Future trends in HR management

Companies worldwide are still learning to adapt to a pandemic that won’t quit. Trying to manage daily activities is still posing challenges. Activities that involve both human and materials resources. Certain trends are expected to mark the future of the workforce.

One trend everyone has gotten familiar with already, though, is work-from-home (WFH). Yet, there are other, major things companies and personnel involved will have to do from now on.

These ‘future trends’ range from simple tasks, like hiring of employees, to complex ones. Following is a list of major future trends to be on the lookout for in HR management:

1. Work-from-home is the new normal

The pandemic has made us learn and even relearn a lot of lessons. One of those involves how companies carry out their tasks. It’s now come to everyone’s realization that work done in cramped office cubicles could also have been done online.

After almost an entire year of working from home, 73 percent employees showed the desire to continue to do so. One hypothesis, therefore, is that WFH might be here to stay after all.

2. Digital-first work

Since more and more employees continue to work from home, it leads to another trend in HR management. Companies will double down on digital. This is called ‘digital-first work.’ It will become necessary to buy the best technological tools. Tools that will in turn ensure HR leaders manage employees efficiently.

According to KPMG’s statistics, 77 percent of CEOs will “build on their use of collaboration and communication tools.” And 67% will invest more in technology. Furthermore, HR managers will rely on online methods to maintain company culture.

From an online survey of 300 HR leaders, 72 percent reported using virtual reality simulations to train employees. The purpose of such trainings is to help employees in handling new work challenges.

3. Modified HR design

There will be a growing need to retrain HR managers. Retraining will focus on fulfilling the emerging, changing demands of the industry. According to Gartner’s research, organizational design is the second most important factor for HR managers this year.

The research cites some more challenges, including HR managers incapable of leading change. But, this goes both ways. Due to the pandemic influencing how new talent is acquired, employees need to be retrained, too. They’re expected to have skills needed to navigate in such uncertain times.

4. Increased employee benefits

COVID-19-specific wages; bonuses; extracurricular activities to regulate COVID-stress; counseling; mental-health check; work flexibility. Such benefits will not be a trend, but a necessity. If HR leaders expect to manage their work like pre-COVID days, employee empowerment has to be met.

5. Greater focus on data and DEI

Data about how well employees are performing; about company goals being met (or not); about what employees are lagging in. Everything is being boiled down to data. In current work-from-home situations, this data is all HR leaders have to process how their company is functioning.

This trend gives rise to greater use of enhanced AI software and machine learning in the workforce.

According to Basit Ali, HR and SEO Manager at Research Prospect Said:

“Data is everything as the big decisions we make today is possible just because of data Data is the new currency when it comes to the workforce, and as long as HR retains that human touch, the advent of data should not scare any HR practitioner.”

Companies have always prioritized DEI—diversity, equity, and inclusion—in the workforce. But, during these current pandemic-stricken times, attention to DEI has increased. With schools and colleges under closure, working mothers have to stay home with their children. So, workplaces are facing a shortage of female workers.

Many company HR leaders, including those at Google, are addressing issues like gender, race, and ethnic bias, as well as unfair wages. Research revealed how an inclusive work environment increased employee performance rate up to 56 percent. It also reduced turnover risk to almost 50 percent.

6. Maintaining gig economy

Another emerging trend HR leaders will have to prepare for is maintaining the ‘gig economy.’ Majority of their employees have chosen to work from home, in their own time. This implies that HR managers need to come up with ways to maintain work ethics like they would in person.

Thus, HR personnel will need to find efficient ways to manage tasks in such a case.

7. Revision of compliance requirements

Another important HR management trend due to the pandemic is the changing compliance rules. HR departments the world over will have to revisit and revise many employee rules and regulations. New employee handbooks might have to be created, ones complying with new state laws that might emerge post-COVID, for instance.

This can become a burden for HR leaders. Coming up with a system to revise such outdated materials will become a necessity.

8. Hybrid office culture

Hybrid work, as well as education environments emerging today, see employees working from home and from the office. It’s a blend of work-from-home and work-from-home. HR leaders will have to accommodate this new hybrid work culture, for it’s likely to remain so.

At least as long as COVID-19 chooses to stay.

Conclusion

Being able to adapt to changing times is a hallmark of any 21st-century company. Its leaders, especially HR managers, are thus tasked with a huge responsibility of managing change in workforce. With COVID-19’s effects on every aspect of the workforce, the definition of ‘change’ itself is changing.

Those future trends in HR management will affect every aspect of IT recruitment agency. 2020 was only the beginning. Even halfway through 2021, HR leaders continue to witness a climatic change in company culture. And it’s only going to keep changing.

These are times when companies and their leaders are bound to show their true colors, for good and for worse.

 

Story by Grace Griffin. Griffin is a member of the writer’s team on Research prospect. She has bachelor’s in Law, Masters in Literature, and a PhD in Economics. She wanted to explore all the possible subjects in the world. Still, she is afraid that she couldn’t do so. Grace is a technical writer and writes research-based content. As for her hobbies, she loves reading articles, blogs, magazines, newspapers and books.