HR leaders need to ensure they are building an always-learning environment centered on skills development, says Scott Redfearn, EVP of global human resources at Protiviti.
By Debbie Bolla
HRO Today: What’s the biggest challenge you are currently facing and what are your plans to overcome it?
Scott Redfearn: Workforce planning is critical in today’s constantly evolving workplace, and it’s something my team and I focus on each day. Protiviti’s recently released Top Risks Survey — which surveys over 1,200 board members and C-suite executives from organizations around the globe annually — found that the talent issues, including managing shifts in labor expectations and addressing succession challenges, rank third in the top risks across industries in the next two to three years.
With technology reshaping the “how” and “where” we work, HR leaders today need to be more proactive than ever during their planning process. My goal is to recruit and retain the best talent whose values align with ours. These values enable us to do work that delivers meaningful results, nurture rewarding careers for our people, and build deep relationships with each other as well as our client base.
Effectively addressing workforce planning is not a “set it and forget it” strategy. You need to refine it constantly. As such, we instituted more recurring touchpoints with both our employees and business leaders to re-evaluate what their workforce needs are and if those needs are being met. Staying in lockstep with the leaders allows us to ensure we are hiring for the right skills, as well as upskilling and reskilling our own employees so they can best contribute to our organization. Keeping in close contact with our employees allows us to keep a closer pulse on their experience and improve retention through a deeper understanding of what an employee actually desires. Communication is key to ensuring we are putting together a team that will succeed.
Technology also plays an important role in how we tackle this problem. There are solutions that HR leaders can leverage across industries to accurately forecast their workforce needs. These solutions enable our team to efficiently hire and recruit so that they can fill the identified positions.
HROT: How will a focus on skills make a difference in retaining talent and hitting business goals?
Redfearn: The new generation of workers — who are mostly Gen Z — are focused on “skills” and making sure they are working at an organization that will allow them to develop the skills they want to have. Gone are the days of looking for a “good opportunity” that offers potential career growth. Now, it’s all about skill growth. Today’s workers are already thinking two steps ahead and are evaluating what skills they will need to succeed two to three years from now, and what they can be doing today to get there.
This focus on skills isn’t just beneficial for the individual employee; it’s a positive mindset for the organization at large. As HR leaders, we need to ensure we are developing an always-learning environment that is oriented around the future of employees and the business. Seeing the potential of our people and creating avenues where they are gaining the skills they want to learn will help us achieve our goals and create an environment where employees want to work and stay, which is the basis of retention.
HROT: In what ways are you focused on and developing a leadership pipeline?
Redfearn: At Protiviti, we are focused on building an internal talent pipeline and fostering leadership from within. Upskilling and reskilling are both key components in developing the talent pool at every level of the business.
This pipeline focus includes the intern level where we aim to develop talent from the moment they enter the workforce. This past year, we had 337 interns from over 135 universities participate in our Intern Challenge, an experiential learning course that helps our interns prepare to transition successfully from college to a full-time position. Offering opportunities that are focused on skill building, networking and leadership development allows us to build not only a strong talent pipeline, but also a strong culture that retains employees and sets them up for success in future leadership roles.
HROT: What are you currently binging?
Redfearn: I was teaching an internal training session, and one of our employees used the term “TLDR” (too long; didn’t read) when explaining why they had not read an email. I asked what that meant and quickly decided our HR team needed to champion a better way of communications. So right now, I am working through an easy read, Smart Brevity, which was recommended to me by our internal communications team. I am hoping that our communications analytics tools will confirm that readership improves when we communicate using different approaches.
In the video world, our family is dialed into Landman. Much of the series was filmed in our hometown, Fort Worth, so we feel a special connection. And if you look closely in a few scenes in the first two episodes, you can see brief appearances by my wife who was an extra.
