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What’s trending in HR now?

Leave a Comment / HR Views & News / HR Footprints / 26/12/2013

“With the changed profile of gen X and gen Y, HR faced a new challenge of meeting their expectations, which go beyond money alone… They expect freedom, challenge, novelty, hierarchy-less culture and so on” Follow Dr. Raj on Twitter @drraj29 Last week, we discussed how the need for essential Personnel & Administration (P&A) function evolved. In this article, we will discuss how the flavor of P&A has changed and new age HR has emerged. We will know about what’s trending in HR today! Factors that led to change in HR Organisations, with expected basic administration and statutory compliance, have realized that much more needs to be done on the people front. With the profile of workforce changing from gen X to gen Y, with the emergence of new age industries, with the increased employment options to talented people, with the dominance of knowledge as against manufacturing, with the advent of technology in servicing employee needs, the expectations from the HR function changed rather dramatically! With the changed profile of gen X and gen Y, HR faced a new challenge of meeting their expectations, which go beyond money alone. They expect freedom, challenge, novelty, hierarchy-less culture and so on. This has necessitated HR to reinvent itself beyond administration and compliance role. What has continued from the earlier HR? The traditional functions sometimes we may call them as core HR such as recruitment, employee services, compensation and training continue even today, albeit with a renewed focus. HR has been striving to find new ways of performing these core functions and this effort will continue! For example, recruitment has to take cognizance of social media; employee services need to leverage Information Technology to offer various self-service options to the employee; compensation needs to be modeled differently keeping the expectations of new age employees; and training needs to be more engaging and experiential. Though the core HR remained the same, the approach has been changing over the years. This surely calls for continuous learning among the HR fraternity. Those who may think that P&A to HR is merely a name change are surely mistaken. Current areas of focus Here is a list of currently trending themes in HR. This surely is not an exhaustive list not does it indicate any order of priority. The purpose is to indicate how expectations from HR are changing. Business HR Business Heads and CEOs are expecting HR to act as a business partner. They expect HR to contribute to business performance by ably supporting in aligning HR practices with the business priorities. For example, by thinking innovatively on the staffing, HR can drive greater efficiency and thereby adding to the profitability. They also expect HR to be the watchdog to ensure budgetary discipline. Growing up to this role of becoming a business partner is surely a possibility for any youngster subject to the person understanding the business thoroughly. e-HR In as many HR areas as possible, technology can be leveraged to improve efficiency as well as achieve greater employee satisfaction. As simple as a bio-metric system to mark the attendance to an intranet to offer self-service to the employee, IT offers tremendous opportunity to HR. This space is particularly open for youngsters who are more adept in embracing technology. It is needless to say that with automated HR processes, HRM softwares and tools, IT is really trending in HR. Social Media for HR Social media has emerged and grown so rapidly that it has overwhelmed many HR professionals. Spotting potential talent from social media, working on employer branding, bringing better communication among the teams, connecting with the employees virtually….it has been changing the way HR functions are performed. This is yet another opportunity for youngsters who bring in fresh perspectives on social media! Employee Connect With the increased pace of working, pressure to perform, growing scale of operations, employee connect could be a possible casualty. Special emphasis and effort is called for to stay connected with the employees so that they continue to engage with the organisation. This requires ability of rapport building and empathy. A caring attitude to understand the concerns and feelings of employees is required. Talent Retention With all the efforts of HR, the ultimate expectation is better business performance and employee satisfaction. In order to sustain the same however, it is imperative to make efforts to retain the talent. This is another challenge for all the HR professional. Understanding the aspirations, managing expectations and innovative ways of engaging with the talent are essential here. Having understood the opportunity in HR, how it has evolved, what is trending and what HR folks really do, it is now time for you to evaluate if HR can be a career option for you! This article was published in: HR Mirror Hans India Follow us on Twitter @hrfootprints

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How did the HR function evolve?

In an earlier article “What are the Career options in HR?” (Posted on December 11, 2013), we discussed on the fundamental nature of the HR function. We also addressed some important questions on the importance of the HR function as a support to business, pay and growth in HR careers. If the HR function is indeed looking attractive, what should an aspiring candidate do to prepare for a career in HR? A good understanding of the evolution and changing nature of the HR department is an apt starting point and that is the focus of this article! Core Business Processes: Any business has to have some product or service to offer and address a customer need. To deliver what the customer wants, one needs to have a facility to make the product (manufacturing), a channel to tell and sell to the potential customer (marketing/sales) and a process of managing the cash flows (finance). This is a very rudimentary view of core business process. With the increased complexity and to compete with the other players, organisations do add several functions like IT, supply chain, research and so on. Please note that we have not included HR function yet! How did the need for HR emerge? It is common sense to understand that all these departments perform their roles only through people and those people do have some needs. That is where the need for some essential services of administration and employee welfare started. Organisations felt that there must be some department that takes care of the work place administration like seating, transport, food and so on. In addition, there is a need for someone to attend to the personal aspects of the employee or their families. It includes essential services like salaries, health care, insurance, loans/advances, provident fund and so on. On the other hand, government agencies wanted to ensure that the organisations comply with certain norms and rules to prevent any exploitation of those people who work for the organisations. It called for someone to be responsible for all compliances. To address all these needs of the employees, organisations felt the need for a separate department. Consequently, the personnel and administration (P&A) department came into existence. P&A department essentially took care of facility administration, employee services and statutory compliance. Anyone who is good in excellent coordination, liaison, service orientation, interpersonal skills and with good understanding of labour laws fit this role. Of course, as one grows in these areas and becomes a manager of a team, other team management skills are also called for. By the way, in some places, the same P&A function is renamed as HR department (while the true meaning of HR function includes several other aspects beyond P&A). What is the present status? From the way the need emerged, it is an essential function and if we do not cater to any of these requirements, there is bound to be employee dissatisfaction and possibility of non-compliance to the laws of the land. Therefore, in most of the companies of decent size, these functions are usually performed at the required level. At the same time, the present outlook of the organisations is that P&A is necessary as an essential service, but not good enough to make a huge difference to the business. Consequently, companies do not want to spend too much of money on these functions. As the recent trends are emerging , organisations may opt for outsourcing. The expected benefit of outsourcing is greater efficiency, lower costs and better compliance. In light of these changes, aspiring candidates can opt for a job in P&A function of an organisation or in a company that offers outsourced services. A graduation with a diploma in labour laws and basic computer skills is essential for a career in these areas.However, due to the outlook of the organisations towards this function, salaries are usually not very high. Also, it may not offer too much scope for innovation except some ideas for process optimization. As the demands from employees kept increasing, organizations’ expectations kept changing from the P&A department, hitherto performing essential functions! That led to new age HR function! More on that next week! This article was published in: HR Mirror Hans India Follow us on Twitter @hrfootprints Follow Dr. Raj on Twitter @drraj29