Institute of Leadership & Management calls on HR profession to ìearn its stripesî

The Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) has today welcomed a report suggesting that organisations should nurture their internal talent.

Penny de Valk, Chief Executive of ILM, said: ìIn a service and information economy, our only source of competitive advantage is our people. It follows then that at a time when there is huge pressure on organisations to get more from less, the real challenge for HR professionals will be in giving advice to businesses on making the most of their people.î

ILM believes that training and development of staff internally improves retention, shores up succession planning and gives organisations a competitive edge.

These views are echoed in Nurturing Talent – a report published this week by Cranfield School of Management, commissioned by learndirect Business – which revealed that the majority of organisations believe long-term strategies for developing talent will bring major business benefits.

For the past decade, the HR profession has campaigned for a space at the boardroom table and bemoaned their lack of influence at senior level, while board members have been calling on HR professionals to get better at demonstrating the value they bring. In the face of increasingly difficult operating conditions, the next few years will present HR professionals with a golden opportunity to really prove their worth.

De Valk continued: ìThe next few years will be where HR will earn its stripes – if it chooses to. Traditionally in a downturn, the assumed function for HR is headcount reduction. In reality, the HR profession has at its behest a series of levers it can pull, and can play a much more thoughtful and dynamic role, by maximising the impact of its people on the business.

ìThe opportunity now is for HR to understand the short and long-term costs of cutting headcount and be prepared to explore more productive approaches to drive employee engagement and improved productivity. This way the HR profession can ensure that when their organisation comes out of the recession it is equipped to hit the ground running and is not denuded of any energy and talent as a result of operating in survival mode.î