Social Media and Mobile were the two buzzwords of HR last year. But technology evolves and so does the industry.
So what will 2014 look like for HR? Will the social HR phenomenon catch on? Will mobile HR become mandatory? This blog discusses the key HR trends in 2014:
1. Real-time performance management
Gone are the days where people wait to get reports about employee performance. Organisations are slowly but surely moving away from the bi-annual performance reviews. In 2014, HR functionalities will need real-time capabilities to cope with an organisation’s needs.
Real-time analytics is becoming more important for talent management, which allows HR Managers to continuously assess employee performance. They can then make employees aware of their shortcomings earlier so that they can begin improving on them, as well as acknowledge and reward good employees.
2. Social HR takes off
According to an article on Forbes, social media has lived up to its hype. LinkedIn has practically become a recruiter’s Holy Grail. Recruiters have been given the key to the room filled with qualified applicants. The HR industry now has several companies that offer their services to find applicants by scanning social networks and spotlighting certain candidates.
A CedarCrestone study in 2013 found that social collaboration had grown massively from 15% in 2012 to 40% in 2013. With HR Managers seeing better job candidates, improved employee engagement and better workforce collaboration, social HR is expected to make its way into many more organisations in 2014.
3. Mobile job application submissions
In 2014, if your website is not mobile optimised, you might as well by saying goodbye to potential customers and even employees. But this year, its no longer just about being accessed on mobile devices.
2014 is about making your careers pages and application process go mobile. With people always on the go, you should make it easier for them to fill out forms or submit their resume through a mobile device. TalentWise agrees, and adds that job application functionalities on mobile can’t just be mini versions of their desktop counterparts, it has to incorporate all the unique characteristics of mobile pages.
4. HR analytics
HR Managers don’t want to be known as glorified administrative assistants any more. They are beginning to see their value in an organisation, and are therefore looking to play a much bigger role in strategic initiatives.
According to an article on TechTarget, Bill Kutik of Human Resource Executive magazine believes that HR departments will begin to concentrate on results-driven campaigns that impact the entire organisation. This results in a greater focus on analytics. In the same article, Paul Hamerman of Forrester Research states, “HR people have had a thirst for data about their workforce and one of the things they’re looking for is comparative data from the outside world, such as benchmarks”. He predicts that analytics embedded in HR software will become more robust this year.
5. HR Master Data Management
Data is growing at an exponential rate and more businesses are struggling to keep up. Several organisations have had issues with accuracy since with such extensive amounts of data, duplication and unstructured data are common.
Hamerman of Forrester believes that Master Data Management (MDM) will be one of the more dominant HR technologies this year. He claims, “companies need to get a better handle on their employee master data. It’s difficult to keep data in sync across multiple systems, so you need to create repositories of master data that can be governed more effectively from a quality standpoint.” He anticipates that HR will see better solutions for managing employee data quality over the course of the year.
2014 will be an exciting year for the HR industry, with many potential technological developments.
However, it is not merely about the technology. All the above trends seem to point to one thing: a change in the role of HR.
The HR function and the HR Manager will begin to shift from an operation-focused function to a strategy-focused function. As they become more driven to contribute strategically, the technological trends that become dominant this year will be informed directly by the needs of their company in their quest towards achieving their strategic goals.
To learn more about the changing role of HR, refer to our blog on HR as the Revenue Enhancer. Otherwise, to explore the leadership role of HR, download our leadership whitepaper below.
