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STRATEGY > KNOWLEDGE/COMPETENCY
CONTENT > EVALUATE
Accenture Cites Lack of Essential Skills as Hindrance to Corporate Success
NEW YORK—June 21, 2006—Most senior executives report that their workforces lack the skills their companies need to achieve market leadership, and that even their critical functions—sales, customer service, finance, and strategic planning—do not perform as strongly as they should, according to an announcement regarding research released by Accenture.
The Accenture High Performance Workforce Study, conducted approximately every 18 months, is intended to measure workforce management trends among executives in large corporations in the U.S., Europe, and Australia. According to the announcement, this year’s research, of more than 250 senior executives, found that only 14% of respondents described the overall skill level of their organizations’ workforce as industry leading, and just 20% said the vast majority of their employees understand their companies’ strategy and what’s needed to be successful in their industry.
“The lack of essential skills is a vital issue for senior managers,” said Peter Cheese, global managing partner for Accenture’s human performance practice, in the announcement. “As the competitive environment grows more demanding and as markets become increasingly commoditized, the need to cultivate these skills—particularly in the critical functions—should be at the top of every corporate to-do list. Those companies that fail to develop their workforces risk losing their competitive edge.”
According to the research findings, and as cited in the announcement, these shortcomings can be attributed, in part, to several key human resources- and training-related findings. For example, just one in ten respondents reported being very satisfied with the performance of their HR and training functions. The research reportedly uncovered possible reasons for this, including a lack of connection to business drivers, failure to measure the business impact of HR and training efforts, ineffective or nonexistent knowledge-capture and -sharing capabilities, an aging workforce, and lack of functional leaders’ involvement in people issues.
The research did identify a group of companies that Accenture refers to as “human performance leaders”—companies in which the three functions their executives deem most important perform at the highest levels. These leaders are more likely to be successful in addressing the organizational issues that contribute to strong financial performance, the announcement stated.
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