What a year! Congratulations on making it through the year that was 2020. As things draw to a close and we get to enjoy some down time, we figured it was appropriate to pause and reflect before we prepare for 2021. If there's one lesson we could call out at the headline for the last 12 months it was about digital transformation. If you got caught out when the world of work got turned on its head, then you've no doubt realised that complacency on the technology front is no longer acceptable. As we went back through this year's most read blogs to create this post, we realised that one of them (a piece about the top 5 risk areas for HR) had digital transformation (or a lack thereof) as the #1 risk. That means that back in 2013 (when that post was published) was, according to us, the best time to embark upon your digital HR transformation. We will sign off for 2020 by reminding you that the next best time to implement you digital transformation (if you still haven't done so) is NOW.
1. HR's Top Five Priorities for 2020 and Beyond
In our first HR Blog for 2020, we explored Gartner's perspective on the top 5 priorities for HR leaders in 2020. These were derived from Gartner's 2020 Future of HR Survey, which polled HR leaders to assess their priorities and expected challenges in 2020 and beyond. The top five priorities they listed were:
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Develop Critical Skills and Competencies.
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Current and future bench strength.
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Organisational design and change management.
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Driving digital business transformation.
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Employee experience.
You can read this blog in full here.
2. Global Human Capital Trends 2020 - Deloitte's Annual Report
In the results of this year’s Global Human Capital Trends report, Deloitte called upon organisations to embrace paradox as a pathway forward and focus on these three attributes:
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Purpose: An organisation that doesn’t just talk about purpose, but embeds meaning into every aspect of work every day.
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Potential: An organisation that is designed and organised to maximise what humans are capable of thinking, creating, and doing in a world of machines.
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Perspective: An organisation that encourages and embraces.
The factors highlighted in 2019's report continue to put pressure on businesses to operate in a more socially oriented manner and to reinvent their organisations around a more ethical and human focus. Here are the trends from the 2020 report, including the HR metrics that matter in 2020 and beyond:
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Belonging: From comfort to connection to contribution.
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Designing work for well-being: Living and performing at your best.
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The post-generational workforce: From millennials to perennials.
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Superteams: Putting AI in the group.
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Knowledge management: Creating context for a connected world.
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Beyond re-skilling: Investing in resilience for uncertain futures.
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The compensation conundrum: Principles for a more human approach.
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Governing workforce strategies: New questions for better results.
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Ethics and the future of work: From 'could we' to 'how should we.'
You can read this blog in full here.
3. Remuneration Modelling in Times of Change
It's fair to say that there was A LOT of remuneration modelling happening throughout 2020. To coincide with the release of our new REM modelling and workforce shaping tools, we did a blog about factors impacting the remuneration modelling process and automation solutions.
You can read this blog in full here.
4. HR Opportunities and HR Software Disruptions to Watch
Late last year, IBM launched a significant study that assessed the real skills business leaders need most from their employees (and themselves) over the next three years. Contrary to all the talk about the digital and technical economy, the biggest gaps in the workforce going forward are not 'digital skills,' but behavioural skills. In this blog we explored HR jobs of the future, which included:
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HR data scientist/chief technology officer.
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Employee experience specialist.
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Head of talent-acquisition technology selection.
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Head of candidate experience.
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Performance coach.
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Organisational psychologist.
You can read this blog in full here.
5. Top 3 Tools For HR Managers In An Organisational Restructure
In this blog we explored how HR Professionals can find efficiencies through HR automation to make every structural change within your organisation a success. If you work in an organisation that managed to get through 2020 without an organisational restructure, you're in a lucky minority. For most, under current (and future) circumstances, a continuous organisational restructure and (re)development approach built on the following foundations will be necessary:
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Communication with stakeholders.
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Managing employee productivity.
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Retaining critical employees.
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Managing costs including payroll, employee records and compliance obligations.
You can read this blog in full here.
In addition to the most popular blogs that were published in 2020, we've also included some of our older, most read blogs throughout 2020 below. We hope you find something of value in here.
1. Five Risk Areas for HR Managers and How To Mitigate Them
Take a look at point number in this list (which we published way back in 2013) and then ask yourself - if you got caught out this year in relation to your digital HR capabilities? If the answer was yes, ask yourself why?
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Digital Transformation (or Lack Thereof).
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Ethics and Leadership.
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Regulatory and Compliance.
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Pay and compensation.
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Training and Development.
You can read this blog in full here.
2. Automating Employee Lifecycle Management: Six Steps to Success
Cloud HR software is how you digitally transform your employee lifecycle to reduce friction and deliver powerful results to potential, current (and maybe even past) employees that is simple, automated and engaging. In blog, we explored how to make your employee lifecycle sing through automation.
You can read this blog in full here.
3. Top 5 Behaviours of Successful HR Managers
Historically, the top behaviours that HR Managers need to succeed looked very different to the way they look today. In a world where trust is at an all time low, and technology disruption at an all time high, which behaviours are the ones HR Managers most need to model?
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Transparency and trustworthiness.
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Purpose oriented.
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Technology savvy.
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Versatility and adaptability.
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Solutions oriented.
You can read this blog in full here.
4. Key Metrics You Need in Your HR Reports - 2017 Edition
This was (and continues to be) one of our most popular blogs ever. If you were still using excel spreadsheets to calculate your HR metrics or manage your HR processes at the start of this year, you no doubt learned the hard way that without a digital transformation of HR (and let's be honest, your entire organisation), you're wasting precious time AND money. Now more than ever, to crunch big data and understand your people metrics you need the right #HRtech to help your business make the right decisions.
You can read this blog in full here.
5. From Performance Management to Performance Development
Last, but certainly not least, we've actually seen a spike in visitors to our blog readings posts on performance management. Now that many businesses have employees scattered far and wide, some working remotely, some in the office, managing performance has become a hot topic again. This blog explored how to make the transition from performance management to performance development, and what to focus on to make it work, including:
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Establish expectations - make them clear, collaborative and aligned.
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Continually coach - make it frequent, focused and future-oriented.
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Create accountability - make it achievement oriented, fair and accurate and developmental.
You can read this blog in full here.
If you haven't got a copy of our most popular download of 2020, you can access it below.
Image credit: Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash
