By Rajeev Bhardwaj
The Human Resources (HR) is dynamic function in organizations these days and many a times the organization is known for the kind of HR policies that it has. There are many new trends that HR managers are following that are redefining the way employees are recruited, rewarded, retained and allowed to work. The HR Trends of 2018 are radically changing some of the employee-employer relations. Here is a quick look at some of them:
Changing aspiration
Employees are clearly showing a new kind of aspiration since they receive better education and training and also because they are brought up in different environment these days. Similarly, there are new demands from them with new age phenomenon of artificial intelligence and automation. The traditional roles of an employee are changing and HR managers look for suitable traits in times of digitization. A person looking for a job these days must have adequate computer friendliness and some skills for digital operation.
Disruptive World
There is disruption everywhere and the world of corporate culture is no different. Organizations are increasingly letting the employees to be the master of their own destiny. Employees are now being allowed to take ownership of their career graph in which organizations are asking the employees as to how much they will be able to deliver and employees can thus have even two or three promotions in a year depending on their achievements and results. The traditional approach of the employer to be protective towards their employees is changing slightly. Now the employees decide how much work they will do and how much results they will deliver in a certain pre-decoded time period in which the employer will play the role of an enabler and not too much beyond it.
Organisations are changing
This is another leading trend of 2018. There is a significant wave that’s sweeping across organizations and they are fast changing. Organizations don’t have a huge stack of files anymore and the employees are not asked to complete work in archaic way. Now organizations are getting smarter with new tools and gadgets and empowering the employees with these new tools. Now there are mobile apps that ask how the mood of the employee Gin ear the days when the HR manager will individually ask the same from the employees.
Flexibility
There is a clear HR trend now to be quite flexible towards the employees in terms of terms letting him or her choose the structure of the salary, place of work and allowing work-from-home and the like. Now if an employee wants a higher House Rent Allowance and is willing to adjust on some other allowance, organizations are willing to accommodate such changes as long as the overall cost to company does not change. Similarly, companies are more flexible in allowing employees to work-from-home for have slightly different work timings. This flexibility has been brought in keeping in mind the present day realities like modern mindset of the employees, traffic, congestion, and distance from office etc.
Inclusiveness and Diversity
Another clear HR Trend recently is to train employees and record compliance on matters of sexual harassment. Organizations have started to pay a lot of attention to inclusiveness and have started welcome more and more women employees. For companies to more inclusive, employees have to show maturity and sensibility. Even returning mother (those women who took a gap in their careers because of child birth) are being welcome more and more. This is another way modern day corporate are showing inclusiveness. Even those employees who take a gap year, which is accepted nowadays by HR managers, have to retrain when they come back and a process has to be followed to integrate them again the company fold.
Companies are taking in a more diverse set of employees, employees from different parts of the country with different religion, castes and cultural mindsets. With this, they are trying to more inclusive and have adequate diversity in the workforce and in the organizations.
People Skills
Whether is the technical department or marketing, when an employee is being hired, he or she is expected to have requisite people skills like interpersonal skills, team player and how to manage and get along with others in the office set up. The employees who exhibit such traits in the interview and written test (wherever applicable) are more likely to be selected. Organizations have started changing in the way they work. Individual contributor could have done well in the past because of the way organizations were structured but not anymore. More than individual contributors, en employee should be team players and for the team to achieve the task and reach the given milestone, every team member must have the necessary team player skills.
Understanding of Financials
Human Resources managers are increasingly looking for those people who have an understanding of the financials and a little bit of accounting. This is to ensure that the overall goal of the company is jointly pursued by the employees in terms of revenues, net profit etc. Organizations are increasingly adopting a strategy in which they let their employees know the kind of revenue and profits that is is aiming or looking at the end of three months, six moth and annually. It then expects the employees to give their best in achieving the joint goal. Hence an understanding of the financials among the employees is a leading HR Trend these days.
About the Author
Rajeev Bhardwaj is the VP, HR, Sun Life Financial Asia Service Centre.
