What is the New trends in human resource management policies in India and how to frame the policies?
It is a well-accepted reality that India is poised to be amongst
the largest economies over the next two decades. As our business
world is charging at bullet train speed the major trends impacting
industries are globalisation, technology, outsourcing and the
talent crunch. The biggest challenge amongst these is the shortage
of skilled manpower. For many companies, lack of talented workers
constitutes a “make or break” HR issue. Naturally, there is an
increasing obsession amongst CEOs with a higher workforce. Nowadays
superior HR is not a luxury but a competitive necessity. The HR
profession as a result, is gaining both respect and attention—the
kind that comes from being in the hot seat. As such, there are some
trends one must be aware of: Changing role Talent shortage is the
highest risk for Indian business. Recognising this, Chief
executives have taken on the roles for strategic HR management. HR
executives are themselves becoming C - level executives. How HR
managers will contribute and how seriously they will be taken
depends on the big leap that the majority of HR managers today will
take. Increasingly, more is being expected from HR practitioners
and they need to broaden their skill-sets so that they can sit at
the board table and understand as much about the businesses as the
other leaders. Accountability If HR professionals want to be
enabler of business strategies, they need to make significant
contributions to the bottom line through expense reduction, or
revenue generation, talent management and risk mitigation. CEOs are
demanding that HR stop giving lip service to strategic performance
and find metrics that prove that they are contributing to the
growth and performance of the company through effective people
management. War for talent The most important corporate resource
over the next 20 years will be talent, smart, technologically
literate, globally astute and operationally agile workforce.
Today’s HR departments will have to become talent departments.
Traditional workforce planning is being replaced by talent
strategies and skills gap analysis. The key to attracting and
retaining scarce skills is for companies to be, and be seen to be,
a first-tier employer that can meet the needs of high potential /
performance employees. Marketing practices will need to be applied
to recruitment. Employer branding with a strong differentiator are
imperative. Rather than positioning as “we are a big successful
company,” positioning as delivering on the promise of continuous
learning, work-life balance, fulfiling roles and innovative rewards
and recognition is important. Outsourcing HR outsourcing is a
growing trend. Today HR professionals are hardly hired for their
ability to process employee information, sort resumes or process
payroll on time. Instead, HR is expected to deliver value in areas
like organisational effectiveness, talent management, change
management, leadership development, succession planning, merger
integration, strategic compensation, etc. The primary benefit of HR
outsourcing is that it will allow the leaders to tackle these more
strategic issues. HR needs to embrace outsourcing to reduce costs
and get access to higher levels of service. Healthy workplace There
is a definite link between work environment and the well being of
its employees and between employee health and the bottom line. Long
working hours, travel, competition, deadlines are the key causes of
stress and burnout. Environment and lifestyle are creating a new
health crisis amongst urban professionals, increasing the risk of
infections, heart and back problems or mental stress.
“Presenteeism” where employees come into work but cannot work at
optimal levels is a growing concern. Companies must consider the
full humanity of their people, looking at them not just as people
with jobs and career, but as people with families, friends,
beliefs, interests, passions, worries and futures. Diversity For
the Indian private sector, diversity as a business strategy has
preceded the employment equity criteria, which has only now begun
to be adopted by a few companies on a voluntary basis. Diversity
goes beyond nationalities, gender, colour, race or religion. It is
also about managing the demographic and psychographic
characteristics of an evolving workforce. It will take a whole new
level of education of tolerance. HR will need to provide
cross-cultural support and training to virtual global teams. Impact
of technology Eventually technology is going to eliminate most HR
jobs as they exist nowadays. Technology with 24X7 communication
capabilities, coupled with outsourcing, guarantees there will be
smaller HR departments in companies. Today CRM has given way to ERM
- Employee Relationship Management. Employees can self manage
activities previously handled by HR departments. Technology will
also help people connect within the work environment regardless of
time and place as organisations are becoming physically local, yet
virtually global. Talent management Talent management with a focus
on soft skills, leadership development and succession planning is
the defining trend in HR. In India, technically qualified people
are easier to find. But what companies require is a domain expert
with managerial skills to leverage that expertise in the interest
of the company. Selections are increasingly based on soft skills
such as attitude, ethics, or people skills. Today one’s educational
qualification is just not enough to get a job. This becomes even
more important as we go up the pyramid to middle, senior and top
level managers. One of the scarcest capabilities is leadership. As
organisations, their customers, employees and their environment
become more global and competitive, the competency requirements for
successful leadership are increasing exponentially. Leadership
comes with empowerment and changing work-cultures across the levels
through continuous learning, skill development and change
management. We now live in a world where the job and job
requirements are constantly changing. Many of us are in jobs that
didn’t exist three years back and three years from now many of us
will be in jobs that don’t exist now. In this context, succession
planning needs to be re-engineered, to focus on competencies rather
than positions. Thus succession planning will evolve into something
broader talent management, regardless of organisation structure. In
conclusion, HR professionals need to step up to these challenges or
else other functional areas will take over this responsibility.
Apart from domain re-skilling, the emerging HR professional has to
be skilled cross-functionally. It has never been better for the
right thinking, right-skilled HR professional.
