Accenture and HfS Research, The Future Belongs to Intelligent Operations, offers some good news about the strategic relevance of HR, but not all business executives are sure...It's time for HR professionals to take a leadership stance.

1. IGNITINGHR
FORSTRATEGIC
BUSINESS
PARTNERSHIPS

2. IS YOUR HR FUNCTION A STRATEGIC
FORCE IN THE BUSINESS?
Accenture and HfS Research’ report, The
Future Belongs to Intelligent Operations,
offers some good news about the
strategic relevance of HR.
It’s time for HR professionals
to take a leadership stance.

3. HR IS THINKING STRATEGICALLY
AND IS ALIGNED WITH BUSINESS
PRIORITIES
The top challenges named by the HR executives surveyed:
These top-three challenges
matched those identified by
the full set of respondents
in the overall study.
Increasing
profitability
59%
Keeping up
with competitors
49%
Identifying/
generating
new business
49%
Source: The Future Belongs to Intelligent Operations survey, 460 enterprise respondents, 39 HR
respondents, 2017, HfS Research and Accenture

4. AND THE BUSINESS IS
PRIMED FOR HR LEADERSHIP
Reskilling
the workforce
63%
Asked about critical business enablers, top answers
given by all executives surveyed were HR-related:
Businesses acknowledge the
need for a more transformative
approach to the attraction,
development and retention
of top talent.
Talent acquisition
(recruitment)
64%
Source: The Future Belongs to Intelligent Operations survey, 460 enterprise
respondents, 39 HR respondents, 2017, HfS Research and Accenture

5. WHAT’S
STANDING
IN THE WAY?

6. HR PERCEIVED AS STATIC
When asked about which functions had changed the most over the past
18 months, talent development and recruiting were at the bottom of the list:
19%
17%
22%
27%
31%
34%
40%
38%
28%
26%
24%
24%
15%
17%
9%
7%
6%
6%
3%
4%
IT and Network
infrastructure support
Marketing
Human Resources/
talent development
Human Resources/ talent
acquisition (Recruitment)
The process is completely reengineered 4 3 2 No change

7. DIGITAL SKILL GAP
Businesses need skills that HR does not acknowledge or have the resources
to address. If this continues, HR will struggle to maintain business relevance.
When asked about barriers preventing business objectives,
HR underestimates the need for higher-level digital skills:
Data analytics, AI
and machine learning
Digital business models
54% 41% 56% 46%
Overall survey
respondents
HR respondents

8. UNDERAPPRECIATION FOR
AUTOMATION AND AI
When asked about the importance of the application of
automation and AI to business processes, we found a gap
between HR executives compared to all executives surveyed:
Embracing automation could free the HR team from transactional,
non-value-added activities and allow them to focus on strategic activities.
Overall Survey Respondents
62%
44%
HR Respondents

9. So, how can
you ignite the
fire for
strategic HR?

10. #1
OWN YOUR ROLE AS
BUSINESS PROFESSIONALS
Become more broadly business-relevant,
not just best-in-class in the HR industry.
Path to strategic HR

11. #2
BLAZE THE TRAIL ON
CUSTOMER-CENTRICITY
Establish the skills, capabilities, performance
goals and metrics needed to
support customer-focused operations.
Path to strategic HR

12. #3
CREATE AN AGILE,
RESPONSIVE WORKFORCE
Break down siloes between process, technology
and data owners involved in workforce
management.
Path to strategic HR

13. #4
AIM HIGHER WHEN IT
COMES TO RESKILLING
Make the case for investments to support
reskilling for higher-level digital skills to keep
the business competitive.
Path to strategic HR

14. #5
DRIVE DECISIONS, ACTIONS,
AND INNOVATIONS WITH DATA
To be more business-relevant, look beyond
the typical HR data set to gain the insights the
business requires.
Path to strategic HR

15. A BRIGHT FUTURE
The market is moving fast and
business stakeholders are looking for
the kinds of capabilities owned by HR.
HR can do much more, becoming
data-driven and customer-focused,
and by thinking more like a business
professional.
All the pieces are in place.
Now it’s time to ignite HR’s full
strategic potential.

16. THANK YOU
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Copyright © 2018 Accenture. All rights reserved.
For full survey details, visit:
www.accenture.com/IntelligentHR