By Sanjeev Himachali (A Consultant @ IndusGuru)
With the unemployment graph at its high, the role of human resource professionals is getting fairly critical. HR trends as per the study carried out by the European Union are indicating a shift towards a workforce more profound in ICT (Information and Communication Technology). HR practices are undergoing dramatic changes that too at a rapid pace.
HR will shift towards AI-enabled from tech-enabled ensuring a balance between the two.
Let’s shift our focus straight to those trends in human resources that are going to create some buzz in 2020.
Ever-increasing role of AI in recruitment
Most of the hiring process has taken a leap from manual to automatic. The rest is expected to be automated in the time to come. The elements such as application tracking system, candidate screening, and email automation are using artificial intelligence. AI can be employed to predict when to hire employees, and when to halt the employment process.
Perks of using artificial intelligence
• Speeds up the candidate screening process: AI-based recruiting solutions help in filtering the wide base of applicants on the grounds of skills and qualifications. This can be a tiresome task for a recruiter.
• Time saving: AI reduces the tendency to perform a task repeatedly, which in turn saves time. AI operates on the go which might take the recruiter hours to execute.
• Unbiased decision making: AI completely rules out the possibility of biases. Candidates will be shortlisted based on their skill set, and qualifications as there is a minimal human element in the recruitment process.
HR analytics:
Data analytics provides the organization with invaluable insights in the form of trends and data which helps keep a check on the absenteeism rate of employees, their leave frequency, and the employee turnover rate. To evaluate how strong the data analytics framework of the organization is to ask the following queries about the organization.
Is there any specific segment of the organization facing an unexpected peak?
• What’s the average time an employee works for the organization?
• What’s possibly wrong with the working conditions in the organization?
• Wage pay offered by the rival firms.
Areas in which data analytics is going to transform HR
• Aiming to reduce employee turnover
• Providing great employee experience and job satisfaction
• Suggesting ways to refine the business process and implementing automation
• Helping to recruit a talented workforce
• Assisting in workforce management and talent hunting.
Specialists over generalists: There is a notable shift in paradigm, with specialised HR functions like HR development specialist, HR management specialist, and HR information system specialist gaining importance as against the generalist HR roles, reason being the turbulence in the environment and fast-changing environment laws, stricter regulations and the failure of the generalist approach.
Teal organization: With the redundancy of traditional management practices like hierarchy, preparing quarterly budgets and reports, using organization charts, etc., the self-managed and self-organised teal organization concept is gaining importance, especially where top management and ownerships are concerned. It is imperative the CEOs and owners believe in this change both psychologically and theoretically and give this an honest shot.
Use of Robotic Process Automation: Automation will remain the need of the hour in 2020. Incorporation of RPA tools will help an organization in proactive hiring, automation of the processes of resume screening, candidate shortlisting, onboarding and monitoring of employees. HR Personals at key positions can save up to 40% of their time which is consumed in performing repetitive tasks by incorporating RPA techniques. Processing time and susceptibility to errors are also expected to come down exponentially.
Holacracy: There is a visible shift organizational structure from centralized forms to the decentralization of power, and duties. Each and every decision is no longer the top managements to make with roles getting equally distributed among the various people at different levels in the organization ensuring that duties are performed more efficiently by experts. The crux is to shift from the “Top-down approach” to a more balanced “bottom-up approach”.
The shift towards the gig economy: According to a survey by Intuit, by 2020 around 40% of the workforce in America will make a move towards the individual contractors. This trend is more than just an indication that the workforce has already started to shift from permanent contracts towards relatively short-term contracts. People are lured towards working as freelancers. The fact that the gig economy extends greater flexibility regarding working hours. The 9-5 working pattern is no longer considered convenient. Moreover, in Gig economy workers are their bosses, they are not subordinate to someone’s wishes to an extent.
Continuous performance evaluation: Performance evaluation at the year-end seems to be an obsolete practice, with organisations preferring continuous evaluation. This aids in talent retention, providing training, and technical support to those who are lagging. How do we do this? Answer: CPM tools that precisely work out the need for mentoring, receiving feedback, holistic reviews, plans aimed at the development of skills, and appraisal programs.
Managing remote workforce: Here is where we can learn a thing or two from companies like Amazon and Google who efficiently manage their workforce spread across the world. With globalization at its peak, managing a global workforce is of utmost importance today. Automation is by far the best solution to tackle this situation. To manage the workforce, organizations will look to implement Remote team management software, in addition to the establishment of virtual offices.
HR outsourcing: Prism HR has confirmed in its report for the year, 2019 that HR outsourcing will be a significant feature in 2020. It is expected that in this age of shrinking nature of organizations, HR outsourcing will become a salient feature of the organizations. It will save the organization’s Money and will account for lower legal risks. The workforce will be able to focus on core business processes. Regulatory compliance won’t be a problematic thing anymore. It will bring synergy to them.
Rise of the millennials: Let’s accept it. millennials are true change initiators, responsible for taking the organizations from the old school thinking to the redefined ways. Millennials are technology geeks who are always dedicated to innovation. It is expected that millennials will direct the flow of fresh ideas, and new workflows into the organization. They want flexible working conditions in which they can mould themselves easily.
HR and Chatbots: Communication is the spine of human resource management, and Chatbots are all about efficient communication. Chatbots is a technology that incorporates artificial intelligence to provide a platform for communication. With prompt responses and 24/7 availability, chatbots are expected to bring relay of feedback to the organization as people are more comfortable in lodging their complaints or queries with a bottle than a human.
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author and do not reflect the position or official policy of IndusGuru Network Partners
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