Top 2019 HR initiatives
While the year 2018 is yet to close, many of you are already setting the stage for HR initiatives for 2019. IHRP recently conducted a survey of about 70 CHROs and Business Leaders on their top HR priorities for their organisations. Out of a list of 22, three stood out as clear favourites:
1. Reskilling and building skills transferability is needed to create a more agile workforce.
Our industries are transforming due to emerging business models, political-economic changes and demographic shifts. HR’s role in strategic workforce planning to understand the macro-drivers of their industry impacting current and future people needs is a critical first step. Many need to promote their sectors (retail, social services, healthcare, early childhood, etc) as future-ready with good job opportunities for skills mastery and varied career paths. Here, the rollout of various industry-specific Skills Frameworks by SSG is an opportunity to benchmark and identify technical and generic skills at various competency levels and coupled with career paths.
2. Adapting new technology in the management of HR processes across the full spectrum of the employee life cycle.
The rate of adoption of social media has changed the way employees communicate, interact and work with one another. Routine processes are ripe for Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Beyond processes, the implications are also on new organization models to deal with speed and ambiguity and new ways of working where leaders need to embrace the power of networks to share and receive ideas, skills and capabilities.
3. Mapping the employee journey to identify critical moments at work that have a lasting impact on employee experience.
The shift from employee engagement to employee experience continues unabated, with organisations tailoring their human capital strategies at different life and/or career stages helps managers better shape or create these “moments that matter”.
Other notables initiatives for 2019 include promoting from within, coaching managers to be more effective leaders and adopting a Business Partnering model for talent attraction and L&D strategies.
What is very clear from the survey data is that the HR transformation journey is well and truly underway. HR can now be called upon to help solve critical business problems. A transformed HR function can be crucial in cultural transformation, increasing innovation, and offsetting impending talent shortages.
IHRP is working with its partners to help our community of HR professionals navigate the challenges by identifying what a transformed HR looks like, the skills and competencies required and curate developmental opportunities to better support their development.
On their part, HR professionals should embrace a culture of lifelong learning, cultivate a passion for knowledge and leverage new mediums to learn differently. IHRP’s Body of Competencies‘ is a good place to start.
Mayank Parekh
Mayank has over 20 years of experience in regional, global HR and general management roles prior to joining Institute for Human Resource Professionals (IHRP) as CEO in June 2017.