Top 10 HR trends for 2021.
Hi, there.
And welcome to this HR Trends video.
As the Academy to Innovate HR,
we interact on a daily basis
with hundreds of HR professionals.
Based on our interactions,
we have created our top 10 HR trends for 2021.
Some of these trends are the inevitable result
of drastic changes that organizations
had to go through during the pandemic.
Others are more long-term developments in the HR space.
Each will, however,
created a lasting impact on how we manage people
and how we work as a partner of the business.
I'm excited to get started
so if you're ready,
I'd say let's dive in.
Before we do so however,
please don't forget to like this video
and subscribe to our channel.
- Home as the new office.
One of the most visible changes in 2020
was the global overnight shifts to remote work
for much of the workforce.
In recent years,
many of us have been getting used to working from home,
but only few organizations were really ready
to go fully remote in a matter of days.
We believe that working from home or anywhere else,
once social distance measures are lifted,
will remain an important part of how we work.
Companies like Twitter, Square and Capital One,
recently announced that working from home
is there to stay even post-COVID.
Microsoft has also unveiled plans
to adopt a hybrid workplace,
which offers employees greater flexibility
once the pandemic subsides.
- Rethinking HR.
A logical consequence of the increase in at-home workers,
apart from a spike in office furniture sales
and Zoom accounts
is the push for HR to rethink many of its practices.
Activities like recruiting, onboarding,
performance management, and even firing decisions
have relied on in-person conversations.
HR needs to reinvent current practices to effectively deal
with these situations in a digital world.
More fundamentally, the way we have designed
and structured our organization will have to change.
Many companies have already made use
of online tools to foster a culture of togetherness,
despite the physical distance.
Virtual happy hours have started
to replace after-work socializing.
Regular departmental check-ins
have become increasingly important.
In the coming year,
we may see companies beginning
to test additional virtual structured experiences
to simulate the camaraderie and exploration
that was once only possible organically.
- Reinventing the employee experience.
The differences between joining an organization
pre-COVID and during COVID are huge.
You have remote interviews, at home assessments,
virtual get-to-know meetings
and no informal coffee or smoke breaks
that help people connect.
HR will have to redesign the employee journey
and measure the virtual employee experience.
Elements like work-life balance, wellbeing,
connection, and collaboration will be crucial
both for employee satisfaction
and for the optimization of business outcomes.
Just as companies will continue experimenting
with more informal ways of team building and socialization,
we may also see more formalized online connections
and partnerships being piloted at companies
all over the world.
For example, conferences now offer
networking opportunities online,
organizations could use virtual job shadowing
for new hires over Zoom
or participate in rotating online buddy systems
which help people connect and stay engaged.
Such initiatives go a long way in reminding employees
that they are not simply working
in a vacuum alone at the desk,
but are part of a greater team.
- Perennials: moving beyond generations.
In the past decade,
we have focused a lot on what separates
the different generations in the workforce.
Gen X, Y, and Z have all been analyzed,
written and talked about extensively.
Scientific proof of intergenerational differences
however, remain slim.
In fact, research increasingly shows
that generational differences related to people's view
on work and life aren't as big as we initially thought.
What people want from their working life;
purpose, good leaders and professional growth,
doesn't differ all that much from one generation to another.
We believe we'll move beyond generations
and see an increased focus on perennials.
A term first mentioned by Gina Pell.
Perennials, as she puts it,
are a group of people of all ages, stripes and types
who go beyond stereotypes and make connections
with each other and the world around them.
To understand our workforce,
we should look beyond group differences
and gather insights on the interests, values,
and aspirations of individual employees.
This will also enable us to personalize
how we manage people as HR professionals.
- Learning as a driver of business success.
Pre COVID there was already a strong need
for up-scaling the workforce.
This needs has only become more apparent.
Unfortunately, in the search for HR professionals
with future-oriented skills,
it is slim pickings.
Rather than continuously searching for new talent,
the most efficient way is to upscale your HR team
ensuring they have the expertise
to secure success in a changing future.
For HR, we have identified three key capabilities.
Data literacy.
HR professionals needs the ability
to make data driven evidence-based decisions
in order to be true business partners.
This involves the ability to read, understand, create,
and communicate data as information
to influence decision-makers.
Business acumen.
HR professionals in all industries need
to improve their business acumen.
They need to understand the business, its strategy,
its customers and its context.
Only when they have a deep understanding of the business
will HR be able to add the maximum value.
And third, digital integration.
Digital HR offers the opportunity to drive HR efficiencies,
deliver the HR strategy
and drive business impact through technology.
In our experience,
this is one of the biggest skill gaps in HR
and one that has become even more pressing
in this new and more remote reality.
- HR and the driver's seat.
2020 has not only seen a massive shift
in the way businesses operate,
it has also posed significant personal difficulty
to workers all over the world.
Employees are worried about their health
and that of their loved ones
and tense about the security of their jobs.
While leadership is worried about
what should be communicated and how
while trying to have departments
and model company values.
In the midst of all this chaos,
HR has been on the frontline,
facilitating employees, handling business requirements,
managing concerns and questions of the employees,
supporting them and focusing on people's mental
and emotional wellbeing.
Being at the center of the crisis
is a big responsibility for any HR departments.
In order to succeed in the driver's seat
and maintain its newfound position into 2021.
That means leading and accelerating
the infamous digital transformation
that's been an HR trends for years now.
- Effortless shared services.
Most of today's HR transformations focus
on HR self-service departments.
This trend has two sites.
First, if your HR departments still uses paperwork,
it should be digitized.
And second, if any of your HR work is repetitive,
it should be automated.
Both digitization and automation
ensures that the HR professional maximizes efficiency.
When I asked in early 2020 at a conference,
who was still using some form of pen and paper
for the HR administration,
many people raised their hands.
Consider for example, a supermarket chains
that keeps paper records of its employees.
Imagine in an industry
that experience has such high turnover,
how much time an HR professional wastes
at both ends of the employee life cycle,
simply hunting through paperwork.
Also imagine the frustration and headaches
that are lost contracts,
which is, you know, just a few pieces of paper could cause.
There is no better time to make the necessary transition
to effortless shared services than today.
When done properly, it will lead to
a better employee experience and increased customization.
- Create room for personalization.
The shift we've seen this year
in the way many of us work inevitably leads people creating
their own optimal work environment.
They arrange their workspace at home as they see fit
and they might work outside traditional office hours.
If that suits them better.
When it comes to the actual work employees do,
it seems natural that they'll want
to make some adjustments there too.
For example, in terms of tasks, skills, or purpose.
This is where a concept such as job crafting comes in.
We believe that giving employees room
to take ownership of their role
will be essential for job satisfaction
and productivity in 2021 and beyond,
boosting both employee success
and that of their organization.
- Acing analytics.
Analytics is one of those oft-repeated topics
that we've seen on HR trends list over the last few years.
Although people analytics is gaining
a solid foothold in many organizations,
the impact of the findings is often still lacking.
We have three recommendations
for organizations looking to ace analytics.
First measure data that matters.
Although HR tracks a lot of data,
often there is a gap in the areas that add the most value.
A key concern for CEOs for example, is leadership.
HR tracks very little data in that regard.
Other examples include training and development
and performance management.
Checking value adding data related to key problem areas
in the organization will create more return.
Second, redesigning systems.
The fact that we collect later data on key topics
is indicative of a lack of strategic integration
of our HR systems.
We need to have systems in place for those areas
that help drive the business.
This can be a software based point solution
or can be in inquired through regular surveys.
If that is the case, they should be managed
by strategic HR survey management units.
Third HRBP capabilities.
The single point of failure in organizations
is often not the people analytics team.
It's often the HRBP who struggles to leverage data
and people analytics insights to make change happen.
HRBP should be taught to read, understand
and communicate data as information for this to be solved.
By gathering and assessing data in this way,
HR will be able to ACE analytics
and it will have its own place
between the different HR centers of excellence.
- Purpose-driven organizations.
As a result of the increase in at-home workers,
many employers fear of lack in productivity and commitment
as the trends continues.
According to PWC,
79% of business leaders believe that purpose
is the key to success here.
Purpose driven organizations bring that purpose
to the core of their organization.
This means that decisions, conversations,
and behavior across all levels
need to be integrated with that purpose.
A great example is Barry Wehmiller,
a global supplier of manufacturing technology and services,
led by Bob Chapman.
The company's principles of leadership are
"We measure success by the way we touch
the lives of others."
From a people perspective, the company focuses on learning,
listening, and empathy building,
and they actively work to create a service mindset
for their team members.
Other interventions include value-based recruitment.
Organizations that do this assess to what degree
the values of a candidate align
with their organizational values.
HR professionals play an important role in integrating
these practices and then continuously reinforcing them.
- That's it for our 10 HR trends for 2021.
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