UK plc faces management skills black hole

poll from HR Gateway

A ëblack holeí in management knowledge and skills is opening up in UK business and threatening to leave firms with similar problems encountered back in the early 1990s when the last great removal of talent occurred, it is claimed.

A new poll from HR Gateway ñ the HR news and information service - suggests that the majority of HR professionals in the UK are ëvery worriedí that their organisations are creating these ëblack holesí as organisational memory is lost and training fails to keep up the pace with change.

When asked to rate on a sliding scale of A-D how worried they were that organisational change was creating such problems in their organisation, the vast majority (49%) voted A or ëvery worriedí followed by 22.5% voting for B.

Only 13.5% voted for D, or ënot worried at allí, while 15% voted C. Petra Cook, head of policy at the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) says that the findings are ëtroublingí and a situation she blamed on management training failing to keep pace with change:

ëTraining is running to catch up but falling further behind. Greater responsibility is being shifted to the front line and the skill sets needed are changing. Firms need to realise this or they will lose quality managers.

ëThe Governmentís Skills Strategy may help but what is needed is more support for managers from the top table or organisations will find it increasingly difficult to function,í she said.

However, for Mark Crail, managing editor of research publication IRS Employment Review, the problem stems from one of loss of organisational memory or knowledge rather than skills.

Training is doubtless a big issue for organisations over the coming months, he says, but it does not make up for loss of organisational memory. It is more important than ever for firms to question their identity,í he said:

ëMany managers of all levels have been removed from firms and with them has gone company history. These organisations are left with a discontinuity between past and present which causes problems when looking to move forward.

ëThe hard problems such as right-sizing, redundancy and cost reduction have been dealt with, it is now up to firms to deal with the soft issues. They need to take stock and reconstruct their identity so that they know where they want to go,í he said.