HR in a Changing World: 7 Methods for Highly Effective HR Management

The world of work is changing. We work much longer hours and feel overwhelmed, more and more people are choosing freelance and erratic forms of employment. Wherever we go, we meet technology, robots, and artificial intelligence that are changing the world of work and forcing us to change. Josh Bersin, founder of Bersin by Deloitte, spoke about the new role of HR in all of this change and how to deliver the most value to the business.

What's going on with HR management?

Don't get me wrong: HR is trying to keep up. In many ways, HR is a win-win profession: when things go well, management takes credit for themselves, and when things go wrong, they often blame the HR department.

Everyone believes that today the global task of HR is training managers, solving diversity problems in a team, finding and hiring talented people as quickly as possible, training the best employees, smooth adaptation of newcomers and retraining of employees, competitive remuneration of people for labor, establishing significant guarantees and compensations, benefits, privileges, and benefits; creating a stimulating, enjoyable and inspiring work environment. And besides that, the HR department must keep records, ensure that the payroll is used effectively, and protect the company from violations of the law and legal problems in hundreds of countries around the world.

This is not an easy job. But it can be easier if you see two types of tasks in the HR function:

• Hard things are “operational” issues: recruiting and hiring people, publishing vacancies, creating career portals, calculating salaries, checking that everyone has completed compliance training, encouraging employees to be assessed, leaving from labor conflicts, safety issues, and termination of employment contracts. Tasks like these, including managing executive benefits, hiring new hires, managing alumni, and employee interactions, are very difficult, but people tend to get very frustrated if they don't succeed every time.
• Soft things are people-centered sets of tasks at work: to ensure positive performance management, train new managers to work efficiently, create a conveyor of leaders and senior executives, assess and strengthen culture and engagement, analyze processes of turnover and productivity, analysis of complex issues such as illegal borrowing, harassment, cultural differences, teamwork on projects, the introduction of innovative ideas and the employer brand.

While HR can be creative with these soft things, they often barely manage to fit into an available budget and timeline. Whereas hard things are decided first.

Today, our research shows soft things are more important than ever. Here's why: People-centered action increases efficiency. Research by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that nearly 90% of the value of US stocks is now driven by intellectual property, services, and brands — people are behind it all. It seems that regardless of the business you operate in, "people are your product."

In addition, soft things are at the root of some serious economic problems. Labor productivity is not growing. The current digital revolution is actually the least productive revolution we've seen in US economic history (the invention of the steam engine, electricity, and the original computer increased output per hour).

The question is, how can HR focus on soft things to help people do more at work?

What does effective HR management look like?

For two years we have studied over 1000 organizations, nearly 100 talented professionals, and HR practitioners. After analyzing the plethora of data on how companies measure the impact of HR on profitability, revenue growth, and other financial metrics, I can tell you the secret behind top organizations.

Effective HR teams are taking on completely new features today. They are still good at doing hard things but automate and optimize those required actions. And thus they can focus on projects, culture, values, leadership, and productivity - the results from people-centered soft things.

This transformation, which we call High-Performance Human Resources Management, is a manifesto for the HR department. But this does not only apply to HR. Highly effective HR management gives us insight into how to be a better manager, effectively manage information technology and other business functions, and focus on the business as a whole.

We've identified seven key practices that differentiate these high performing companies:

1. Plan employee activities by analyzing and understanding their life at work

As you plan, consider how people work, make decisions, and organize their day and efforts. Use this knowledge to create specific HR tools to help employees complete tasks, improve skills, collaborate, and feel more engaged.

2. Use HR technologies to increase productivity and improve employee life

HR technology can do much more than automate existing practices. High-performing HR organizations find opportunities to leverage technology to improve productivity, improve feedback, and align teams across the company.

3. Lead the movement towards digitalization

While many companies are struggling to understand what the digital revolution means for their businesses, HR is in a unique position to lead, not lag behind. Organizational structure, reward, and benefits systems - all under the jurisdiction of HR - are critical for businesses to achieve the digital future.

4. Understand and support flexible and team-oriented organizational models

Traditional hierarchies no longer describe what actually happens. High-performing organizations offer collaborative solutions to help ever-changing teams with challenges such as goal management, performance management, coaching, oversight, and development.

5. Work with leadership to build a culture of trust, unity, shared goals, and transparency.

High-performing HR departments don't just focus on compliance and control - hard things. By focusing on culture, high performing HR teams have a myriad of soft things to do.

6. Plan HR activities to act as a network of teams, breaking down the silos between HR and the rest of the departments

While specialization in areas such as recruiting, training, compensation, and other key functions is important, almost all issues today are multidisciplinary. High-performing HR teams act like agile consulting teams, joining forces when a problem arises.

7. Revive spiritually, professionalize and continuously improve your HR professionals

The HR department should not be a place where people who cannot be employed in other parts of the business are thrown out. Demand the same level of growth and innovation like other business units and provide your people with many opportunities for internships, external training, research, and partner visits.

In a changing world, HR issues are more important than ever.

Examples of HR teams that are constantly moving forward and delivering results are inspiring and worth exploring. They demonstrate what I've seen throughout my career: Companies that grow and focus on delivering the seven overall results of effective HR organizations are simply the best companies overall. They tend to be more profitable, grow faster, and have higher employee engagement rates.

Today's new world of work requires leadership, creativity, and dedication from HR departments. The days of teams that want to “just work” are over: you have been given the opportunity to lead. High-performing HR managers must lead the struggle to make the workflow productive, engaging, and rewarding. Business leaders will love it.

I know HR professionals are up to the challenge, and I hope this study will provide inspiration and ideas to reimagine working in your own organization. But to keep everything up to mark Human Resource Management Software need to be implemented.