Our recent HR Blog about the rise of the social enterprise defined this as the overarching theme of Deloitte's 2018 Human Capital Trends Report. The rise of the social enterprise reflects the fact that social capital is achieving a newfound status alongside financial and physical capital as a measure of the value of a business. This change is being driven by many factors, with trust being one of the leading metrics. Ernst & Young's global study on trust in the workplace poses the question 'could trust cost you a generation of talent?' The subtext being that businesses that don't take the trust issue seriously could suffer long-term consequences. Edelman's annual trust barometer for 2019 presents a more positive view for employers. Despite a high lack of faith in 'the system' and institutions overall, there is one relationship that remains strong, and that is the one individuals have with their employer. So how can HR Professionals ensure that these big picture signals aren't ignored in the rush to tick items off ever lengthening to do lists? Let's unpack the headlines so that you have a clear picture of how the world of work is evolving and which HR trends matter to your business in 2019.

Word on the street is that HR needs to adjust its focus from engagement to the more appropriate 'culture management' if business wants to really create workplaces that employees want to be a part of, and will be willing to make a long term commitment to. A recent article on HR Daily indicates that this shift will require HR to focus on 'Employees' relationships and emotions, their sense of meaning and purpose, Leadership capabilities and behaviours, and how these factors align with organisational goals.' The time has also come for organisations to pair this culture management focus with filling the gaps in organisational culture and for the purpose of creating more well rounded, human workplaces.

At the end of the last financial year we conducted a survey to take the pulse of HR in the Human Era. As a software provider, it's important to us to understand the needs of the HR Professionals we serve, as well as knowing where the gaps are so that we can continue to innovate and tailor our solutions to fill those gaps. Given that this was the first time we conducted such a survey, the number of respondents was admittedly not as large as we would have hoped. However that doesn't mean that the insight and feedback we received wasn't interesting and valuable. Just as Navigo's research highlighted some very interesting and surprising results, so too did our HR in The Human Era Survey.

We all trust ‘big data' these days, correct? Let’s have a look at some of the data from Edelman’s 2014 Trust Barometer Survey. Examination of reliable big data (and Edelman’s data set is both broad and deep, rigorously researched and meticulously reported), is the best way to ascertain trends and take the pulse of the current environment. In this case, the data communicates how much the public, or general populace trust the institutions they deal and do business with on a day to day basis in life. The data driven headlines from Edelman’s report are set out below.

Times they are a changing! In fact, the only thing you can really be sure of, is change itself. If doing business, and doing it well in the Human Era is predicated on building trust and trusted connections, how do we go about doing exactly that in a ‘Human Era’ context?

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines ‘Trust’ in the following way: ‘A belief that someone or something is reliable, good, honest, effective, etc.’

In Part one of this Blog, we explored some of the characteristics of Human Era brands as outlined in the report by Hill Holiday and Lippincott. Now let’s dive a little deeper and start thinking about how the role of Human Resources will need to evolve in order to contribute to company, brand and people development in the Human Era. 

According to the report, brands that lead in creating and aligning ‘experience’ with ‘story’ produce measurable growth of 4% above and beyond their counterparts in delivering shareholder value. These companies enable employees to become living, breathing examples of the company’s values through providing customers with an experience that actually matches the words on paper. The overall effect - alignment with values creates value!

Just as Nietzsche’s exclamation that ‘God is dead,’ once heralded a significant shift in the Western cultural paradigm, a new report by Hill Holiday and Lippincott declares that the ‘Institutional Era’ is also dead and has paved the way for a new way of doing business, ‘The Human Era.’

This two-part blog series explores the fundamentals of The Human Era, and outlines the new model for building trusted connections in business. It includes an investigation of what brands need to do to embed these models within their values and processes, as well as exploring the role of Human Resources in The Human Era.

Here at Subscribe-HR, we recently discovered a fabulous report that we believe encapsulates the future of doing business so well, that it has inspired us to pause for a serious rethink about the future of HR.

The report was created by Hill Holiday and Lippincott and is called 'Welcome to The Human Era.'

We highly recommend that you read the report - it will really get you thinking!

It certainly got us thinking and has inspired us to make a commitment to putting the ‘Human’ back in Human Resources.