Global Human Capital Trends 2016

Introduction: The new organization
By: Josh Bersin, Jason Geller, and Brett Walsh
CEOs and HR leaders are focused on understanding and creating a shared culture, designing a work environment that engages people, and constructing a new model of leadership and career development.

Organizational design: The rise of teams
By: Tiffany McDowell, Dimple Agarwal, Don Miller, Tsutomu Okamoto, and Trevor Page
Hierarchical organizational models aren’t just being turned upside down—they’re being deconstructed from the inside out. Businesses are reinventing themselves to operate as networks of teams to keep pace with the challenges of a fluid, unpredictable world.

Leadership awakened: Generations, teams, science
By: Anthony Abbatiello, Dimple Agarwal, Karen Pastakia, and Ardie van Berkel
Leaders of all ages, genders, and cultures are now poised to take the reins at organizations around the world. How ready will these future business leaders be to take charge in an increasingly complex global marketplace?

Culture: Shape culture, drive strategy
By: Marc Kaplan, Ben Dollar, Veronica Melian, Yves van Durme, and Jungle Wong
The impact of culture on business is hard to overstate: 82 percent of respondents to the Global Human Capital Trends 2016 survey believe that culture is a potential competitive advantage. Today, new tools can help leaders measure and manage culture towards alignment with business goals.

Engagement: Always on
By: David Brown, Josh Bersin, Will Gosling, and Nathan Sloan
Employee engagement and retention today means understanding an empowered workforce’s desire for flexibility, creativity, and purpose. Under the evolving social contract between employer and employee, workers become “volunteers” to be reengaged and re-recruited each day.

Learning: Employees take charge
By: Bill Pelster, Josh Haims, Jen Stempel, and Bernard van der Vyver
Corporate learning departments are changing from education providers to content curators and experience facilitators, developing innovative platforms that turn employee learning and development into a self-driven pursuit.

Design thinking: Crafting the employee experience
By: Josh Bersin, and Marc Solow
Design thinking takes aim at the heart of unnecessary workplace complexity by putting the employee experience first—helping to improve productivity by designing solutions that are at once compelling, enjoyable, and simple.

HR: Growing momentum toward a new mandate
By: Erica Volini, Art Mazor, Frank Schaefer, Akio Tsuchida, and Brett Walsh
Good news: This year’s Global Human Capital Trends 2016 survey shows an improvement in the HR organization’s skills, business alignment, and ability to innovate. But as companies change the way they are organized, they must embrace the changing role of HR as well.

People analytics: Gaining speed
By: Josh Bersin, Laurence Collins, David Mallon, Jeff Moir, and Robert Straub
The use of analytics in HR is growing, with organizations aggressively building people analytics teams, buying analytics offerings, and developing analytics solutions. HR now has the chance to demonstrate ROI on its analytics efforts, helping to make the case for further investment.

Digital HR: Revolution, not evolution
By: Michael Stephan, Shinichiro Uzawa, Erica Volini, Brett Walsh, and Roberta Yoshida
A new world for HR technology and design teams is on the horizon. Mobile and other technologies could allow HR leaders to revolutionize the employee experience through new digital platforms, apps, and ways of delivering HR services.

The gig economy: Distraction or disruption?
By: Jeff Schwartz, Udo Bohdal-Spiegelhoff, Michael Gretczko, and Nathan Sloan
How can a business manage talent effectively when many, or even most, of itspeople are not actually its employees? Networks of people who work without any formal employment agreement—as well as the growing use of machines as talent—are reshaping the talent management equation.