Challenges ahead!
The human resources function has been evolving significantly. Overemphasis on technology in HR has been a point of discussion in the recent past, and as a consequence, organizations are looking more seriously at HR than before. Rest assured, the function is not going to die or disappear as many people have been forecasting. It is very much here and will remain until the involvement of people is replaced by some invisible resource in business.
When we look at the coming year, some of the challenges HR might face or have to focus on include the impact of labor reforms on employee relations and business in total, which the government is keen to address. Handling sexual harassment matters at the workplace is another priority because these incidents have increased enormously in the recent past, along with the issue of reputation management. We have seen how the chairman of a big conglomerate had to apologize publicly last year due to inappropriate comments from an HR person to an employee. HR has to call out risky practices that might bring down or dent the credibility of the organization. The use of electronic gadgets against management by employees at the workplace can be another area, which is an ever-increasing phenomenon in almost all business sectors and is competent to disturb harmonious employee relations.
Performance Management
The next area might be performance management, which has seen changes. It is now taking the shape of continuous feedback from the earlier system where feedback was given either yearly or every six months.
The Changing Workforce
The permanent workforce is now a matter of the past. Not many organizations have a policy of employing people on their permanent rolls. The workforce is engaged as trainees, on fixed-term contracts, temporarily, or through contractor agencies. In all such models, the necessary element is job insecurity. Organizations are not in favor of providing job security for at least the initial five years. With this kind of increasing workforce, HR is expected to create harmony, engagement, loyalty, a sense of ownership, discipline, and productivity. In the manufacturing sector, it is a significant issue and will be more serious in the near future, where contractual blue-collar employees involved in production processes are changed at short intervals, and floor officials are expected to deliver high productivity with zero accidents. A worrisome aspect for HR would be to resolve this self-contradiction created by organizations and find a balanced approach to satisfy the needs of both.
Our special feature on challenges and priorities that HR is going to face and address in 2018 and beyond comprises very rich and innovative ideas with the ground reality by industry experts and professionals from different sectors. If you like it, let us know. If not, well, let us know that too.
Happy Reading!
Anil Kaushik, Business Manager - HR Magazine
From India, Delhi
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181The human resources function has been evolving significantly. Overemphasis on technology in HR has been a point of discussion in the recent past, and as a consequence, organizations are looking more seriously at HR than before. Rest assured, the function is not going to die or disappear as many people have been forecasting. It is very much here and will remain until the involvement of people is replaced by some invisible resource in business.
When we look at the coming year, some of the challenges HR might face or have to focus on include the impact of labor reforms on employee relations and business in total, which the government is keen to address. Handling sexual harassment matters at the workplace is another priority because these incidents have increased enormously in the recent past, along with the issue of reputation management. We have seen how the chairman of a big conglomerate had to apologize publicly last year due to inappropriate comments from an HR person to an employee. HR has to call out risky practices that might bring down or dent the credibility of the organization. The use of electronic gadgets against management by employees at the workplace can be another area, which is an ever-increasing phenomenon in almost all business sectors and is competent to disturb harmonious employee relations.
Performance Management
The next area might be performance management, which has seen changes. It is now taking the shape of continuous feedback from the earlier system where feedback was given either yearly or every six months.
The Changing Workforce
The permanent workforce is now a matter of the past. Not many organizations have a policy of employing people on their permanent rolls. The workforce is engaged as trainees, on fixed-term contracts, temporarily, or through contractor agencies. In all such models, the necessary element is job insecurity. Organizations are not in favor of providing job security for at least the initial five years. With this kind of increasing workforce, HR is expected to create harmony, engagement, loyalty, a sense of ownership, discipline, and productivity. In the manufacturing sector, it is a significant issue and will be more serious in the near future, where contractual blue-collar employees involved in production processes are changed at short intervals, and floor officials are expected to deliver high productivity with zero accidents. A worrisome aspect for HR would be to resolve this self-contradiction created by organizations and find a balanced approach to satisfy the needs of both.
Our special feature on challenges and priorities that HR is going to face and address in 2018 and beyond comprises very rich and innovative ideas with the ground reality by industry experts and professionals from different sectors. If you like it, let us know. If not, well, let us know that too.
Happy Reading!
Anil Kaushik, Business Manager - HR Magazine
From India, Delhi
Acknowledge(1)Amend(0)
Looks like a great line up of articles - congratulations. Rather curious if any of the HRs mentioned the role of Government policies - because clearly a lot of this has to do with the way the policies put a lot of pressure on the employers. Is there any talk among employers avoiding "Women employees" altogether or being very careful about when they hire them after the Maternity Benefits amendment?
Looks like a great lineup of articles - congratulations. I am rather curious if any of the HRs mentioned the role of government policies, as it is evident that these policies exert significant pressure on employers. Is there any discussion among employers about avoiding women employees altogether or being very cautious when hiring them following the Maternity Benefits amendment?
From India, Gurgaon
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Looks like a great lineup of articles - congratulations. I am rather curious if any of the HRs mentioned the role of government policies, as it is evident that these policies exert significant pressure on employers. Is there any discussion among employers about avoiding women employees altogether or being very cautious when hiring them following the Maternity Benefits amendment?
From India, Gurgaon
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HR Manual (Employee Hand Book).doc
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