Many of today’s business challenges are, in reality, people challenges. To deliver the critical transformation your organisation needs, you need a workforce that is engaged, empowered and enabled to drive change.
So it’s worrying that so many businesses and their workforces are finding it difficult to keep pace with change. More than three-quarters of the UK business leaders (78%) taking part in PwC’s UK CEO Survey report at least some skills shortage within their organisation. More than two-thirds (68%) believe that a lack of tech capabilities is inhibiting their ability to transform.
Technology is clearly part of the answer. But many organisations are finding it difficult to unlock the potential of a tech-powered workforce. For example, while nearly half of the UK workers (47%) taking part in PwC’s Hopes and Fears Survey 2024 say they’ve used GenAI at work in the past 12 months, far fewer are using it on a consistent basis – only 18% have used it daily or weekly.
Moreover, years of constant disruption is taking its toll on the UK workforce. The Hopes and Fears Survey reveals that almost half (45%) of workers feel that too much change is happening at once, and 40% don’t understand why changes need to happen at all. At the same time, people-related challenges are impacting transformation efforts.
Leading change
Against this backdrop of complex and hard to address challenges, it's never been more important for HR to be a transformative and strategic partner. Key questions don’t just include what skills will our business require in five- and ten-years’ time, but what will the people we need to attract and retain want from us? Similarly, it’s not just a question of how technology will reshape ways of working, but how quickly we can adapt to near constant change.
“Change is now the norm, so your people need to be resilient, adaptable, and ready for disruption. We partner with our clients to optimise technology, transform the culture and skills to deliver a workforce strategy that helps their organisation to thrive though any disruption.”
Sarah Moore, Workforce Leader, PwC UK
The result is the need for HR reinvention to run in parallel with business transformation. HR professionals are stepping into a new era where HR transcends traditional roles – becoming a key architect of transformation by building agile, resilient organisations ready for the future. HR strategy won’t just be centred around managing talent, but leading with it; not just aligning with the business and its needs, but propelling it forward.
Equipped to drive transformation
Delivering the vision for HR reinvention demands business insight and expertise. Our input includes helping our clients to see the full picture from changing consumer demands and market competition to the values and societal changes shaping workforce expectations.
“For us it’s critical to deeply understand the business we're supporting through transformation. Our knowledge of the organisation and its ambitions means we’re able to create workforce outcomes, such as bringing together a new people structure with new technologies and processes, that create a better way of working and ultimately accelerates our client’s business outcomes.”
Althea D’Lima, HR Transformation Partner, PwC UK
As with the wider business, technology is clearly an important foundation for HR reinvention. As we’ve seen in our work with clients alongside a range of alliance partners including Workday, Oracle and SAP, the right HR and workforce technology can not only take care of routine tasks and free up time for strategic support, but also improve HR agility, efficiency and insight. And the functionality is getting smarter and more versatile all the time.
The other big priority is being able to move at pace. Talent-focused deals are a clear case in point. More than 60% of the UK business leaders taking part in PwC’s Value Creation Survey say they are likely to use transactions to help them build a workforce with future-ready skills. We’re helping clients to build talent into their deal strategies and identify acquisition opportunities.
Transformation in action
All this adds up to a much more impactful HR and workforce transformation – a single strategy that plugs workforce planning into the delivery of your business ambitions, while developing the new ways of working and compelling employee experience needed to thrive in this new world.
If you want to find out more about how we can help you transform your HR function and be transformative in how you work, please get in touch with us. You can also find out more about how our workforce managed services can help you run certain activities, and how we can help you solve complex issues.
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