Businesses not investing in people or culture report finds
The People Performance Report released yesterday by Kelly Services and CareerOne indicates that Australian businesses may be under investing in effective people performance strategies.
Research for the People Performance Report investigated the strategies and methods used by 289 Australian businesses to achieve, build and sustain a high performance workforce and has revealed that while many organisations recognise the need to develop a high performance culture, they aren’t investing enough time and resources to identify, develop and train people, and business growth is suffering as a result.
A cross section of Australian businesses contributed to the research, which explored topics such as employee retention and turnover, tenure, HR functions, high performance culture strategies and barriers to implementing a high performance work culture.
The report is indicative that businesses are spending too much time simply chasing their own tail, rather than focusing on staff performance and building a strong company culture, possibly as a result of pressures seen during and in the wake of the GFC.
Managing Director of Kelly Services Australia Karen Colfer said the timing of the report is crucial for helping Australian organisations determine and implement effective strategies to cultivate workplace performance for the upcoming financial year.
“The economic downturn has meant that many businesses may have lost focus of one of their greatest assets –employees,” said Karen Colfer.
“The People Performance Report showed that Australian businesses are looking to rectify this lack of focus through a number of strategies including outsourced HR functions to achieve improved efficiencies in staff performance. This is a great opportunity for workforce solutions providers like Kelly Services to help organisations meet their staff management and performance goals.”
Chief Executive Officer of CareerOne.com.au Michael Harvey said, “While the apparent under investment in people performance strategies may be reflective of the economic conditions of the past two years, I am confident that renewed optimism in the employment sector would mean companies are now ready to refocus on cultivating high performance workforces.”
The Kelly Services and CareerOne.com.au People Performance report is available at www.careerone.com.au/peopleperformance
We have really noticed that as a result of the GFC businesses are putting their staff under added pressure. We sell fun DIY team building activities to provide businesses the opportunity to develop in their teams and staff without having a major impact on budget and we find that businesses are only planning 1-2 months ahead.
We often suggest to businesse that if they are serious about building their teams and staff they need to be doing something ‘team focused’ at least every quarter.