There’s been a technological transformation for the past two decades, and it’s accelerated in recent years. We’ve seen a shift towards remote work — as many as 31% of employers now allow it. And several organizations are introducing automated systems for payroll and admin.
These human resource changes require a new way of thinking. In this article, we’ll talk about some upcoming shifts and discuss ways you can prepare and maintain an effective organization.
Change #1 – Greater Automation
Many co.s look to automation as a solution, and it is already having a huge impact on HR across various sectors. There are multiple ways automation benefits your business.
Perhaps the biggest example is workflow automation. HR teams spend loads of time carrying out routine admin tasks. Workflow automation reduces time spent on admin. This allows teams to focus on more valuable tasks that benefit the growth of your organization. With the right software, you can automate:
- Updating timesheets
- Payroll management
- Performance management
- Paid & sick leave
- Writing job descriptions
Aside from workflows, you can benefit from other forms of automation. Hiring and onboarding is a long drawn-out process, but automation software can handle key parts of both tasks. This reduces the time it takes and means you’ll have new employees in place faster. The sooner they’re employed, the sooner they can settle into their role and become an effective member of the team.
How can HR prepare for this change?
Reassure employees
Your employees’ biggest concern might be that automated systems will replace them. Be sure to quash this as quickly as possible. Remind staff they are valued members of the team. Explain the benefits of automation and how it can allow them to focus on more interesting and rewarding tasks.
Ensure solid leadership
The best way to prepare your teams is for HR leaders to ensure that learning starts from the top. If leadership isn’t well-versed in new automated systems, teams won’t feel motivated to learn. Ensure your leadership is always around to answer any questions staff might have.
Gradual automation
While it might be tempting to fully automate as soon as possible, it’s better to take a more gradual approach. Introducing lots of new systems at once will only cause stress, and staff might feel overwhelmed. Automating one process at a time makes the transition much more manageable.
Change #2 – Find ways to engage remote employees
The transition to a more remote workforce has brought lots of benefits. Virtual employees are up to 35% to 40% more productive than those working in the office. But having remote employees also brings some challenges for HR. Perhaps the biggest is the ability to keep employees engaged.
People engage with their co-workers every day in the traditional office environment. They have set routines and feel part of a wider organization. Remote workers can feel isolated. Many organizations have found that lack of engagement has impacted the mental health of employees.
One of the most important aspects of human resource changes relates to finding new methods to engage remote employees. Staff need a way of connecting with the goals of an organization. They should feel a sense of belonging, not just another cog in the machine, but actively helping their organization achieve success.
How can HR prepare for this change?
Make use of virtual conferencing
Choose video meetings instead of audio calls. By seeing the working environments of other teammates, employees feel more connected. Video conferencing software can go beyond just meetings too. Why not use them for casual gatherings, like movie nights, sharing a drink with the team, or even holding an office holiday party?
Maintain solid communication
People feel a lot less disconnected if they can easily contact other members of their work team. Be sure to utilize messaging software so teams can have group chats. This way, if they need help, they can easily reach out to members of their team. You could also have a separate chat channel for less formal communication, like birthday messages and personal announcements.
Check-in regularly
There’s a danger that remote staff will feel that their voice doesn’t matter. Leaders can easily rectify this by checking in regularly. Instead of just giving feedback, actively seek it. Could certain processes be improved? Is a team member unhappy about a certain aspect of a project? Remote workers will feel more valued if you listen to and act on what they’re saying.
Change #3 – A new focus on diversity and inclusion
Diversity and inclusion is a hot topic in recent years. The Black Lives Matter movement put pressure on organizations to look at themselves internally, and many found multiple issues when they did. These included a lack of diversity in the workforce and an exclusionary approach to hiring people from underrepresented backgrounds.
If it hasn’t already, your company should make some of the following human resource changes:
- Diversify the hiring process.
- Ensuring people from underrepresented groups feel welcomed as members of the team.
- Eradicating racism and discrimination in the workplace.
- Enforcing new policies to ensure the workplace remains a safe space.
Along with these changes, HR departments will be expected to produce regular reports to show how they are implementing them.
How can HR prepare for this change?
Introduce diversity and inclusion training
The best step towards creating a more equal workplace is education. Training helps employees spot biases and create a more inclusive environment. This means greater collaboration and an overall boost to employee morale.
Create more inclusive policies
Take some time to evaluate your workforce. Do your current policies account for the traditions and religious beliefs of your staff? For instance, do you allow staff to take vacations for religious holidays? Do you create space for employees who are required to pray?
Once you have updated policies, be sure to spread awareness across your workforce. Create documents for different sections of the policy, so staff can easily find the information they need. To do so, you may need the help of a file splitter like this one https://www.pdfplatform.com/split.
Analyze the hiring process
Is your hiring process excluding people from diverse backgrounds? The only way to find out is through detailed analysis. Collect demographic information from applicants. Consider aspects of the hiring process that might be dissuading candidates. For instance, are job descriptions tailored to too narrow of an audience?
Change #4 – An emphasis on employee experience
We’re currently in the midst of a crisis for many businesses called “The Great Resignation.” In fact, by 2022, as many as 47.8 million people had quit their jobs. In the majority of cases, people believed they could find better opportunities in new positions. This could have been avoided if employees felt more comfortable in their current roles.
For this reason, many human resource changes will focus on the employee experience. This starts at the moment an employee joins your ranks and doesn’t end until they leave. To keep people happy, it is the role of HR to provide access to new resources and better opportunities.
How can HR prepare for this change?
Offer a clear path to progression
One of the biggest reasons people change roles is because they cannot see a clear career path. You can help reduce this issue by offering development support. You might give opportunities for employees to shadow more senior roles. Also, try to offer internal promotions so employees don’t feel excluded from development.
Introduce experience managers
Experience managers will check in regularly with co-workers. They’ll ensure that adequate resources and support are being provided. They can also help communicate opportunities that arise in your organization.
Reevaluate the hiring process
Remember, employee experience begins with the hiring process. Find ways to streamline this so candidates aren’t waiting too long for results. For example, add a score on each candidate’s resume. You can then remove the lower-scoring candidates from the process.
Change #5 – Greater support for well-being
One of the increasing human resource changes is a renewed focus on staff well-being. The subject of mental health, in particular, is often in the news. Thanks to this spotlight, people are more willing to seek support. Not only that, but employees now expect HR to be there to provide access to help.
Historically employee well-being hasn’t been a focus for businesses. But there are many important reasons why HR needs to adapt to this kind of employee engagement. If the well-being of your workforce is low, morale and productivity will be impacted.
And sadly, poor well-being is an issue that is affecting many different organizations. In a recent survey of UK employees, nearly 1 in 4 met the criteria for “clinically relevant symptoms” of anxiety and depression. To combat this issue, HR needs to find ways to support employees.
How can HR prepare for this change?
Introduce well-being initiatives
Initiatives can help you put well-being at the heart of your workplace environment. With encouragement from leaders, staff will be more likely to prioritize their well-being. Examples of initiatives include:
- Promoting the importance of a healthy diet. Replacing sugary snacks with more health-conscious alternatives.
- Promoting resources that can help support the mental health of your colleagues.
- Have outdoor meetings so employees spend less time at their desk or in a conference room.
Regular conversations
Encouraging people to talk about their problems has been proven to have a positive effect on mental health. Run regular one-to-one sessions with employees. Encourage them to express any difficulties they may be experiencing.
Change #6 – Adapting to global markets
Today, access to global markets is much easier. So international customers expect more than a simple import of standard products. To make an impact internationally, you need to tailor your products for each market.
Putting this into action can be a challenge. Juggling global expansion with local marketing can put a strain on your business. To be successful, HR needs to adapt to globalization. This means additional HR teams to accommodate global markets, cultural training, and support with visas.
How can HR prepare for this change?
Hire locally
As you move into new markets, local knowledge will be essential. You won’t get better insights than from someone who already lives in the area. When hiring new HR staff, focus on hiring from in international markets rather than transferring existing employees.
Have pro knowledge of laws
Each market that you expand into will have its own legislation. This means different tax and employment laws. To avoid damaging fines, HR needs to be able to deal with legislation. HR leaders will need to take the time to learn local laws and changing government policy.
Train your workforce
Training needs will change when working in new markets. For instance, if you transfer a team member, they will need training in local cultures and new international work requirements. You will need to consider different training modules for each market you expand into.
Change #7 – The emerging role of data
Data is now influencing every aspect of business. It helps us better understand our customers and can help tailor our marketing, allowing us to create effective social media posts. Businesses that fail to capitalize on it get left behind.
Data is also becoming crucial for HR. People analytics, in particular, is at the forefront of ongoing human resource changes. They can help HR in many different ways, such as:
- Identifying skill sets that are lacking on your team.
- Spotting issues relating to staff retention.
- Improving the recruitment process.
People analytics are becoming an essential part of modern HR. To ensure success, it’s better to prepare for this change sooner rather than later.
How can HR prepare for this change?
Improve data collection
Effective people analytics requires a great deal of data. Consider different ways you can collect information, including:
- Surveys and questionnaires.
- Data gathered during the recruitment process.
- Network analysis.
Ensure you have sufficient storage to accommodate large-scale data collection. To reduce file sizes, it might be useful to use the HEIC file format (you can easily convert to PDF using a HEIC converter).
Have the right team
Your staff insights will only be as effective as your data analysis. Put together an analytics team, this should include data scientists and engineers. If you don’t already have people in place, you may need to seek external help.
Embrace change management
Without a solid change management strategy, organizations won’t be able to prepare properly for future human resource changes.
Reflect for a moment on some of the recent changes that have affected HR. We’ve already mentioned the move towards remote work. Suddenly HR had to adapt to this new way of working. We needed systems to facilitate remote onboarding and training. New policies were needed, and often, the culture had to adapt.
Many businesses weren’t ready for this sudden change. Employees weren’t given the information they needed, and the companies suffered.
Effective change management could have minimized these issues. This form of strategic planning involves three stages; planning, analyzing, and executing. By carrying out this process, you can make change much more seamless.
Why I wrote this:
PandaDoc’s mission is to develop products that help smaller companies compete with industry-leading giants. This all starts with a happy and productive team. We want businesses to stay on top of human resource changes and ensure they’re prepared for the future in an ever-changing business world. And if you want to automate your job description writing processes too, request an Ongig Text Analyzer demo to learn more.
Shout-outs:
- OwlLabs — State of Remote Work 2022
- Global Workplace Analytics — Cost and Benefit
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics — Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary
- Champion Health — Employee Wellbeing Statistic: UK 2023
This is a guest post by Yauhen Zaremba – Director of Demand Generation
Yauhen is the Director of Demand Generation at PandaDoc, an all-in-one document management tool for almost all types of documents, including this PandaDoc house rental lease agreement. He’s been a marketer for 10+ years, and for the last five years, he’s been entirely focused on the electronic signature, proposal, and document management markets. Yauhen has experience speaking at niche conferences where he enjoys sharing his expertise with other curious marketers. And in his spare time, he is an avid fisherman and takes nearly 20 fishing trips every year.
