What the new year holds for HR

In 2017, we had witnessed trends from change management, gender equality, innovation, fair workplaces to inclusive management. Let’s look at few trends that we believe shall command 2018.

Dynamic positions: In a traditional workplace, every employee has a clear job description along with a definite position. However, many employees these days are handling tasks which are not a part of their job profile. The next trend should be dynamic and flexible job profile and position. With this, the employees can ‘create’ their own profiles based on their capabilities, goals, and desires. Besides helping with multi-tasking, this shall also help with the overall productivity of the organisation.

Remote workforce: Although this trend started in 2017 itself, it shall advance further next year.

It is starting to prove that flexible work schedules, job sharing and working remotely has increased employee commitment, engagement and productivity. In a survey by Randstad, it was noted that employees born after 1996, or "Generation Z", is the first group to care about flexible work schedules more than healthcare. Generation Z & Generation Y form the majority part of the workforce today. Hence a paradigm shift is visible in the priorities of the employees, making flexible workplaces as important criteria in a job.

Performance capitalisation: This involves Performance consulting which includes regular and detailed feedback based on the employee’s performance in real time. More often the organization focuses on employees with weak performances, aiming to improve their performance by giving them specific training or guidance. Performance consulting has helped understand that guiding top performers to improve is a bigger challenge. Performance capitalization is about guiding both, weak as well as strong performers. This shall help with defining the structure of the organisation as well.

Ankur Manchanda, founder, GreenThumbs says “Attempts towards hiring automation have been visible for a while now and will become more pronounced in the coming year. Let’s look at few trends in that area:

Gamification: Another way companies are trying to leverage latest technologies is through gamification. Gamified assessments involve playing neuroscience or psychology-based games to measure personality traits. It makes the whole assessment process more fun and markedly improves the candidate experience. For example, Unilever has been in the news for using a combination of artificial intelligence and gamification for graduate hiring. It was found that applications to jobs doubled within the first 90 days of their posting and the acceptance rate of offers went up from 64% to 82%. The overall process was rated an average of 4.1 out of 5.0, based on the 25,000 applicants who took a survey.

Assessment guided interviews: Even with all the technological advances no current assessment tool is advanced enough to be the sole criterion for selection and this is not likely to change anytime soon. So face-to-face interviews will continue to be the mainstay of recruitment and selection. However, the typical resume-interview-assessment sequence is likely to get an overhaul, simply because it is not delivering the expected ROI.

The new process is likely to be built around pre-interview assessments which save time and deliver information that can be used to conduct better interviews. In fact, scientifically created assessments like OPQ, Thomas or the Psyft Personality Assessment are supplemented with detailed interview guides which if used correctly, can help interviewers use their time better during an interview by helping them ask the right kind of questions and immensely improve the decision-making process.

2018 could well be the year that finally sees the death of the CV as per Manchanda.”

“Many large enterprises have set ambitious goals for themselves for 2020. What kind of HR trends can help close gaps if any?

Inside-out instead of outside-in: All HR practices are hinged on external market practices. We tend to benchmark every policy or program that we have or want to have. But the time to introspect is coming. So in 2018, organizations are likely to look inside, when it comes to understanding what practices will work in their context. Instead of the outside environment dictating its policies, organisations will focus on internal requirements that need the right kind of support.

HR chatbots: The time for HR Chatbots is coming soon. 2018 might be the year when this trend picks up! It could involve chatbots who guide employees on career moves or even do preliminary interviews. There are already portals which have chatbots that help people in their job search. So this is an HR technology trend that we are likely to see.

These are just a few trends that we anticipate. Many more HR trends will definitely be seen as we start 2018.” Concludes Achal Khanna, CEO, SHRM India.

MANAGING PEOPLE

• Job sharing and working remotely has increased employee commitment and productivity
   
• 2018 could well be the year that finally sees the death of the curriculum vitae, according to experts

The writer is manager - Human Resources, SILA