10 Trends That Will Shape the Future of Human Resources

"Fourth Industrial Revolution" "Great Change" "Digital Age". All these expressions are expressions that are used to describe the social and economic changes in our lives that have changed the world we live in in the 21st century and that mostly occur as a result of the technology revolution (Internet, big data, social media, artificial intelligence, robots, etc.). So, how is the business world adapting to this new reality? And what role should human resources departments play in this process?

To answer these questions, Deloitte has released an impressive report assessing how companies are responding to the major compliance challenge posed by the technological revolution. The report reveals ten key features that will shape the future of companies and human resources departments around the world:

1- Being Modern, Dynamic and Network Organization

Faced with all these changes, the priority for businesses is to transform the way they operate and the core organization of the company. According to the Deloitte report, 88% of the respondents (100,000 business people and human resources leaders in 140 countries) consider “building the organization of the future” as important.

Accordingly, the majority of companies are striving for a more flexible and dynamic restructuring and are leaving the hierarchical structures of the past behind in order to respond quickly to changes in the market. Companies are organized around small work teams that are quickly formed, work together for a year or two, and then move on to other projects within the company. As companies make this transition, they realize that smaller teams are a more natural way for people to work.

2- Employees who are constantly learning

An employee's work life can last 30 to 40 years. Given this, given the pace of technological change, how can we prepare ourselves for the innovations that are likely to happen in the coming years? The solution lies in continuous learning. We can no longer be content with going to college and basing our future careers on what we learned in those years; Our business life has turned into a never-ending learning journey.

To equip employees with the necessary skills and knowledge, company training and development managers are developing more flexible and improved learning models that can be used continuously and in real time. Companies are trying to keep up with this revolution by integrating techniques such as videos, mobile content, micro-learning, gamification techniques and game-based learning into the Learning Management Systems (LMS).

3- Talent Acquisition

In an economy based on knowledge and human capital, talent acquisition is vital for any company. Companies trying to adapt to this great technological revolution are constantly on the lookout for professionals specializing in new areas of economic activity that are emerging almost overnight. According to executives surveyed by Deloitte, this is the third biggest challenge facing companies, and 81% of respondents rated it as very important.

To recruit (and then retain) the right people, HR Leaders use social networks, new cognitive technologies and big data. The use of videos (with platforms like HireVue), online forms, social networks (not just LinkedIn), and Skype interviews (as a final step) spread incredibly quickly, accelerating hiring and reducing costs.

4- Improving the Employee Experience in the Company

Human resources leaders strive to preserve the corporate culture of companies, increase employee motivation and participation, follow the demands of the new generation Y and provide better learning opportunities to employees. The quest to improve the employee experience (throughout the career journey from recruitment) aims to increase employee satisfaction, strengthen the reputation of companies in an increasingly challenging environment, and facilitate the transition to a more dynamic, agile and flexible organizational model.

5- New Ways to Evaluate Employee Performance

The way to get a promotion or raise within the company is changing. Experience, seniority and exams are no longer the primary assessment method, with technological advances there has been a shift towards a faster and more flexible model. Human resources departments are looking for new evaluation models based on well-defined goals and continuous feedback; Hundreds of companies (including Adobe, IBM, and Goldman Sachs) have tried new ways to evaluate and reward employee performance, with good results.

6- New Leaders

Just as times change, leaders change too. Companies around the world are looking for a new type of leader who can adapt to the economic and social changes that are occurring. This trend is a search for younger and more diverse leaders who can run businesses digitally. These types of leaders are in high demand by companies for their ability to manage small, agile and dynamic teams and their interest in continuous learning and development throughout their careers. Human resource leaders also play an important role in guiding their companies in the right direction, as the search for new leadership must encompass the entire company.

7- Digital Human Resources

As companies go digital as a whole, human resources departments inevitably follow this process. The department's responsibility is to deliver new digital initiatives to the entire workplace, new mobile apps (Slack, Workplace, Microsoft Teams, Gamelearn, etc.), software and tools that help change the way the company works.

At this point, even chatbox services that use artificial intelligence for recruitment have found their place in the most innovative companies. Deloitte sums it up bluntly: "This change is happening so fast because human resource leaders are being pushed to take on a bigger role in adapting organizations to "go digital" rather than just "doing business digital."

8- Big Data in Human Resources Service

Today, numbers mean more power than ever before. Human resources are also not lagging behind in the big data revolution. More and more companies are using data about their employees to improve their staffing processes, increase company efficiency and detect logistical errors. This new trend has given rise to the popular term “people analytics.” We can define the concept of people analytics as: the heavy use of data to make decisions that affect people in the workplace (who gets hired, who gets promoted, etc.).

9. Promoting Diversity and Inclusion

As companies strive to be more global, digital and transparent, the issue of diversity and inclusion is escalating to a point where it cannot be ignored. Employees are placing greater emphasis on these principles, and consumers (and societies in general) are becoming more rigorous in their demands for respect for cultural diversity and gender equality. If the human resources department follows a policy that encourages diversity and inclusion among employees, it will not only make companies more efficient, innovative and productive, but will also increase brand image and reputation.

10- Establishing a Balance Between Machines and Workers

New technologies present a new challenge for all employees and also for human resources leaders. What kinds of work can be done more effectively with machines, and which should only be done by humans? The answer to this question requires a redesign of work, the organization of companies, and indeed even the future of the company.

Deloitte believes the essence of the job is to understand "basic human skills" and combine them with the best machines, robots and automation technologies. While many companies are worried about the negative effects of the technological revolution, they should actually see it as a great opportunity. By combining workers and machines (also known as an "augmented workforce"), you can create new jobs, increase productivity, and achieve more effective results by focusing employees on the human aspects of work.