Headlines like the Telecom sector loses 100,000 employees over 2years! Hiring to go up by 5% for the financial year 2020! Central government policy to add over 100,000 direct jobs by opening the aviation sector more for Maintenance & Overhaul Industry.
Employability has reached new heights of 47%, HR in the dilemma of whether their organization should go in for skills or good talent with higher education!
State Governments making reservations for locals, changes in labor laws like minimum wages, Central Government targeting USD 5 Trillion economy by 2024 while in reality, economic growth is becoming more elusive than inclusive, trade wars in the offing etc define the environment in which HR professionals need to work in near future.
This is the VUCA world. Frequent shifts in the marketplace are both disruptive and transformative while complexity, ambiguity & volatility is the new norm! Business Leaders are feverishly preparing for this world. But can business leaders succeed without good HR advice and counsel? Is HR equipped to partner and succeed? Is HR spaced is disrupted or does HR become the disrupter and enable his or her organization to change and be ready to meet the future?
Choices with HR professionals are limited and if they have to remain relevant and partner with their CEOs to navigate their organization to succeed in the future which is already here, they will have to heavily leverage technology. The good news is that every HR function has the opportunity to leverage tools to manage the rapid transformation needed.
Let’s look at kind of challenges that market place is posing for HR professionals.
1- The Impact of automation and ever-changing technology is leading to redundant skills and it is becoming difficult to find roles for middle-aged workers. This has led to a new industry gathering momentum and that is Skilling. Organizations are ready to invest. It is estimated that the workforce-mix by 2022 will be as follows-
- 9% would be deployed on new jobs that don’t exist today
- 37% would be deployed in jobs that have radically changed skill sets.
- 54% will fall under the unchanged job category
This requires an organization to adapt their talent strategies accordingly. HR has to identify what Talent approach it needs to adopt; what skills its organization needs based on its strategic direction. But how does one bring skill transformation with speed? What platforms & tools are available? This will have to be addressed.
2- Another challenge for Indian HR is that as per India Gallup World Poll results based on employee engagement surveys, conducted on adults aged 23-65 years employed with diverse organizations for the period 2014-2016, only 13% of the employed workforce in India is engaged, 65% is not engaged and disturbingly a high proportion, viz. 22% are actively disengaged.
The sheer number of millennials in the workforce makes investing in engagement especially important. Pulse surveys, sentiment analysis at a frequency that can enable quick interventions are the call today.
On the other hand, the gig economy is on increase but there are many issues that need to be addressed from point of health, safety, and well-being. How are the professionals going to address this?
3- As per the Capgemini and LinkedIn survey around 2017, India had the highest proportion of digital talent (at 76 percent) compared to the global average of 56 percent for the countries in their survey basket.
This digital talent is redefining how companies in India attract, onboard, reward, assess performance and engage throughout the employee lifecycle. In turn, the new-age talent is helping organizations & institutions to change the way work gets done, break away from obsolete practices, maximize productivity, innovate, rethink their business models completely and manage the disruption.
HR has to leverage this as an opportunity to freely invest in technology to help meet its challenges. All you need is HR professionals understanding businesses, knowledgeable to know where to get the tools that can support and constantly be on a learning spree and remaining inquisitive and curious.
