10 Virtual Brochure – March 2025 Commentary on significant and increasing risks 1.2 Human capital, diversity, and talent management ppt compared to 2023 For the third year in a row the challenges of attracting, recruiting, and retaining the right people is rated as the second most significant strategic risk across all business sectors. Businesses expect this to remain a core strategic risk, although falling to third place behind digital disruption and AI by 2028. The ECIIA report notes that many sectors are seeing a more rapid turnover in staff. It highlights the increasing complexity of workforce planning in a fast-changing environment where the digital skills needed to drive transformation and realise efficiency gains are in high demand and constantly evolving. Businesses are also concerned about the growing challenge of upskilling employees to enable them to adapt to using AItools and new ways of working, while meeting their expectations about work-life balance and demonstrating a commitment to social values. Similar sentiments about AI skills gaps in the UK appear in numerous recent reports 2 together with continuing concerns about a lack of diversity in the technology sector. Considerations for HE As in previous years, risks related to the recruitment, motivation and retention of staff feature on almost every HE institutional risk register. We note that institutions tend to describe their people risks in generic terms, and overall, inherent and mitigated risk scores tend to be low, with institutions demonstrating a relatively high degree of confidence in existing controls. This implies an environment in which, at least in broad terms, institutions find it relatively easy to recruit, engage, reward and retain the staff they want. However, continuing headcount reductions and funding cuts are creating more challenging conditions and pose business continuity questions. Mitigation actions point to a range of local interventions looking at turnover, reward, wellbeing, work loading models, academic career pathways, and succession planning. At present, the ability to recruit people with appropriate digital and AI skills and the need for upskilling staff to adapt to new ways of working do not appear to be considered as strategic risks by the HE sector. We encourage institutions to discuss: - What AI skills does your institution need and how is this integrated into recruitment and training strategies? Does a lack of skills pose any significant risks to realisation of strategic objectives? - Is workforce planning sufficiently well-designed and agile to be able to respond to changing institutional priorities and transformation opportunities? - How well prepared is your institution to deal with any increased turnover in staff? Are onboarding, induction and exit processes effective and well-honed? -6
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTI5NzM=