2021 will be the most promising and exciting year as it will see HR taking action and working towards executing strategies to becoming the leading contributor to

With the new age employees expecting more from their organizations as they make a shift from working ‘for’ to working ‘with’ them, HR will have to customize its value proposition along with owning and delivering the outcomes that drive business success.

 

The world of work today is seeing massive changes, be it in the workforce or workplace, with rapid technological shifts that are heavily affecting the way in which businesses operate. The customer of today and tomorrow is the ‘young’ who operates in the world where the virtual meets the physical. While growth remains the primary focus for most CEOs, what will enable this growth is the service value proposition based on the concept of ‘care’. Not only that, to be in the lead, organizations will have to have a focus on financial performance, the quality of products and services they offer, along with the objective of offering an inclusive growth for the gamut of stakeholders they serve. This will transpire into their relationship with their workers and customers with the larger social impact that they make. 

 

Changing customer expectations, evolving employee demographics, infusion of cutting-edge technologies, and hyper-connected world of business are transforming the role of HR in the matrix of things which is, in turn, blurring the lines between traditional functions and the core of the business. In such an ecosystem, there is a lot riding on HR’s shoulder which necessitates HR to reimagine the various touch-points in the employee lifecycle. With the new age employees expecting more from their organizations as they make a shift from working ‘for’ to working ‘with’ them, HR will have to customize its value proposition along with owning and delivering the outcomes that drive business success. Here are some of the trends the HR function can gear up for in 2021.

 

Culture

 

Culture is key to any transformation and an essential lever for business growth. In 2021, HR will have to harness a collaborative, empowered, employee-oriented, innovative, and creativity-centric culture while giving agility the main focus going forward. 

 

Immersive Experience

 

Investing in virtual and augmented reality tools of engagement, smart and collaborative workspaces, creating a workplace of one through personalized learning on-the-go, and customized rewards are some the ways in which HR can create an employee experience that meets the expectations of an employee demographics (of millennials) that is 60 percent of India’s workforce today and will be 80 percent by 2025.

 

Blended workforce

 

The rise of newer business ecosystems and the brick and mortar apocalypse is giving way to a blended workforce comprising permanent workers, temporary workers, part-timers, agency workers, contractors, or freelancers working in harmony on the same team for the same goal. We will see the rise in governance with policies and practices crafted for employment that varies markedly from the standard full-time employment policies, facilitated by technology. 

 

Corporate citizenship

 

A purpose-driven organization is becoming increasingly important not only for the sustenance of an organization but also for its identity and branding, and even for employees. An organization’s commitment to making a social impact, its stand on diversity and inclusion, employee wellness etc. is a significant part of its employee value proposition.

 

Technology

 

HR will see a steep rise in the use of tech-based tools and practices that will impact the service generated for the end users. Candidate driven recruitment, Artificial Intelligence-based solutions, and conversational platforms, virtual collaboration tools, predictive analytics for people management and many such technologies will become imperative for HR to use in the coming time.