to the system,” Planet
Money, NPR, September 3, 2015, www.npr.
org/2015/09/03/437291792/how-the-architect-
of-netflixs-innovative-culture-lost-her-job-to-
the-system.

4. Patty McCord, “How Netflix reinvented HR,”
Harvard Business Review, January–February
2014, https://hbr.org/2014/01/how-netflix-
reinvented-hr.

5. Emily Glazer and Christina Rexrode, “What
banks are doing to improve their culture,” Wall
Street Journal, February 2, 2015, http://blogs.wsj.
com/moneybeat/2015/02/02/what-banks-are-
doing-to-improve-their-culture/.

6. Josh Bersin, “Feedback is the killer app: A
new market and management model emerges,”
Forbes.com, August 26, 2015, http://www.forbes.
com/sites/joshbersin/2015/08/26/employee-
feedback-is-the-killer-app-a-new-market-
emerges/#45b7a7286

7. Deloitte, Global Human Capital Trends 2015:
Leading in the New World of Work, 2015, http://
www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/human-
capital/articles/introduction-human-capital-
trends.html.

8. Glassdoor, “Top companies for culture and val-
ues,” www.glassdoor.com/Top-Companies-for-
Culture-and-Values-LST_KQ0,36.htm, accessed
December 11, 2015.

9. Nordstrom executives, interview with Josh Ber-
sin, December 2015.

10. Jess Stein, Sophie Sakellariadis, and Alex Cole,
“Making sure the cup stays full at Starbucks,”
Monitor 360, http://monitor-360.com/ideas/
making-sure-the-cup-stays-full-at-starbucks,
accessed December 31, 2015.

11. Securitas CEO, interview with Yves Van Durme,
May 2015.

12. Mark Crowley, “How SAS became the world’s
best place to work,” Fast Company, January 22,
2013, www.fastcompany.com/3004953/how-sas-
became-worlds-best-place-work.

13. Based on client work.

14. Margarita Constantinides (senior director of tal-
ent analytics, eBay), interview with Ben Dollar,
December 28, 2015.

The new organization: Different by design
43

Authors
Marc Kaplan, Deloitte Consulting LLP | mkaplan@deloitte.com

Marc Kaplan is the US leader for Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Organization Transformation and Talent
practice. He has more than 16 years of experience in change management, talent management, training,
and organizational design. Kaplan has led the development and implementation of change management
and talent management solutions for business leaders across the C-suite. He specializes in serving life
sciences clients and has delivered large organizational transformations at many Fortune 500 companies.

Ben Dollar, Deloitte Consulting LLP | bdollar@deloitte.com

Ben Dollar is a principal in Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Human Capital practice. He focuses on
organizational design, talent management, and process improvement in manufacturing companies.
Dollar has helped some of Deloitte’s largest defense, automotive, and industrial products manufacturing
clients achieve tangible benefits through organizational design, process adoption, and human capital
management. He holds a BA from Vassar College and an MA from the University of Texas at Austin.

VerÓnica Melián, Deloitte SC | vmelian@deloitte.com

Verónica Melián is a consulting partner and the Human Capital practice leader for Deloitte LATCO.
She has over 20 years of industry and consulting experience, specializing in large-scale transformation
projects such as HR transformation and strategic change. Melián leads regional projects helping global
companies to implement their strategic initiatives in Latin America. She is a frequent speaker on HR
trends, organizational change, and culture.

Yves Van Durme, Deloitte Consulting | yvandurme@deloitte.com

Yves Van Durme is a partner in Deloitte’s Belgian consulting practice and the global leader of Strategic
Change for Deloitte’s Human Capital practice. He specializes in leadership and organizational
development and talent and HR strategy in business transformation contexts. Van Durme has over 17
years of experience as a consultant, project manager, and program developer on human capital projects
for multiple European, Japanese, American, and Belgian multinationals, family businesses, and small
and medium enterprises. His experience with high-performance coaching in sports gives Van Durme
a special affinity for leadership and organizational development work, focusing on the balance between
processes, structures, and systems on the one hand and cultural and people-related elements on the
other hand.

Jungle Wong, Deloitte Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. |
junglewong@deloitte.com.cn

Jungle Wong leads the Human Capital practice in Greater China and Asia Pacific. He has extensive
experience working with multinational enterprises located in China, as well as state-owned enterprises,
on solving talent and HR issues. He is a frequent speaker at HR conferences and an assessor for the
Chinese Business Leaders’ Awards. Wong is a regular writer for HR magazines in China.

Contributors
Anthony Abbatiello, Xu Bin, Sonny Chheng, David Mallon, Sonia Storr, and Haike van Dyck

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
44

Employee engagement continues to be a challenge for businesses, with 48
percent of this year’s survey respondents citing it as very important. The
demands and expectations of today’s diverse, multi-generational, mobile
workforce require a more flexible, employee-centric work environment, one
which companies are just beginning to learn to develop. This year will see
a strong focus on listening to employees, workforce health and well-being,
job redesign, and an enterprise-wide analysis of all dimensions of employee
engagement—all factors in what we call the “simply irresistible” organization.1

Employee engagement, like culture, has
become a CEO-level issue. Companies now
compete to win “best place to work” surveys
and monitor social media carefully. There is
an escalating war to design great workspaces,
provide flexible benefits, and create great
corporate cultures in an effort to drive higher
engagement. Nearly nine in ten executives (85
percent) in this year’s survey rated engagement
as an important (38 percent) or very important
(48 percent) priority for their companies. (See
figure 1 for our survey respondents’ ratings of
engagement’s importance across global regions
and selected countries.)

In the chapter on culture, we define both
the connections and the differences between
culture and engagement. Culture is the sense
of “how things are done around here”; engage-
ment is “how employees feel about how things

are done around here.” Engagement is an
aspect of workplace life that can—indeed,
should—be continuously monitored in a pro-
active way. It is about the future of an organiza-
tion; it is a measure of corporate health and a
key window into the potential for future issues
and workers’ support for change.

Three factors stand out as driving this focus
on engagement. First, there is intense competi-
tion for talented Millennials, many of whom
are less loyal to organizations than ever before.
Second, companies face a continued need to
attract workers with technological and other
specialized skills, as every company digitizes its
business. And third, an organization’s employ-
ment brand is now open and transparent, so
job candidates can easily see if a company is a
great place to work.

Engagement
Always on

• Employee engagement is a business imperative for leaders at all levels—above all, the CEO—and no
longer something to be measured just once a year by taking a look in the rear-view mirror.

• Despite the emergence of many tools for frequently evaluating employee sentiment, 64 percent of
organizations still only measure employee engagement annually.

• Managers and leaders are now accountable for engagement, but HR has to be proactive, implement
the right tools, and give business leaders a continuous stream of data with which to make future
decisions, promote a culture of listening, and ensure that reward systems are consistent with
engagement and retention goals.

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http://dupress.com/articles/impact-of-culture-on-business-strategy

http://dupress.com/articles/employee-engagement-culture-human-capital-trends-2015/

The role of employee engagement within
HR is changing as well. Today, we find Chief
Learning Officers who own the engagement
challenge and executives with titles like “Chief
Employee Listening Officer.” These new titles
show how the topic of engagement has become
broader and more embedded in everything HR
must do.

Many companies still conduct some form of
employee engagement survey. Indeed, 64 per-
cent of senior executives in this year’s Global
Human Capital Trends survey noted that their
companies survey employees on engagement.
Yet many traditional engagement models have
fallen behind, precluding a more complete
view of the problem. Instead, engagement
today demands understanding a highly inclu-
sive, empowering work environment.

For one thing, today’s workforce is more
diverse than ever. Companies must man-
age as many as five generations of workers,

dispersed global teams, and a heterogeneous
mix of genders, races, cultures, and sexual
orientations. They also have many types of
workers in the mix: full-time and part-time
people, employees working at home, and
workers employed by contract agencies. Yet
despite this highly diverse population, research
finds that only 11 percent of companies have
a highly inclusive work environment, and 47
percent have cultural barriers preventing the
use of part-time people. Only 4 percent of
our respondents believe they are very good at
engaging Millennials and other generations in
the work environment.2

This is insufficient in a workplace in which
everything seems to be changing at once.

Employee demands are changing. Today’s
workers place a higher premium on flex-
ibility, creativity, and purpose at work. The
structure of companies is changing, putting
a greater emphasis on empowered teams and

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
48

http://dupress.com/articles/organizational-models-network-of-teams

team leadership. Companies are becoming
dependent on a new breed of empowering,
supportive, and open leaders at a time when
companies still struggle to find the leaders
they need.

The nature of careers is also changing.
Companies used to invest heavily in employees
with the intention of keeping them for decades
and seeing them grow and contribute for the
foreseeable future. Today, because employees
change jobs more rapidly, employers must pro-
vide development more quickly, move people
more regularly, provide continuous cycles of
promotion, and give employees more tools to
manage their own careers.

Engagement, in many ways, is the tempera-
ture gauge of a company’s ability to proactively
address all these issues on behalf of the work-
force. And research clearly shows that when
employees feel empowered and have a sense of
ownership for their jobs, their engagement is
significantly higher.3

Companies are just now beginning to adapt
to a new, implicit social contract between
employers and employees—one where people
can now easily explore new jobs or new
companies online. This new reality is pushing
employers to think of talent as “volunteers”
and constantly consider how they can make
work more meaningful and rewarding. After
all, in a world of social media recruiting sites
such as LinkedIn, employees are “always on”
the hunt for new possibilities.

Engagement likewise needs to adopt an
“always on” approach. Fortunately, new solu-
tions have emerged in the marketplace to
assess employee engagement. A new genera-
tion of “pulse” survey tools and open anony-
mous feedback systems can allow employees
to rate managers, executives, and just about
everything else at work on a near-real-time
basis. The thoughtful use of such tools can
create a true “listening environment” for
employees while giving leaders critical insight
into what’s working and what’s not working in
the company.4

The movement toward this “always on,”
feedback-based approach to engagement is
growing rapidly, disrupting traditional models
of measuring and managing employee engage-
ment. A number of companies are adapting to
more complex employee demands by listen-
ing more closely, trying new approaches, and
actively addressing operational problems:5

• A food retailer that operates coffee and food
services around the world began soliciting
anonymous employee feedback. Through
this feedback, the company found that the
drive-through window was chronically
understaffed, forcing teams to run back and
forth between different types of custom-
ers, which reduced quality while adding
stress and extra work. A store manager
implemented a dedicated drive-through
role, dramatically improving engagement
and productivity; the rest of the company
followed suit.

• One software executive pulses his sales
team every week and asks a simple ques-
tion: “How happy are you at work this week,
and what can we do to make things better?”
Employees offer suggestions about things
that he could be doing better, and he claims
that he can actually predict the following
week’s sales based on the feedback he gets
the Friday before.

Engagement, in many ways,
is the temperature gauge of a
company’s ability to proactively
address all these issues on behalf
of the workforce.

The new organization: Different by design
49

http://dupress.com/articles/identifying-future-business-leaders-leadership

• An electric utility that suffered from a
major outage looked at employee feedback
and engagement data and discovered that
the outage could have been predicted (and
prevented) by more carefully monitoring
employee feedback. Now, the company uses
a real-time text analysis tool to monitor
open feedback from line workers around
the region.

As these examples show, just as companies
like Yelp, Glassdoor, and TripAdvisor offer
feedback everywhere in the outside world,
companies are also starting to offer open
feedback systems internally. Yet not all com-
panies are taking part in this transformation.
Surprisingly, nearly one in five executives
we surveyed (18 percent) reported that their
companies do not formally measure employee
engagement at all. Another 54 percent report

they are not fully ready to adopt an always-
on approach. And only 8 percent of the
executives we surveyed state that they measure
employee engagement on a monthly or more
frequent basis.

Nor is merely measuring engagement
the whole answer. Engagement, retention,
and employee productivity are complex and
multi-faceted problems. Employees today are
overwhelmed with too much work, manag-
ers are under pressure to build the right work
environment, HR is trying to build programs
for well-being and work-life balance, and the
business itself is trying to focus more heavily
on customers. The task around engagement,

then, is not simply to have an engagement
index but rather the far broader and more sig-
nificant challenge of building an “irresistible”
organization.6

Almost everything that happens at work has
a direct impact on employees’ commitment to
their work: how they are coached and evalu-
ated; the work environment and the tools with
which they work; their opportunities to grow
and develop; and, of course, their relation-
ships with managers and peers. Traditional
definitions of engagement, therefore, need to
be expanded to include five key elements that
drive engagement: meaningful work, hands-
on management, a positive work environ-
ment, opportunities for growth, and trust in
organizational leadership.

Finally, topics such as “mission,” “val-
ues,” and “contribution to society” are driv-

ing engagement more than ever.
Indeed, employees value “culture”
and “career growth” at almost
twice the rate at which they value
“compensation and benefits” when
selecting an employer.7 That is why
culture and work environment
have become the new drivers of
employment brand and employee
passion. The new model for “listen-
ing” must be coupled with a focus
on “vision” and “values” in lead-
ership as well. Engagement with

a mission has a magnetism no matter how
troubled an organization as a whole may be.

Lessons from the front lines

Quicken Loans, one of the United States’
largest providers of home loans with revenues
of more than $2.8 billion, operates in one of
the most traditional businesses in financial
services. Yet through a special combination
of leadership focus, employee programs, and
an innovative work environment, the com-
pany has been recognized as one of Fortune’s
100 best companies to work for in 2014,

Companies are just now beginning to
adapt to a new, implicit social contract
between employers and employees—one
where people can now easily explore new
jobs or new companies online.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
50

http://

http://dupress.com/articles/employee-engagement-strategies/

2013, and 2012.8 How does Quicken Loans
accomplish this?

Quicken Loans looks at employee engage-
ment as core to its strategy of providing excel-
lent customer service. Its CEO, Bill Emerson, is
responsible for identifying engagement prob-
lems, creating solutions, and working with his
HR leadership to maintain the highest levels of
engagement in the industry.

One of Quicken Loans’ tools is a beautifully
written color book called The Quicken Loans
ISMs.9 ISMs are simple, easy-to-read principles
and examples, which the book illustrates with
pop art, that inform every business decision at
the company. Examples include, “Every client,
every time, no exception, no excuses”; “Obsess
with finding a better way”; “Yes before no”; and
“Ignore the noise.”10 These principles, coupled
with stories and examples, help employ-
ees feel empowered to do the right thing
for customers.

The company is located in Detroit, yet
its office feels like a high-tech startup. Open
offices, bright colors, and lots of flexible work
spaces help employees feel empowered, col-
laborative, and rewarded. The space is carefully
designed to feel like an outside street, with
minimal noise but lots of fun. Melissa Price,
Quicken Loans’ HR leader—as well as the CEO
of dPOP!, the design company that created the
office space—focuses heavily on feedback and
openness. “We want [workers’] feedback, and
then we immediately do something about it.
And that just encourages and promotes more
feedback and inclusion.”11

The company also offers child care, exer-
cise classes, snack food, and other amenities
not typically provided by many businesses.
Team members receive personal notes from
executives for anniversaries, birthdays, and
holidays—and the company gives away game
tickets, cash, and free trips when employ-
ees go the extra mile for customers. CEO
Emerson even gives employees his personal
phone number.12

The example of Quicken Loans clearly
shows that you don’t have to be a fast-growing

technology company located in Silicon Valley
to create an amazing, highly engaged place
to work.

Where companies can start

• Redefine engagement: Engagement is not
simply about turning an organization into a
great place to work. It also means reaching
down to the team and individual levels to
foster highly engaged teams of employees
doing work they love to do.

• Create a sense of passion, purpose, and
mission: Free food and ping-pong tables
are fun perks, but companies that succeed
in having highly engaged employees focus
intently on driving meaning, purpose, and
passion among workers.

• Focus on all three levels: Engagement must
be created, measured, and monitored at the
organization, team, and individual levels.

The new organization: Different by design
51

http://dupress.com/articles/unlocking-the-passion-of-the-explorer/

http://dupress.com/articles/worker-passion-employee-behavior/

• Link compensation to engagement:
Managers must embrace engaging their
teams as one of their primary responsibili-
ties. Tying team leaders’ compensation to
their team members’ engagement sends
a powerful signal and drives a sense of
accountability about engagement efforts.

• Consider “stay” interviews: Many compa-
nies conduct “exit” interviews to find out
why employees are leaving. It is far better

to also use “stay” interviews to learn what
it would take for an employee to stay at
a company.

• Final check: Is your engagement effort
“always on”? Perhaps the biggest challenge
for HR in leading engagement programs is
shifting from a transactional, once-a-year
mind-set, to an “always on,” continuous lis-
tening approach to monitoring engagement.

BOTTOM LINE

Engagement is an issue not merely for HR but for the entire executive team. Leading companies
work proactively on engagement: They continuously ask themselves why their employees would
commit to working at the organization for any length of time and what they can do to make their
organization more attractive. Surveys may be important in determining levels of engagement, but
engagement fundamentally comes back to the question of exerting a continuous attraction for
workers in the open talent economy.

Engagement is not reactive but proactive. Efforts to build engagement should be “always on”
through extensive data use and analysis by business leaders. HR, too, must be proactive in
engagement efforts. Leading companies have made this their goal and are reaping the benefits;
all organizations that want a passionate workforce should follow suit.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016

Endnotes

1. Josh Bersin, “Becoming irresistible: A new
model for employee engagement,” Deloitte
Review, Deloitte University Press, January 2015,
http://dupress.com/articles/employee-engage-
ment-strategies/.

2. Stacia Sherman Garr, The diversity and inclu-
sion benchmarking report: An analysis of the
current landscape, Bersin by Deloitte, 2014,
http://bersinone.bersin.com/resources/
research/?docid=17320.

3. James B. Avey, Bruce Avolio, Craig Crossley, and
Fred Luthans, “Psychological ownership: Theo-
retical extensions, measurement, and relation
to work outcomes,” Journal of Organizational
Behavior 30 (2009): pp. 173–191, http://digitalc-
ommons.unl.edu/managementfacpub/18/.

4. Josh Bersin, “Feedback is the killer app: A
new market and management model emerges,”
Forbes.com, August 26, 2015, http://www.forbes.
com/sites/joshbersin/2015/08/26/employee-
feedback-is-the-killer-app-a-new-market-
emerges/#45b7a7286626.

5. Ibid.

6. Bersin, “Becoming irresistible: A new model for
employee engagement.”

7. Proprietary research by Glassdoor and Bersin by
Deloitte.

8. Rebecca L. Ray et al., The DNA of engagement:
How organizations create and sustain highly
engaging cultures, The Conference Board, Febru-
ary 2015, TCB_R-1564-14-RR, https://www.
conference-board.org/publications/publication-
detail.cfm?publicationid=2902.

9. “The Quicken Loans ISMs,” http://www.quicken-
loanscareers.com/about/culture/.

10. Ray et al., The DNA of engagement.

11. Ibid.

12. Venessa Wong, “This CEO gives every employee
his cell number (seriously),” Bloomberg Business,
October 22, 2012, http://www.bloomberg.com/
bw/articles/2012-10-22/this-ceo-gives-every-
employee-his-cell-number-seriously.

The new organization: Different by design
53

Authors
David Brown, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu | davidbrown@deloitte.com.au

David Brown, a consulting partner, leads the Human Capital practice in Australia. A member of the
global Human Capital practice leadership team, Brown has over 30 years’ experience in the human
capital space in both corporate HR and advisory roles. He has considerable international experience in
HR management across North America, Europe, and Asia, specializing in HR strategy and execution,
strategic change, workforce productivity/engagement, and talent management/development.

Josh Bersin, Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP | jbersin@deloitte.com

Will Gosling, Deloitte UK | wgosling@deloitte.co.uk

Will Gosling leads the UK CHRO Transition and Development program. He advises private sector clients
in the areas of organization transformation, employee engagement, and HR effectiveness, specializing in
the technology, media, and telecommunications industry. Gosling also leads Deloitte’s digital leadership
research, and has founded a professional community for digital leaders and talent across the United
Kingdom. His work has received industry recognition, winning the MCA HR Consulting and CBI
Human Capital awards.

Nathan Sloan, Deloitte Consulting LLP | nsloan@deloitte.com

Nathan Sloan is a principal in Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Human Capital practice. Based in Charlotte, NC,
he works with global companies to determine the organizational structures, talent programs, and HR
priorities required to implement their business strategies. Sloan is the Human Capital leader for the retail
and wholesale distribution sector and also leads Deloitte’s National Talent Strategies practice, overseeing
the development of all talent management solutions.

Contributors
Dimple Agarwal, David Dye, Robin Erickson, Marc Kaplan, Robin Lissak,
Jeff Schwartz, Jaime Valenzuela, and David White

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
54

The pressure on organizations to improve learning and development continues
to intensify. Advances in technology, shifts in demographics, and the constant
competitive necessity to upgrade workforce skills are disrupting corporate learning.
These forces are pushing companies to develop new ways to put employees in
charge of the learning experience and foster a culture of learning throughout the
organization. This year, the big change is a shift beyond internal programs aimed at
developing people to innovative platforms that enable people to develop themselves.

LEARNING continues to be important to HR and business executives worldwide as
they strive to adapt to the disruptive change
that is sweeping through corporate learning
and development organizations. (See figure 1
for our survey respondents’ ratings of learn-
ing’s importance across global regions and
selected countries.) Several factors are driving
the demand for change that has accelerated to
warp speed over the past year.

First, nearly every CEO and CHRO reports
that their companies are not developing skills
fast enough or leaders deeply enough.1 In
today’s highly competitive global economy and
intensely competitive talent market, the C-suite
clearly understands that companies that do
not constantly upgrade skills and rapidly
build leaders will not be able to execute their
business plans. In today’s business environ-
ment, learning is an essential tool for engaging

employees, attracting and retaining top talent,
and developing long-term leadership for
the company.

Second, the ubiquity of always-connected
mobile devices makes learning potentially
available everywhere and accessible to every-
one at any time. Employees can now take a
course on nearly any subject online, search for
an expert video or podcast to learn a quickly
needed skill, and even earn a college degree in
a new topic like data science without leaving
their desk—or a couch or coffee shop. This
new world of consumer-centric learning puts
employees, not L&D departments, in charge.

Third, employees at all levels now recog-
nize that “the learning curve is the earning
curve,”2 and they are demanding access to
dynamic learning opportunities that fit their
individual needs and schedules.3 Millennials
and other young employees have grown up

Learning
Employees take charge

• More than eight in ten executives (84 percent) in this year’s survey view learning as an important (40
percent) or very important (44 percent) issue.

• Employees at all levels expect dynamic, self-directed, continuous learning opportunities from
their employers.

• Despite the strong shift toward employee-centric learning, many learning and development
organizations are still struggling with internally focused and outdated platforms and static
learning approaches.

The new organization: Different by design
57

in this self-directed learning environment.
They expect it as part of their working lives
and careers—and they will move elsewhere if
employers fail to provide it. Already, 30 percent
of executives in our survey see learning as the
primary driver of employee development.

While many organizations are struggling
to adapt to these challenges, high-performing
companies are seizing the opportunity to
promote a new culture of learning, upend-
ing traditional models and transforming
how employees learn. These organizations
are adopting new mind-sets, fundamentally
rethinking what “learning” and “develop-
ment” mean in the context of their business.
They place the employee at the center of a new
architecture and new vision that treats learning
as a continuous process, not an episodic event,
and as a company-wide responsibility, not one
confined to HR (figure 2).4

Supporting this new vision, learning and
development organizations at these innovative
companies are adopting new and expanded
learning architectures.5 They see their role
as not simply to push out content they have
developed, but to enable employees to access
content from a wide range of internal and
external sources to create individual learn-
ing programs. To facilitate the effort to help
employees “learn how to learn,” L&D teams
are building internal knowledge-sharing
programs, developing easy-to-use portals and
video sharing systems, and promoting collab-
orative experiences at work that help people
constantly learn and share knowledge.

These efforts seek to leverage the profound
shifts taking place in the learning industry.
Traditional learning management system
companies are rapidly evolving in their ability
to deliver modern, compelling experiences

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
58

for learners. Now, a new breed of disruptive,
platforms is starting to arrive. New money and
ideas are pouring into this sector. CB Insights,
which tracks venture investments, estimates
that more than $3 billion was invested in new
learning and educational start-ups in the first
six months of 2015. Almost $1 billion of this
went into tools, content, and companies that
focus on the corporate market.6

Much of this investment is directed at tools
to harness video, new mobile learning apps,
and an explosion of content marketplaces.
Today, any employee can browse through
content from Coursera, Udemy, Udacity, or a
dozen other providers and instantly access a
lecture, course, or workshop on a needed skill.
Such platforms offer learning opportunities at
little or no cost and even allow employees to
interact online with experts in the field—learn-
ing exactly what they need, when they need it,
at a time that fits their schedules.

This kind of technologically enabled,
on-demand learning experience rarely exists
within a corporation, and it is a world away

from the traditional learning programs still
used by most L&D organizations. In particular,
many companies are still struggling to ride
the wave and integrate external platforms as
part of their employee learning. In our survey,
respondents cited a wide range of external
learning opportunities that could impact
internal development, including external
certificates (32 percent), MOOCs (18 percent),
and external, self-directed learning powered
by social media (14 percent). Still, despite this
robust array of choices, 61 percent of execu-
tives report challenges in moving their organi-
zations toward external self-directed learning.

The goal is no longer to craft a learning pro-
gram but to move beyond programs to curate
the learning experience. Corporate training
departments must become “learning experi-
ence architects” (to use a term from design
thinking), building a compelling and dynamic
experience for employees and helping employ-
ees learn how to learn.

Figure 3 describes some characteristics
of this new mind-set and the ways in which

Graphic: Deloitte University Press | DUPress.com

Source: David Mallon and Dani Johnson, The learning architecture: Defining development and enabling continuous learning, Bersin by Deloitte, 2014,
http://bersinone.bersin.com/resources/research/?docid=17435.

Immediate
Performance support and other tools for point-of-need learning
Q: What do I need to support my success in the moment?

Intermediate
Current job development and competency expansion
Q: What do I need to grow in my current role?

Transitional
Development of skills and relationships that
will meet long-term business goals
Q: What do I need to grow in my career?

Figure 2. A continuous learning model

Education

Environment

Exposure

Experience

The new organization: Different by design
59

http://dupress.com/articles/employee-experience-management-design-thinking

it could reshape the role of L&D organiza-
tions that embrace it. Of these shifts, the most
fundamental for HR to make is to think of
learning from the perspective of a user’s daily
experiences and career aspirations, rather than
as a series of processes and programs that the
learning function wants to roll out. The chief
learning officer has the opportunity to lead
the charge to make L&D professionals more
like product managers working for custom-
ers who have unfulfilled needs, rather than
simply designers of courses that employees are
required to complete.

The transformation of learning is a power-
ful story, and most organizations are still in the
first or second act of this multi-act drama. But

the trend is clear: The learning organization
must help learners figure out how to obtain the
learning they need for themselves, from both
inside and outside the company. If your orga-
nization has not yet embarked on this journey,
the time to start is now.

Lessons from the front lines

MasterCard has been on a journey, trans-
forming itself from a traditional payments pro-
cessing company into a technology company
that provides the infrastructure that connects
consumers, banks, and businesses.7 With its
underlying business model evolving to address
new opportunities and competitive threats,

Figure 3. Learning, today and tomorrow

Today Tomorrow

Learning is a series of corporate programs built around
L&D-designed content and L&D-approved experts.

Learning is an “environment” and an “experience,”
leveraging experts, content, and materials sourced and
recommended by external communities as well as by other
employees and internal experts (not just L&D).

The learning environment is managed by a corporate
learning management system—essentially a large catalog
filled with courses.

The learning environment feels like a consumer website that
provides videos, courses, content, and access to experts—as
well as recommendation engines that help people find
precisely what they need.

L&D, business, and compliance experts push out training,
identifying required courses to be completed by employees
based on roles.

Employees pull learning, navigating and accessing
opportunities from inside and outside of the company.

The focus is on internal training sanctioned by the company. External training is available from any digital content source.

Learning professionals are generalists who do everything
from design to development, logistics, and measurement.

Learning professionals are specialists who are excellent at the
component they own.

Training follows a lecture-based model guided by an expert. Training is experiential, relying on simulations, case studies,
and flipped classrooms.

Employees learn specific skills through expert-guided
instruction.

Employees learn how to learn through facilitation and
coaching.

Organizations create detailed, exhaustive, skills-based
competencies that drive the learning agenda.

Organizations create high-level frameworks that outline
broad capabilities.

The learning organization plays a lead role in what a person
learns and focuses on delivering work experiences, interactions
with others, and formal training in the traditional 70-20-10
ratio.

The learning organization plays a supporting role in what
a person learns, expanding the 10 to include “inside” and

“outside” learning; shifting the 20 to include internal and
external networks; and redefining the 70 to include corporate,
community, and social experiences.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
60

the company is seeking to build capabilities to
stay agile and keep new products and services
flowing. And with an increasingly diverse
workforce—now more than 40 percent Gen
Y—it is becoming harder to engage employ-
ees with traditional
learning approaches.

Janice Burns,
chief learning officer
and head of Global
Talent Development
and Organizational
Effectiveness, chal-
lenged her team
to reinvent their
approach to learn-
ing by constructing
responsive, agile, and
personal solutions
that would meet the
organization’s evolving demands along with
employees’. To do that, she first had to lead
a mind-set shift within her own organiza-
tion—away from periodic programs owned

by learning professionals to self-directed
solutions owned by individual employees.
No longer would her learning team focus on
telling people what to learn but instead show
them what they can learn, providing access to

resources, tools, and
connections to enable
individuals to do
their jobs and build
their careers better.

Key to refocusing
her team on the indi-
vidual was segment-
ing audiences and
getting to know their
needs, which she did
by aligning Global
Talent Development
(GTD) leaders
with specific busi-

ness units to work with operational leaders.
She also empowered her team to experiment
with new learning tools and technologies,
encouraging them to work lean, fail fast, and

The transformation of
learning is a powerful
story, and most
organizations are still in
the first or second act of
this multi-act drama.

The new organization: Different by design
61

scale up successes. Trying something that did
not work became acceptable—in some ways
a sign of tangible progress toward a culture
of innovation.

As they explored new learning formats, the
GTD team’s attention shifted from traditional
courses and programs pushed to employees
solely via the learning management system
(less important in any high-performing
learning organization), to more employee-
driven solutions such as mobile perfor-
mance support, massive open online courses
(MOOCs), on-demand micro-learning, and
online communities.

One new learning platform taking off with
MasterCard’s Operations & Technology (O&T)
group, for example, is Degreed. The system,
which enables self-serve career development,
empowers individuals and subject matter spe-
cialists to curate their own learning “playlists,”
mixing and matching internal and external
learning content from a variety of sources and
formats. Articles, videos, MOOCs, podcasts,
and webinars can all be woven together into
a personalized learning experience to help
employees develop the skills they want to
focus on.

The initial feedback from the roll-out to
the company’s O&T function is promising.
Stories highlight that managers and profes-
sionals now feel equipped with tools to drive
their own development. “I am willing to invest
more into the tool because it will follow me
no matter where my career takes me,” said one
systems analyst. Similar feedback will continue
to emerge as MasterCard deploys the platform

more broadly across the rest of
the enterprise.

MasterCard is in the early
stages of its journey toward a
culture of entrepreneurship and
empowerment. However, having
the GTD organization act as a
living example of this new cul-
ture through its own experimen-
tal approach has already enabled

it to become a meaningful catalyst for change
within MasterCard.

Where companies can start

• Recognize that employee-learners are
in the driver’s seat: Learning organiza-
tions should think deeply about how the
user experiences a company’s learning
offerings.

Employees need to be viewed as
customers to be satisfied, rather than as
students to be pressured into traditional
learning classrooms.

• Become comfortable with the shift from
push to pull: Switching from a content-
centric “push” approach to a learner-centric
“pull” approach requires a cultural shift
within learning organizations. Giving up
full control over learning content, sched-
ules, and platforms may not be easy, but
learning organizations that embrace this
shift can deliver more effective learning
throughout the organization.

• Use design thinking: Learning organiza-
tions should think less about developing
content and more about the month-by-
month, day-by-day, and hour-by-hour
experience of the learner.

• Use technology to drive employee-centric
learning: Mobile, social, and web-based
platforms that can deliver on-demand
learning content are “must-have” capabili-
ties. The best systems can easily integrate

Employees need to be viewed as
customers to be satisfied, rather than as
students to be pressured into traditional
learning classrooms.
Global Human Capital Trends 2016
62

http://dupress.com/articles/employee-experience-management-design-thinking

BOTTOM LINE

Shifting from an internally focused, corporate-centric learning universe to a learner-centric one
upends many long-held beliefs in the HR community. Employees will likely find it easier to make
this pivot than HR departments because this new world is already part of their mobile, social,
and online lives. For their part, business, learning, and HR leaders must embrace a new mind-set
that puts learners in the driver’s seat, redesigning programs to harness the power of technology
and the amazingly diverse wealth of instantly available external content, and offering great user
experiences to learners.

any type of digital content and allow
learners, as well as learning professionals
and business managers, to add and suggest
content. Companies should be cautious
before investing in massive new systems,
and they should monitor developments
from innovative vendors to help build effec-
tive learning applications.

• Realign and reengage: HR and learning
leaders must align the learning function
with business needs and goals. For many
learning teams, doing so can also be an
opportunity to reengage with employees,
as many learners have stopped looking to
their corporate learning departments for
training and are already immersed in the

enormous range of available digital learning
and content.

• Adopt a learning architecture that sup-
ports an expanded vision for develop-
ment: Rethink what “development” means
in the context of the organization. If such
a vision does not yet exist, adopt one and
communicate it broadly.

• Adopt a learning architecture that sup-
ports continuous learning: Dedicate
resources, set expectations, and align
corporate culture with the goal of enabling
employees to get the learning they need,
when they need it, at every stage in their
careers.

The new organization: Different by design
63

Endnotes

1. The Conference Board, “The Conference Board
CEO Challenge 2016,” https://www.conference-
board.org/publications/publicationdetail.
cfm?publicationid=6071.

2. Josh Bersin, “The use of MOOCs and online
education is exploding: Here’s why,” December
30, 2015, http://joshbersin.com/2015/12/the-
use-of-moocs-and-online-education-is-explod-
ing-heres-why/.

3. Josh Bersin, “Spending on corporate train-
ing soars: Employee capabilities now a pri-
ority,” Forbes, February 2014, http://www.
forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2014/02/04/
the-recovery-arrives-corporate-training-spend-
skyrockets/#2bccf9de4ab7.

4. David Mallon and Dani Johnson, The learn-
ing architecture: Defining development and
enabling continuous learning, Bersin by Deloitte,
2014, http://bersinone.bersin.com/resources/
research/?docid=17435.

5. Bersin by Deloitte defines a learning architec-
ture as an organization’s unique map of agreed-
upon learning needs, learning strategies, and de-
livery strategies for all of its talent. This provides
both the L&D function and the business a clear
view of what types of problems the organization
will solve, how they will solve them, what tools
they need, and which approaches the organiza-
tion will take. It deliberately limits the orga-
nization’s options by deciding how and where
the L&D function will focus its efforts—and it
builds upon the organization’s culture and his-
tory of learning. (Source: Mallon and Johnson,
The learning architecture.)

6. Proprietary research by CB Insights, www.
cbinsights.com.

7. Based on client work at MasterCard.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
64

Authors
Bill Pelster, Deloitte Consulting LLP | bpelster@deloitte.com

Bill Pelster has more than 20 years of industry and consulting experience. In his current role, he is
responsible for leading the Integrated Talent Management practice, which focuses on issues and trends in
the workplace. In his previous role as Deloitte’s chief learning officer, Pelster was responsible for the total
development experience of Deloitte professionals, including learning, leadership, high-potentials, and
career/life fit. Additionally, he was one of the key architects of Deloitte University and a US Consulting
board member.

Josh Haims, Deloitte Consulting LLP | jhaims@deloitte.com

Josh Haims is a principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP. He is a senior leader in Deloitte’s Learning
Solutions practice, co-founder of Deloitte’s Chief Learning Officer Forum, and sponsor of the Wall Street
Learning & Development Executive Roundtable. Dedicated to the discipline of learning, Haims’s career
spans more than 20 years in the field of corporate learning. He has supported Fortune 100 clients to help
them reimagine their learning strategies, enhance the learner experience, and improve the learning and

development function’s operational performance.

Jen Stempel, Deloitte Consulting LLP | jstempel@deloitte.com

Jen Stempel has more than 20 years of experience in corporate learning and leads Deloitte’s US Learning
Solutions practice. She works with large, complex global companies to optimize their learning functions
and help them realize value from their learning spend by improving their programs’ effectiveness,
operational efficiency, and alignment with business strategy. Stempel is a contributor to Deloitte’s Global
Human Capital Trends report and a frequent writer and speaker on learning and talent topics.

Bernard van der Vyver | bevandervyver@deloitte.nl

Bernard van der Vyver is a leading advisor on human capital matters, focusing on learning and
development. By merging his background in technology and its effective use with the development of
people, van der Vyver brings a unique strength to the HR domain. As Deloitte’s global learning solutions
leader, he aspires to grow and strengthen the global learning community by leveraging the organization’s
knowledge and expertise to deliver learning solutions that create unique value for clients.

Contributors
Jason Galea, Dani Johnson, Praveen Kaushik, and Jeff Schwartz

The new organization: Different by design
65

Employees are overwhelmed with technology, applications, and a constant flood
of information. Deloitte research shows that people collectively check their phones
more than 8 billion times each day,1 yet productivity is barely rising.2 To relieve
the overwhelmed employee and develop HR applications that can help manage
complexity, HR must adopt design thinking, which puts the employee experience
at the center.3 Design thinking moves HR’s focus beyond building programs
and processes to a new goal: designing a productive and meaningful employee
experience through solutions that are compelling, enjoyable, and simple.

TRADITIONAL HR solutions are typically programs or processes to train people,
assess performance, ensure compliance, or
document a practice at work. Most were built
around forms, process steps, formal training,
or classroom events. While these strategies
work to a degree, today’s employees are already
overwhelmed with a flood of email, messages,
meetings, and other workplace distractions.
Two-thirds of companies now believe com-
plexity is an obstacle to business success and
a barrier to growth in business productivity.5
Perhaps this is one reason why 79 percent
of executives in this year’s Global Human
Capital Trends survey rated design thinking an
important or very important issue. (See figure
1 for our survey respondents’ ratings of design

thinking’s importance across global regions
and selected countries.)

Design thinking casts HR in a new role.6 It
transforms HR from a “process developer” to
an “experience architect.” It empowers HR to
reimagine every aspect of work: the physical
environment; how people meet and interact;
how managers spend their time; and how
companies select, train, engage, and evalu-
ate people. One CHRO calls herself the “chief
employee experience officer,” which effectively
summarizes this powerful new mandate.

Simply described, design thinking means
focusing on the person and the experience, not
the process. At its core, working as a designer
involves studying people at work, and develop-
ing “personas” and “profiles” to understand

Design thinking
Crafting the employee experience

• Design thinking provides a means to focus on the employee’s personal experience and to create
processes centered upon the worker. The result: new solutions and tools that directly contribute to
employee satisfaction, productivity, and enjoyment.

• HR departments should upgrade their skills to incorporate key design thinking concepts such as
digital design, mobile app design, user experience design, and behavioral economics.

• Design thinking is important, and it works. In this year’s survey, respondents at companies where HR
delivers the highest levels of value are almost five times more likely to be using design thinking in
their programs than their peers.4

http://dupress.com/articles/hc-trends-2014-overwhelmed-employee/

http://dupress.com/articles/work-simplification-human-capital-trends-2015/

employee demographics, work environment,
and challenges. It relies on generating ideas
quickly and testing prototypes that generate
further ideas, digital tools, and solutions.7

Applying design thinking to the work expe-
rience compels HR to ask, “What does a great
employee experience look like from end to
end? How can we facilitate collaboration and
learning in everything we do? How can we take
advantage of location-aware mobile devices
to make people more productive? How can
we give employees a few easy-to-understand
choices so they can make decisions faster?”

Many companies are relying upon design
thinking. GE, for example, has made simplifi-
cation a core new business strategy.8 It is intro-
ducing design thinking, a simplified model for
performance management, new mobile apps
for goal management and collaboration, and
a new set of principles for work. The company
now uses agile methodologies throughout

product development and is teaching managers
how to help teams “do less” and “focus more.”

One fundamental idea in design think-
ing is the use of behavioral economics. Many
HR practices can be replaced with “intelligent
choices,” using the principles of behavioral
economics to encourage better decisions.9
Should a company, for example, give people 10
options for 401(k) plans? Or rather select three
that offer the best performance? Such “choice
architecture” can make work far easier and
more enjoyable for employees—and increase
employee participation in the program.

Design thinking—or lack of it—can make
a huge difference in how companies are
perceived. Take recruiting. The Talent Board
found that more than half the candidates who
find the job-application experience difficult
develop a negative impression of the company’s
products and services.10 Companies such
as Zappos and others design the candidate

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
68

experience to attract high-performing people
and make it easy to find the right job and
apply quickly.11

Other companies are using design think-
ing to improve learning dramatically. Deckers
Brands,12 Nestlé,13 and Qualcomm14 have used
design thinking to develop highly intuitive,
experiential learning programs. Experiential
learning programs begin with the individual
and the context of an employee’s work rather
than a model in which the presenter is the
focus. They offer learning programs that are
much more stimulating and engaging and lead
to higher skills retention. In addition, they do
not depend on a learning management system
but can leverage new learning technologies to
promote continuous learning.

The data from our survey this year sug-
gest that the more importance an organization
places on design thinking and the more ready
it is to embrace it, the faster the organization
grows. Companies growing by 10 percent or
more per year are more than twice as likely
to report they are ready to incorporate design
thinking, compared to their counterparts that
are experiencing stagnant levels of growth.

Exciting new digital tools that employ
design thinking are also making routine HR
tasks more efficient and easy, while improv-
ing the employee experience. Australia and
New Zealand Banking Group developed an
easy-to-use mobile app that allows employees
to manage their time and attendance, benefits,
and vacation schedule, while also enabling
them to collaborate with colleagues.15 DuPont
completely redesigned its online HR portal
around the end user’s experience, dramatically
reducing the time employees spend on tradi-
tional HR management processes.16 Beyond
recruiting, learning, and other HR processes,
design thinking has been used to improve
performance management and coaching at
companies such as Adobe,17 and Autodesk,18
and New York Life.

Organizations are also starting to use
employee personas to understand the unique
needs of distinct employee segments. At one

Australian government agency, eight per-
sonas were considered as the agency was
designing a new HR portal. The organization
found that 27,000 of its 45,000 employees
were remote field workers who do not use
company-sponsored technology and function
independently. Through focus groups and a
survey, the agency uncovered surprising and

practical insights around communication, col-
laboration and knowledge management, and
self-service administration across all personas.
For example, the biggest frustration for these
remote employees was the inability to access
their work schedules, submit absence requests,
or order uniforms using their personal tech-
nology. These insights guided the systems
design. Today, the employee persona profiles
are a standard component of the agency’s
orientation program.19

With more companies embracing design
thinking, we see it connecting many of the
trends we highlight this year, including:

• Organizational design, which can incor-
porate design thinking when restructuring
roles or the organization itself

• Engagement, which research shows can be
driven by using design thinking to make
work easier, more efficient, more fulfilling,
and more rewarding

• Learning, in which new, self-directed learn-
ing experiences can be shaped by design
thinking’s central principle of putting the
user experience ahead of the process

Design thinking—or lack
of it—can make a huge
difference in how companies
are perceived.

The new organization: Different by design
69

http://dupress.com/articles/organizational-models-network-of-teams

http://dupress.com/articles/employee-engagement-and-retention

http://dupress.com/articles/fostering-culture-of-learning-for-employees

• Analytics, in which data analysis and
design thinking can be linked to rec-
ommend better solutions directly to
the employee

• HR skills, which must be upgraded to
incorporate an understanding of digital
design, mobile application design, behav-
ioral economics, machine learning, and
user experience design

• Digital HR, where design thinking is criti-
cal in developing
new digital tools
that can make work
easier and better

Just as successful
companies continually
ask how to improve
customer experiences
and how those experi-
ences compare to their
competitors’, HR can
approach employee
experiences with the
same rigor. While
design thinking may
involve significant
changes to workplaces,
systems, processes,
and other business ele-
ments, its focus is on people.

As a recent Harvard Business Review article
by Jon Kolko noted, “People need their interac-
tions with technologies and other complex sys-
tems to be simple, intuitive, and pleasurable.”
Because “design is empathetic,” the article con-
tinues, “it implicitly drives a more thoughtful,
human approach to business”—one that makes
the workplace more attractive to both current
and prospective employees.20

Successful design thinking integrates an
understanding of human behavior. What
motivates people? How do they see them-
selves? What do they value? How do they
express those values in typical office behav-
ior? In seeking to answer these questions, HR

teams do not have to start from scratch—often,
they can look inside the organization for ideas
and inspiration.

Lessons from the front lines
Telstra is Australia’s leading telecommu-

nications and information services company,
offering a full range of communications
services and competing in all telecommunica-
tions markets. As with all telecommunications
companies, Telstra hires thousands of employ-
ees each year.21 New employees have to learn

a dizzying number
of systems, products,
pricing plans, and
ways of doing their
job, so turnover and
engagement are always
issues. To address this
strategic challenge,
Telstra used design
thinking to develop
a new “90-Day”
onboarding experi-
ence for all employees
as well as an indi-
vidualized executive
induction program.

The process
included:

• Focusing questions: “Discovery inter-
views” with leaders to frame the challenge
and set objectives for the program

• Ethnographic research: Interviews and
focus group sessions with employees, HR,
and managers to explore challenges and
needs across the first 90 days’ experience

• Synthesis: Comparing insights from the
ethnographic research with HR demo-
graphic and turnover data to identify key
transition points and work task areas that
could be dramatically improved to “delight”
employees

The data from our
survey this year
suggest that the
more importance an
organization places on
design thinking and
the more ready it is to
embrace it, the faster the
organization grows.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
70

http://dupress.com/articles/people-analytics-in-hr-analytics-teams

http://dupress.com/articles/changing-role-of-hr-skills-crisis

http://dupress.com/articles/digital-hr-technology-for-hr-teams-services

• Prototyping: Developing low-fidelity tools
and solutions that were tested and refined
multiple times to allow for “fast failure” and
the integration of lessons learned

• Visualisation: Using persona-based blue-
prints that describe the onboarding journey
in an engaging way, allowing leaders and
others to emulate the project team’s journey
and increase engagement in the design.

Through this design thinking process,
Telstra gained important insights into key pain
points, needs, and challenges of the current
onboarding process during the first 90 days.
The research proved that employees who
succeeded in the first 90-day period were far
more productive over the entire course of their
employment than those who struggled.

Using insights from this research, Telstra
designed the onboarding approach around
four elements:

• Join: Make the experience personal, but
also easy and clear on how to quickly
become part of the organization

• Learn: Provide time and space to allow
for key learning to happen as quickly
as possible

• Contribute: Provide guidance, support, and
coaching to foster productivity

• Grow: Provide acknowledgement and cel-
ebrate achievements to motivate continuous
growth in a new role

The result: Productivity rose, employees
became more committed and engaged, and
new hires became more quickly integrated into
the organization.

Now a huge fan of design thinking, Telstra
has applied the process to improve leadership
development, the HR services experience,
change management programs, and other
employee development programs.22

The new organization: Different by design
71

Where companies can start

• School HR in design thinking: HR
should move away from “process design”
to “human-centered design.” This means
studying what employees do, visiting their
workplaces, and observing their behavior.
Based on these insights, solutions and pro-
grams can be designed that improve pro-
ductivity, boost engagement, and increase
employee satisfaction while also providing
training or other HR services.

• Learn from design thinking in customer
service: Many companies use design think-
ing in developing their customer service

BOTTOM LINE

With its focus on people, HR leaders have an opportunity to be designers, creating a more
engaging and effective HR solution. Applied correctly, design thinking is a rigorous, disciplined
method of problem-solving. It represents an opportunity for HR to reshape how it works with
the organization and to redesign its own procedures, using technology to ensure positive
employee interactions.

Done well, design thinking promotes a virtuous cycle, generating higher levels of employee
satisfaction, greater engagement, and higher productivity for the company. In their new role
as designers, talent leaders should ask: How can HR take the lead in crafting and shaping the
employee experience? How can HR design overall experiences that engage employees at all
stages, from candidates through alumni? Equally important, how can HR help build and reinforce
design capabilities throughout the organization?

programs. To gain understanding, HR
should visit great retail stores, restaurants,
or universities. By examining satisfying
experiences outside of work, HR can use
these examples in HR design.

• Prototype, pilot, test, and learn: New
programs should be prototyped and then
piloted with a small group. By understand-
ing what this group loves and what it
dislikes, HR can improve the end-to-end
employee experience.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
72

Endnotes

1. PR Newswire, “Deloitte survey: Americans look
at their smartphones in the aggregate more
than 8 billion times daily,” December 9, 2015,
www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/deloitte-
survey-americans-look-at-their-smartphones-
in-the-aggregate-more-than-8-billion-times-
daily-300190192.html.

2. Deloitte, Global mobile consumer survey: Rise
of the always-connected consumer, 2015, www2.
deloitte.com/us/en/pages/technology-media-
and-telecommunications/articles/global-mobile-
consumer-survey-us-edition.html.

3. James Guszcza, Josh Bersin, and Jeff Schwartz,
“HR for Humans: How behavioral economics
can reinvent HR,” Deloitte Review 18, January
25, 2016, http://dupress.com/articles/behavioral-
economics-evidence-based-hr-management/.

4. Among respondents who rated their HR per-
formance as “excellent” or “good,” 24 percent
said that the use of design thinking was “very
prevalent” at their organization. Among the
rest of the respondents (those who rated their
HR performance as “adequate,” “getting by,” or

“underperforming”), only 5 percent said that the
use of design thinking was “very prevalent.”

5. Ardie van Berkel and Jeff Schwartz, The over-
whelmed employee, Deloitte, 2014, http://dupress.
com/articles/hc-trends-2014-overwhelmed-
employee/.

6. Design thinking has been one of the most dis-
cussed topics in business over the past year. For
example, see Jon Kolko, “Design thinking comes
of age,” Harvard Business Review, September
2015, https://hbr.org/2015/09/design-thinking-
comes-of-age.

7. Robert I. Sutton and David Hoyt, “Better service,
faster: A design thinking case study,” Harvard
Business Review, January 6, 2016, https://hbr.
org/2016/01/better-service-faster-a-design-
thinking-case-study.

8. Raghu Krishnamoorthy, “GE’s culture challenge
after Welch and Immelt,” Harvard Business Re-
view, January 26, 2015, https://hbr.org/2015/01/
ges-culture-challenge-after-welch-and-immelt.

9. Guszcza, Bersin, and Schwartz, “HR for Hu-
mans.”

10. Talent Board, CandE Awards, www.thetalent-
board.org/cande-awards/, accessed February 11,
2016.

11. Andrew Greenberg, “How 4 top employers use
candidate experience for competitive advantage,”
Recruiting Division, January 6, 2015, www.
recruitingdivision.com/4-top-employers-use-
candidate-experience-competitive-advantage/.

12. Dani Johnson, Giving learners what they want:
How Deckers Brands transformed its learning and
engagement organization to align with learner
needs and support business goals, Bersin by
Deloitte, December 8, 2015, www.bersin.com/
Practice/Detail.aspx?id=19396.

13. Nestlé executives, interviews with Josh Bersin
and others.

14. Kim Lamoreux, Fostering innovation through
Learning: Qualcomm builds culture of entrepre-
neurship, creativity and risk taking, Bersin & As-
sociates, December 15, 2009, www.bersin.com/
Practice/Detail.aspx?id=

118

59.

15. New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, “Better by
design: Design thinking masterclass—interview
with Ross, ANZ,” March 27, 2014, https://youtu.
be/EqfINYA7l9k.

16. Based on client work performed at DuPont.

17. Stacia Sherman Garr, Reengineering for agility:
How Adobe eliminated performance appraisals,
Bersin by Deloitte, September 10, 2013, www.
bersin.com/Practice/Detail.aspx?id=16806.

18. Stacia Sherman Garr and Candace Atamanik,
Evolving performance management series (part
2): How Autodesk redesigned its performance
management system, Bersin by Deloitte, August
27, 2015, www.bersin.com/Practice/Detail.
aspx?id=19245.

9. Based on client work.

20. Kolko, “Design thinking comes of age.”

21. Telstra, Bigger Picture 2015 Sustainability Report,
page 18, www.telstra.com.au/content/dam/
tcom/about-us/community-environment/pdf-e/
bigger-picture-2015-sustainability-report ,
accessed February 12, 2016.

22. Based on client work performed at Telstra.

The new organization: Different by design
73

Authors
Josh Bersin, Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP | jbersin@deloitte.com

Josh Bersin founded Bersin & Associates, now Bersin by Deloitte, in 2001 to provide research and
advisory services focused on corporate learning. He is a frequent speaker at industry events and a
popular blogger. Bersin spent 25 years in product development, product management, marketing, and
sales of e-learning and other enterprise technologies. His education includes a BS in engineering from
Cornell, an MS in engineering from Stanford, and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the
University of California, Berkeley.

Marc Solow, Deloitte Consulting LLP | msolow@deloitte.com

Marc Solow is a director in Deloitte Consulting LLP and responsible for leading Deloitte’s HR Shared
Services market offering in the United States. He has nearly 25 years of experience as a consultant and
HR practitioner. Solow has led the consulting services in support of several global HR transformation,
shared services, and outsourcing projects for large and complex clients in a variety of industries,
including insurance, health care, life sciences, consumer and industrial products, and energy.

Nicky Wakefield, Deloitte Consulting Pte Ltd. | nwakefield@deloitte.com
Nicky Wakefield is a partner and the leader of the Southeast Asia Human Capital consulting practice.
With over 20 years of business consulting experience with clients across the globe, she is recognized as
one of the leading strategic thinkers on complex organizational change and is admired by her clients as a
practical, hands-on advisor and implementer. Wakefield has spent her career focused on the execution of
business strategy and helping organizations make it real for their people.

Contributors
Garth Andrus, Mike Brinker, Ben Dollar, Leon Doyle, Peter Hughes,
Andy Peck, Ruth Schmidt, and Kate Sweeney

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
74

HR is under increasing pressure from business leaders to drive innovative
talent solutions, improve alignment with business imperatives, and turn
data into actionable insights. Is HR up to the task? Good news: This year’s
survey and other research show an improvement in the HR organization’s
skills, business alignment, and ability to innovate. While HR organizations
have significant work to do, HR leaders are adapting more quickly now
to changing business demands and stronger skills requirements.

OVER the last several years, a cottage industry of business writers has made
headlines by sharply criticizing HR. Some
believe the HR function should be split in two.2
Others advocate doing away with it altogether.3
The typical complaint is that HR is too bureau-
cratic, too administrative, and not innovative
enough; HR professionals are not well-aligned
with the business and lack the analytical skills
to make data-driven decisions.

Last year, Deloitte was part of that cho-
rus. Our 2015 Global Human Capital Trends
report concluded that HR needed an “extreme
makeover.” We noted that HR skills were
weak, companies were not spending enough
on developing HR professionals, and HR itself
was too focused on service delivery and not
enough on building consulting skills.

While some of these complaints remain
valid, this year we take a contrary view. In fact,
we believe HR is turning the corner.

Our research shows that the percentage of
respondents rating HR’s performance “good” to
“excellent” has been trending upward over the
past few years (figure 1). There has been signif-
icant progress in the areas of employee engage-
ment, culture, analytics, and the adoption of
cloud-based HR technology. While HR teams
still face daunting challenges—particularly in
leveraging design thinking, digital HR, behav-
ioral economics, and real-time feedback—a
new generation of inspired HR leaders is enter-
ing the profession, and the progress is real.

HR teams are on the move. Organizations’
readiness to deal with employee engagement
and culture rose by 13 percent this year; their

HR
Growing momentum toward a new mandate

• HR’s role is expanding beyond its traditional focus on talent management, process, and
transactions. HR is becoming an innovative consultant with a broader responsibility to design,
simplify, and improve the entire employee and candidate experience.

• This year, HR teams are more focused on innovation, analytics, and the rapid adoption of cloud and
mobile technologies to make the work experience better.

• Respondents’ rated readiness in the area of HR skills has increased 14 percent since 2014,1 and
the percentage of respondents who rate their HR teams “good or excellent” has risen 6.2 percent.
Companies with leading HR practices are now celebrating them publicly, raising the bar for
organizations of all sizes.

The new organization: Different by design
77

readiness in analytics jumped by 11 percent,
and their readiness to address leadership
development went up by 14 percent (see figure
2).4 Thanks to this progress, the percentage of
executives who believe HR is “underperform-
ing” or just “getting by” has fallen 11 percent
over the last two years.

Three factors contribute to our positive
conclusion this year:

• HR is innovating—and improving: In
2015, 56 percent of surveyed companies
believed their HR teams were innovative; in

2016, this rose to 60 percent. Companies in
consumer products, financial services, pro-
fessional services, and life sciences scored
even higher.

• HR is embedding itself and aligning with
the business: In 2015, 58 percent of com-
panies rated themselves positively in this
area, and in 2016, this number increased to
64 percent.

• HR is beginning to reskill: In 2015, 66
percent of companies were focused in
this area; in 2016, this increased to 68
percent, with the percentage of organiza-
tions rating themselves “excellent” jump-
ing from 11 percent to 15 percent—a 36
percent increase.

This progress, admittedly, is not consis-
tent; our survey found differences in the rated
importance of HR skills across the globe.
Companies in Southeast Asia and Africa have
a greater need to change HR skills, while
countries such as Japan and Italy have not
progressed as far in modernizing their HR
functions. (See figure 3 for our survey respon-
dents’ ratings of the importance of the chang-
ing skills of the HR organization across global
regions and selected countries.)

Graphic: Deloitte University Press | DUPress.com

Figure 1. HR’s rated performance has steadily improved over the past few years

2016

2015

2014

2013

Underperforming ExcellentGoodAdequateGetting by

10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

9% 21% 33% 5%32%

10% 22% 31% 5%32%

10% 24% 30% 5%31%

14% 23% 21% 3%38%

Figure 2. Increase in HR organizations’ readiness to
address specific issues

Company capabilities
in talent practices

Percent change in
readiness index from

2015 to 2016

Leadership development 14%

Employee engagement and
culture

13%

Analytics 11%

Learning 7%

Note: See endnotes 1 and 4 in this chapter for an explanantion of the
readiness index.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
78

While companies may be tempted to look at
this progress and take their feet off the acceler-
ator, this is no time to slow down. Only 17 per-
cent of HR teams report they have a very good
understanding of their company’s products and
profit models; a mere 14 percent believe they
are highly skilled at addressing global HR and
talent issues; and only 8 percent have a very
good understanding of cybersecurity issues.

This year, therefore, HR organizations
should build on their momentum by tack-
ling the remaining challenges.5 As companies
change the way they are organized, HR must
adapt its operating model as well.

Today, high-impact HR organizations6
are moving away from a “service provider”
mentality to becoming valued talent, design,
and employee-experience consultants. They are
now deeply embedded in the business through
senior business-partner leadership roles. At the
same time, traditional HR generalist roles are

being moved to highly efficient HR operations
centers that are enabled by powerful mobile
HR apps.

In this new model, HR professionals must
be more business-oriented specialists, possess-
ing critical new skills in the following areas:

• Organizational networks: Analyzing,
building, and developing network capabili-
ties and expertise

• Team-building and team leaders:
Cultivating team leaders who can coach and
develop people, not just give direction

• Employee engagement and culture:
Measuring and improving the workplace
culture, and understanding culture models

• Design thinking: Becoming
“experience architects”

The new organization: Different by design
79

http://dupress.com/articles/organizational-models-network-of-teams

http://dupress.com/articles/identifying-future-business-leaders-leadership

http://dupress.com/articles/employee-engagement-and-retention

http://dupress.com/articles/employee-experience-management-design-thinking

• Analytics and statistics: Becoming evi-
dence-based leaders who embrace behav-
ioral economics and testing

• Digital: Moving beyond mobile and cloud
applications by building true digital HR
platforms and apps

• Employment experience and brand:
Crafting and communicating the company’s
value proposition

As HR makes this major shift from com-
pliance and service provider to steward and
champion of the total employee experience,
some companies are beginning to think about
HR in new ways.

Companies like Airbnb7 and Deckers
Brands8 are creating roles such as “chief culture
officer” and “chief employee experience officer”
to reflect HR’s new mandate. Following the
establishment of offshored shared services in
2010, one energy company introduced a head
of process center of excellence (CoE) to drive
simplification, and later introduced a new
head of HR analytics to drive better insights
alongside investments in learning systems
and training.9

Companies such as Philips and Nestlé are
changing their learning and development func-
tions to focus on “learning experience design.”
This shift encompasses not just delivering
learning programs, but creating innovative
new learning environments.10

Commonwealth Bank of Australia11 and
Telstra12 are focusing on “user-centric design”
and design thinking to build new apps and
new experiences for employees based on the
new disciplines of digital HR. And many
companies are switching to new “business-
embedded” HR roles, responsible for being the
“VPs of HR” for their organizations.

Part of this transformation includes HR
teams implementing talent management for
themselves. These development and leadership
efforts include:

• Job rotation programs, including mov-
ing HR people into the business and
businesspeople into HR. Companies
like Halliburton13 and Google14 now hire
businesspeople for HR roles and give them
aggressive rotational assignments so they
can learn the HR domain and gain experi-
ence advising business leaders at all levels.

• Developing internal certification pro-
grams, research groups, and developmental
assignments to find high-potential lead-
ers within HR and offer them breadth and
global experience. UnitedHealth Group15
and Halliburton16 have adopted similar
programs to speed up the development of
HR leaders.

• Attracting younger, Millennial HR profes-
sionals who intuitively understand the life,
needs, and expectations of the new genera-
tion of workers.

One CHRO tells HR leaders to “spend
their time where the company makes money.”
Another believes that “half of our HR profes-
sionals will have MBAs within the next five
years.” These stories reveal a quantum shift in
the redefinition and reinvention of HR.17

As a profession and as a function, HR is
turning the corner and is now accelerating in
the right direction. Despite this progress, the
speed of business change continues to increase,
and in 2016, HR organizations must adapt
faster than ever.

Today, high-impact HR
organizations are moving
away from a “service provider”
mentality to becoming
valued talent, design, and
employee-experience consultants.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
80

http://dupress.com/articles/people-analytics-in-hr-analytics-teams

http://dupress.com/articles/digital-hr-technology-for-hr-teams-services

http://dupress.com/articles/gig-economy-freelance-workforce

http://dupress.com/articles/fostering-culture-of-learning-for-employees

Lessons from the front lines
EDF Energy is one of the United Kingdom’s

largest energy companies, employing more
than 14,000 people. The company serves 5
million residential and business custom-
ers and produces 20 percent of the United
Kingdom’s electricity.18

In an effort to optimize training, learning,
and development, EDF Energy is introducing a
sustainable framework for developing its cur-
rent and future workforce by building a series
of business line academies (BLAs) that provide
professional education, personal development,
and career development for employees in all
the company’s major functional areas (HR,
IT, finance, and other service functions). The
first such academy was the HR BLA, which
launched in May 2014.

EDF Energy’s HR BLA is supported by
senior business sponsors from across the busi-
ness and managed by a dedicated learning and
development team. The company used a sys-
tematic approach to build a curriculum, assess-
ments, and career models for the 500-plus HR
professionals—including health, safety, and
environment staff—employed throughout the
company. While the curriculum is based on the
competency model developed by the Chartered
Institute of Personnel and Development,19
which describes the skills and capabilities
needed for a wide range of HR roles, the con-
tent is specifically adapted to the needs of EDF
Energy. The BLA includes an online learning
platform, digital tools, competency self-
assessments, career maps, and formal train-
ing programs (for example, course schedules,
webinars, reading materials, and videos). The
company assigns senior learning and develop-
ment specialists to help subject matter experts
develop custom programs to make sure all
training investments are relevant to local busi-
ness priorities throughout EDF Energy.

Now 18 months old, EDF Energy’s HR
BLA has already saved EDF Energy significant
money in ad-hoc training and education costs.
It is an example of a new breed of HR profes-
sional programs starting to emerge that focus
on keeping HR professionals up to date, giving
them ongoing career guidance, encouraging
them to collaborate, and making the HR func-
tion fully aligned and skilled in its support of
business operations.20

The new organization: Different by design
81

BOTTOM LINE

HR is turning the corner. Highly regarded HR teams are now actively building expertise in design
thinking, new organizational structure and teams, and business-integrated HR. This is not a time
for complacency, however, but for continuing to look in the mirror and ask hard questions. Is HR
an exciting place to work? Is turnover declining relative to other functions in the business?

HR organizations and their leaders should invest further to build new capabilities. Without HR
pushing itself to develop the skills it needs, it will not happen. HR’s future lies in its ability to
evolve to improve culture and engagement, build a new generation of leaders, and leverage
technology to implement digital HR and design thinking. Only in this way can HR enhance the
employee experience and build the talent leaders the organization needs.

Where companies can start

• Understand HR’s changing mandate,
mission, and role: Some elements of the
mandate are new; others are consistent with
past work. Understand the differences and
act on them.

• Rethink the HR structure: Are enough
specialists and business partners embedded
in the business? Are HR centers evolving
from service centers to real-time operations
centers that are efficient and operationally
excellent? Is there a clear view on which
skills the HR organization will need in
the future?

• Upgrade technology: More than 40 per-
cent of all companies are embarking on a

replacement of core HR technology with
modern cloud systems. Is the organization
far enough down that path and pushing
mobile and app-enabled HR fast enough?
Continue to leverage technology as a way to
upgrade skills and move away from tradi-
tional HR transactional work.

• Reimagine HR capability development:
Companies should consider tailored devel-
opment programs specifically designed to
help HR professionals understand new roles
and grow their capabilities to meet height-
ened business expectations. Rotational
programs in both directions—from HR
to the business and from the business into
HR—are a critical part of this effort.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
82

Endnotes

1. Respondents’ “readiness” in HR skills was as-
sessed using readiness index scores, which were
computed as follows: We asked survey respon-
dents to rate their organization’s readiness to ad-
dress each of several issues (including HR skills)
on a four-point scale: “not ready,” “somewhat
ready,” “ready,” and “very ready.” These ratings
were indexed on a 0–100 scale in which 0 rep-
resents the lowest possible degree of readiness
(“not ready”), and 100 represents the highest
possible degree of readiness (“very ready”). An
overall readiness index score was then calcu-
lated for each issue using these scores.

2. Ram Charan, “It’s time to split HR,” Harvard
Business Review, July–August 2014, https://hbr.
org/2014/07/its-time-to-split-hr.

3. Lauren Weber and Rachel Feintzeig, “Compa-
nies say no to having an HR department,” Wall
Street Journal, April 9, 2014, http://www.wsj.
com/articles/SB100014240527023048190045794
896032

105

62.

4. Respondents’ “readiness” to address each area
was assessed using the readiness index scores
described in endnote 1. To obtain the 2016
readiness index score for “engagement and
culture,” since engagement and culture were
assessed separately in the 2016 survey, we took
the average of the readiness index scores for
engagement and for culture.

5. Josh Bersin, “Is there a HR skills crisis? Or does
HR have an identity crisis?” Inside HR, De-
cember 3, 2015, http://www.insidehr.com.au/
is-there-a-hr-skills-crisis/.

6. Josh Bersin, David Mallon, Brenda Kowske, and
Karen Shellenback, High-impact HR: Building
organizational performance from the ground up,
Bersin by Deloitte, 2014, http://bersinone.bersin.
com/resources/research/?docid=17743.

7. Airbnb, “Employee experience,” https://www.
airbnb.com/careers/departments/employee-
experience, accessed February 11, 2016.

8. Dani Johnson, Giving learners what they want:
How Deckers Brands transformed its learn-
ing and engagement organization to align with
learner needs and support business goals, Bersin
by Deloitte, 2015, http://bersinone.bersin.com/
resources/research/?docid=19396.

9. Based on client work.

10. Based on client work performed at Philips and
Nestlé.

11. Katherine Jones, Fostering change and driving
productivity: How the Commonwealth Bank
of Australia leveraged analytics and mobile

technology to spur efficiency, Bersin by Deloitte,
2015, http://bersinone.bersin.com/resources/
research/?docid=18735.

12. Based on client work performed at Telstra. For
more on Telstra’s design thinking efforts, see
Erica Volini, Art Mazor, Frank Schaefer, Akio
Tsuchida, and Brett Walsh, “Design thinking:
Crafting the employee experience,” Global Hu-
man Capital Trends 2016, 2016, http://dupress.
com/articles/employee-experience-manage-
ment-design-thinking.

13. Stacia Sherman Garr and Karen Shellen-
back, Energizing HR’s capability: Halliburton
drives scalable and sustainable business value
via its college of HR, Bersin by Deloitte, 2015,
http://bersinone.bersin.com/resources/
research/?docid=19304.

14. Company executives, in conversations with Josh
Bersin, December 2015.

15. Kim Lamoureux and Laci Loew, Twenty-five
best practices for building a multilevel leader-
ship development curriculum model, Bersin &
Associates, 2011, http://bersinone.bersin.com/
resources/research/?docid=13959.

16. Garr and Shellenback, Energizing HR’s capabil-
ity: Halliburton drives scalable and sustainable
business value via its college of HR.

17. Company executives, in conversations with Josh
Bersin, March 2015.

18. EDF Energy, “What do we do?,” https://www.
edfenergy.com/about/how-we-operate, accessed
February 10, 2016.

19. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Develop-
ment, “CIPD Profession Map,” http://www.cipd.
co.uk/cipd-hr-profession/profession-map/, ac-
cessed January 14, 2016.

20. Company executives, in conversations with Josh
Bersin, February 2016.

The new organization: Different by design
83

Authors

Erica Volini, Deloitte Consulting LLP | evolini@deloitte.com

As the leader of Deloitte Consulting LLP’s HR Transformation practice, Erica Volini is responsible for the
overall strategy, financial performance, and delivery of HR Transformation services across the United
States. Throughout her career, Volini has worked with organizations to determine how best to deliver HR
services that enable global growth and drive enhanced profitability. Volini serves on Deloitte Consulting
LLP’s board of directors and on the Human Capital management committee, and also sits on the
governance committee for the firm’s campus recruiting efforts.

Art Mazor, Deloitte Consulting LLP | amazor@deloitte.com

Art Mazor is Deloitte’s global leader for HR Service Delivery and a thought leader in HR transformation
strategy. He collaborates with global clients to achieve business impact with a focus on transforming
human capital strategies, programs, and services. With a balance of strategic planning, operating model
and organizational design, process transformation, technology deployment, governance, and change
management, Mazor helps generate tangible results through innovative and pragmatic solutions.

Frank Schaefer, Deloitte Consulting GmbH | frschaefer@deloitte.de

Frank Schaefer leads Deloitte’s HR Transformation service line in Germany. With 20 years of human
capital consulting experience, he has a strong track record in various aspects of HR transformation,
including overall HR service delivery model/HR organization design, HR shared services design and
implementation, HR outsourcing, and retained HR/HR business partner organization design and
implementation. Schaefer is also the global Human Capital practice leader for the manufacturing industry.

Akio Tsuchida, Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting Co., Ltd | akitsuchida@tohmatsu.co.jp

Akio Tsuchida is the Human Capital leader in Japan. With more than 15 years of human capital consulting
experience, he has rich expertise in total rewards and performance management, executive compensation,
workforce planning, and talent management. Tsuchida has led large-scale business transformation projects
related to cross-border mergers and acquisitions, post-merger integration, corporate restructuring,
and globalization. He has a master’s degree in labor relations and human resources from Michigan
State University.

Brett Walsh, Deloitte MCS Limited | bcwalsh@deloitte.co.uk

Brett Walsh leads Deloitte’s global Human Capital practice and also serves as the HR Transformation
practice leader for Deloitte UK. As a Deloitte UK partner, he consults with executives around the world on
HR strategy, merger integration, and major transformation and technology programs, including back-
office shared services and outsourcing. His particular expertise is in HR and change management. Walsh
has an MBA from Warwick University and is a fellow of the Institute of Business Consultants.

Contributors
Gary Johnsen, David Mallon, Pascal Occean, Amy Sobey, Michael Stephan,
Nicky Wakefield, and Roberta Yoshida

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
84

The people analytics revolution is gaining speed. While HR organizations have
been talking about building analytics teams for several years, in 2016 we see a
major leap forward in capabilities. Businesses have recognized they need data to
figure out what makes people join, perform well in, and stay with an organization;
who will likely be successful; who will make the best leaders; and what is required
to deliver the highest-quality customer service and innovation. All of this can be
directly informed by people analytics. Companies are hiring people analytics staff,
cleaning up their data, and developing models that help transform their businesses.

AFTER several years of discussing the need for analytics within the HR func-
tion, last year’s Global Human Capital Trends
report concluded that the drive for analyt-
ics was “stuck in neutral.”1 Companies were
investing heavily in HR systems replacement
projects and talking about analytics, but few
were actually making progress in this vital new
business function.

This year, the situation has changed for the
better. Driven by competitive pressures and the
greater availability of more integrated systems,
organizations are aggressively building people
analytics teams, buying analytics offerings, and
developing analytics solutions. Fully 77 percent

of all organizations believe people analytics is
important. (See figure 1 for our survey respon-
dents’ ratings of people analytics’ importance
across global regions and selected countries.)
And more than half (52 percent) of the organi-
zations now rate themselves as excellent and 38
percent as adequate at conducting multi-year
workforce planning.

The name of this trend—“people analyt-
ics”—reflects the use of people-related data to
improve and inform all types of management,
business, and HR decisions throughout the
company. The focus areas vary based on indus-
try and specific business issues.

People analytics
Gaining speed

• This year, the percentage of companies that believe they are fully capable of developing predictive
models doubled, from 4 percent in 2015 to 8 percent in 2016. In 2015, only 24 percent of
companies felt ready or somewhat ready for analytics; this year, that number jumped by one-third,
to 32 percent.

• People analytics today brings together HR and business data from different parts of the business
and is now addressing a wide range of challenges: analyzing flight risk, selecting high-performing
job applicants, identifying characteristics of high-performing sales and service teams, predicting
compliance risks, analyzing engagement and culture, and identifying high-value career paths and
leadership candidates.

• Analytics technology is now available off the shelf, embedded in most ERP and talent management
systems, engagement tools, text and semantic analysis tools, and recruitment and learning platforms.

The new organization: Different by design
87

http://dupress.com/articles/people-and-hr-analytics-human-capital-trends-2015/

What are companies doing? Examples of
positive momentum can be found in a number
of different areas:

Sales performance and recruiting

• Insurance companies have analyzed the
profiles of top salespeople and now know
that screening candidates for grade point
average or academic pedigree is no longer
considered a strong indicator of future
sales performance.

• A high-tech company developed an ana-
lytics model that accurately predicts job
candidates who are likely to become “toxic
employees” (those who lie, cheat, or com-
mit crimes) and dramatically reduced this
population among its hires by scrutinizing
special parts of the interview process.

Productivity

• Software companies, retail banks, and man-
ufacturers are looking at the characteristics
of top salespeople, realizing that their per-
sonal networks, how they work internally,
and the time they spend with customers
predict results much more accurately than
the amount of sales training or experience.

• IT and HR departments are now looking
at email metadata to understand why some
people are more productive than others,
then reducing the number of internal meet-
ings to improve output.

• A large cosmetics manufacturer set up a
“sales productivity center of excellence” in
HR to study hiring patterns, training, com-
pensation, and other people practices in the
sales force to optimize productivity using
HR and people-related data.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
88

• A UK retailer found that by linking retail
sales data to the recruitment of store
managers, analytics improved profitability
dramatically both at the store level and for
the organization as a whole. In short, the
data showed precisely how better leaders,
higher offer acceptance rates, and reduced
time to hire drove store profitability.

• Automobile companies are studying the
patterns of unplanned absences to predict
when people are likely to take a day off, pre-
scheduling extra staff to make up for known
periods of absence.

• The Ministry of Energy
of the Government
of Mexico is using a
predictive workforce
planning and analyt-
ics model to identify
current and future
talent and skills gaps
in critical oil and gas
occupations over a
10-year horizon.2 The
model leverages a number of adjustable
macroeconomic variables such as oil price
and exchange rates that correlate strongly
to the demand and supply of skilled labor.
Based on an understanding of these gaps in
critical skills, the ministry is able to work
proactively with multiple stakeholders to
address them. Building off from this initia-
tive, the ministry has expanded the use of
workforce planning and analytics to cover
other sectors it is responsible for, such as
renewable energy and sustainability.

Retention

• A pharmaceutical company and a software
company are now collecting data from
LinkedIn and other social networks to pre-
dict the “high-flight-risk” candidates among
their high-potential employees.

• Companies like Deloitte Canada are experi-
menting with smart badges, using them
to gather data suggesting that offices with
larger shared work rooms, more light, and
more inter-company collaboration have
higher retention and productivity.3

• MasterCard is developing predictive models
directed at improving the employee experi-
ence through a range of data sources. The
company is analyzing patterns in people
data that will allow decision makers to
assume accountability for issues such as
retention of high-potential employees and
predicting attrition.4

Compliance and risk

• Banks are studying patterns of fraud
and noncompliance, and can now pre-
dict behaviors that will likely result in
unethical behavior.

• A UK financial services company uses
analytics to evaluate individual employees,
spotting potential “rogue traders” and other
compliance breaches as a part of proactive
risk management.

• A large electric utility that recently had an
accident analyzed employee feedback and
engagement data and realized it could have
predicted some of the problems before they
occurred, and is now monitoring these data
more regularly.

Driven by competitive pressures and the
greater availability of more integrated
systems, organizations are aggressively
building people analytics teams.

The new organization: Different by design
89

Culture

• A team of organizational development
experts and data scientists from eBay
measures the strength and adoption of its
cultural values through a combination of
internal and external data metrics. To com-
pare eBay employees’ views with external
perspectives, the team also conducts the-
matic analysis and natural-language-based
analysis on news articles and Glassdoor to
get a view of the external market perspec-
tive of eBay’s culture.5

Each of these examples (and there are hun-
dreds more) reveals the opportunity to take
people data (some from HR, some from out-
side HR, and some external to the company) to
make better man-
agement decisions.
Google, Twitter,
and most other tech
firms have people
analytics teams.6

Today’s people
analytics teams
often call them-
selves the “employee
listening” depart-
ment. They
bring together data from a range of sources,
including core HR systems, employee engage-
ment data, survey data, external data (from
LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and other systems), and
text data from employee comments. Then they
analyze these data to understand company
culture, find opportunities to improve reten-
tion or performance, or diagnose management
weaknesses or other operational problems.

What is driving the upsurge in people
analytics adoption?

First, companies are now rapidly adopt-
ing more integrated cloud-based HR systems,
giving them an opportunity to look at their
HR data in an integrated way for the first time.
Nearly 40 percent of all global firms are either
replacing or plan to replace their core HR sys-
tems over the next two years.7

Second, people with analytics backgrounds
are coming into HR.8 Companies are now
bringing industrial and organizational psychol-
ogists, statisticians, and analysts from other
domains into HR; they are attracted to analyt-
ics because it is an exciting, new, and still-fluid
area. Data science careers are now hot profes-
sions for college graduates and more people are
coming to this profession than ever before.

Third, the vendor market is exploding.
Nearly every ERP vendor and talent manage-
ment provider now offers off-the-shelf analyt-
ics tools, and many include embedded models.
Some are starting to offer analytics services
that provide repeatable solutions across clients.
In addition, organizational data are more use-
ful than before: This year, 42 percent of survey

respondents said
the data supporting
HR analytics were
“good” or “very
good”; only 17 per-
cent still rated their
data as “poor.”

Fourth, there is
now a small army
of people science
experts, many of
whom were pio-

neers at some of the early adopters, available to
consult with large companies. They are sharing
ideas and bringing expertise to companies new
to the domain.

Finally, CEOs are reading about this topic
in the business press, so they are pressing their
CHROs to build this capability. For instance, a
CHRO of one of the largest health care insur-
ance providers is investing in a three-year,
multi-million-dollar program just to clean up
employee data, so the company can take a lead
in analytics within four to five years.

While there has been much progress, there
is much room for improvement. In this year’s
survey, 62 percent of organizations rate them-
selves as “weak” in using big data in recruiting.
Some 55 percent of organizations similarly

We expect the trend toward
analytics-driven HR to
continue gathering strength
over the coming year.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
90

report being weak at using HR data to predict
workforce performance and improvement.

We expect the trend toward analytics-
driven HR to continue gathering strength over
the coming year. As this happens, analytics will
penetrate deeper within HR, extending beyond
talent acquisition to learning and development
and operations. In fact, the Global Human
Capital Trends survey data show us that HR
is now more convinced of people analytics’
importance than the business, with 82 percent
of HR respondents viewing it as important or
very important, compared to only 69 percent
of business people viewing it as important or
very important. HR has the opportunity to
show the value and ROI that investment in
analytics can bring, which will result in a will-
ingness to invest further and spur acceleration
in analytics capabilities.

Unsurprisingly, all this leads back to greater
investment in HR, generating a virtuous cycle
where higher ROI justifies greater analytics
investment. The success of analytics comes
down to measuring the value of people to an
organization—and analytics is key to unlock-
ing that value.

However, providing great data and insights
is only part of the solution. The real value is in
turning these insights into change that delivers

business value. The hardest part of people
analytics is implementing the changes recom-
mended by the models, which call for people
analytics to be accompanied by sound change
management practices. One large company
recently discovered it was underpaying its
high performers and overpaying its mid-level
performers. It took several years to teach
managers (and the organization itself ) that it
makes business sense to offer a large raise for
high performance and a middling raise for fair
performance. The key is to invest simultane-
ously in analytical skills and in interpretative
and transformational skills to ensure that the
insights deliver value to the business.

Lessons from the front lines

In September 2015, GE brought together all
the digital and analytics capabilities across the
company into one organization, GE Digital.
At the same time, the organization put for-
ward the goal to be a top 10 software company
by 2020.9

Developing an integrated talent manage-
ment strategy was critical in making the move
from a center of excellence to a full-fledged
business with ambitious goals in a competitive
talent market. One of GE Digital’s initial focus

The new organization: Different by design
91

areas was strategic talent planning linked to
learning and recruiting; the unit gathered fresh
data in a rigorous process. This was combined
with other GE people data to assemble a data
set of more than 6,000,000 data points to use in
a variety of talent decisions.

GE Digital has been able to complete robust
talent planning by leveraging detailed informa-
tion on what success looks like in terms of skill
level, number, and location and by using pre-
dictive modeling to identify gaps. The organi-
zation’s strategies include recruiting as well as
targeted training (when recruitment will not be
able to meet needs), and these data have also
informed acquisition strategies to help acquire
specialized talent.

GE Digital has also developed a strong link
between talent planning and learning. It uses
data analysis and predictive models to support
organizational design to inform hiring prac-
tices, to identify reskilling needs, and to refash-
ion leadership development programs—all
areas of future focus for the GE Digital team.

The most critical success factors have been
business involvement and employee trans-
parency. The business has been instrumental
in defining key capabilities and identifying
learning requirements. Employees now under-
stand the critical skills required for success
in the organization and have been given tools
to identify gaps and strengths as well as to
develop needed skills, all of which have been
positively received.10

Where companies can start

• Stay focused on business priorities: Avoid
the problem of spending a great deal of
time on a problem only to find later that
it is not on the CEO’s agenda. Start with
problems the CEO or senior business lead-
ers care about, such as sales productivity,
product quality, risk, growth, or customer
retention. Spend time where the company
makes money, and people analytics projects
will rapidly pay for themselves.

• Build a single people analytics team: To
embark on this effort, companies must
recruit the right talent and/or integrate dis-
parate analytics efforts—that is, employee
engagement, recruitment analytics, learn-
ing analytics, compensation analytics, and
workforce planning. This is a key ingredient
of successful analytics projects.

• Build a team that can consult: Remember
that building a model alone will not solve
a business problem. The analytics team
should include people who also serve as a
business partner or consultant, so they can
engage directly with the business and help
apply the findings to real interventions or
management changes.

• Leverage analytics skills outside HR:
Enlist the support of IT, marketing analyt-
ics, and other analytics teams in the com-
pany. Many of them are ready to join in this
exciting effort.

• Join an external, industry-specific people
analytics working group: There are now
dozens of places HR professionals can meet
with other companies to learn and explore
this area.

• Explore new technologies: There are
many tools in the market to explore. Teams
should learn about new analytics vendors to
find the right tapestry of technologies.

The success of analytics comes
down to measuring the value of
people to an organization—and
analytics is key to unlocking
that value.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
92

• Invest in cleaning data: Do not let data
management be your biggest barrier. The
highest value in analytics comes after the
company is running an integrated, valid,
and reliable database. This effort may take
time and involve IT, but it pays off.

• Focus on security, privacy, and anonym-
ity: Many leading organizations define
security policies as part of their people
analytics governance early in the process.

BOTTOM LINE

Companies are no longer “stuck in neutral” in their deployment of people analytics. As analytics
moves into the corporate mainstream, organizations that are still in the early stages of adopting
technology and building teams with data skills risk being left behind.

In the not-too-distant future, it will become impossible to make any HR decisions without
analytics. Indeed, analytics capabilities will be a fundamental requirement for the effective HR
business partner.

HR departments are well-served to under-
stand the complex issues surrounding data
security, privacy, and identity protection.

The new organization: Different by design
93

Endnotes

1. Carl Bennett and Laurence Collins, “People ana-
lytics: Stuck in neutral,” Global Human Capital
Trends 2015, February 27, 2015, http://dupress.
com/articles/people-and-hr-analytics-human-
capital-trends-2015/.

2. Case study based on client work performed for
the Ministry of Energy of the Government of
Mexico.

3. Josh Bersin, Predictions for 2016: A bold new
world of talent, learning, leadership, and HR
technology ahead, Bersin by Deloitte, 2016,
http://bersinone.bersin.com/resources/
research/?docid=19445.

4. Geetanjali Gamel (HR Workforce Analytics,
MasterCard), in conversation with Nicky Wake-
field, December 2015.

5. Margarita Constantinides (senior director, Tal-
ent Analytics, eBay), in conversation with Ben
Dollar, December 28, 2015.

6. Google and Twitter analytics teams, in conversa-
tions with Josh Bersin, May 2015.

7. Katherine Jones, The buyer’s guide to select-
ing HCM Software, Bersin by Deloitte, July 17,
2014, http://bersinone.bersin.com/resources/
research/?docid=17733.

8. Josh Bersin, “The geeks arrive in HR: People an-
alytics is here,” Forbes, February 1, 2015, http://
www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2015/02/01/
geeks-arrive-in-hr-people-analytics-is-
here/#542b6d707db3.

9. Business Wire, “Creation of GE digital,” Sep-
tember 14, 2015, http://www.businesswire.com/
news/home/20150914006029/en/Creation-GE-
Digital#.Vfb33_nBzRY.

10. Heather Whiteman (GE Digital executive), per-
sonal communication to the authors, February
16, 2016.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
94

Authors
Josh Bersin, Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP | jbersin@deloitte.com
Josh Bersin founded Bersin & Associates, now Bersin by Deloitte, in 2001 to provide research and
advisory services focused on corporate learning. He is a frequent speaker at industry events and a
popular blogger. Bersin spent 25 years in product development, product management, marketing, and
sales of e-learning and other enterprise technologies. His education includes a BS in engineering from
Cornell, an MS in engineering from Stanford, and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the
University of California, Berkeley.

Laurence Collins, Deloitte MCS Limited | lcollins@deloitte.co.uk

Laurence Collins leads Deloitte’s HR and Workforce Analytics practice in the United Kingdom. He
focuses on HR transformation, helping organizations develop measurement and analytic capabilities
that create business value. From predictive technologies for managing workforce risks to simulations of
process improvements, Collins helps organizations apply analytic approaches across the HR function
through a concept known as “HR Intralytics.” Collins’s work includes tracking the value of this capability
and linking the resulting business impacts back to HR performance improvement.

David Mallon, Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP | dmallon@deloitte.com

David Mallon is head of research for Bersin by Deloitte, setting strategy, ensuring high-quality efforts,
and driving continuous innovation for the organization’s research team. He is the former steward for
Bersin by Deloitte’s learning and development research practice and has been the primary force behind its
work in continuous learning, learning cultures, high-impact learning organization maturity, and learning
management systems. He is also central to developing thought leadership related to HR’s operating
models, governance, and the evolution of key roles such as the HR business partner.

Jeff Moir, Deloitte Canada | jmoir@deloitte.ca

Jeff Moir is a partner in Deloitte Canada’s Human Capital practice. With more than 20 years of financial
services experience in both business strategy and human resources, Moir focuses on operating model
design. He has assumed leadership roles on restructuring initiatives, enterprise and functional-level talent
strategy implementation, organizational cost reviews, and merger integrations.

Robert Straub, Deloitte Consulting LLP | rstraub@deloitte.com

Robert Straub is a director in Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Human Capital practice. Since joining
Deloitte more than 11 years ago, he has helped large global clients across various industries implement
technology-enabled programs that have transformed their human resources organizations. Straub has
led Deloitte’s HR Technology strategic planning practice, which is focused on connecting the latest HR
technology capabilities with strategic business objectives. He is also leading Deloitte’s efforts to deliver
workforce analytics solutions to clients.

Contributors
Carl Bennett, Jen Cowley, Stavros Demetriou, Dave Fineman, Nicky Wakefield, Juan Vargas, and
Van Zorbas

The new organization: Different by design
95

The all-digital world is changing how we live, how we work, and how business is
organized and conducted. For HR and business leaders, this digital transformation
poses two fundamental challenges. First, HR can help business leaders and
employees shift to a digital mind-set, a digital way of managing, organizing,
and leading change. Second, HR has the opportunity to revolutionize the
entire employee experience by transforming HR processes, systems, and the
HR organization via new digital platforms, apps, and ways of delivering HR
services. Our discussion of this trend focuses on the second part of the digital HR
challenge: how to reimagine HR and the employee experience in a digital world.

THE era of true digital disruption has finally hit HR, transforming the way HR
delivers solutions to employees. With the
founding of Workday in 2005, the acquisition
of SuccessFactors by SAP in 2011, and the pur-
chase of Taleo by Oracle in 2012, HR remains
at the forefront of the move to digital and the
cloud in the workplace. The barriers between
work and personal life are dissolving through
the use of mobile devices. Mobile has become
the channel of preference for workers, giving
organizations an opportunity to drive adoption
of mobile HR technologies to an extent rarely
seen with traditional HR platforms.

Imagine integrated apps that can manage
time and attendance automatically; pinpoint
every appointment and meeting location;
deliver on-demand video learning to par-
ticipants in a new project; send messages to
a team when someone is running late for a
meeting; monitor stress levels and recom-
mend when it is time to take a break; and
even review 401(k) plans and offer intelligent
recommendations. This is the new vision for
digital HR—integrating SMAC technologies
to redefine the employee experience and make
work easier, real-time, more productive, and
more rewarding—while, we hope, improving
work-life balance.

Digital HR
Revolution, not evolution

• Today there are more than 7 billion mobile devices in the world,1 and more than 40 percent of
all Internet traffic is driven by these devices.2 Yet HR teams remain far behind in deploying mobile
solutions. Fewer than 20 percent of companies deploy their HR and employee productivity solutions
on mobile apps today.3

• Designing mobile apps and considering the end-to-end user experience are new disciplines for HR,
combining design thinking with apps, video, social, and mobile technologies.

• Digital HR, which brings together social, mobile, analytics, and cloud (SMAC) technologies,
represents a new platform for improving the employee and candidate experience. While vendors
are now delivering solutions, companies should build their own integrated digital HR strategies
and programs.

The new organization: Different by design
97

As discussed in the design thinking chapter,
HR teams are now rethinking the way people
work and adding digital tools to make these
solutions better. The impact of design think-
ing may be most profoundly experienced with
digital “appification.” Rather than building an
onboarding system, a learning system, a per-
formance management system, and a collabo-
ration and coaching system, design thinking
brings these solutions together in seamless
apps that improve employee experiences across
the board.

When these functions are moved to apps
in a thoughtful way, HR can receive 10 times
as many responses from employees compared
to traditional systems.4 Employee produc-
tivity can improve. Data quality can rise.
Unsurprisingly, leading companies across all
industries are embracing this trend.

DuPont, for instance, embarked on a major
project to replace, simplify, and combine all of

its HR and learning systems into one inte-
grated portal.5 Rather than offering a tradi-
tional “self-service” application, the company
developed a streamlined interface that has
improved productivity.

Telstra, one of Australia’s largest telecom-
munications companies, is using an app to
transform its first-year employee experience.
By using design thinking, studying the behav-
ior and frustrations of first-year employees,
and creating personas, Telstra developed an
integrated onboarding program that dra-
matically improved employee engagement
and retention.6

Despite impressive results at these and
other companies, too many HR depart-
ments have yet to embrace this transforma-
tion. Today, only 7 percent of companies use
mobile technology for coaching, 10 percent
for performance management, 8 percent for
time scheduling, 13 percent for recruiting and

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
98

http://dupress.com/articles/employee-experience-management-design-thinking

candidate management, and 21 percent for
leave requests.7 The power of digital transfor-
mation is only beginning to emerge.

This new world of digital HR is arriving
fast, but, according to this year’s survey, only
38 percent of companies are even thinking
about it and only 9 percent are fully ready.
Nearly three-quarters of companies, or 72
percent, believe this is an important priority
and 32 percent define it as very important, so
it will be a major area of opportunity for HR in
2016. (See figure 1 for our survey respondents’
ratings of digital HR’s importance across global
regions and selected countries.)

Digital HR, however, is more than just
building apps. It encompasses developing a
new mobile platform with a wide range of
apps built with cloud and analytics technol-
ogy behind the scenes. This platform can be
used for hundreds of apps: from time and
attendance to employee wellness, to recruit-
ment, collaboration, goal-setting, and more.
The design is integrated, the user experience is
location-aware, and integrated data are used to
inform and make recommendations to users
throughout the day.

Consider the difference between current
HR service delivery models and digital HR,
illustrated in figure 2, to understand how

radical and profound the digital HR transfor-
mation will be.

This approach represents a completely new
way of thinking about HR solutions. While
the replacement of legacy systems into the
cloud is a major part of the transition, so is the
adoption of design thinking, integrated mobile
app design, and real-time HR operations. The
principles of behavioral economics, the use of
analytics, and constant iteration on design also
underpin these efforts. To succeed in this new
paradigm, HR teams will likely have to partner
with IT, adopt design thinking, use integrated
analytics, and analyze vendor solutions care-
fully. It represents a new world for HR technol-
ogy and design teams, one that will open up
new career opportunities and transform the
impact HR has on the business.

Lessons from the front lines

Reliance Jio, the 4G telecommunications
and digital services company headquartered
in Mumbai and owned by Reliance Industries,
began its employee launch of digital telecom
services in early 2016.8 The company’s vision is
to provide video-quality digital mobile Internet
service to 1.2 billion customers across all 29
states and 7 union territories within India.

Figure 2. Differences between current HR service delivery models and digital HR

Current HR delivery Digital HR

Transactions and processes Integrated HR platform (policy, process, systems, operations)

Systems with web browser access Mobile-first apps

Paper-based forms moved to web forms Digital design

Process-based design Human-centered, experience-driven design

SLAs (service level agreements) Real-time (once and done)

HR (and shared) service centers Operations centers

Periodic reports Real-time interactive dashboards

Analytics add-ons Integrated analytics platform and dashboards

The new organization: Different by design
99

For several years, the company’s focus was on
building out the network infrastructure; in late
2014, the focus turned to starting up the busi-
ness operations and recruiting and onboarding
employees across the country. As one of the
largest start-ups in the world, Jio’s leader-
ship crafted a strategy suited to the business’s
growth, scale, and the current state of HR tech-

nology by designing a mobile-first, cloud-first,
digital-powered approach to Jio’s HR strategy
and launch.

The business goals for Jio are to build a
national 4G network across 18,000 cities and
towns in India to serve hundreds of millions of
customers; deploy the largest start-up 4G net-

work in the world; hire
and manage a work-
force of 50,000; and
orchestrate a national
network of hundreds
of thousands of retail-
ers and distributors.

From the start, the
HR strategy was based
on an employee value
proposition to support
candidates, employees,
and business manag-
ers with an experience
that would be easy to
use, quick, and safe.
The HR program was
digital-first; it allowed
recruiters, candidates,
employees, business
managers, and HR

staff to complete HR tasks and reporting by
leveraging real-time apps and secure, cloud-
based services using mobile devices.

Second, all HR processes, policies, and
technologies (including SAP and a series
of cloud apps such as Salesforce.com) were
integrated into an HR platform to support the
apps, reporting, and HR operations.

Third, with the goal of end-
to-end digitization and real-time
HR, the company is challenging
itself to eliminate its shared ser-
vices organization. Core activities
were automated and streamlined
to be conducted, reviewed, and
approved in hours (in some
cases, minutes) and not days. The
HR platform is being run by an
HR operations center tasked with

clearing all inquiries and exceptions on the day
they are received while working with HR cen-
ters of excellence and HR IT to continuously
improve the platform.

Further, the HR platform and HR opera-
tions center have been designed and built
using an agile approach that included multiple
releases of both the systems and operations
center. This agile approach has enabled the HR
process, policy, HR IT, and business teams to
learn and build capabilities in the new digital
HR environment.

Where companies can start

• Challenge HR to start with a digital-first
HR strategy. The digital enterprise and
digital HR are a revolutionary leap forward,
not an incremental step. The combination
of mobile and cloud solutions and the per-
vasive access to smartphones as powerful
as laptops and desktop computers of just a
couple of years ago, are redefining how HR
processes are designed, delivered, accessed,
and operated. The shift to a mobile and
platform way of thinking is at the forefront
of this challenge.

The digital enterprise and digital HR
are a revolutionary leap forward, not an
incremental step.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
100

• Embrace design thinking. Social, mobile,
analytics, and cloud tools are only useful if
employees adopt them. HR must begin with
employee needs and the user experience.
Incorporating design thinking throughout
the process will help companies maximize
the impact of new digital technologies.

• Leverage an agile approach integrating
HR, technology, employees, and business
leaders in the process. HR has the oppor-
tunity to use agile development—rapid
development by integrated teams deliver-
ing prototypes and solutions in succes-
sive releases and waves—as a new way of
operating in HR and supporting similar
programs across the company. Unlike the
traditional waterfall development process,
agile development requires HR special-
ists, system and app developers, designers,
employees, and business leaders to work
together as a team.

• Share digital strategies and experiences
across the company: HR has the oppor-
tunity to learn from early digital adopt-
ers in the company, generally customer
marketing and operations. A community
of practice can share digital experiences
and implementation learning across the
company. HR can learn from the digital
savvy across the company and, in turn, help
develop the enterprise’s digital mind-set
and capabilities.

• Imagine HR and the employee experience
in real time: One of the biggest changes
in moving to a digital HR strategy is the
focus on real-time access, decision-making,
and results. This involves a significant step
beyond many recent HR efforts, which have
focused on shared services and HR service
centers and SLAs (service level agreements).
Digital HR is also a call to automate many
areas of HR. With every employee having
a smartphone, HR teams can automate,
streamline, and adopt more real-time and
digital-first operations rather than process
forms and transactions.

• Integrate analytics and reporting as part
of the digital platform, not an add-on:
Most HR teams today have dedicated teams
that collect information from process and
transaction systems for basic HR reports
and analysis. Instead, HR management
information should be an automated part of
the HR digital platform. It should provide
managers with real-time information and
leaders with real-time analysis, decreasing
the time spent on reports and increasing
the time HR and business leaders spend
on analyzing data and solving problems.
Analytics and reports can be configured
and integrated into a business intelligence
layer of the HR platform, linking apps
directly to leadership reports and analysis.

BOTTOM LINE

HR’s digital transformation begins with a change of mind-set within the HR organization,
prioritizing connectivity, real-time operations, platforms, automation, and mobile-first. For many
organizations, both in HR and across the enterprise, this is a revolutionary opportunity. The
digital HR journey focusing on the employee and HR experience is one part of the larger digital
HR challenge: to answer the question, “How can HR play a role in developing the overall digital
enterprise strategy, organization, and culture?”

The new organization: Different by design

101

Endnotes

1. Jason Dorrier, “There are 7 billion mobile de-
vices on earth, almost one for each person,” Sin-
gularity Hub, Singularity University, February
18, 2014, http://singularityhub.com/2014/02/18/
there-are-7-billion-mobile-devices-on-earth-
almost-one-for-each-person.

2. Mary Meeker, “Internet trends 2015,” Kleiner
Perkins Caufield Byers, 2015, http://www.kpcb.
com/internet-trends.

3. Katherine Jones and Sally-Ann Cooke, Smart-
phone support in talent and HR applications
2015, Bersin by Deloitte, 2015, http://bersinone.
bersin.com/resources/research/?docid=18536.

4. Katherine Jones, Fostering change and driving
productivity: How the Commonwealth Bank
of Australia leveraged analytics and mobile

technology to spur efficiency, Bersin by Deloitte,
2015, http://bersinone.bersin.com/resources/
research/?docid=18735.

5. Based on client work performed at DuPont.

6. Louise Sporton (engagement lead, Telstra), per-
sonal communication, January 2016.

7. Jones and Cooke, Smartphone support in talent
and HR applications 2015.

8. Pankaj Doval, “Reliance Jio launches 4G for
employees,” Times of India, December 27, 2015,
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-
news/Reliance-Jio-launches-4G-service-for-
employees/articleshow/50345198.cms.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
102

Authors
Michael Stephan, Deloitte Consulting LLP | mstephan@deloitte.com

Michael Stephan is the global leader for HR Transformation. A principal with Deloitte Consulting
LLP, Stephan develops and integrates HR service delivery models across the operations and technology
spectrum, with a targeted focus on optimizing the delivery of HR services. His global consulting
experience includes HR strategy, HR operating model design and implementation, HR business process
outsourcing (BPO), global technology deployment, and enterprise transition management.

Shinichiro Uzawa, Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting LLC | suzawa@tohmatsu.co.jp

Shinichiro Uzawa leads the HR Transformation practice in Japan. With more than 15 years of HR-
related experience at both Deloitte and a major Japanese corporation, he has expertise in HR strategy,
HR transformation, change management, and digital HR consulting, and boasts extensive experience in
global HR transformation management and global HR cloud solution deployment. Uzawa also lectures
and publishes on HR-related topics; recent publications include Work style transformation and As one:
Individual action, collective power.

Erica Volini, Deloitte Consulting LLP | evolini@deloitte.com

Brett Walsh, Deloitte MCS Limited | bcwalsh@deloitte.co.uk
Brett Walsh leads Deloitte’s global Human Capital practice and also serves as the HR Transformation
practice leader for Deloitte UK. As a Deloitte UK partner, he consults with executives around the world
on HR strategy, merger integration, and major transformation and technology programs, including back-
office shared services and outsourcing. His particular expertise is in HR and change management. Walsh
has an MBA from Warwick University and is a fellow of the Institute of Business Consultants.

Roberta Yoshida, Deloitte Brazil | royoshida@deloitte.com

Roberta Yoshida is the Human Capital practice leader in Brazil and the Latin American leader for the HR
Transformation practice. She has more than 15 years of experience in HR and strategic transformation
consulting services, leading projects related to HR transformation and strategic compensation and talent
management. Yoshida holds a master’s degree in organizations and human resources from the Pontifical
Catholic University of São Paulo and studied business administration at the School of Economics,
Business, and Accounting of the University of São Paulo. She is a native Portuguese speaker and is also
fluent in English and Spanish.

Contributors
Pooja Bajpai, Michael Gretczko, Nicky Wakefield, and Jannine Zucker

The new organization: Different by design

103

From the increasing use of contingent freelance workers to the growing
role of robotics and smart machines, the corporate workforce is changing—
radically and rapidly. These changes are no longer simply a distraction;
they are now actively disrupting labor markets and the economy.

THREE years ago, Deloitte introduced the concept of the open talent economy,
predicting that new labor models—on and off
the balance sheet—would become increasingly
important sources of talent.2 Today, they are.

Granted, respondents to this year’s survey
rated workforce management the least impor-
tant of the trends we explored. (See figure 1
for our survey respondents’ ratings of work-
force management’s importance across global
regions and selected countries.) Nonetheless,
rapid changes in the nature of the workforce,
through new labor markets and models and
through automation, present important chal-
lenges for business and HR leaders.

Today, more than one in three US workers
are freelancers—a figure expected to grow to
40 percent by 2020.3 This year’s survey con-
firms that the contingent workforce has gone
global. Fully 51 percent of executives in our

global survey plan to increase or significantly
increase the use of contingent workers in the
next three to five years, while only 16 percent
expect a decrease.

Companies such as Airbnb and Uber
embody this trend, but they are not the only
organizations profiting from the “gig economy.”
Companies in all sectors—from transportation
to business services—are tapping into freelance
workers as a regular, manageable part of their
workforces. Cost structure is one factor driving
this trend, with some companies opting to pay
purchase orders instead of salaries. The avail-
ability of talent is another factor; data scien-
tists, for example, may not be willing to move
to a company’s remote headquarters but could
be engaged remotely and temporarily.

In addition to broader economic and social
changes driven by the gig economy, new labor
models are expanding beyond contingent

The gig economy
Distraction or disruption?

• Almost half of the executives surveyed (42 percent) expect to increase or significantly increase the
use of contingent workers in the next three to five years; 43 percent anticipate greater deployment
of robotics and cognitive technologies. Three out of four executives (76 percent) surveyed expect
automation will require new skills in the workforce in the next one to three years.

• The concept of “contingent workforce management” is being reshaped by the “gig economy”—
networks of people who make a living working without any formal employment agreement—as
well as by the increased use of machines as talent.

• New regulations that mandate pay for overtime, increase the minimum wage, and tighten rules for
part-time status are becoming more important than ever, with a growing public policy debate over
how to regulate and measure new labor models.1

The new organization: Different by design
105

http://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/human-capital/articles/open-talent-economy1.html

workers to include the rapidly growing integra-
tion of robotics and cognitive technologies into
the workforce. These automated “employees”
represent a new form of talent that HR must be
prepared to engage and manage.

Within the next three years, 42 percent of
executives surveyed expect to increase the use
of robotics and cognitive technologies. But,
contrary to some news headlines, most organi-
zations do not expect workers to be replaced by
machines. In fact, 20 percent expect automa-
tion to increase hiring levels, while 38 percent
see no impact.

At an even more basic level, companies are
struggling to understand who (and what) their
workforces are composed of and how to man-
age today’s incredibly diverse combination of
worker types, including workers on and off the
balance sheet as well as part-time, contingent,
and virtual workers. Across all organizations,
industries, and geographies, a new work and

social contract is emerging. Today’s HR orga-
nization needs to adapt to these changes in the
21st-century workforce.

These new additions to the workforce, after
all, work side-by-side with those on the bal-
ance sheet. Many have been recruited through
the procurement office rather than HR sys-
tems. But all affect the company’s reputation
and brand. How can HR manage and motivate
all these types of workers?

Many HR teams struggle to understand
the forces shaping today’s workforce, particu-
larly when translating these new realities into
attractive and cost-effective workforce prac-
tices that comply with government regulations.
According to this year’s survey, 71 percent of
executives believe their companies are “some-
what” or “very” able to manage contingent
workers. The top three challenges cited include
legal or regulatory uncertainty (20 percent),
a corporate culture unreceptive to part-time

Global Human Capital Trends 2016

106

and contingent staff (18 percent), and a lack of
understanding among leadership (18 percent).

The move toward automation, robotics,
and cognitive technology in the workforce also
poses significant challenges. Three out of four
executives in this year’s survey believe auto-
mation will require new skills over the next
several years. When asked about their organi-
zation’s capabilities to redesign work done by
computers to complement
talent, only 13 percent of
executives rated them “excel-
lent”—34 percent (1 out of 3)
described them as “weak.”

Consider some of the
challenges: One major tele-
com company measures its
workforce as either 18,000
(payroll), 30,000 (includ-
ing contractual workers),
or 57,000 (including those
who are building out its
network)—a huge vari-
ance, depending on how the
workforce is measured. Uber has three million
drivers under contracts that offer the company
tremendous flexibility. Are they part of its
workforce? And who will decide that ques-
tion—regulators or the business itself ? Could
benefits for these workers be allocated through
micropayments, for instance?

These questions present a number of chal-
lenges. HR can modify policies and programs,
but when even a figure as simple as the
number of workers at an organization is open
to so much interpretation, HR’s task becomes
highly complex.

In short, leading organizations are explor-
ing how to make real the promise of the open
talent economy. Fundamental questions con-
front business and HR leaders:

• Who, where, and what is the workforce?

• How can HR, procurement, and IT col-
laborate to plan and manage the 21st-
century workforce?

• How can the best workers be attracted,
acquired, and engaged for an optimal
cost, no matter what type of work contract
they have?

• How can companies leverage automa-
tion and smart technologies to improve
productivity and create more meaningful
and engaging work where employees “race
with—not against—machines”?4

There is no simple formula to help compa-
nies figure out the optimal mix of talent, skills,
and type of worker. Resolving this challenge
remains a dream for the future, but that does
not relieve organizations of the responsibility
to understand and take control of this trend.

One approach is to address whether there
are ways in which a blended workforce may be
managed more consistently in the organiza-
tion. Perhaps this push itself will help orga-
nizations begin to understand and measure
their total workforce and labor costs, rather
than simply abandoning the task as HR focuses
only on the full-time workforce. And how
many people with responsibilities for tal-
ent acquisition are proactively working with
the CIO to ask if there are machines that can
perform jobs?

Today’s disparate time collection, labor
procurement, scheduling systems, and con-
tingent workforce management solutions do
not provide the necessary insights. Disjointed
and owned by separate business functions,

At an even more basic level, companies are
struggling to understand who (and what)
their workforces are composed of and
how to manage today’s incredibly diverse
combination of worker types.

The new organization: Different by design

107

these systems are tough to align with the new
programs needed for the new workforce. Many
of today’s applicant-tracking systems are in
some ways merely automated filing cabinets.
Without these insights, though, no one is truly
managing the workforce.

Companies face a new and far more subtle
competition for talent, especially as unem-
ployment falls in some markets and voluntary
turnover rises.5 Organizations will need new
technologies, new ways of measuring costs,
and even a new language of talent management
for the 21st century.

Lessons from the front lines

The gig economy poses significant ques-
tions and opportunities for companies and
their workforce talent strategies.

First, in a growing number of industries,
technology-enabled talent markets—operating
through platforms—are offering new sources

of competition. Consider Uber and Lyft for
transportation-for-hire services, Topcoder
for programming, Handy for household
repair projects, Tongal for ads and videos,
Hourlynerd for consulting projects, and
many others. Companies need to assess how
to compete with firms that use talent plat-
forms as their primary means of organizing
their workforce.

Second, and perhaps more important: How
can companies utilize and leverage gig econ-
omy markets to complement their talent and
workforce strategies?

One example is how companies are lever-
aging their creative teams and traditional
agencies with new, on-demand models. Tongal
advertises itself as “the world’s first studio on
demand,” and provides online markets and
contests to connect businesses with creative
talent around the world to produce ads, videos,
music videos, and other products.6 Tongal’s
corporate clients include some of the largest
companies in the world: Johnson and Johnson,
Dannon, LEGO, Ford, and Lenovo.7

To integrate models like Tongal will likely
require procurement, business, and HR man-
agers to work together to access and coordinate
new models—like on-demand talent markets
and crowdsourced competitions—with more
traditional in-house teams and outside adver-
tising and creative agencies.

A second example comes from Thomson
Reuters, the global information services
company. With 55,000 employees and 17,000
technologists, the company launched a crowd-
sourcing model inside the company. The
program posed technology challenges to the
company’s engineers to solve problems in other
Thomson Reuters divisions—breaking down
internal silos and leveraging the insights of the
company’s own internal network.8

Where companies can start

• Take a new view of 21st-century talent:
Organizations must understand the open
talent economy and their needs for different

Global Human Capital Trends 2016

108

types of workers and automation over the
medium term (3 to 5 years) and longer term
(5 to 10 years). The process starts with an
expansive workforce plan that proactively
incorporates on- and off-balance sheet
talent, as well as combinations of robot-
ics, thinking machines, and new labor/
technology collaborations.

• Designate a “white space” leadership team
for workforce and automation planning:
Workforce planning for the new work-
force is a “white space” exercise. Corporate
technology, procurement, and business
strategy teams should join HR to produce
robust plans for different types of labor and
technology combinations.

• Focus on acquisition—both of people and
machines: Once companies have a sense of
the specific outlines of their talent needs,
they can focus on acquiring and engaging
each segment of employees with the overall
plan in mind. Sources of talent should
include people that companies recruit and
engage in different ways. Technologies

and machines can be used to complement
employees on corporate payrolls.

• Broaden and sharpen the focus on pro-
ductivity: Productivity, and its flip side,
engagement, are being reimagined by new
workforce and automation opportunities.
These new workforce models and new
combinations of talent and technology are
critical for improving corporate productiv-
ity. New workforce planning approaches
integrating multiple workforce segments,
automation, and cognitive technologies
will enhance productivity and product and
service quality.

• Develop new workforce and automation
models that focus on engagement and the
skills of your critical workforce: Increasing
employee engagement is one of today’s
most important workforce challenges.
Companies today must learn how to use
new workforce segments and technologies
to improve the quality, meaning, and value
of the work of their employees.

BOTTOM LINE

The design of the 21st-century workforce will present new challenges to HR, technology, and
business leaders that require deeper levels of collaboration to develop solutions. The open talent
economy and the new workforce-machine age are coming into focus, redefining “talent” to
include people and machines working in different places under different contracts.9

This is not simply a distraction; it’s the beginning of a 21st-century workforce transformation.
Leading companies are tackling the questions that need to be answered to compete successfully
for talent in this new environment. Who and what will the workforce be composed of? How will it
be acquired? How can its productivity be measured? How can the organization optimize the new
mix of workers from different sources? Given that many segments of a workforce have an impact
on products and customers, what are the appropriate ways to engage all of those segments? And
who will lead these efforts?

The new organization: Different by design

109

1. Dennis M. Mulgrew, Jr., “DOL announces pro-
posed revisions to FLSA regulations doubling
the minimum salary requirement for exempt
employees,” National Law Review, July 2, 2015,
http://www.natlawreview.com/article/dol-an-
nounces-proposed-revisions-to-flsa-regulations-
doubling-minimum-salary-require.

2. Andrew Liakopoulos, Lisa Barry, and Jeff
Schwartz, The open talent economy: People and
work in a borderless workplace, Deloitte Devel-
opment LLC, 2013, http://www2.deloitte.com/
global/en/pages/human-capital/articles/open-
talent-economy1.html.

3. Lauren Weber, “One in three U.S. workers is
a freelancer,” Wall Street Journal, September 4,
2014, http://blogs.wsj.com/atwork/2014/09/04/
one-in-three-u-s-workers-is-a-freelancer/.

4. Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, Race
Against the Machine: How the Digital Revolution
is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity,
and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and
the Economy (Lexington, Massachussets: Digital
Frontier Press, 2011).

5. Robin Erickson, Jeff Schwartz, and Josh Ensell,
“The talent paradox: Critical skills, recession, and
the illusion of plenitude,” Deloitte Review 16,
January 2012, http://dupress.com/articles/the-
talent-paradox/.

6. Tongal, “Facebook homepage,” https://www.
facebook.com/Tongalinc?_rdr=p, accessed Janu-
ary 14, 2016.

7. Tongal, “Current projects,” https://tongal.com/
project/, accessed January 12, 2016.

8. Nicole Laskowski, “Thomson Reuters uncovers
internal engineering talent with crowdsourcing,”
TechTarget, April 2014, http://searchcio.techtar-
get.com/opinion/Thomson-Reuters-flushes-out-
internal-engineering-talent-with-crowdsourcing.

9. David Schatsky and Jeff Schwartz, Machines as
talent: Collaboration, not competition, Deloitte,
February 27, 2015, http://dupress.com/articles/
cognitive-technology-in-hr-human-capital-
trends-2015/.

Endnotes
Global Human Capital Trends 2016

110

Authors
Jeff Schwartz, Deloitte Consulting LLP | jeffschwartz@deloitte.com

A principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP, Jeff Schwartz is the global leader for Human Capital Talent
Strategies and Marketing, Eminence, and Brand. A senior advisor to global companies, his recent
research focuses on talent in global and emerging markets. He is a frequent speaker and writer on issues
at the nexus of talent, human resources, and global business challenges.

Udo Bohdal-Spiegelhoff, Deloitte Consulting GmbH | ubohdal@deloitte.de

Udo Bohdal-Spiegelhoff is the Human Capital practice leader for Germany. He is recognized in the
market as a thought leader in change management, strategy execution, leadership, organizational
development, large-scale facilitation, and HR advisory capabilities. He has led many complex global
transformations such as large-scale reorganizations, HR and people strategy implementations, and post-
merger integrations for clients in a variety of industries.

Michael Gretczko, Deloitte Consulting LLP | mgretczko@deloitte.com

Michael Gretczko has more than 16 years of experience in business transformation and focuses on
leading global, multifunctional initiatives for Fortune 100 companies. His consulting experience includes
work on business strategy, cost reduction, service delivery and operating model transformation, shared
services, and outsourcing. He helps clients develop enabling strategies, create new operating models,
redesign processes, design and integrate enabling technologies, reduce operating costs, and improve
the effectiveness of business operations. He also helps clients manage the change, communications, and
training implications of business transformations.

Nathan Sloan, Deloitte Consulting LLP | nsloan@deloitte.com

Contributors
Cathy Benko, Jen Cowley, Lisa Disselkamp, Robin Erickson, and Ina Gantcheva

The new organization: Different by design
111

Executive editors

Bill Pelster
Deloitte Consulting LLP
bpelster@deloitte.com

Bill Pelster has more than 20 years of industry and consulting experience. In his
current role, he is responsible for leading the Integrated Talent Management practice,
which focuses on issues and trends in the workplace. In his previous role as Deloitte’s
chief learning officer, Pelster was responsible for the total development experience
of Deloitte professionals, including learning, leadership, high-potentials, and career,
life fit. Additionally, he was one of the key architects of Deloitte University and a US
Consulting board member.

Jeff Schwartz
Deloitte Consulting LLP
jeffschwartz@deloitte.com

A principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP, Jeff Schwartz is the global leader for Human
Capital Talent Strategies and Marketing, Eminence, and Brand. A senior advisor
to global companies, his recent research focuses on talent in global and emerging
markets. He is a frequent speaker and writer on issues at the nexus of talent, human
resources, and global business challenges.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016

112

Bersin by Deloitte research team
David Mallon, vice president, head of research, Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP

David Mallon leads the Bersin by Deloitte research team. He has been the primary force behind much
of Bersin by Deloitte’s past work in learning and development, which has covered topics including
continuous learning, learning cultures, and high-impact learning organization maturity. He is also a key
contributor to Bersin by Deloitte’s thought leadership related to HR’s operating model, governance, and
the evolution of key roles such as the HR business partner. Mallon holds a BA in English literature from
Emory University and an MS in digital media from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Sarah Andresen, vice president, benchmarking research and data
products, Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Sarah Andresen leads benchmarking research and the development of online tools, diagnostics, and
assessments that serve the corporate membership programs at Bersin by Deloitte. Andresen has a
broad background in product management, sales, marketing, research, and economics. She holds
a master’s degree in economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and bachelor’s
degrees in history and economics from California Polytechnic State University—San Luis Obispo.

Robin Erickson, vice president, engagement, retention, and acquisition
research, Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Robin Erickson, PhD, directs Bersin by Deloitte’s talent acquisition, engagement, and retention research
practice, where she draws on her deep experience in talent strategies consulting and related research
for Deloitte’s Human Capital practice. Erickson holds a doctorate from Northwestern University in
organizational communication and change, a master’s degree in communication from Northwestern
University, a master’s degree in theology from Northern Seminary, and a bachelor of arts degree from the
University of Chicago.

Stacia Sherman Garr, vice president, talent management
research, Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Stacia Sherman Garr leads Bersin by Deloitte’s talent and HR research practices. She is responsible
for Bersin by Deloitte’s research on human resources, talent strategy, integrated talent management,
performance management, career management, diversity and inclusion, employee recognition,
competencies, and workforce planning. Garr holds an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley,
a master’s degree from the London School of Economics, and bachelors’ degrees in history and political
science from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College.

Dani Johnson, vice president, learning and development
research, Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Dani Johnson is vice president of learning and development research at Bersin by Deloitte. She has
spent the majority of her career writing about, conducting research in, designing, and consulting on
human capital practices. Johnson led the Human Resource Competency Study with the University of
Michigan and six other professional organizations around the world, and co-authored the resulting
book, HR Competencies: Mastery at the Intersection of People and Business (Society for Human Resource
Management, 2008).

The new organization: Different by design

113

Candace Atamanik, research manager, performance management
research, Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Candace Atamanik is a research manager in Bersin by Deloitte’s talent management research practice. Her
research focuses on talent strategy, talent management, performance management, and competencies.
Atamanik’s work has been featured in Fast Company, The Atlantic, and Academic Leader as well as in
Leader to Leader and Organizational Dynamics. She has a BS in psychology from Pepperdine University
and an MS in industrial and organizational psychology from Florida International University, and was a
PhD candidate in industrial and organizational psychology at Florida International University.

Madhura Chakrabarti, research manager, people analytics
research, Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Madhura Chakrabarti, PhD, is a research manager at Bersin by Deloitte focused on talent
analytics. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Delhi and an MA
and PhD in industrial/organizational psychology from Wayne State University, Michigan.
Previously, Chakrabarti worked at Dell, Ford Motor Company, and Aon Hewitt in various
roles spanning people analytics, employee engagement, and pre-employment assessments.

Janet Clarey, research manager, learning and development
research, Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Janet Clarey is a manager focused on learning and development research at Bersin by Deloitte, where
she has done work in the areas of learning culture, high-impact learning organization maturity, and
learning technology. She holds a BA in communications from the State University of New York at
Oswego, a master’s degree in instructional design for online learning from Capella University, and has
completed coursework toward a doctorate from Syracuse University in instructional design, development,
and evaluation.

Andrea Derler, research manager, leadership research,
Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Andrea Derler, PhD, leads the leadership and succession management research practice for Bersin by
Deloitte. She holds a doctoral degree in economics (leadership and organization) and a master’s degree in
philosophy. Prior to joining Bersin by Deloitte, she collaborated closely with organizations in the United
States as well as Europe to conduct practice-oriented leadership research.

Denise Moulton, research manager, middle-market HR
research, Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Denise Moulton is a research manager in mid-market research at Bersin by Deloitte. She has several years
of practitioner experience, focusing on talent acquisition, talent management, and human resources
operations. Previously, Moulton was a talent acquisition leader at Hasbro, Inc., where she provided
recruitment management for global and commercial business units. She holds a bachelor of arts degree
from the University of Rhode Island and is a certified Internet recruiter.

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
114

Acknowledgements
Global Human Capital Trends 2016 is the result of the efforts of a global team working over the past
12 months, including hundreds of contributors from across the global Deloitte network as well as
the counsel and input of our clients.

Special thanks

Julie May for overall direction of the Global Human Capital Trends program throughout the year.
You guided us in handling the hundreds of details and decisions, including managing dozens of
country champions and an editorial team with a myriad of authors and contributors, that go into
delivering a global survey and report. We appreciate your focus on the many activities needed to
produce a global report of this scope and complexity. Your insights and editorial pen are evident in
every chapter of the report.

The core Global Human Capital Trends team: Josh Bersin, Ben Dollar, Nicky Wakefield, David
Mallon, Luke Monck, Jen Stempel, and Shrawini Vijay. Your dedication throughout the year,
involving many early mornings and late nights, made this project possible. Your probing analy-
sis and curiosity guided our thinking on this year’s trends, survey development and analysis, and
report writing.

Ina Gantcheva, Elizabeth Chodaczek, Rebecca Griffiths, Lana Koretsky, Sarthak Mittal, and
Antonio Romo Fragoso for leading the Global Human Capital Trends program management office.

Junko Kaji, Matthew Lennert, Sonya Vasilieff, Kevin Weier, and the remarkable Deloitte
University Press team, led by Jon Warshawsky, for their editorial and design skills. You con-
tinued to push us to sharpen our thinking and writing to produce (we hope) insightful and
actionable messages.

Katrina Drake Hudson and Andrea Sacasa for leading our integrated marketing program, devel-
oping a series of initiatives to share the global report and survey through a growing web of digital,
traditional marketing, and social media channels. Thanks as well to Melissa Doyle for managing the
public relations programs.

And last but not least, a special thank you to Brett Walsh and Jason Geller, the global and US lead-
ers of our Human Capital practices. We are grateful for your support and encouragement every step
of the way in producing this report.

Global survey and research team

Research leaders
Shrawini Vijay, Ankita Jain, Rahul Kolhe, Mankiran Kaur, and Ekta Khandelwal

Research team
Vasvi Aren, Alka Choudhury, Srishti Dayal, Rahat Dhir, Garima Tyagi Dubey, Mukta Goyal,
Shivank Gupta, Bhumija Jain, Ankita Khaneja, Archit Khare, Sukhmani Lamba, Maansi Pandey,
Gauri Paranjpe, Divya Patnaik, Deepika Sharma, Goral Shroff, Aparajita Sihag, Abhishek Tiwari

The new organization: Different by design

115

Global Human Capital leaders

Brett Walsh
Global Human Capital leader
Deloitte MCS Limited
bcwalsh@deloitte.co.uk

Dimple Agarwal
Global Organization Transformation &
Talent leader
Deloitte MCS Limited
dagarwal@deloitte.co.uk

Michael Stephan
Global HR Transformation leader
Deloitte Consulting LLP
mstephan@deloitte.com

David Foley
Global Actuarial, Rewards, and Analytics
leader
Deloitte Consulting LLP
dfoley@deloitte.com

Nichola Holt
Global Employment Services leader
Deloitte Tax LLP
nicholt@deloitte.com

Jeff Schwartz
Global Human Capital leader, Marketing,
Eminence, and Brand
Deloitte Consulting LLP
jeffschwartz@deloitte.com

Human Capital country leaders

Americas & Chile

Jaime Valenzuela
Deloitte Audit y Consult.
jvalenzuela@deloitte.com

United States

Jason Geller
Deloitte Consulting LLP
jgeller@deloitte.com

Canada

Heather Stockton
Deloitte Canada
hstockton@deloitte.ca

Mexico

Tomas Fernandez
Deloitte Consulting Mexico
tofernandez@deloittemx.com

Uruguay, LATCO

Verónica Melián
Deloitte SC
vmelian@deloitte.com

Argentina

Leonardo Pena
Deloitte & Co. S.A.
lepena@deloitte.com

Americas

Global Human Capital Trends 2016

116

mailto:jvalenzuela%40deloitte.com?subject=

mailto:jgeller%40deloitte.com?subject=

mailto:hstockton%40deloitte.ca?subject=

mailto:vmelian%40deloitte.com?subject=

Asia Pacific & China

Jungle Wong
Deloitte Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd,
Beijing Branch
junglewong@deloitte.com.cn

Australia

David Brown
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
davidbrown@deloitte.com.au

India

Sanjay Behl
Deloitte India
sxbehl@deloitte.com

Japan

Akio Tsuchida
Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting Co. Ltd
akitsuchida@tohmatsu.co.jp

Korea

Kihoon (Alex) Jo
Deloitte Consulting
kijo@deloitte.com

New Zealand

Hamish Wilson
Deloitte
hawilson@deloitte.co.nz

Southeast Asia

Nicky Wakefield
Deloitte Consulting Pte Ltd
nwakefield@deloitte.com

Asia Pacific

Brazil

Roberta Yoshida
Deloitte Consultores
royoshida@deloitte.com

Colombia

Beatriz Dager
Deloitte Ases. y Consulto
bhdager@deloitte.com

Costa Rica

Arturo Velasco
Deloitte & Touche S.A.
arvelasco@deloitte.com

Dutch Caribbean

Maghalie van der Bunt
Deloitte Dutch Caribbean
mvanderbunt@deloitte.com

Ecuador

Roberto Estrada
Andeanecuador Consultores
restrada@deloitte.com

Panama

Jessika Malek
Deloitte Consultores
jmalek@deloitte.com

Peru

Alejandra D’Agostino
Deloitte & Touche SRL
aldagostino@deloitte.com

Venezuela

Maira Freites
Lara Marambio & Asociados
mfreites@deloitte.com

Americas (cont.)

The new organization: Different by design

117

mailto:junglewong%40deloitte.com.cn?subject=

mailto:davidbrown%40deloitte.com.au?subject=

mailto:akitsuchida%40tohmatsu.co.jp?subject=

mailto:kijo%40deloitte.com?subject=

mailto:hawilson%40deloitte.co.nz?subject=

mailto:mvanderbunt%40deloitte.com?subject=

mailto:restrada%40deloitte.com?subject=

mailto:mfreites%40deloitte.com?subject=

EMEA

Ardie Van Berkel
Deloitte Consulting BV
avanberkel@deloitte.nl

United Kingdom

Anne-Marie Malley
Deloitte MCS Limited
amalley@deloitte.co.uk

Africa

Werner Nieuwoudt
Deloitte Consulting Pty
wnieuwoudt@deloitte.co.za

Austria

Christian Havranek
Deloitte Austria
chavranek@deloitte.at

Belgium

Yves Van Durme
Deloitte Consulting
yvandurme@deloitte.com

Central Europe

Evzen Kordenko
Deloitte Advisory s.r.o.
ekordenko@deloittece.com

CIS

Christopher Armitage
CJSC Deloitte & Touche CIS
carmitage@deloitte.ru

Cyprus

George Pantelides
Deloitte Ltd
gpantelides@deloitte.com

Denmark

Ylva Ingeborg Brand Beckett
Deloitte Denmark
ybeckett@deloitte.dk

Finland

Kirsi Kemi
Deloitte Oy
kirsi.kemi@deloitte.fi

France

Philippe Burger
Deloitte Conseil
phburger@deloitte.fr

Guy Aguera
Deloitte Conseil
gaguera@deloitte.fr

Germany

Udo Bohdal-Spiegelhoff
Deloitte Consulting GmbH
ubohdal@deloitte.de

Greece

Petros Mihos
Deloitte Business Solutions S.A.
pmihos@deloitte.gr

Ireland

Cormac Hughes
Deloitte & Touche
cohughes@deloitte.ie

Israel

Zohar Yami
Brightman Almagor Zohar & Co.
zyami@deloitte.co.il

Italy
Lorenzo Manganini
Deloitte Consulting SRL
lmanganini@deloitte.it

Kenya

Kimani Njoroge
Deloitte Consulting Ltd
knjoroge@deloitte.co.ke

Europe, Middle East, and Africa

Global Human Capital Trends 2016
118

mailto:avanberkel%40deloitte.nl?subject=

mailto:wnieuwoudt%40deloitte.co.za?subject=

mailto:chavranek%40deloitte.at?subject=

mailto:yvandurme%40deloitte.com?subject=

mailto:ekordenko%40deloittece.com?subject=

mailto:carmitage%40deloitte.ru?subject=

mailto:gpantelides%40deloitte.com?subject=

mailto:phburger%40deloitte.fr?subject=

mailto:ubohdal%40deloitte.de?subject=

mailto:cohughes%40deloitte.ie?subject=

mailto:lmanganini%40deloitte.it?subject=

mailto:knjoroge%40deloitte.co.ke?subject=

Luxembourg

Basil Sommerfeld
Deloitte Tax & Consulting
bsommerfeld@deloitte.lu

Middle East

Ghassan Turqieh
Deloitte & Touche (M.E.)
gturqieh@deloitte.com

Netherlands

Petra Tito
Deloitte Consulting BV
ptito@deloitte.nl

Nordics

Eva Tuominen
Deloitte Oy
eva.tuominen@deloitte.fi

Norway

Eva Gjovikli
Deloitte AS
egjovikli@deloitte.no

Poland

Magdalena Jonczak
Deloitte Business Consulting S.A.
mjonczak@deloittece.com

Portugal

Nuno Portela Belo
Deloitte Consultores, S.A.
nbelo@deloitte.pt

Spain

Enrique de la Villa
Deloitte Advisory, S.L.
edelavilla@deloitte.es

Sweden

Jonas Malmlund
Deloitte Sweden
jmalmlund@deloitte.se

Switzerland

Sarah Kane
Deloitte Consulting Switzerland
sakane@deloitte.ch

Turkey

Tolga Yaveroglu
Deloitte Turkey
tyaveroglu@deloitte.com

Europe, Middle East, and Africa (cont.)

The new organization: Different by design

119

mailto:gturqieh%40deloitte.com?subject=

mailto:bgundersen%40deloitte.no?subject=

mailto:mjonczak%40deloittece.com?subject=

mailto:jvaz%40deloitte.pt?subject=

mailto:edelavilla%40deloitte.es?subject=

mailto:sakane%40deloitte.ch?subject=

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