Disruptive HR Trends at the Workplace

The changing demographics and advent of technology are bringing on marked changes in the way organizations manage their talent. HR leaders and professionals must adapt to these changing times and question the traditional approaches to talent management. They must develop an external view of the latest trends and “lift and shift” these best practices to apply them to the organizational requirements. Only then can organizations expect to build the talent for the future, while meeting present needs.

On one hand, we see a shift in the nature and demographics of the workforce. Millennials are growing in numbers in the workforce, and their specific requirements and way of life are creating new talent needs. New ways of working are becoming mainstream, due to the rise of the gig economy. On the other hand, technology is penetrating the enterprise like never before. Cloud, social media, artificial intelligence, big data are some areas that are adding a tech edge and objectivity to talent processes. The result is that HR leaders are being forced to adapt and relook at existing HR paradigms. Let’s look at some of the key HR disruptors of today and tomorrow, that HR leaders must open their eyes to and embrace:

1. Millennials don’t stick around long: Many organizations now have a workforce that comprises mainly of millennials, rather than Gen X and Baby Boomers. While employers benefit from the fresh ideas and digital savvy of this latest generation, with the pros there are cons too. Millennials are seldom known to be loyal to any one organization; they do not stick around for long. Statistics prove this—Gallup’s 2016 survey on “How Millennials want to Work and Live” states that 21% of millennials switched jobs last year, a number that is three times that of non-millennials. In fact, the tendency to look for new opportunities and new work is so high that only half of the surveyed millennials strongly agreed that they planned to be working at their current company in one year. Lack of stickiness is a worrisome concern for organizations that are used to years of loyal service from employees. HR must take note of the changing demands of this generation—they are often not motivated by traditional rewards such as raises and promotions. Many of them value intangible benefits like vacation time, flexi-working arrangements, leadership access, career development, recognition at work and so on. Talent processes must therefore, be designed in line with these employee needs, at the same time balancing the needs of the other employee categories.  Organizations must focus on building a great employer value proposition to be able to attract, develop and retain this important workforce segment. From building a great culture to providing development opportunities such as challenging work and learning interventions, they must relook at talent engagement for the millennials.

2. Artificial intelligence is impacting employee engagement: A segment of the population is worried about the job-loss impact of the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation. However, AI is one of the most promising emerging technologies, and is already changing the way talent is managed. This means HR needs to have new skill upgradation, resource planning and scheduling methods that take into account that man and machine will now work together. HR leaders will need to work towards a culture that accepts this, helping employees understand the impact of AI and enabling them to change themselves to embrace this change. An interesting correlation between millennials and the AI-impact seems to be that for the jobs at “high” or “medium” risk of redundancy due to AI, more millennials (34%) were worried than older generations (27%). Leaders must openly communicate to alleviate such fears and assess future emotional states of employees by analyzing past data. This will help plan for future jobs and thereby reduce the impact of automation, creating higher employee engagement.

3. Changes in life priorities: Social trends are changing—Baby Boomers are retiring later than usual, and millennials are getting married and having kids at a later lifestage, changing the demographics of work. In a survey that studied the percentage of post-retirement professionals in the workforce, Gallup found that workers aged 65 and above occupied a significantly higher percentage today (9%) than in 2001-2002 (4%). Delayed marriages and children are altering employee life cycles. HR must factor in these social changes into their resource planning, and use workforce analytics to do so. These changes impact every HR intervention—pay and benefits needs, engagement drivers, and career progression prospects and so on. Big data dependence can help by creating forecasting models for workforce preferences and changing the employer value proposition for specific groups.

It is not enough to just talk about the changing workforce of tomorrow, it is important to predict and act towards creating an organization that aligns with the talent need. For this, senior leaders must turn to technology and exhibit a change-readiness. Only then can we successfully create future-ready talent models that align with business needs.