HR departments focus on personnel management.

Determining wage packages, compensation and making sure that they comply with the rules and regulations are the activities around which their work revolves.

It is an indisputable fact that Human Resource is a paper-intensive and a tedious task. But with the advent of technology like the Internet of things, virtual and augmented reality, autonomous agents, and path-breaking ideas, it will design the shape of the HRM very soon.

It sounds so dramatic and so exciting! Isn’t it? 2019, the last year of the 2010s decade has a lot in store for HRM.  Many of the upcoming trends are those whose presence has been already felt, and others are those which are altogether fresh concepts.

Let us have a look at what the nineteenth year of the third millennium has in store for the HR.

Robotics

‘93% of time spent by HR employees is on repetitive tasks.’

‘65% of HR rules-based processes have the potential to be automated.’

                          –EY Report

The first piece of statistical data reflects the inefficiency prevailing in HR departments. The second one is a potential solution to the problem. The HR world has already started working on this. In 2019, this new trend will catch fire and spread its flame widely.

Robots, being more specific, do not just refer to physical machines but they are software stored on a cloud or a desktop. The difference between traditional software and robotic software is that the latter ones are more flexible in terms that they have learning capabilities.

So in 2019, the focus will not be on the flexibility of human resources but the flexibility of software.

Robotic Process Automation(RPA) is a technology being used by many big business giants. From completing all paperwork, onboarding and compliance reporting, gathering employee documentation to organizing meetups with supervisors, they will perform many of the things in the checklist of an HRM. This new trend will spread like wildfire very soon.

’22 percent of the top performers among HR organizations are currently implementing or have already implemented RPA, compared with just 6 percent of the low performers.’

           – Deloitte

Employee mood management

‘80% of employees would work more hours for a more empathetic employer.’

    -OfficeVibe

Tracking employee morale and productivity is of utmost importance. The future will pave a wave of revolutionary change in how this is being done. The mundane yearly or monthly survey to track employee mood measurement will be put to bed. It will give way to real-time talk, discussions, listening and two-way interaction.

Innovative techniques that have come into force are:

• Celpax- It is a device that asks the employees about how their day was. They can either press a green button or a red button.
• OfficeVibe- It has got a feature called ‘geographic reporting’ for remote teams.
• Niko- It is used to track the emotional level as to how employees will respond to projects.

Although many companies are utilizing the bi-annual survey to track employee mood measurement, 2019 will see this conventional practice fading.

Workplace Health

‘For  every dollar spent on the program the company saved $3.27 owing to reduced healthcare costs.’

                  -Deloitte

A growing number of organizations will utilize technology to enhance the strength and endurance of their employees. Organizations will adopt various forms of wearable technology like sensors, smart watches, smart lenses, and exosuits as they become more viable and feasible.

‘The number of individuals using some form of wearable tech is expected to grow in 2019 to 86.7 million.’

                   –E-marketing report

And yes, the HR world will not be left untouched. They are a great HR tool as they will improve employee retention rates. This will digitally empower the workforce and give employers new ways of workforce planning.

The advent of AI roles

‘Gen Z is the first generation to grow up entirely in an Internet-centric society.’

‘They are expected to comprise 36% of the workforce by 2020.’

          –CNBC

Yes, a generation that grew up in a society relying on the internet will bring along its technological competence to the workplace. Alexa, Cortana, Siri, and google assistant are already a darling in the consumer industry.

These AIs are virtual assistants. When virtual assistants are a part of your home, automation deployment will be brought to the workplace as well.

This will also lead to the advent of critical roles like AI Trainer, Chief Ethical Officer and Head of Business Behaviour. Some of the businesses that have already ventured into this new trend are Google, RareCarat, Wayblazer, Spotify and Under Armor.

Gamification

‘Gamification is 75 percent psychology and 25 percent technology.’

    -Gabe Zicherman, author of Gamification ad Design

The HR department is instinctively a challenging environment where you need to adapt and integrate a diverse workforce continually. Then why not infuse some fun in this already challenging scenario? Harnessing this aspect can be done no better than gamification.

Gamification makes use of game mechanisms, structures, and tactics as a better means to help employees engage and improve.

As the importance of employee engagement has been recognized over the recent past, these gamification techniques aim at improving employee engagement by making them feel triggered and motivated. For example, Accenture has an exciting concept of internal communication.

They use tactics like game points, awarding attractive prizes and use of levels within the system.

As per a survey, 53 percent of technology stakeholders said that by 2020, the use of gamification would be widespread. So gamification is undoubtedly the future of HR.

Digitizing Hiring process

‘People analytics tool will become a must-have for HR teams and recruiters.’

           -Josh Bersin, Deloitte

The transition from workplace interviews to Skype interviews has been quite impressive. Similarly, the change from Skype interviews to interviews being conducted thoroughly by software will be seen shortly.

It will completely transform the hiring and recruiting process. Additionally, virtual reality will be used for interactive hiring purposes. Visualize your next interview to be conducted by a robot. It sounds like something straight out of a sci-fi movie, but this is what 2019 is going to bring to you.

’33 percent of survey respondents already use some form of A.I. in the hiring process.’

          -Deloitte

Video submissions and social media profiles are already bidding a farewell to paper resumes.

Text analysis algorithm and algorithm sourcing are nothing short of superpowers that will offer exciting insights to recruiters.

‘Employees hired through an algorithm stay 8% longer as compared to those employees who are hired by a manager ignorant of algorithms’, a survey reports.

Gender Parity

Iceland has passed legislation to enforce equal pay for both the genders. Now with the #Me-too movement and #TimesUp that swept the world recently, the voice for the demand of equal pay has been amplified.

Closing the gender wage gap has been the focus of many talks, discussions, and researches in the corporate world.

‘ $12 trillion can be added to the global economy if gender equality is achieved .’

-McKinsey Global Institute

So gender pay equality can be the new HR trend in 2019. As per a Scouts exchange survey, gender parity is improving in the corporate world and will gain a strong foothold soon.

Conclusion

Change is not easy. But it’s inevitable for a business. Keeping in sync with the dynamic business environment is essential not only to achieve success but also to maintain it. It’s a much-debated question whether it’s revolution or evolution that a business needs more. Evolution and revolution both will define the future of HR. Adapt or die is the mantra!