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Deloitte warns on potential staffing crisis

Business

Organisations need to prepare for a striking shift in employee expectations to avoid potential retention and leadership crises, according to Deloitte.

By Staff Reporter 8 minute read

The top four firm recently conducted the Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends 2014, a survey of over 2,500 business and HR leaders, which showed that information overload and the always connected, 24/7 work environment are overwhelming workers, undermining productivity, and contributing to low employee engagement.

More than one-third of business leaders rated this issue among their top five priorities but fewer than one in ten believe they are dealing with it effectively, survey results showed.

David Brown, Deloitte Australia’s human capital leader, said HR departments have an opportunity to lead efforts to manage pervasive communications practices that tend to overwhelm employees, simplify the work environment, create more flexible work standards, and teach managers and workers how to prioritise workloads.

“The point of these and similar efforts is not merely to save employees’ time, reduce stress, and foster employee engagement, even though these aims are important. Rather, it is to free up unproductive time to allow more engaged employees to really focus on business priorities.”

More than half of survey respondents believe their organisations are not doing a good job helping workers address information overload in today’s demanding work environment. In addition, nearly six in 10 (57 per cent) say their organisations are “weak” when it comes to helping leaders manage difficult schedules and helping employees manage information.

“One strategy organisations are following to help employees become more productive with their time is creating smaller, more agile teams and looking at ways to outsource or insource repetitive, non-core tasks to free up employee time and energy,” concluded Mr Brown.

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