As we know, the world has already changed a lot and is still in constantly transformation and this scenario is called “VUCA environment”, which has a lot of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity. So it means that the changes happen more fastly and people and companies have to live in this new world. And one of the main characteristics of this new era is the use of technologies in everywhere, as we see on: banking, delivering, locomoting, relationships. Therefore, it means that we have do adapt continually and, sometimes, relearn how to think about some aspects.
This way, as we live this big transformation in so many areas of life, like: technology, culture, behavior, the organizations are impacted too. So what are the changings that organizations are doing to survive and navigate in this environment? And more, how are Human Resources Management (HR) working now and what are the transformations that will happen in this area? In this text, let's see with more details some expectations to HR in the next years.
Before that, it's important to know that all the tendencies to HR are based on one premise: make HR more strategic. According to some sources (such as: Accenture- Future of HR and Society for Human Resource Management), for a many time, HR has only worked with an operational and a tactical role, missing the impact that could be made on the organization. But now, that more than ever the world is changing a lot, companies need HR very closely to the business, to act as strategic partner and contribute to the success of the business. So, with that in mind, let's see some tendencies expect to HRM.
Trend 1: Diversity and inclusion in the workplace As the world changes the nature of work does too, so organizations need to be prepared to deal with different factors, as: growing need for specialized skills, shifting of customers expectations, retirement in non-traditional ages, demand for knowledge workers. And in this scenario, some aspects are strengthened, as: collaboration (which allows different people to work together to solve the same problem) and news processes (because the traditional logic- in leadership, work teams, trades- no longer promote the business success). Therefore, the “diversity” and “inclusion” themes are on topic trends to HR future because they help the companies to adapt to this new world.
Diversity is defined as: “junction of factors that have multiples aspects and differ from each other”, while inclusion is “create an environment in which employees can be who they really are, with their differences and particularities”. So, now the companies have to pay attention not only to attract different kinds of people, but also to create an environment for them to live together. And it's important to keep in mind that this changes face a lot of prejudice and challenge established logic, and so require organizations’ effort.
In this scenario, there is already solid evidence that diversity in the workplace is beneficial to the organization. One example of this is: the result of McKinsey survey “Diversity Matters” which shows that “Companies with racial and ethnic diversity are 35% more likely to have above industry average financial returns. Gender diversity companies are 15% more likely to return”. Given this, big companies, such as: Ambev, Google, Eaton have created specific groups to promote debates and increase employees’ sense of belonging and are inspiring others to do the same. So, it's possible to perceive how “Diversity & Inclusion” are not restricted to the recruitment stage, but also to all HR strategie. Trend 2: Employer Branding Employer Branding it’s a set of tools and techniques that consists in attract and retain professionals in an organization and also shows a positive image of the company in the market. Basically, the objective of this strategy it’s to highlight the strengths of working in the organization to improve the company’s image and attract truly talented people to the staff.
This is really important, because, for example, employees and candidates can form a brand image of the company. So, the same way the company influences the employees and the market, both can also influence the way people interact with the organization. Therefore, the companies need to do a good Employer Branding, so the employees can see the company as a great career choice and opportunity for the development. Besides that, there will be more talented candidates to try being part of the company and the employees would probably strive to improve their skills and abilities to stay at the organization.
To implement the Employee Branding, it’s really important to have transparency at the company. It’s not good when the organizations tries to show something to people that it’s different inside. The culture of the organizations need to be focused at transparency and collaborativity. By this way all the employees will know everything that is happening at the company. This shows confidence to everyone, improves the communication at the environment.
Other thing that can be done to attract and retain it’s establishing incentives, so, employees can feel motivated to continue at the job. Investing in digital marketing to have a great reach brand exposure. Establish objectives and goals to be focused on achieve them. Trend 3: Artificial Intelligence Artificial Intelligence can be used to many things and also Human Resources. A.I. it’s based on computer science that helps solve problems, or needs, by many ways. There are many ways A.I. can be used on Human Resources, helping improve the results of the companies.
Artificial Intelligence can help at the recruitment process reducing the time of planning and execution. So, A.I. can use a data to find the best candidates to make a first selection, than uses some techniques at the other process to make an assessment with the candidates aligned with what company wants.
Other thing that A.I. can help it’s improving employees using some aspects of performance evaluation. So, the A.I. can detect what aspects could be improved at any area of the organization.
It’s important that A.I. will not take away all the jobs, but forces to create new ones with more competences to get better results at companies. Studies of Oracle and PwC, shows that A.I. helped employees experience and the recruitment of news workers. So, after showing some of the new trends at Human Resources, it is clear that this area didn´t stop in time. New technologies are being developed to improve the results of the organizations. In this way , something interesting is the new perspectives encompassing diversity, flexibility in the workplace. So, even with the age of automation and technology, the human resources area does not neglect social aspects. Links of References: Employer Branding: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2019/01/30/the-future-is-nowthree-hr-trends-that-will-transform-your-organization-in-2019/#3ef91d4ce9ce Intelligence Artificial https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/9383-future-of-hr.html https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeannemeister/2019/01/08/ten-hr-trends-in-the-age-ofartificial-intelligence/#40dcc6e33219 Diversity https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/business%20functions/organization/our%2 0insights/why%20diversity%20matters/diversity%20matters.ashx https://hbr.org/2018/12/to-retain-employees-focus-on-inclusion-not-just-diversity Pixar Video about Diversity https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=B6uuIHpFkuo&feature=emb_logo