Decoding the Dynamics of HRM in 2019

HR consulting has emerged as an organized industry over the last three decades and has been a consistent contributor to the Indian economy. With the boom of the service industry in India, the consulting domain has come a long way and has evolved as a result-oriented sector. Fuelled by the IT/ITES industry, the consulting domain is riding the growth wave by the virtue of industries like R&D, advisory services, manufacturing and much more! Industry reports suggest that the HRM sector is projected to touch $30 billion by 2025. Embracing countless tech practices, HR consulting is strategically shifting towards a more holistic workforce experience.
The Pillars of Success
Be it any industry or sector, the HRM constitutes of core elements that work in sync to ensure a systematic flow for executing policies and ensuring business runs in a seamless manner.
Organizational Effectiveness: This is all about the workforce – how, why, & when. It includes processes, implementing structures at the org-level and much more! The HR department takes the center stage in managing every improvement plan, implementing policies, innovations that ultimately lead to maximizing organizational efficiency.
Training & Development: This function is the supreme force that aims to understand and improve the skills set of the employees within their respective specializations. Starting from an individual, it works at all levels – functions, competencies, leadership to suffice the training need for delivering the services. It covers soft skills, technical skills, management courses, conducting batches for interns and much more.
Defining Human Capital: The HCM team is the bunch of people who are responsible to define the core strategies of the HR team that includes corporate culture, business & services continuity plans for the leadership team. It works closely with the sub-teams within the HR fraternity and overlooks diverse areas like compensation, recruitment, on boarding, grievance, disciplinary policies, advisory services, and others.
Talent Acquisition & Management: This team takes cares of the entire requirement sent by various competencies requesting for resource allocation. The HR team plays a pivotal role in maintaining a steady flow of workforce in any organization. It follows stringent processes and analysis to ensure a proper count of resources along with creating an extra pool of resources, especially for unforeseen circumstances. The advent of tech platforms like HR analytics is becoming more and more useful for the HRM in streamlining the resource structure.
With all the functions working in tandem under the umbrella of HRM, now it’s time to analyze the future roadmap of the HR domain. Over the past years, the process and functions have been conventional, however, with the change of time, the industry also needs to adapt to smarter ways of doing business. Let’s explore a few of the trending factors for the year 2019 that is driving the industry in the most utmost way.
AI is the ‘next’ big change: Standing tall as a giant, technology is undoubtedly the reckoning force. It’s quite evident that sticking to traditional business models will phase out the conventional players eventually. Technologies like Artificial Learning, Machine Learning, and Analytics are the game changers in today’s competitive world. AI-embedded innovations are becoming much popular in engaging employees and enhancing the employee experience. Right from recruitment till the last day of an employee, these tech-models are going a long way to improve the HRM team. Today, more and more organizations are coming forward to implement AI technologies in the areas of data opportunities, talent acquisition, improving internal process and much more.
Redefining ‘Core’ HR activities: Till now, we always have known the HR team for managing the administrative activities including the processing of salary, leaves, hiring and so on. However, this approach is a thing of the past. Organizations are investing time to explore the remit of HR by concentrating on core areas of work. Aligning the HR team along with the Line /Employee managers are assisting a big way to improve the skill sets of employees at a micro level and multiplying productivity at the macro level.  Building a mutual atmosphere of trust is one of the vital elements for any HR team and hence it needs to adapt and embrace policies that aim to nurture the relationship between HR and operations.
Corporate Wellness: As organizations continue to fight for market space and expanding their businesses, a lot of pressure and stress falls directly on the HR and operations to ensure a winning seat every time. Recent studies have revealed that workload and stress are the trending factors that lead to attrition and loss of performance. Here again, the HRM has a strong role to play to ensure seamless solutions.  The wellness programs are a big step to improve employee engagement as it involves the employee at each step. Meditation centers, Gym, management workshops, WFH, balanced work-life policies, leaves – are some of the areas that have grown a lot and continue to be helping the HR team in the long run.
Personalization: Over the years, the HR industry and professionals have always focussed on ‘one-rule-for-all’ theory. Be it recruitment, salary processes, training and more. This theory is however shading away as HRM is now emphasizing on each individual and is innovating solutions that are specific and better placed. Placing analytic processes, the HR system is now looking to check the individual requirements, capabilities, along with revamping the operation process too. A simple example that shows the paradigm shift is mentioned below – rather than following the standard on-boarding process, the HR is now focusing to cater to the questions or in providing information to professionals that help them to simplify the process.
Removing Discrimination: Lack of education and social stigmas, have hindered the growth prospects of our country for a long time. Additionally, discrimination at the workplace has been an age-long issue that has been debated for long. These biased notions have hampered the prospects of the organizations but somehow, it is still prevalent. Right starting from education to color, religion, and what not, professionals have been targeted.  HRM has now taken this task in priority to stop discrimination and motivate diversity in the work environment. Countless studies backed by statistical data shows that professionals with different ethnic backgrounds and experience go a long way in fuelling innovations. It helps the business to perform effectively and stay aligned to the business goals.