Businesses are increasingly looking to improve talent levels at their organisations.
This is according to the CEO Challenge 2013 report, which was published by the Conference Board in conjunction with the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). It points out that developing human capital is top of managers’ to-do lists in the coming 12 months.
Firms hope that by honing in on this area, alongside achieving operational excellence and increasing innovation, they can improve the make-up of their companies. This means that office workers could see a series of initiatives introduced as they target a “continuous improvement of internal capabilities”.
Providing employee training and raising employee engagement have been highlighted as two key ways that companies can look to improve their staff members. With the economic recovery still returning slow growth figures, businesses are being forced to be innovative in order to encourage better results.
CMI’s director of strategy and external affairs Petra Wilton said: “Faced by tough market conditions, it is encouraging to see that businesses focus more strongly on building their human capital. Businesses are right to grow the talents of their employees at all levels in the organisation.”
However, Ms Wilton did express concern and surprise at the fact that leadership development is not being taken seriously enough. This is despite the fact that line manager relationships have been identified as the “single most important factor in determining levels of employee engagement”.
Firms using office space in London should therefore remember to keep a focus on encouraging better leadership practice, as the CMI stated this can bring about as much as a 23 per cent increase in business performance.
Indeed, Ms Wilton went on to note that ignoring management development could turn out to be a very costly mistake, as this will make it harder for them to engage with their employees.