Every year we provide predictions for the
coming year in order to facilitate planning.
Last year, we anticipated the tremendous
expansion in the talent management market and
the evolution toward more collaborative
solutions. But no one – not even renowned
financial gurus – predicted our current
economic state. Obviously, the economy will
have dramatic influence on next year's
predictions.
This article will highlight just a few of the
trends we foresee. To get all ten
predictions – and suggestions for
dealing with their impact - download our
complimentary report,
Enterprise Learning, Recruiting and Talent
Management 2009: Predictions for the Coming
Year.
Budget cuts force restructuring of HR and
L&D. In research for our recently published
TalentWatch™,
26% of responding
organizations are involved in major
restructuring. Another 30% of respondents
are in companies with a new top management
team, and another 19% are going through a
merger or acquisition. Reducing costs is now
the top business issue for HR and L&D
executives.
At the same time, the corporate training
market shrunk by nearly 17% in 2008, the
largest drop since we started our research.
The result is a focus on the centralization
of HR and L&D functions to reduce costs and
integrate training and capability development
with talent management. We're also seeing
staff reductions and layoffs of senior
executives. Unfortunately, we'll likely see
more of the same in 2009.
See
recent research report on learning in an
economic downturn.
Succession Management Emerges as a
Critical Issue. When a major business
change occurs – whether it's
reorganization, layoffs, or the departure of
a key executive, succession plans give you
the ability to rapidly identify key talent.
Unfortunately, our research shows that most
companies have not yet instituted a complete
succession process covering critical roles,
and many still lack executive succession
planning.
Talent-driven companies such as Goldman
Sachs, IBM, and Cisco have thrived despite
the economic climate. They do this by
maintaining steady investments in the
leadership development and succession
management. On the flip side, we've seen
front-page examples of companies without
succession planning – such as Yahoo
– and the business impact that comes
with a leadership void. See
recent blog on this topic.
Succession management will be a topic of
great interest to corporate boards, business
leaders, and Wall Street in the coming year.
It should be high on your own list.
The LMS Market Continues to Grow and Shift
in Focus. Most companies are now in
their second or third LMS implementation, and
most large organizations are now focused on
consolidating LMSs to one centralized system.
The software-as- a-service model has made it
easy for companies of any size to implement
an LMS.
However, while growth continues, customer
need is causing the LMS market to expand into
two different directions – an expensive
proposition for solution providers.
On one hand, customers want the LMS to bolt
onto the corporate talent management software
system, so that all performance and
development plans can directly access the
organization's existing learning catalog.
This has led every major LMS vendor to build
out their own performance and talent
management software.
At the same time, customers now realize that
the LMS will never be a "destination
location" for employees. In fact, logging
into an LMS is typically an uninteresting
– and often daunting –
experience. Consequently, customers are now
building learning or knowledge portals.
These portals present a wide variety of
information and tools in the context of an
employee's job.
What this means is that the "bread and
butter" functionality of LMSs is still
critically important (in fact, you can't
really run a training organization today
without such support), but perceived by the
customer as a given. Customers now are
looking for portal-based architecture and
talent management functionality.
The LMS market will remain important and
strong in 2009. However, some vendors will
struggle to determine in which direction to
move their solutions.
Download
our report today to see all ten predictions
for 2009. The report covers social
networking, Learning
2.0, training spending, career and capability
management, performance management, talent
management systems, learning in the
multi-generational workforce, and recruiting
tools and strategies.
Thanks for your ongoing loyalty and support.
We look forward to working with you in 2009!
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