A profound change is taking place in labor markets.
The so-called “gig economy” or “sharing economy” together with the technological revolution, will fundamentally transform the way we live, work, and relate to one another.
We are now in a new world with new rules.
Although we all know that, we cannot foresee which scenario is likely to emerge.
However, there is clear evidence that these changes have the potential to improve the quality of life for populations around the world.
At Wisar, we can’t conceive a world with unemployed highly skilled professionals in a globally interconnected society and as a digital platform matching and connecting professionals with businesses, we seek daily to understand the social and policy implications of this momentous shift.
Indeed, the technologies and the 4th Industrial Revolution transformations are having a big impact on Human Resources and the way we work.
Even you may have already noticed it, we would like to analyze the most important HR trends to understand how can be the future of work and why we can design a better workplace for all of us in the next years.
- Online labor markets
According to McKinsey Global Institute report, “A labor market that works: Connecting talent with opportunity in the digital age”, “online talent platforms are increasingly connecting people to the right work opportunities.
This new report reveals that these digital platforms “could add $2.7 trillion to global GDP, and begin to ameliorate many of the persistent problems in the world’s labor markets” by 2025.
Digital labor platforms help recruit and organize a company’s employees and maximize their productivity.
These technology platforms can also push up business performance becoming workers more engaged, productive and satisfied.
- Flexible work arrangements
Although the scenario can vary depending on the company and the social context within the country, based on current workforce growth rates found in Freelancing in America: 2017, the majority of the US workforce will freelance by 2027.
Various studies have also shown that flexibility at work is closely correlated to workers’ happiness, greater performance and higher productivity.
Another research also reveals that 86% of workers recognize being more productive and more committed to their work when they can balance work demands with their private lives.
In fact, Timewise, a well-known consultant dedicated to flexible work research, revealed last year that companies that resist promoting strategies of flexibility and conciliation, maintaining traditional work patterns are at risk of losing their best employees.
- Employee Engagement versus Employee Experience
We now have five generations working together. By 2025, it is predicted that Millennials will be 75 percent of the workforce and this generation value company culture more than any other generation that’s come before them.
In Fortune‘s list of 100 Best Workplaces for Millenials, prioritizing the well-being and personal growth of young employees was a constant theme, beyond just offering a better compensation package.
While other generations typically valued salary as one of the most important factors in choosing a job, according to a study by Fidelity, millennials would be willing to give up $7,600 in salary every year if they could work at a job that provide them a better environment.
In this new scenario where workers are looking for a job that allows them a career development, find more purposeful work, better work-life balance, or a better company culture, people are at the center of businesses.
HR is no longer simply a function of compliance and risk management. Today’s HR purpose is to improve the employee experience and strengthen the cooperation between employee and employer to ensure they collectively achieve a shared vision.
- Workplace transformation and new organizational forms
It is obvious that the traditional workplace is changing with the increasing of remote jobs offers, the implementation of flexible arrangements and policies and the icorporation of technologies and digital tools.
The future for businesses is to adopt smart and agile working since this kind of implementations demonstrate that organizations can operate more effectively and reduce costs by operating beyond the office space.
For employees, smart working opens an empowerment opportunity to choose the best times and places to work and lead more balanced and healthier lives.
With agile methodologies and 24 hour HR help for employers, companies can save money and focus on higher interaction with customers.
As Agile itself continues to evolve, the changing world of work will demand HR professionals who are agile and have the ability to adapt and lead change.
- A new face of Leadership
The new Global Leadership Forecast 2018 survey suggests that the face of leadership is changing.
Among the highlighted findings, this new research shows that “leaders need to be able to understand the impact of digital technology, be highly adaptable, hyper-collaborative, and able to leverage data to make better decisions”.
Organizations with more women in leadership are “1.4 times more likely to have sustained and profitable growth.”
Finally, the Global Leadership Forecast 2018 found that “organizations that operated without a purpose-driven culture, or even a purpose statement, financially underperformed the average by 42%.”
For organizations then, investing in the development of their future leaders, prioritizing these areas is a good place to start.
- Human Resources Digitalization
The digitalization of the workplace itself is obvious.
HR professionals who are succeeding at applying analytics to their jobs are bringing a lot of value to their employers.
However, as the report shows, only 18% of organizations are using data to make decisions about people, when they implement it they are 6.3 times more likely to report advantages.
Besides the people analytics, the increasing adoption of human resources (HR) software is key.
Artificial Intelligence, chatbots, machine learning tools, and these HR softwares you should purchase can help improve your recruitment practices, lower costs and obtain better candidates for each position.
According to the India Report of Deloitte’s 5th Annual Global Human Capital Trends, 53% of companies are revamping their HR programmes to deploy digital tools, while 22% have already leveraged AI to deliver HR solutions.
- The new era of Learning
The demands of the job industry are changing more rapidly than ever before and it seems to be evident that acquiring new skills will be the norm now.
According to World Economic Forum research “today’s global workforce faces an urgent need to gain new skills to keep up-to-date with the changing requirements of their jobs”.
