9 HR Challenges That Will Be Prevalent In The Digital Age
Introduction
Human society is complex and managing people has always been a challenging task. Now, the digital age has added even more complexity to human resource management. Trends such as a growing millennial workforce, changing expectations, global economic disruptions, and expanding hybrid work culture have made human resources a difficult job.
The first step to overcoming these challenges is to identify the problems. By defining problems clearly, you make them easier to solve. This means saving time, money, effort, and resources, which will ultimately play a crucial role in boosting business outcomes.
In this article, we identify nine common challenges faced by HR professionals in the digital world.
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Top 9 HR Challenges In The Digital Age
1. Attracting Talent
Talent acquisition is one of the biggest human resource challenges right now. We have a millennial workforce whose priorities are quite different from traditional outlooks. They look for jobs that provide flexibility, feedback, appreciation, and meaningful work.
Companies have now started engaging in a competitive war for talent to attract skilled employees. And in this digital, fast-paced world, they must move beyond competitive salaries and benefits to offer meaningful experiences to employees.
2. Talent Retention
With globalization and hybrid work culture, employees have more options for employment than they ever had. On the other hand, amidst the stresses of the pandemic, we see people facing collective burnout and leaving jobs at unprecedented rates.
So HR must take care to retain the current workforce — or risk losing them to an extremely competitive talent market.
The first step to improving retention is finding out why employees leave. Exit interviews, employee surveys, and feedback sessions can provide insight into what employees like or dislike about working with the organization.
Several factors might be responsible for high attrition rates. Employees could be getting better opportunities or higher salaries elsewhere. There could be issues like burnout, limited career growth, strained work relationships, lack of appreciation, etc. Having the information as to why people tend to leave, HR can develop plans to address employee turnover.
3. Change Management
One of the greatest challenges HRs face today is coming to terms with the new reality of VUCA (P) times. VUCA(P) is an acronym that stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, with P signifying the pandemic. It refers to the chaotic business conditions that make it difficult for organizations to cope.
As an aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, people are returning to the office. But employees expect flexible and remote work arrangements too. Moreover, people talk about their work-life on LinkedIn and Facebook. This explosion of social media has made the employee experience crucial for brand image. HR needs to develop long-term plans that account for change and agility.
4. Adapting To A Hybrid Work Model
Before COVID-19, very few companies had a hybrid work program. Many companies did not encourage remote working due to concerns over productivity, communication, and collaboration. Now almost all of them are rushing to build remote work strategies.
HR managers are now focusing on strategies to boost employee engagement in hybrid work conditions. Providing them with the right tools for collaboration and communication has become an absolute necessity.
5. Developing Leadership
The role of leadership is crucial to ensure teams perform their best. Leaders help teams do their job, make improvements, and develop their skills. But many employees leave their jobs because of a poor relationship with their leaders. In fact, a 2013 Gallup study found that poor leaders are the number one reason why people quit.
To avoid this, it’s critical to develop talented and inspiring leaders right from the get-go.
This is a challenging task, especially when potential leaders keep leaving jobs only after a few years of engagement with one company. The problem intensifies in the remote workforce. A study by Future Workplace and Virgin Pulse said only 5% of the remote workers see themselves working at their company for their entire careers.
HR has to find ways to motivate employees to stay and perform in leadership roles within the organization. Provide regular training that aligns with a clear career progression path. This shows them that you value them, see their leadership potential, and are actively investing in their growth.
6. Build A Culture Of Learning
With the world of work evolving more quickly than ever, skilling and reskilling need to become a norm in the new economy.
HR now has to come up with solutions to ensure continuous training and development. It must account for rapidly changing technical skills and long-term transferable skills. AI can be extremely useful in predicting skills gaps and helping employees grow.
7. Manage Diversity
It’s a known fact that diversity goes hand in hand with better employee engagement. If your workplace is inclusive, there will be more ideas on the table, making your workforce more innovative, productive, and engaged.
But many organizations are still struggling to build DEI goals into the broader strategic plan. There have been reported instances where employees face discrimination at work. This not only hampers engagement but also impacts the brand image.
You have to start evaluating the state of DEI in your business. Run an employee survey that asks questions on fairness and equality. Set clear goals for diversity and inclusion. Focus on removing barriers so that everyone can fully participate in the workplace and have equal access to opportunities.
8. Ensure Employee Wellness
The disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic have brought to light many physical and mental health issues. High-stress levels, risky jobs, and isolation from teams have had a major impact on employee morale, ultimately impacting productivity.
To address these issues, companies are offering varied benefits — like childcare benefits, mental health services, etc.
You can expand these benefits to include more flexibility and more balanced workloads to prevent employees from getting overwhelmed at work. Make sure to check in with your employees regularly. An open-door policy where employees can freely discuss their issues is critical.
9. Improve Employee Engagement
Global statistics on employee engagement are quite grim.
A Gallup study says only about 33% of employees are engaged in their jobs in the US. Millennials show a higher tendency to be ‘distracted’ and ‘disengaged’ at work. Thus, the need for an effective employee engagement strategy is only becoming higher.
The most crucial step to ensuring higher engagement is creating a holistic positive employee experience. HR can enable a supportive, people-first culture with better internal communication, flexibility, and work-life balance. The main idea is to build an inspiring and motivating culture for employees to put their best foot forward.
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Leveraging Technology To Deal With HR Challenges
In the above discussion, we have seen some of the most crucial HR challenges of today. And fortunately, technology has become capable enough to deal with most of the challenges outlined above.
Now we have several digital tools for hiring, training, wellness, and employee engagement. Manual tasks like updating data, sending reminders, and securing sensitive documents can now be automated. Digital tools can capture all HR data in one central and secure (cloud-based) location. Self-service tools like communication, productivity, and scheduling apps for employees can increase productivity. Complementing these with comprehensive HRMS tools for managers can significantly lighten the HR workload.
The digital age indeed brings its share of challenges for HR. But HR can lead the digital transformation with a growth mindset to deal with the challenges it brings.
Author Bio:
Anjan Pathak is the Co-Founder & CTO of Vantage Circle, a cloud-based employee engagement platform, and Vantage Fit, an all-in-one corporate wellness platform. He is an HR technology enthusiast, very passionate about employee wellness, and actively participates in corporate culture growth. He is an avid reader and likes to be updated on the latest know-how on Human Resources.
With globalization and hybrid work culture, employees have more options for employment than they ever had. On the other hand, amidst the stresses of the pandemic, we see people facing collective burnout and leaving jobs at unprecedented rates.
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