Trends that will shape the future of human resources

Technological revolution made lots of changes to everyone's lifestyles. Internet, social media, artificial intelligence, robotics, etc, are influencing a lot for the transformation of the world. 

How organizations are reacting to the major challenge of the technological change. Following are the challenges that will shape the eventual fate of organizations and HR divisions around the world:

A dynamic, modern and network organization 

Many organizations are making progress toward a more adaptable and dynamic revamping, and deserting the past hierarchical structures to have the capacity to react rapidly to changes in the market. Organizations are being organized around small work groups or teams which are set up rapidly, cooperate for maybe a couple years and afterward proceed onward to different tasks or projects inside the organization. As businesses make this change, they find that smaller groups are a distinctive path for people to work".

Employees are learning all the time 

An employee's career may last 3 to 4 decades. Anyhow, considering the speed of technological change, how are we going to get ready for coming decades? The best and appropriate solution is learning continuously. We can no longer content ourselves with going to campus and constructing our future profession on what we learn during those years; our career has turned into a journey of consistent learning. 

Talent acquisition 

In a knowledge and human capital-based economy, talent acquisition is vital for any company. Immersed in the great technological revolution, companies are constantly on the look-out for professionals specialized in new areas of economic activity that emerge almost overnight. 

To recruit (and then retain) the right people, human resources leaders are using social networking, new cognitive technologies and big data. The use of videos (with platforms such as HireVue), online forms, social networks (not just LinkedIn) and Skype interviews (the last step) has spread like wildfire, speeding up recruitment and reducing costs. 

Enhancing the employee experience in the company 

Human resources leaders are striving to maintain the corporate culture of companies, improve employee motivation and engagement, stay abreast of the demands of the new Millennials and offer better learning opportunities to employees. The quest to enhance the employee experience (from recruitment through the career journey) aims to increase employee satisfaction, improve companies’ reputations (in an increasingly demanding environment) and facilitate the transition towards a more dynamic, agile and flexible organizational model. 

 

New ways of appraising employee performance 

The way to achieve a promotion within the company or a raise is changing. Experience, seniority and examinations are no longer the primary method of appraisal and there has been a shift towards a faster and more flexible model. Human resources departments are looking for new appraisal models based on well-defined targets and continuous feedback; hundreds of companies (including Adobe, IBM and Goldman Sachs) have been successfully experimenting with new ways to appraise and reward employee performance. 

New leaders 

And if times are changing, so too are the leaders. Companies around the globe are looking for a new type of leader, one that can adapt to the economic and social changes taking place. The trend is towards younger and more diverse leaders who can run businesses the digital way. Their ability to manage small, agile and dynamic teams is in high demand by companies, together with an interest in continuous learning and development throughout their career. While the quest to find new leadership should involve the entire company, human resources leaders also play a key role in steering their company in the right direction. 

Digital human resources 

As the organization becomes digital, human resources departments must also follow suit. The department’s responsibility is to roll out new digital initiatives to the entire workplace, implement new mobile applications (Slack, Workplace, Microsoft Teams, Gamelearn, etc.), software and tools that help change the way the company works.

On this point, even chatbox services that use artificial intelligence for recruitment have found a niche in the most innovative companies. This shift is happening rapidly, as HR leaders are being pushed to take on a larger role in helping to drive the organization to ‘be digital’, not just ‘do digital’. 

Big Data at the service of human resources 

Today, more than ever, numbers are power. And human resources are not being left behind in the big data revolution. More and more, companies are using data about their employees to improve staff recruitment processes, increase company productivity and detect logistics errors. These new trends have led to the coining of the popular term “people analytics”: the intensive use of data to make decisions that affect people at work (who to hire, who to promote, etc.). 

Promoting diversity and inclusion 

As companies strive to become more global, digital and transparent, the issue of diversity and inclusion cannot be overlooked. Employees attach increasing importance to these principles, and consumers (and the public in general) have become more exacting in their demands for respect for cultural diversity and gender equality. Promotion by the human resources department of a policy that fosters diversity and inclusion among employees will not only make companies more efficient, innovative and productive, but it will also improve their brand image and reputation. 

Striking a balance between machines and workers 

New technologies pose a new challenge for all employees, and for human resources leaders. What kind of jobs can be replaced by machines and what ones should be performed only by people? The answer to this question calls for a redesign of jobs, the organization of companies and, indeed, the future of the company itself. 

Source:

https://www.game-learn.com/10-trends-that-will-shape-the-future-of-human-resources/ 

Hiring Expatriates - Pros and Cons

An expat or expatriate is a person who permanently or temporarily moves to the foreign countries to work in their new branches or sometimes new offices to fulfil assignments. There are three types of employees involved in the multi-national corporation's (MNC) international business pattern. They are Parent Country Nationals, Host-Country Nationals, and Third-Country Nationals. For HR department, hiring local employees can be tricky and difficult at times. The new offices in the foreign countries can face limited local talent pool issue. The chances are that the locals may or may not have the requisite skills and talents the company is looking for. The ones who have these skills and qualities usually demand higher salaries. Hence, organizations prefer hiring expatriates. But, hiring them has both, benefits and challenges (Internations, 2016).

HR best practices can support a good expat experience. Guiding your staff before and during their assignment is an effective preparation for the new country. HR people should make sure:

• Address the need for the employee to develop language fluency in international assignments.
• Psychological screening is given to evaluate the willingness of international assignments, including individual openness to international experience.
• Should set clear expectations before or during the foreign assignment and providing strong support by giving proper feedback.
• Self-assessment tool should be provided to employees to help set realistic expectations to adjust the host country.
• Providing some mentorship in the host country through a former or current employee.
• Manages attachments between the expatriate and the home-based organizations (Shrm, 2016).

Let's look at the pros and cons of hiring expatriates.

PROS:

They follow a uniform management system

The head office has better management strategies and standards than other international branches. Expats who have worked in the head office know the rules and regulations, disciplinary activities and standards. They can share and help them maintain the same standards and rules across other branches, thus following a unified work and management style.

They are motivated

Only the best performers will be relocated to new international markets. So if you choose the best people to source and lead your overseas operations, they will show the tremendous impetus to organisation's development.

They share information

Foreign employees have been at the head office for a long time, so they have a better understanding of the business and experience. Local staff are not familiar with this information. Foreigners can share the general situation and technical knowledge to enhance the business performance of contractors.

CONS:

They are the expensive hires

The cost of hiring foreign workers may be 2-3 times more expensive than recruiting local staff. They demand higher salaries than their local employees. Their relocation costs, lodging, taxes, insurance, etc. must be the responsibility of the local company. If they have a family, their expenses must also be borne by the company.

Their burnout rate is high
Expatriates often perform very demanding and boring jobs. They may leave the local company at any time due to pressure. Their burnout rates can be high for several reasons. Some of the main causes include being away from family and friends, being alone, a coworker's bad behaviour, cultural differences and internal politics.

They can misunderstand (or create misunderstandings)

Expats may not understand the work culture of the local company. The rules and regulations of the host company or branch may differ from those of the parent company. These differences can cause misunderstandings and lead to harsh conditions (Hrexchangenetwork, 2015).

Reference:

Internations, (2016). What’s an Expat Anyway? [online]. Available at: https://www.internations.org/guide/global/what-s-an-expat-anyway-15272. [Accessed 12 December 2017].

Hrexchangenetwork, (2015). The Pros and Cons of Hiring Expats. [online]. Available at: https://www.hrexchangenetwork.com/hr-talent-management/articles/the-pros-and-cons-of-hiring-expats. [Accessed 14 December 2017].

Shrm (2016). HR Best Practices Can Lead to a Better Expat Experience. [online]. Available at: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/global-hr/pages/hr-best-practices-can-lead-to-better-expat-experience.aspx. [Accessed 11 December 2017].

Applying Herzberg's theory of motivation and Maslow's hierarchy of needs

In the global business context, motivational factors play an important role in increasing employee job satisfaction. This will result in improving organizational performance. High productivity is a long term benefits of employee motivation. Motivated employee is a valuable asset who creates value for an organization in strengthening the business and revenue growth. Motivation is going to work if the right person with suitable skills is made responsible for the job or otherwise it will be the wastage of resources and time, and will lead to job dissatisfaction.

Herzberg's theory of motivators and hygiene factors 

Herzberg (1959) constructed a two-dimensional paradigm of factors affecting people's attitudes about work. He concluded that such factors as company policy, supervision, interpersonal relations, working conditions, and salary are hygiene factors rather than motivators.

According to the theory, the absence of hygiene factors can create job dissatisfaction, but their presence does not motivate or create satisfaction. In contrast, he determined from the data that the motivators were elements that enriched a person's job; he found five factors that were strong determiners of job satisfaction: achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, and advancement. These motivators (satisfiers) were associated with long-term positive effects in job performance while the hygiene factors (dissatisfiers)consistently produced only short-term changes in job attitudes and performance, which quickly fell back to its previous level. In summary, satisfiers describe a person's relationship with what she or he does, many related to the tasks being performed. Dissatisfiers, on the other hand, have to do with a person's relationship to the context or environment in which she or he performs the job. The satisfiers relate to what a person does while the dissatisfiers relate to the situation in which the person does what he or she does.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs

In 1954, Maslow first published Motivation and Personality, which introduced his theory about how people satisfy various personal needs in the context of their work. He postulated, based on his observations as a humanistic psychologist, that there is a general pattern of needs recognition and satisfaction that people follow in generally the same sequence. He also theorized that a person could not recognize or pursue the next higher need in the hierarchy until her or his currently recognized need was substantially or completely satisfied, a concept called prepotency.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is shown in below diagram. It is often illustrated as a pyramid with the survival need at the broad-based bottom and the self-actualization need at the narrow top.

Physiological Needs

The basic physiological needs are probably fairly apparent—these include the things that are vital to our survival. 

Some examples of the physiological needs include:

• Food 
• Water 
• Breating etc.

Security and Safety Needs

At this level, the needs for security and safety become primary. People want control and order in their lives, so this need for safety and security contributes largely to behaviors at this level.

Some of the basic security and safety needs include

• Financial security
• Heath and wellness
• Safety against accidents and injury

Social Needs

The social needs in Maslow’s hierarchy include such things as love, acceptance and belonging. At this level, the need for emotional relationships drives human behavior. Some of the things that satisfy this need include:

• Friendships
• Romantic attachments
• Family
• Social groups
• Community groups
• Churches and religious organizations

Esteem Needs

At the fourth level in Maslow’s hierarchy is the need for appreciation and respect. When the needs at the bottom three levels have been satisfied, the esteem needs begin to play a more prominent role in motivating behavior.

Self-Actualization Needs

At the very peak of Maslow’s hierarchy are the self-actualization needs. "What a man can be, he must be," Maslow explained, referring to the need people have to achieve their full potential as human beings.

According to Maslow’s definition of self-actualization:

"It may be loosely described as the full use and exploitation of talents, capabilities, potentialities, etc. Such people seem to be fulfilling themselves and to be doing the best that they are capable of doing... They are people who have developed or are developing to the full stature of which they capable."

References
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/herzberg-true-motivators-vs-hygiene-factors/
Herzberg, F., Mausner, B., & Snyderman, B. B. (1959). The Motivation to Work (2nd ed.). NewYork: John Wiley & Sons.
Maslow, A.H. (1970). Motivation and Personality (2nd ed.). NewYork: Harper and Row.

Work-Life balance

In recent years, the work-life balance of employees has been much more contemplated. Experts insist on the importance of achieving and maintaining work-life balance. Who does this concept apply to? The concept of work-life balance can be applied to all employees within the organization both locally and globally.

Various pressures in life will bring stress. Many of the stressful life events are connected to the work environment. Employees who start to feel the pressure to perform are likely to get caught in a downward spiral of increasing effort to meet rising expectations but no increase in job satisfaction.

Many organizations are trying to promote work-life balance by including initiatives such as flexible working hours, part-time work and childcare facilities. However, various studies show that most employees can not balance their professional and personal lives. Few people manage the balance of work and life well (Tewathia, 2014).

In Asian countries, work and family problems have only recently begun to attract attention. A long working culture has exacerbated the pressures of rapid social change and increasing global competition, particularly in countries like China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, and South Korea. In addition, female workforce participation increases, more and more Asian workers are now trapped between the needs of work and family life (Luo and Cooper, 2015).

European countries dominate and ranked highly for work-life balance. According to the analysis made by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD), following are the best-ranked countries for Work-Life Balance as of November 2017:

Figure 1: Top 5 countries with the better Work-Life Balance (Oecdbetterlifeindex, 2017)

Reference:

Tewathia, N. (2014). Work-Life Balance in the IT Sector, International Journal of Advancements in Research & Technology 3(7).

Luo, L. and Cooper, C.L. (2015). Handbook of research on Work-Life Balance in Asia. Edward Elgar Publishing.

OECD, (2017). Work-Life Balance. [online]. Available at: http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/
topics/work-life- balance/ [Accessed 27 November 2017].

Employee Learning

In most working environments, there is usually some form of training. This training takes different forms, from hands-on experience to read manuals, to viewing online media information. The way employees absorb and process information vary from one to another. They also have different natural tendency to learn the style (Morgan, 2011).

Described below is the most useful and widely implemented learning style models.

Kolb's Learning Cycle
An American educational theorist David A. Kolb whose interests and writings focus on experiential learning, personal and social change, career development and executive and professional education.

Kolb's learning cycle is a well-known theory, which advocates that we learn from our life experience, even on a day-to-day basis. It also considers reflection as an integral part of this learning. According to the Kolb (1984) study, the learning process follows a four-phase pattern or cycle. These phases are explained and summarized below:

Figure 1: Kolb's Learning Cycle (Skillsyouneed, 2016).

Concrete experience

Kolb's cycle starts with a concrete experience. In other words, it begins with doing something in which the individual, team or organisation are assigned a task. Key to learning, therefore, is active involvement. In Kolb's model, one cannot learn by simply watching or reading about it, to learn effectively the individual, team or organisation must actually do.

Reflective observation

Reflective observation is the second stage of Kolb's cycle. This means taking a time-out from "doing" and stepping back from the task and reviewing what has been done and experienced. At this stage, lots of questions are asked and communication channels are opened to others members of the team. Vocabulary is very important and requires verbal communication and discussion with others.

Abstract conceptualisation

The third stage is Abstract Conceptualisation, a process of making sense of what has happened and involves interpreting the events and understanding the relationships between them. At this stage, learners compare what they do, think and what they already know. They can draw on textbook theories to build and interpret events, their familiar models, their colleagues' points of view, previous observations, or any other knowledge they have developed.

Active experimentation

The final stage of the learning cycle is how learners think about how to put what they have learned into practice. Planning enables taking a new understanding and translates it into predictions as to what will happen next or what actions should be taken to refine or revise the way a task is to be handled. For learning to be useful most people need to place it in a context that is relevant to them. If one cannot see how the learning is useful to one's life then it is likely to be forgotten very quickly. Employee efficiency requires training to meet each requirement more or less equally (Kolb, 1984).

Honey and Mumford's Learning Styles

Kolb proposed above as a cycle. But there’s no question that while we all go through the cycle when we learn something, we also all prefer to start in different places and to spend more time on some aspects than others.

Two men named Peter Honey and Alan Mumford noticed this and based their work on Kolb's theory of learning style.

Figure 2: Honey and Mumford's Learning Styles (Getfeedback.net, 2018).

Activist - Activists are those people who learn by doing. Activists need to get their hands dirty, to dive in with both feet first. An open attitude toward learning, full participation and no prejudice of new experience.

Theorist - These learners like to understand the theory behind the behaviour. They need models, concepts, and facts to participate in the learning process.

Reflector - These people learn by observing and thinking about what happened. They tend to stand on a different perspective to observe the experience, collect data and spend time trying to reach the appropriate conclusions.

Pragmatist - These people need to be able to see how to put the learning into practice in the real world. The use of abstract concepts and games is limited unless they come up with a way to put these ideas to work. Experimenters try new ideas, theories and techniques to see if they work (Honey and Mumford, 1986).

Reference:

Morgan, R. (2011). How to Address Learning Styles in Workplace Training. [online] Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/address-learning-styles-workplace-training-10222.html [Accessed 26 November 2017].

Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development (Vol. 1). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Honey, P. and Mumford, A. (1986). Using your learning styles. Peter Honey.

Getfeedback.net. (2017). The four learning styles. [online] Available at: http://www.getfeedback.net/products/detail/Learning_Styles [Accessed 21 Nov. 2017].

Skillsyouneed, (2016). Learning Styles [online] Available at: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/learn/learning-styles.html [Accessed 24 Nov. 2017].

Why do people leave organizations?

Employees leave organizations because of different reasons. These could be personal or official. Every employee has different reasons for working. The ultimate objective of an employee is to gain benefits (financial and non-financial) out of it.

The most common reasons for leaving an organization can be:

• The job is not what the employee expected to be.
• Job and person mismatch.
• New attractive job and better compensation packages being offered by other companies/competitors.
• Lack of growth opportunities in the job.
• Lack of appreciation by the superiors which will lead to demotivation and lose interest.
• Lack of trust and support in co-workers, seniors and management.
• Stress and work-life balance (Branham, 2005).

Many employees are not happy with recognition and performance appraisal done by the HR department or management. Therefore, they should pay attention to that. The company management must give employees the appropriate remuneration in order to retain these people for a long time.  Many employees are feeling workload pressure and stress. Therefore, the organization should focus on their calm workload in order to reduce the pressure on employees. The relationship between employees and management has to improve (Mathimaran & Kumar, 2017).

Reference:

Branham, L. (2005). The 7 hidden reasons employees leave: how to recognize the subtle signs and act before it's too late. New York, American Management Association.

Mathimaran, K.B. & Kumar, A.A. (2017). KumarEmployee Retention Strategies – An Empirical Research, Global Journal of Management and Business Research: E-Marketing,17(1).

Training & Development - How Important in the Workplace?

The training programs are will always be a prime opportunity for employees to develop their knowledge base. But some employers consider that the staff development training programs are expensive and cost to the company. Generally, while they are in the training employees work hours is reduced, which may obstruct the completion of allocated job tasks or projects. Despite the potential drawbacks, staff training and development gives both the organization and the employees with benefits that make the cost and time a valuable investment (Khan, 2011).

Some of the outcomes of the staff training programs are as follows:

Addressing Weaknesses: Some employees have weaknesses in their workplace skills. A training program allows strengthening those skills that every employee needs to improve. A development training program carries all employees to a higher level so they all have identical skills and knowledge. This will help people to work independently without getting help from others.  

Improved Employee Performance: Employees who receive training will be able to perform their job well. The training may also build the employee's confidence because they have a stronger understanding of the industry and the responsibilities of their job. This confidence may push them to do even better and think of new concepts that help them shine.

Consistency: A well-planned training and development program guarantees that employees have a consistent experience and knowledge. The consistency is relevant for the company's fundamental policies and procedures. All employees should understand the company's expectations and practices. It includes safety, discrimination and administrative tasks. By regularly training all employees in these locations, be sure to pass at least some of your information to all employees.

Employee Satisfaction: The investment in training that an organization makes shows the employees they are valued and appreciated. The training creates a helpful work environment. Employees who feel appreciated and challenged through training opportunities may feel more satisfaction toward their jobs. (Frost, 2018).

Reference

Khan, R.A.G. Khan, F.A. Khan, M.A. (2011). Impact of Training and Development on Organizational Performance. Global Journal of Management and Business Research, 11(7).

Smallbusiness,

Frost, S. (2018). The Importance of Training & Development in the Workplace. [online] http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-training-development-workplace-10321.html. [Accessed 31 January 2018].