People and change publications

Featured publications


Trendsetter Barometer: Hiring in the recovery Trendsetter Barometer: Hiring in the recovery
As markets begin to stabilize, private company CEOs are showing increased optimism in the U.S. and world economies. More than two-thirds of leading private businesses project positive revenue growth over the next 12 months, with 33% predicting double-digit and 35% single-digit growth. Private business owners are taking full advantage of anticipated growth by repositioning themselves for the future through capital investments and increased hiring. As private companies expect to increase hiring and workforce expenses, a clear understanding of talent management ROI is critical.
Execution-focused leadership: Balancing short-term survival with long-term sustainability Execution-focused leadership: Balancing short-term survival with long-term sustainability
The recent economic downturn has challenged executives with the dual imperatives of short-term survival and long-term sustainability. When pressed by demands to cut costs and increase efficiency, many leaders scrambled to revise strategies, reduce headcount, categorically cut budgets, or simply changed their stated priorities and hoped for better results. Many overlooked the power of talent inside their organizations.
Assess your HR organization's transformation potential Assess your HR organization's transformation potential
The HR function is under tremendous pressure to prove its value by creating a more productive, results-oriented workforce, while simultaneously reducing operating expenses. To achieve this business demand, HR must function effectively as a strategic business partner in driving the organization’s values and business objectives. This paper explores how companies can really transform their HR organizations.
Managing tomorrow's people: What is the future work?
From the growing talent shortage to the after-effects of the global economic crisis, how will business be redefined by global forces? Will this transformation shape the way in which companies manage their people? This series outlines possible futures of work in response to the "new and improved" business model.
10Minutes on managing diversity 10Minutes on managing diversity
In order for diversity efforts to be successful, they must entail more than just initiatives or stand-alone programs that can be toppled by budget cuts or become victims of lethargy. Companies that cultivate cultural dexterity within their organizations now will be best equipped to weather today’s many challenges and to emerge with a competitive advantage when the economy recovers.


10Minutes on Rethinking Pivotal talent
The global financial crisis has created a fast-emerging set of challenges and opportunities in the talent market. Before reflexively introducing traditional strategies like across-the-board headcount reductions, companies should first re-evaluate their approach to "pivotal talent"— those game-changing employees whose performance can make or break the bottom line.

Meeting tomorrow's workforce needs: Flexible work arrangements
This paper explores how companies can build flexibility in the workplace today for a competitive edge down the road.

Creating an agile workforce: Leading practices in transforming talent management
This point of view discusses how companies can successfully align their talent management strategy with technology to effectively manage their talent needs in order to be marketplace leaders of the future.

What's your workforce reduction IQ?
It is not a new concept that people represent a company’s biggest source of competitive advantage. Yet, the current market conditions have made workforce reduction an unavoidable element of cost reduction efforts for many companies. So how can companies make reductions in force without losing their pivotal talent to drive the business forward? Read our new talent management publication, What's your workforce reduction IQ? Talent strategies for tough times, to find out how

How leadership must change to meet the future
Successful business leaders must shape their organizations to be more nimble and flexible, less hierarchical, and more networked—in short, better organized to deliver value. The focus should be on four key emerging business revolutions: agility, authenticity, talent, and sustainability. In this paper we address what leaders need to know about each of these revolutions and how they can be translated into success quotients to define a distinctive leadership framework—one that provides direction on what it will take to lead and shape organizations in the future.

Harvesting value while reducing costs: A rapid approach to organizational restructuring
Financial services executives view access to key talent as a crucial source of competitive advantage. As CFOs carry out cost-cutting initiatives, they cannot afford to risk cutting the wrong people. Using a staged approach to cost reduction enables companies to build on quick wins and gradually create a culture of cost management. Value-based organizational restructuring, which quickly generates cost reductions without sacrificing valuable talent, can help fund subsequent reduction efforts, including sourcing, process reengineering, and technology automation, while optimizing the long-term value of the organization and its talent.

How to ensure strong leadership for the future
This PwC point of view examines how companies can define a transparent road map for continuous development and ensure that senior leaders play a key role—not just in the formal development, but also in the mentorship of high-potential talent.

Insights and trends: Current program and project management practices
This document summarizes the results from a survey on the current state of project management maturity in organizations across the world. The survey’s main objective was to identify current trends in project management and pinpoint the characteristics of project management that are applied on higher-performing projects.

Key trends in human capital: A global perspective
Saratoga presents an analysis of key human resource trends facing global businesses. The analysis encompasses data from over 15,000 organisations across a range of industries including banking, financial services, manufacturing, telecommunications, chemicals, Information Technology utilities and retail and a cross section of public service institutions. It reveals the important human capital issues facing global business, and measures the total value of human capital and return on investment.

Managing the way we live and work: Now and in the future
The staggering talent gap faced by the US and other industrial countries is a far more fundamental demographic shift than most companies yet realize. When it comes to knowledge workers, no amount of salary and benefits, distance-learning programs or international office openings will change the fact that companies are preparing to battle for employees who simply won’t exist.

Managing tomorrow’s people: The future of work to 2020
This publication outlines a series of possible scenarios depicting how businesses would operate in tomorrow’s world. We specifically focus on the people impact of new business models, and the ramifications for people management and the HR function. We identify three scenarios defined as blue, green and orange worlds which we believe will co-exist in 2020.

The people agenda: Optimizing performance at the front line
The people agenda identifies three major dimensions of managing people that are likely to determine how successful a CEO can be in realising their strategic objectives: Attracting and retaining the right talent; increasing the effectiveness of people in the business; and managing people through change. It offers some brief perspectives on each of these issues to help build a picture of the people management challenges facing organisations and how they might begin to address them.

Talent and risk: The strategic risks of neglecting talent
This flyer, examines talent management within the financial services industry. It looks at 7 key risks associated with talent (Failure to sustain growth: Failure to secure succession: Failure to attract emerging talent: Failure to retain top performers: Failure to provide board-level direction: Failure to provide effective support; and Failure to weed out poor performers) and suggests way of tackling them.

Technology executive connections: Successful strategies for talent management
PwC examines the ongoing challenge of talent management, so critical to growing a successful technology company in today’s competitive market. The quantitative findings presented in this report are based on a survey conducted by the economist intelligence unit (EIU) in June 2006. The survey garnered 153 responses from senior executives based in five principal regions: 30% Asia, 41% Europe, 23% North America, 5% the Middle East and Africa and 1% Latin America.

US human capital effectiveness report 2008/2009
This executive summary provides analysis on trends PwC Saratoga has uncovered through it's annual human capital survey and is organized around the following key themes: Managing workforce productivity in a volatile economy, turnover trends, the talent acquisition crisis, and the role of HR in developing talent initiatives.