Surveying the post-crisis landscape

Analysing the results of the survey "Riding Out the Storm and Preparing for the Post-recession Workplace", conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in February, the society's international programme director Howard A Wallack said that while HR executives - unsurprisingly - cited "financial stability" as the most critical issue faced by their organisations, the next three on the list were all HR-related matters: talent management and staffing, employee engagement and employee morale.

"Finding the right talent is still a challenge, especially technical and senior management staff," Wallack said.

The most common strategies and programmes initiated in response to the recession, according to the survey, were in the following areas: lay-offs and downsizing; business competencies; and leadership/career development. Among the areas whose importance was reduced were older-worker strategies; recruitment of top talent; and retention strategies.

Speaking at a recent Sasin for Society forum in Bangkok, Wallack said SHRM's 12 Special Expertise Panels recently listed some broader trends that are influencing many aspects of HR and the workplace:

The impact of the global recession on business strategies and employees;

Social networking, especially as it relates to recruiting;

Work/life balance;

The need to measure results and the development and standardisation of key metrics;

The need for organisations to demonstrate a commitment to ethics, sustainability and social responsibility;

Safety issues;

Workplace aggression and the potential impact of a global disease pandemic;

Importance of globalisation and integrating markets;

Performance management;

The ongoing need for skilled employees;

Demographic change and its impact on diversity and labour availability; and

The implications of government legislation.

Each of the 12 panels also provided a list of top 10 trends in their subject area. Here are the top three trends for each area, listed in order of importance:

CSR/sustainability

Greater acceptance and assimilation of CSR (corporate social responsibility) and sustainability in businesses, communities and homes;

More corporations consider CSR as an essential part of their policies and procedures; and

Internal pressure to embrace CSR.

Employee relations

Increased aggression in the workplace;

Work/life considerations will require increased attention from HR; and

Social networking increasingly will impact the work done by HR departments.

Ethics

Importance of ethics training for employees who are entrusted with access to confidential and other essential information;

Need to incorporate the ethical values of an increasingly diverse and global workforce; and

Senior managers should take more time to promote ethical culture as an essential component of business success.

On this topic, Wallack cited Goanpot Asvinvichit, the former president of the Government Saving Bank who eschewed his reserved parking space at the bank's headquarters while suggesting that other senior executives move their parking spaces away from bank's front entrance to provide better parking spots for customers.

Global HR

Talent management continues to be a high priority and must be more efficient than before;

The need for global organisations to work virtually across functions and geographies is increasing and intensifying; and

Global employee engagement is tentative; firms implementing multiple lay-offs have eroded a sense of security in the global workforce.

Health, safety and security

Greater emphasis on the need for organisational disaster planning;

Growth in the incidence of workplace aggression; and

Ongoing rise in both employer and employee healthcare costs will sustain and encourage an increase in the use of workplace wellness programmes.

Human capital metrics

Increasing demand by organisations to measure and assess the value of their human capital and the HR activities;

Development of deeper levels of analysis to monitor metric outcomes, identify trends, leverage positive outcomes, and intervene in or mitigate negative outcomes will lead to better  human capital management; and

Increasing use of more sophisticated human-capital planning techniques and tools will require different metrics and different definitions of ongoing metrics.

Labour relations

Labour relations expertise is diminishing within the HR profession;

The [US] National Labour Relations Board is expected to become more activist through "rule-making" as well as reversing Bush-era board decisions; and

Unions are consolidating and collaborating to increase political leverage and market density.

Wallack said unions have increased their stake in many businesses as a result of the government's bail-outs, because they were brought in to accept the deals, and they would position themselves to regain concessions made once the economy turns around.

Organisational development

Technology and virtual communication increasingly impact the way individuals and organisations interact and collaborate;

Turbulence and ambiguity increase the need for employee/organisational agility and adaptability, as well as improving/up-skilling, while maintaining day-to-day work levels; and

Companies are making selective investments in strategic areas: products, people and geographies.

Staffing management

As baby boomers return to the workforce, they are faced with the challenges of being a sandwich generation, or remain in it longer than expected. Employers must find ways to maximise their engagement;

There are many available workers applying for many jobs and at the same time there are hard-to-fill jobs that require a comprehensive and competitive recruitment strategy to find few potential candidates; and

Succession-planning strategies will become imperative, balanced against fewer individuals retiring.

Technology & HR management

Information and actions are increasingly portable via mobile applications;

Availability of social media and the increasing complexity of intellectual property are increasing the need to establish and improve technology governance and policies; and

Use of cloud computing (reliance of online applications for various technology needs) is rising.

Total rewards

Transformation of healthcare, including efforts to provide universal coverage and to take technology, systems and standardisation to the next level;

Increased government intervention in employer-provided compensation and benefits; and

Increasing focus on and rebalancing of long-term and short-term business strategies, and on making total rewards a strategic factor in driving overall business strategy.

Workplace diversity

There is still a need for increasing the understanding of the inherent value of diversity and inclusion, complemented by lack of understanding of cultural implications;

Aging of the workforce increases the need to deal proactively with disability, elder care, religious differences and the needs of those dealing with elder and child care; and

Workplace flexibility policies are becoming more critical in addressing recruitment and talent management issues.

pichaya@nationgroup.com