NEW HR EXCELLENCE: 2023 trends
1) HR AS BUSINESS STAR – Put HR on the corporate agenda
2) LET EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE SHINE – Put employee topics on top
3) ENABLE CORPORATE MANAGERS & LEADERS – Re-skill & enable internal talent
4) PUT AI TO WORK – Unleash the power of data & automation
5) RE-IGNITE HUMAN FACTOR – Core topics require human intelligence
AKAlytics Top 5: HR that matters – key insights for a winning workplace.
Akalytics takes a fresh look at corporate and personal success, agile leadership, employee experience and career coaching. AKAlytics thinks outside the box and mobilizes team power. Just as more and more corporations launch major transformations we offer smart HR insights. Some big corporations announced bitter team reductions to navigate economic uncertainties. AKAlytics Trends such as “great resignation” and “quiet quitting” showcase the seemingly high frustration within corporate workforces. Today’s HR faces unparalleled challenges. It’s time to create tomorrow’s HR that matters.
1) HR AS BUSINESS STAR
Today’s global supply issues, economic inflation and lack of suitable personnel fill headlines. To master the challenges fantastic teams are needed. Corporate future success will more than ever rely on great human talent. It is more than time to re-think HR as a core business priority.
AKAlytics believes that corporate success will only be ensured by an exceptional workforce. This requires a diverse, top skilled and value-oriented team. Motivated team members shall happily start their job every new day. The future HR function needs to get ready to hire, train, develop and continually enlight team members. Talent acquisition, talent development, re-skilling and retention will become key success factors. An effective HR is an HR that matters. Corporate leaders need to acknowledge HR as a true business star. HR topics are CXO topics.
The HR function fell victim to shared services which never achieved its performance targets, but instead just met cost-cutting targets. In consequence, HR became in many global corporations an “underrated” unit, which was more controlled by financial concerns than by energizing people leadership nor real training nor individual empowerment. HR as a cost center is truly 1990s and out-of-time.
Recent global crises highlight that hiring, skill mining and retention are topics which will determine corporate success or failure. HR and people topics need to be put on the CEOs agenda. Not just for a short-term project, but for profound and long-term transformation. HR needs to be recognized as what they are: HR is business critical stuff. Great HR experts are corporate life-savers and heros.
Business success depends on people’s performance, team skills and mobilization. Business needs to re-discover that HR is not just an internal function but it is a core element of the business itself. Business leaders need to not just rely on HR services, but embrace HR collaboration. The degree of business orientation of specific business units depends on corporate as-is, customer expectations and today’s NEW market and people realities. To build new win-win strategies, agile leadership needs to be in the driver seat. HR is not a shared services topic, it is not an IT or digitalization matter. It is a business priority. If people, talent and skills are made top corporate priority, team members, the relatable company and business numbers will win.
2) LET EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE SHINE
Employee Experience is yet another “buzz word” filling blogs and Insta. However, the more a term is used in public or in media does not mean that the term actually changes corporate realities. Almost every other week one finds news on corporate layoffs, which were communicated via email or unsuitable means. These are telling examples on the reality of Employee Experience in today’s corporate world.
Bringing Employee Experience to life will means that employee way-of-thinking is cherished by management and will be allowed to shape corporate policies and decision making. AKAlytics identifies a TOP action item in putting Employee Experience first. Business leaders and managers need to be trained and made aware on how business decisions might affect employees. Business leadership and employees must rethink partnership.
In too many corporations, employees are still regarded as a “human resource” which needs to function according to internal policies. Employees as a “resource” which are expected to compromise personal interests are a disaster to corporate survival. The shift and generational change towards “employee-empowerment” with diversity and value-based decisions is reality and expectation. Although it seems as if too many businesses still keep on with a “resource mindset”.
To ensure future business success, Employee Experience needs to be pushed on all corporate levels. Employee Experience is not achieved by internal or external marketing. There is a catch. The employees in each business will judge if Employee Experience actions are real and leading to results. Benefits matter. Make your employees smile and enjoy work. Engage and empower. Enhance employee performance and experience.
Creating and building a NEW Employee Experience requires business rewards and employee enthusiasm. It actually will lead to a significant mind-shift and a new corporate culture. Business leaders need to reliably and convincingly take actions to bring Employee Experience to life. Enable key employees. Create success stories that are proudly shared among corporate teams, squads and tribes. Positively and sustainably mobilize the powers within your teams. There is no business alternative if you seek professional success.
3) ENABLE CORPORATE MANAGERS & LEADERS
Businesses are facing strong economic and social challenges. NEW WORK and profit issues put additional pressure on all leaders in the corporate environment. Just as new business models and global supply issues put businesses upside down, team leaders face unprecedented challenges. Many team leaders ask themselves how they shall motivate and guide their team members through these rough waters. New technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AI) add to a highly confusing situation. Any future oriented HR now needs additional budgets and experts. Corporate leaders and team managers need to be comprehensively enabled and coached.
Training and skill development have too long been regarded as corporate costs which could be reduced and cut. Team leaders and managers will only be able to positively mobilize and successfully empower team members if they are sufficiently equipped and skilled. Team leading and flow-to-work skills are essential to bring out the best of teams. Businesses need to invest more into new levels of mastery for managers. For several years in a row, research firm Gartner has identified the manager and leader skills as a top HR trend. Unfortunately, many corporations do not yet invest sufficient time, brain and funds into moving managers and leaders to the next level.
Sometimes, the most obvious truths are the toughest to change. If corporations want to be serious about Employee Experience, new skills and enthusiasm are must-haves. Corporations which would like to win in the future depend on managers who know latest trends, network designs and ways to empower teams. Instead virtual teams, international interactions and tough business targets pressure today’s managers. Personal attention, individual coaching and up-skilling of team members seems almost impossible to achieve for many team leads. Great teams and performances require new spirits, re-inveted targets, team-hacks and innovation insights. Managers are change makers. Businesses need to enable winning performances.
Today’s and tomorrow’s workplace is ever evolving. Technological opportunities hit corporations in ever increasing speed. The real wave of digitalization just started. Data analytics and AI solutions need to integrated into the future workplace reality. The amalgamation of AI into job procedures requires new flexibility and a great deal of personal and corporate agility. The new way of working of managers is adventurous and engaging. Mangers will turn into ecosystem and opportunity designers. New job interactions and innovative job routines are around every corner. Winning businesses will need to turn today’s managers into motivated and skilled drivers of wild change.
4) PUT AI TO WORK
In the past decades businesses have realized vast and comprehensive IT solutions to help steer corporate operations. Instead of calculating performance indicators by hand, a multitude of numbers are available via our computer screen (or digital application). Big Tech already transformed corporate culture and the next level is to integrate AI as a partner of daily work. The next stage is human and AI partnership.
AI in HR is true innovation. However, AI will soon be able to predict which candidates will best fit into your teams. AI might identify and suggest new channels on how to attract and find skilled applicants. AI will revolutionize business and it will help to create a highly effective, skill-oriented and results-driven HR organization.
Success through new AI solutions will not materialize overnight. Trial, error and willingness to eventually win are key. AI is the missing link to keep HR team members and experts focused on their most important responsibilities: winning great talents, creating a great Employee Experience and thriving employees’ skills development. AI solutions are key to transform HR again. AI and human intelligence will take HR to new levels of a value-add people-centered power. Future oriented HR will be characterized by energized and smart people, automation in standard procedures and AI mega-input.
Automation will facilitate key HR metrics. Dashboards could be re-considered and re-designed to accommodate up-to-date information. With the help of automation accurate utilization figures will be readily available. Automated and digitally driven services could e.g. generate employee satisfaction on a frequent and more reliable fashion. AI will open doors to new insights and predictions. Does your company reliably and numbers-driven (and anonymously) know the professional background of your high-performing employees to smart generate input for new talent acquisition?
In the 2010s data analytics started with statistical insights into sales generation and automated solutions which generated sales leads and increased customer loyalty. Just recently, data analytics has discovered that HR offers a multitude of opportunities to create precise insights through statistical analytics and automated data comparison. HR offers at least as many data analytics and AI opportunities as sales, customer identification and marketing. HR executives should push for the next evolution: Automation and AI in HR.
5) RE-IGNITE HUMAN FACTOR IN HR
Increase usage of automation and AI will not (again) reduce the number of corporate HR teams. AKAlytics believes the opposite will be true. Automation and AI will (again) ignite new levels of human intelligence and next-level HR insights. Team members in today’s HR should brace for a fantastic and great wave on the horizon. A great ride is ahead.
Today’s people and business requirements make more tailor-fit and human HR insights crucial. Winning great talents will not happen through AI. Great people ask for answers from leaders and future colleagues. Building trust between a corporation and talents requires real human, expert interaction and trustful partnering.
Some future training might be conducted through help from virtual avatars, but e.g. great team experiences and sustainable relationships to customers depend on human expertise. High-performing teams will not be created without especially skilled enthusiasts. Special HR requirements of business units might be better fulfilled by HR experts which master business and team details.
The HR Business Partner Model of the 2010s is (out)dated. HR Shared Services only seem valuable with top human intelligence and high speed performance, which is build by human and AI interaction. The future HR model shall even better balance Employee Experience, business focus, machine intelligence and human smartness. Life-changing coaches, business acumen and human coordination of multiple HR partners will generate high HR satisfaction. Real and highly skilled HR experts will be needed more than ever to effectively navigate through increasingly complex team structures and corporate business realities.
Today’s career seekers should consider taking a deep dive into the HR future. There will be plenty of great great rides ahead. Future HR professionals will be stars which make all the difference. Business leaders should invest in NEW HR as a top priority. Let's jointly reach for HR Excellence's NEW level!