2018 Trends in Human Resources
The profession of human resources (HR) management has changed during the past 50 years. It will continue to change as the business of doing business changes. Decades ago, HR was mainly charged with payroll and recruitment. CEOs today seldom make business decisions without factoring HR into the equation. Whether or not HR practitioners will rise to the challenge of becoming strategic partners of their CEOs, and indispensable fixtures at the Boardroom, is entirely another issue. The CEOs will need more informed advice from HR, in-house or external consultant, to make sense of strategic HR issues in a volatile and complex environment.
Technology-aided HR
One doesn't need a crystal ball to see the emerging trends in HR. After more than 42 years in HR practice, here are the key trends that I can see: •
HR analytics. HR (Talent) analytics will be the foundation of all HR initiatives. Aided by cognitive computing and big data analytics, HR managers will benefit from updated, readily available talent market information needed for quick business decisions. HR must be able to track how people's capabilities are evolving and use this information to match (internal and external) talent and urgent business opportunities in real time. •
Social networking platforms. More HR practitioners will use social networking platforms and mobile apps to track down talents. The Filipino workplace is quickly turning into a planet of the apps. Job candidates now post their resumes, get interviewed using their mobile phones, and perhaps get hired in the comfort of their homes or favorite coffee shops. This saves time and resources for HR and the job candidates. •
Online learning. Traditional HR development strategies must give way to digital training using LMS (learning management software). In the mid-1970s, we used to make training modules and run hundreds of classroom training programs to ensure talents' effectiveness in their current jobs, and to prepare them for bigger jobs. That's now old-fashioned. Today's LMS enhances HR practitioners' ability to train employees anywhere, anytime, and measure their productivity through data. It also allows for more collaboration among SMEs (subject matter experts) across the organization to supply learning content. •
Working with BOTS. More HR managers have realized the benefits of teaming up with BOTs - i.e., using robotics and artificial intelligence in HR functions. As HR documents continue to rise in volumes (resumes, test results, performance appraisals, etc.), robotics can encode, archive, and retrieve data on employees and job applicants more effectively. AI and BOTS will encode, sort, and classify voluminous data in a day. If these tasks are done manually, you'll need at least 10 HR analysts to do them in a month. Robotics can also transform traditional job interviews into more candidate friendly and more predictive ways. Using data science and collection techniques, such as "gamification" and video interviews, HR can collect, analyze and score a candidate's video responses against a model of the ideal response.
More personalized approaches
Some traditional HR processes will remain, but with a twist: •
Appraisals with a twist. Unless made more personalized and immediate, performance reviews could die a natural death. Who wants to be told today a fault one has committed 10 or 12 months ago? Both superior and subordinate usually get bored, on the defensive, and uninterested to talk about outdated performance incidents. Highly engaged employees prefer current, immediate feedback more often - at least twice a week, or in real time, perhaps using smartphones and not necessarily face to face. •
Wellness, beyond the job. Work-life balance is passé. Work-life integration is more esoteric and sexy. The former speaks of work at home. The latter is about home at work. A Filipino construction design company provides its Engineers makeshift but decent lodging at the construction site, resulting in higher productivity and lower cost of living for the Engineers. Some companies discourage employees from accessing emails while on PTO (personal time off). More progressive companies tend to mitigate stress, not just in the office but also beyond work hours and off premises. Wellness goes beyond physical, but includes mental and financial - e.g., regular financial literacy programs for employees. •
Consumerism of HR. Individualization is an important HR trend. You don't divide the workforce into High Potentials, Middle Management, Solid Contributors, Older Employees, and "Whom the Gods Wish to Destroy." As in consumer marketing, individual approach in HR is getting more common. In much the same way as consumers want "THE consumer experience", employees expect "THE employee experience." Understanding individuals' capabilities, dreams and aspirations can help HR managers design career opportunities that are mutually rewarding for the organization and the employees. When HR becomes adept at using cognitive computing and big data analytics for talent management, they'll actually know more about their employees than the employees know themselves.
HR's focus was always about people. Technology made this focus more granular. Successful organizations leverage their people to achieve organizational goals in a mutually advantageous fashion. Organizations must develop an employee value proposition that is consistent with their customer value proposition, product brand, and employer brand. The CEO's marching order for HR should be beyond merely ensuring availability of the right quality and number of people at the right time and the right levels of the organization. HR must be more adept at tracking, reaching, converting, evangelizing, and transforming job candidates and employees into brand advocates and ambassadors. Fortunately, new technologies can now broaden HR's perspective to see the total employee experience from end to end, and from the perspective of business and society.
Failing that, HR managers will be thrown into smithereens, and they'll never know what hit them. (Email: erniececilia@gmail.com)