Business environment is changing so is the recruitment of right talent and employees who are making meaningful contributions. Human capital management involves set of business practices for management of planning, acquisition, retention, development, talent growth for achievement of business goals optimized with overall performance. Within the organization people have different talents that are managed and coordinated by effective talent management. Human resource may study and evaluate skills, personality, character and talent of each individual for filling a certain vacancy in a company. Every individual has different skills set to offer and for companies it becomes hard to identify those that fit in existing company culture. In next 10 years this might become more difficult which will require effective HR procedures for identifying talented individuals (Al Ariss, et. al, 2014). This report is focused on analyzing the changes in HR talent management activities in next 10 years and recommendations for dealing with these changes.
The function of HR is evolving constantly. The future of HR depends on investment of top leaders in tackling challenges faced by HR today. Remote working, freelancing, generational switch and gig economy projects are changing the way of how candidates were recruited and managed. Human resources field is also changing and it is becoming more vital for development of organizations. The work of HR is being revolutionized due to use of new data and technologies.
One of the major trends that are coming in talent management is related to changing work expectations. 75 percent of the workforce by 2020 is expected to be millennials (Aruna and Anitha, 2015). This new workforce is expected to bring new working values and styles, paying more importance to work-life balance and quick progression for achieving job stability. Thus, HR will need to be more attractive and be able to retain best millennial talent. The modern workplace is complex and relies greatly on people’s network therefore it is critical for employers to develop a workforce which is engaged and talented. This indicates that in future employers will need to find and retain talent in new ways. Work expectations are changing rapidly thus, HR will need to take a fresh look at perks and benefits which are being offered to workforce in exchange of capabilities and experience.
The workplace flexibility and design is blurring out the line between professional and personal life, more employees are expecting from companies to take their well-being into account (Raziq and Maulabakhsh, 2015). The very first expectation of employees is the ability to work remotely. This has been seen as most occasional perk for specific types of jobs and thus being able to work away from workplace is becoming expectation of employees. The changing expectations of employees also include use of new technology, availability of fitness center, food and drink options, ergonomic furniture and availability of fitness center. Employees are increasingly expecting from employers to take care of their desires, health and wellness issues. In next 10 years, companies will have to make sure that they provide ways to employees for making work spaces personalize and for remaining connected and productive.
The internal social platforms and other ways of promoting communication and online collaboration across the company play an important part in completion of HR responsibilities in the future. Human resource can utilize different social tool for driving behaviors in office performance by providing incentives to employees and rewards to high performers (El Ouirdi, et. al, 2015). It is critical to understand what social networking organization adopts and use for defining strategic business goals. It is possible that a company and its employees already utilize social networking sites and tools which connect them with colleagues. These social networking sites include Facebook, Yahoo, LinkedIn and other knowledge base forum that are dedicated to enterprise social network. Talent management determines how social networking sites can be leveraged for facilitating employee development and learning and enhances employee performance and management.
In next 10 years, popular social networking sites will be a good alternative for maintaining internal communication of organization. Yet there are also higher chances of security issues in organizations who use different networks for enabling discovery of confidential and proprietary information. Resistance may take place from employees who are not willing to share their personal network with co-workers. Organizations will be using social networking component as a solution for extending formal classroom and providing education and training. Social networking capabilities will be used for existing learning management system and help in leveraging security model and underlying data which is inherited in these systems (Kane, 2015). For example, a social networking and collaboration portal known as Plateau Talent Gateway utilizes standard talent profile as a basis of their social identity and then allows social activity which integrates talent management of employees and their learning objectives.
According to a survey conducted by Society for Human Resource Management showed that in coming years, flexible work arrangements will be one of the top priorities of companies (Shagvaliyeva and Yazdanifard, 2014). The schedule of 9 to 5 working hours will no longer exists and young professionals will look for job where they get some time off for creative activities, they are able to take some break from work without the fear of being judged, will be allowed to work from home as part of pre-agreed objectives and are able to solve administrative issues without taking a day off. The generation Y and C want more flexibility and will only be able be more productive when they are given time for adjusting to personal lifestyle and work. Human resource will need to understand this and start implementing new methods for providing flexible working hours.
Flexible schedule of working will not only be limited to freelancers and telecommuters instead it will affect corporate organizations. Flexible working hours will allow employees to create a balance between personal life and work life. This will earn employee appreciation as it will depend on them when they start and stop working as per their convenience for fulfilling duties that they do outside workplace. Flexible working schedule will provide facilitation to employees to work outside their job responsibilities for reducing stress and remaining focused and more productive (Loretto and Vickerstaff, 2015). Although flexible working hours will not be appropriate for every job role yet companies who will work with employees for meeting needs will witness various positive results related to employee satisfaction and productivity.
Other changes that will occur in talent management are related to AI and automation. Manual labor jobs will be replaced by robots that will perform cognitive tasks in improved way as compared to human counterparts. This will impact the workforce and workplace as HR will need to find and maintain a balance between human labor and machine labor. Another trend that will be seen is related to online training and coaching. The growing use of smartphones will allow employees to access information whenever and wherever required.
The increase in technology has driven a huge change in workplace. Organization are not any more relying on permanent staff as new norm is small in-house staff which consist of freelancers and contractors. HR is recommended to have better understanding of workforce demographics. This will allow organization to improve return on their investment and improve talent management by cutting costs. For increasing workforce fluidity and scarceness, better understanding of demographic will help (McDonnell, et.al, 2017). It is recommended that for better talent management in future, human resources are required to clearly explain job specifications. The right match for the job will be important to find for improving productivity and job satisfaction. Companies will need to focus on understanding values and work culture in better way for attracting candidates that are in line with their values.
HR will have to manage talent by making strategic use of recognition and engagement by rewarding employees. In future, talent management is being expected to become more personalized (Al Ariss, et. al, 2014). This means HR will need to provide employees career advancement opportunities and ensure work-life balance. For Millennials, agenda is career progression, thus for retaining employees training and development opportunities need to be provided. In order to better prepare employees for fulfilling current and future roles, training and development programs will be needed for eliminating deficiencies. Such training and development strategies will make sure that skills of employees remain at peak for maintaining competitiveness of company and satisfying need of employees for progression. Employers can implement numerous educational opportunities, job experience programs, use of peer advisors and mentoring.
Future of talent management will be influenced by changes taking place in nature of work, needs of employers and work environment. The human resources will need to attract, engage and retain high skilled employees by focusing on giving tailored and defined experience. Organizations will need to adapt to pro-active role instead of reactive role. The future of talent management will not only be related to luring in talented individuals but it will need to identify future requirements, help employees in developing and training skills according to needs (McDonnell, et. al, 2017). This will prove to be helpful in increasing productivity and planning, provide opportunities of career progression and flexibility.
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