HR is undergoing a change. Not just a small one, but a fundamental seismic shift—a Techvolution. Traditional HR is being replaced by a new skilled and tech savvy one, with an appetite for change. This is a result of an increasingly Millennial workforce, which influences how social media, technology and distributed workspaces are changing attitudes to training, hiring and retention.
The future of HR pivots on its ability to evolve. HR must understand that Millennials behave differently to previous generations and require different kinds of support. Further, HR as an industry is transitioning into a true business partner—rather than one just playing a transactional role within an organisation—and becoming a transformational leader. HR is increasingly connected with core business operations, and understands how they function.
Being more in touch with the heart of organisations, HR can more strategically manage human capital needs. Nisha Raghavan, Founder & Host, India HR LIVE commented, “Human capital is one of the top three challenges for CEO’s globally. HR professionals who have phenomenal knowledge of what is happening at the bottom level can mange human capital based on business needs.”
Trends in HR
HR is becoming highly data driven. Using big data and analytics, HR is making more accurate predictions and taking decisions to lead change within organisations, with great success. Raghavan emphasised, “One of the key competencies for HR is the ability to analyse data effectively, find answers to key business questions and then manage people accordingly.”
Using People Analytics as a tool to manage human capital decisions was an alien concept until very recently. Google led the charge, and now more and more organisations are using analytics to predict their future needs. Questions about future talent shortages, necessary skills and whether to promote internally or externally are now answerable, giving HR more time to respond effectively to these challenges.
HR is also becoming more specialised. Roles such as recruitment marketing, employer branding and data analytics are all replacing the HR officers or HR Managers of yesterday. Raghavan noted, “Business leaders want HR to be specialists who have in-depth knowledge of data analysis, and who know how to asses talent.” An example of this can be found in It’s Time to Redesign HR by Bersin by Deloitte, which concluded that ‘more than five times [HR’s] value comes from its role in supporting, developing and indentifying leaders’. This incredible statistic shows how HR specialists have direct impacts on key organisational markers—like developing tomorrow’s leaders.
Technology the enabler
The increasing prevalence of integrated tech insights is a boon for HR professionals aiming to keep up to date with trends. Platforms such as LinkedIn give HR a great top-down view of their organisations, helping them quickly recognise shifts or patterns. Raghavan commented, “[It] is really crucial going forward for HR to be able to make decisions and manage human capital.” From identifying talent to handling the employee lifecycle, maintaining workforce data to analysing talent trends and finally facilitating online training, tech has shown itself to be indispensible. That being said, tech cannot in of itself replace human HR professionals. When it comes to one-on-one interaction between parties or conflict resolution computers are still unable to show the very human trait of empathy.
Social media—a multipurpose tech tool
Social media is a boon to any organisation that utilises it properly. A competitive advantage is achieved by building a compelling, authentic and genuine employer brand to interact with talent. Raghavan discussed, “The greatest impact that I see right now is organisations having some control over how they are perceived as a work place, through providing content on social media.” For example, a tweet that talks about how happy someone is to get up for work this morning, to an employee sharing a photograph of their work desk, or sharing images of a recent workplace charity event.
Zappos, a US based clothing and shoes online retailer has a separate twitter account—@InsideZappos—for their employer branding. While many organisations keep their communications internal, Zappos throws it all out in the open. They engage with weekly tweet-chats where Zappos employees are able to talk to everyone, and the audience can really get a feel of what it is like to work for the organisation, as well as paths and possibilities they are exploring. Potential talent can interact with the HR department and existing employees directly.
Raghavan cautioned though, “Let me make it clear, social media is not just a tool to broadcast. Use it as a way to engage your audience—it’s a two-way communication.” The use of social and digital will continue to evolve; HR will have to collaborate with marketing and develop compelling and out of the box recruitment marketing techniques. Making that employer branding message reach the target audience is where marketing’s knowledge can be very valuable.
Companies are also utilising social media to identify if candidates are a good cultural fit. Spending time looking at social profiles can give recruiters the ‘feel’ of a person, which can be useful in determining soft qualities like personality, confidence and openness. Further, the vast amount of data on specialised work networks is invaluable to the recruitment process. Analytics only works when there is plenty of data to go on. Social media is a fountain of data that can hone the recruitment process and allow for predictive recruitment.
Future preparations
Raghavan noted, “One of the top talent issues that is keeping business leaders up at night is the widening skills gap among HR professionals.” Organisations should have professional development or career advancement programmes across all functions—HR included! She continued, “I really want to shout out to all the HR leaders to have a professional development programme for your HR team in order to prepare them for the competencies that are going to be required in the future.”
HR is standing at the intersection of business, strategy and technology. Keeping a finger on the pulse and learning from the respective functions and applying it to HR in a relevant and methodical manner can ensure future success.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
