Top 5 HR trends in 2016 - My two cents!

The year 2015 can safely be called the year of startups. With a plethora of options for almost everything, technology and innovation entering our daily lives, we saw a host of changes in the way we live. Whether it’s a simple thing like traveling (think Uber, Ola) or something as mundane as ordering veggies (think Bigbasket, Grofers), we all have seen a shift in our lifestyles in 2015.

From an HR perspective, all this meant a shift in our ways of managing employee expectations. From blocking / unblocking ‘time wasters’ like shopping sites (thnk flipkart, myntra, jabong, amazon) to the end of the road for employee concierge services, most things became available at employees’ fingertips.

Let’s hope 2016 will be an even more exciting year for all of us. From my conversations with HR ‘Gurus’ across industries, these are my two cents on the top 5 HR trends that I see for 2016:

• Employee Social Networks – These enterprise-wide social networks have long been touted as the death knell for Enterprise e-mail. However, this has really not happened. But as we move towards more and more collaborative working and functional interdependence, these networks have built in a lot of capabilities that might eventually not be able to kill email, but act as a very strong supplemental tool for organizational collaboration and project management. Yammer, IBM Connections and Salesforce’s Chatter are only a few options in this space.

• Rise of video – With the cost of broadband coming down by the second, and the eventual launch of the much touted 4G speeds in India, there is no stopping the video bandwagon. Right from on-the-go learning programs (think Massive Open Online Courses, MOOCs), to video candidate profiles supplementing the traditional resume (think locations where the employer might not be present), to Online and offline webinars, whatever employee related initiative one talks about, 2016 will see the explosion of video content. A simple showcase is ‘Video’ becoming a prominent tab in any Google search.

• Workplace Flexibility – As we see the newest generation, Gen Z, entering our workforce, we see a lot more young employees who are very confident of the kind of work they do and their own capabilities. Plug it with the startup storm that is taking us into a new world of innovation and opportunity, we see a new trend of freelancing (or doing your own thing). I see 2016 as being the year where more training is required for the traditionalists to handle the new kids on the block.

• Tier II & III Cities – The contribution of tier II & III cities towards the workforce has been steadily increasing over the years. However, the ever ongoing war for talent, coupled with tools being available now for mentoring to become an on-demand service, we are going to witness a new set of skilled employees who are employment-ready in 2016. These tools essentially bring the experts from the likes of Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi etc. to the doorsteps of students / job seekers sitting in obscure locations in the country.

• Employee First – Customer first has been the long standing ‘mantra’ over the years. However, organizations are realizing that a happy customer is a result of a happy employee. The kind of stress that employees face on a day-to-day basis has to be mitigated over a period of time. So ‘Employee First’ initiatives, like doing away with the bell curve, using Wearables (health bands like Fitbit and Mi bands) to track employee health and wellness, etc., will start taking concrete shape in 2016.

Let me know your thoughts on these.

Wishing everyone a happening 2016!

What we miss in Leadership Development - Redundancy!

Yes, you read it right. I am saying that there needs to be a certain element of employee redundancy for a function / organization to prosper. Why am I saying this?

Because unless you are willing to move your high potential employees to explore other areas of work in the organization, they will never develop to become ‘General’ managers. We will continue to promote (read re-designate because the role will never change except volume) employees basis current performance and not think of developing rounded skills which are vital at leadership levels in any organization. Learning out of your comfort zone will never happen if there is no one to take the place of the high-performer.

Job Rotation as a concept has been much talked and written about. However, one tends to miss out on certain basic pre-requisites before thinking of this:

• Top management will – This is a no-brainer. Unless the top team is willing to make a few sacrifices at a tactical level to make sure that we have ready leaders in future, no job rotation program will ever work. Long-term vision has to precede shorter-term decisions.

• Sustainability – Typically, our top performers become indispensable. However, sustainability over a period of time cannot be person dependent. That’s why the redundancy is much needed to keep things flowing smoothly.

• Mortality – Who is responsible for the mortality of the organization? In owner driven firms, this one is easy. But for so-called ‘professional’ organizations, one needs to constantly be on the lookout and create new leaders. Not easy.

Assuming all this in place, how does one go about operationalizing the job rotation programs:

Identify your high potentials (HiPos) – Mind you, not the high performers. Keep a ratio of least 3 aspirants for a critical position. I won’t get into the tools required to do this. There is a plethora of them available in the HR market.

Ask them – Telling them that they are in the HiPo list will cut down the possibility of losing them by more than half. You don’t want your investments in getting them ready going down the drain just because they didn’t know. Ask them if they are interested at all. Some of them might be happy with the functional growth. Shifting them elsewhere will only demotivate them.

Manage collateral damage – At this point, you might end up losing some high performing employees since they would have wanted their names in the list. Anticipate this and be ready before it happens.

Mentor the HiPos - Leadership readiness is not a 100m sprint. Think of it like a marathon. Have a 5 year plan and give enough time in each of the functions. No function is more or less important for an organization in the long term. Assign long term mentors to them who have no direct interest in their growth / failure. Mentoring services can also be got from industry / HR experts outside the organization. The HiPos will need only guidance on a fortnightly / monthly basis.

The schedule is sacrosanct – Have a rotational program for at least 18 months in one project / role. Do not give in to the lure of extending the time limit for the project / role even if it’s working very well. Remember the long term vision at this time.

And keep remembering again and again, the leadership development program as a whole is for the greater organizational good. While some maybe born with the requisite skills, others can be made into leaders. And it’s our job to do that.