Top 5 HR Trends for 2016

The way businesses and organisations operate has transformed drastically in the last few years. In this transformation, the Human Resource function is going to play an even more important role in leading and shaping the future of business as we know it Disruptive innovations are creating new industries and business models, and destroying old ones. The recent success of various start-ups is a clear example.

New technologies, data analytics and social networks are having a huge impact on how people communicate, collaborate and work. As generations work together, workforces become more diverse and people work longer; traditional career models may soon be a thing of the past. Many of the roles and job titles of tomorrow will be ones we have not even thought of yet.

As we step into 2016, it would be interesting to see how organisations prepare to attract and retain the best talent while ensuring business continuity and efficiency. It will be an imperative for the HR function to emerge as a strategic business partner that is not only tuned to new business demands and helps develop a leadership pipeline but also prepares the organisation for a digital future. In my opinion, here are the top 5 trends expected to prevail in 2016:

S Gender diversity will take centre stage- 2015saw many organisations announce appointment of women in leadership roles. This is going to take centre stage in 2016 as more and more organisations will do their utmost on retaining and hiring women employees at various levels in order to promote gender diversity. This is indicated by McKinsey Global Institute’s report on ‘The power of parity’ which establishes that advancing women’s equality can add $12 trillion to global growth.

As per the report, India has a larger relative economic value at stake from advancing gender equality than any of the ten regions analyzed. It also states that India could add $700 billion of additional GDP in 2025, upping the country’s annual GDP growth by 1.4 percentage points. Moreover, with the favourable Governmental policies and initiatives, women are being empowered with financial, technological and infrastructural support that can help them contribute to the Indian economy.

S Focused Talent Management- As leaders slowly but steadily realise the worth of their human capital, every aspect of talent management will change. The ideal talent lifecycle will now be goal-centric at every phase. From recruiting to off-boarding, every lifecycle change that talent goes through will have a focus on organizational value-based goals.

S Continued use of HR analytics - A recent Deloitte study revealed 57 per cent of human resources departments increased spends on analytics. HR will facilitate this move (as was also observed in 2015) toward data-based, objective workforce decisions by being the procurers and analysis of the mountains of data organisations have been housing for years. They will work with the C-suite to guide confident, informed decision-making.

S Innovative employee engagement practices- As competition increases, it will be imperative for organisations to attract and retain the best talent through newer employee engagement practices and rewards. 2015 saw relaxing of maternity and paternity leave policies and dress code at workplaces. 2016 will see organisations introduce more such flexible and innovative
initiatives.

S Re-engineering performance management processes - Traditional performance management is being replaced with innovative performance solutions to value and retain the top talent while also helping medium performers do better. Experts believe that agile performance management will become a core component for this year’s focus on engagement, development and leadership.

The year 2016 brings promise of companies continuing to adopt innovative technologies and creative benefits that will aim to put the employee first. HR professionals will have to use advanced analytics to predict future talent demands and to measure and anticipate performance and retention issues. In addition, it will be important for them to act as guardian of the brand and help their organisations become employer of choice.

The author is a Chief Human Resource Officer, Tata Teleservices Ltd. Richa leads the Human Resource function with her key responsibility areas such as HR Strategy, Organization Design, L&D, Cross Culture building, Remuneration Practices, Performance Management and Leadership Capability Development at Tata Teleservices. She has over 22 years of rich experience working across various industry segments such as Manufacturing, Management Consulting, Financial services, Telecom and BPO.