Daily Times

The accelerating pace of the changes in this world is driving the organisations to be extra proactive for the sake of their survival amidst the cut-throat competitive environment. The organisations are required to be relevant in their work operations, which means transfiguring the business model in a way that will meet the needs of the workforce in the future.

HR professionals will have to adopt an inevitable role in the transformation process to well align with the future needs of every organisation including maximising the use of new technologies, data management systems and other modern record keeping.

The leadership style needs to undergo a dramatic shift, as 75 percent of the workforce will comprise of millennials. The emphasis would largely be on innovation, individual development, collaboration and the use of technology

Following are the latest trends, which are likely to shape the workplace and human resource in the next decade. The first and foremost is that ever-increasing automation and artificial intelligence is expected to take over the human personnel in various organisations in the near future. As a result, it is likely that 50 percent of the current jobs in the next ten years would be lost across the globe. This would bring in a challenge for the HR professionals to maximise the creative potential of the workforce than their robotic counterparts.

The performance management system is expected to be replaced with coaching and human development approach, which emphasises on receiving timely and continuous feedback. The offices in the future would not be based upon annual appraisals of their employees; rather they would be directed towards redirecting performance of the employees towards tapping their untapped creative potential.

In addition, the introduction of virtual reality scenarios will require HR department to become highly tech savvy, and redesign its approach towards evaluation of candidates. The recruiters will be empowered to analyse the capabilities of the short-listed candidates in real-time using virtual reality. The virtual reality is going to be the cornerstone of the fundamental HR operations, which will ensure improved management of resources, and provision of effective solutions.

Most importantly, the leadership style is required to undergo a dramatic shift as 75 percent of the workforce will comprise of millennials. The emphasis would largely be on innovation, individual development, collaboration and the use of technology. Therefore, HR professionals and companies are required to train the leaders as per the requirements of the millennials.

On the whole, Human Resource Department will be direly required to redesign itself being strategic and innovation-oriented. HR professionals will be required to intensely employ the use of cutting edge innovative technology and data management to achieve operational efficiency in the future.

The writer is a freelance columnist

Published in Daily Times, February 20^th 2018.