Companies are set to shake up their organisation in a bid to meet the demands of global business.

A major survey by professional services firm Deloitte found that nearly half of the firms involved had either begun restructuring or planned to do so.

The Deloitte report said that there was a clear shift from hierarchical structures to cross-functional “networks of teams” — driven in part by the demands of increasing numbers of the millennial generation, who want rapid career growth, flexible work hours and by an increase in the number of contract and part-time employees.

In addition, the trend towards mergers and acquisitions and changes in client requirements are fuelling change.

Katherine Cupidore, the human capital lead at Deloitte Bermuda, said: “Factors like mergers and acquisitions, business model disruption and millennials rising to senior management are forcing organisations to rethink their approach to management.

“This year, we expect to see our clients adapting to the changing business environment by empowering teams, developing a younger and more inclusive leadership structure, embracing digital human resources and reinventing the way they manage talent and employees.”

The survey found that 92 per cent of business and human resources leaders identified a need to redesign their business structures to meet the demands of global business — but only 14 per cent of executives thought their company was ready to make the changes.

And only 21 per cent of bosses and human resources chiefs were confident they could build cross-functional teams, while only 12 per cent said they understood how their staff currently work together.

The Deloitte survey, which canvassed more than 7,000 human resources and business leaders in 130 countries, also found that generational diversity in workplaces was increasing as millennials worked alongside the baby boomer generation, many of whom are delaying retirement.

The 2016 Global Human Capital Trends survey added that technology was also forcing the pace of change, with human resources moving towards digital provision of services.

Nearly three-quarters of executives said digital human resources as a top priority.

A total of 42 per cent said they were already redesigning human resources systems “to support mobile, just-in-time learning and 59 per cent are shifting their back office human resources systems to mobile in an effort to make them easier for use by employees.”

The report added: “Design thinking, a developing new discipline focused on employee-centric strategies, has emerged as a major new trend that is transforming companies’ approach to managing, supporting and training their workforce.”

It explained: “Looking beyond the focus on transactions and processes, companies are studying employees’ behaviour to help develop interventions, applications and tools that are intuitive and easy to use, mitigate stress and boost their productivity.

“In fact, 79 per cent of executives rank design thinking as a top priority for 2016.”

The survey added: “In terms of learning, forward thinking organisations are putting the employee at the centre and adopting new open learning technologies.”

The report added that the traditional pyramid management structure of companies was being dismantled as leadership models change.

It was found that future leaders were not being produced fast enough, with 56 per cent of companies admitting they are not ready to fulfil leadership needs, while one in five business leaders said they had no leadership programmes for millennials.

The report said: “To address this issue, the large majority of executives — 89 per cent — cite strengthening, re-engineering and improving organisational leadership as an important priority in the year ahead.”

Access the full report at http://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/human-capital/articles/introduction-human-capital-trends.html