One thing you’ll find if you read a lot of studies or research on workforce trends is this: the positives or negatives you take away from the study depends a lot on your point of view.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. Accenture, the giant global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, released a survey today showing that “more than half of large, downsized U.S. businesses plan to rebuild their workforces to pre-recession levels by 2012.”
Specifically, “more than half (54 percent) of large U.S. businesses that reduced staff in the past 12 months plan to rebuild their workforces to pre-recession levels within two years,” according to the study released by Accenture. The Accenture High Performance Workforce Study “found that among all U.S. companies surveyed, only 13 percent of executives said that they plan to reduce their employee base over the next 12 months.”
Yes, that all sounds good, but the question I have is this: If a little more than half of large U.S. businesses that reduced staff due to the Great Recession plan to add some back in the next two years, doesn’t that indicate that slightly less of these companies DON’T plan to do so?
In other words, if roughly half the large organizations surveyed are hiring back people, the other half aren’t going to do so. Does that mean that this is a positive trend or a negative one? Is the glad half empty or half full?
Accenture is spinning this survey of executives from around the world in the most positive way with the most positive headline possible of course, and there’s really nothing wrong with that. We can all use a little good news about the economy no matter where it comes from.
But dig a little deeper and you’ll find information from the survey that says:
All that information tends to make this survey seem more of the glass is “half empty” variety, but you should take a look at it yourself and see what you make of it.
“Companies need to rethink how they equip employees with the skills required to be competitive today,” said David Smith, managing director of the Accenture Talent & Organization Performance practice in a press release accompanying the survey. “They must also consider new strategies for hiring and developing untapped talent currently available in the market.”
He’s right, of course. The big challenge for managers and HR pros everywhere is how they can help workers adjust and improve their skills to be more useful and productive in our ever-changing economy. That’s the big thing I took away from this survey, but if you’re like me, you probably didn’t need more research to tell you that.
