As the world of technology and communication changes, so do the challenges and trends that go along with it. Gary B. Kushner, SPHR, is the president and CEO of Kushner & Co., a global HR strategy and employee benefits consulting and administration firm. Kushner gave a speech at the Society for Human Resource Manage, “The Changing Nature of Work: Five Global Trends Affecting Strategic Human Resources” in which he outlined and discussed the five global trends that are affecting the changing nature of work and how HR professionals need to approach these trends.
The five trends discussed include technology, outsourcing, changing worker attitudes and values, demographics and diversity and globalization.
Technology. With the way technology works today, there is a blurred line between week and personal life that continues to get blurrier. The challenge of engaging your employees but not working them around the clock is difficult; you have to be able to find the right mix. Companies need to figure out what the differentiator should be. Telecommuting and flexible hours are only the beginning to navigating the problems with constant connectivity and the balance of work and life.
Outsourcing. Now organizations use a lot of “free agents” who come in for a specific project or maybe a couple of projects and provide a specific expertise while improving their skill sets and then they move on to other organizations. In the future, companies will be outsourcing more of their work which they have decided is not critical while the work that has been defined as critical will not be outsourced. The challenge with this for HR is being able to develop a strategy around how the work gets done in an organization and by whom.
Changing worker attitudes and values. People used to keep one job for their entire lives. Now, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a worker will most likely only be with a company for 3.5 years. HR needs to find a way to engage their workers in a way that they want to be with the company and be at work but also recognize that they also have interests outside of the workplace.
Demographics and diversity. People are living a lot longer today, and are in the work force longer, then they ever have been before. This means that soon, we will have five generations in the workplace all at once. HR’s challenge here will be having to change the way that they think of ways to strategize all kinds of things in the organization. This will be especially important with training and development.
Globalization. The best way to handle globalization of employees in an organization is to be looking at your organization’s goals and objectives and aligning the HR strategy accordingly.
Now you are better equipped to deal with the changing trends of technology and communication in the workplace and in life. Remember that balancing the two is key to success.
Published by Conselium Executive Search, the global leader in compliance search.
