Managing Contemporary Change Issues in the Human Resource Asset
When asked what the most important assets for your business are, you probably think of the huge sacrifices you made in the capital, equipment, technology, unparalleled marketing strategies, superior customer service, and even intellectual property. I guess. All of these are important to give a company an edge, but human capital is the most critical asset a company needs to tie other assets together. You need a human hand to move all the rest, right?
The success or failure of a company is highly proportional to the quality of its people. Planning to move your business forward is highly dependent on the capabilities of your people. Therefore, the quality and morale of the workforce must be continuously monitored as the internal and external environment is constantly changing.
In this blog, we discuss the main issues with the current changes impacting HR and how to manage them.
- Cross-Generational Challenges
Never before have generations of employees worked in the same organization as they do today. The multitude of ideas, opinions, and ways to do the most essential things can be confusing, to say the least increase. Intergenerational conflicts can arise as these generations have vastly different values, priorities, education, and upbringing. Younger generations, unlike older generations, are less concerned about loyalty and more concerned with what the company does for them.
- Technological Advances and Human Resource
Technology is at the core of today’s postmodern organizations. Organizations either embrace technological advances to remain relevant or die. Human resources or people are the driving force behind this technological change, so HR departments are essential in all of this.
Millennials (the tech-savvy generation) are projected to make up 75% of the workforce by 2020. This confirms that there is no escape from technology. It’s now paramount that HR fully adapts to technology and moves forward with the rest of the business. We know that many employers now use social media when hiring, and almost 90% of recruiters use the same social media to identify and cross-screen candidates.
- Aligning Human Resource Strategy with the Overall Business Strategy
This is not just a task for HR departments; it affects all other managers given that people play an important role within the organization. HR performance is increasingly measured by its strategic impact. Managers must understand the company’s overall strategy and goals and provide employees with the skills and resources necessary to achieve those goals.
Areas that HR and other managers need to address to ensure they are aligned with the overall business strategy include:
- Leadership – A versatile, strong leadership that effortlessly connects the employee to the employer must be adopted.
- Training and adaptation to Change – The level to which employees can respond and adapt to change and uncertainty as fast as possible.
- Compensation – Are the employees’ efforts appropriately rewarded per the organization’s strategy?
- Creativity and future orientation – Is technology and innovation that will help achieve organizational goals being fully embraced?
- Quality delivery – Is the ultimate quality being delivered to the customers to facilitate strategy realization?
- Need to be a Change Management Agent
Change is inevitable. It has been said that “the only thing that stays the same is the change”. Change helps companies stay relevant and gain a competitive advantage. Change management is defined as the processes, tools, and techniques for managing the human aspects of change to achieve desired business outcomes.
HR plays a central role in managing the personnel aspects of the transformation. Play a strategic role in implementing the transition to organizational change.
- Measuring the value of the Human Resource Asset
Forward-thinking companies invest heavily in developing their employees and, in turn, improving the overall performance of their organizations, making it difficult to measure the return on this critical asset. Due to its intangible nature, assigning value to the balance sheet becomes a real challenge.
Conclusion
Talent is a dynamic resource. People change, and often the variables surrounding performance also change. Managers (not just HR) must always be aware of employee dynamics and take appropriate actions to ensure that change is noticed as the organization pursues its goals.
