The job market is extremely competitive. Organizations are always striving for acquiring the best talent from the pool of candidates to be the best fit for their job. Getting the right fit for a job can be a complex and time-consuming task. What is needed for its success is a competent authority who knows the technical know-how not only of the hiring process but also of the various engagement and retention-centric activities related to the employees.

This brings us to the significance of HR leaders. HR leaders, in today’s times, are not only responsible for hiring the employees and retaining them but they also have an overall organizational significance. HR leaders can be anyone in the department belonging to any level of the work hierarchy. They can be entry-level recruiters, tactical level motivation managers, strategic level employee relation specialists, so on and so forth. 

Through statistics and observational study, it is found that effective HR leaders have proven to be one of the most important assets to ensure high productivity in the organization in this time of stringent competition. At a point where finding and retaining the perfect skill-set for the organization while also maintaining cost-effectiveness is one of the biggest significances of an HR leader.

As the necessary mention of suitable skill-set surfaces over and over again, the concept of hiring automatically becomes important. Whenever we mention hiring, the first word that strikes our mind is recruitment. And most obviously so. While it is needless to mention that a competent and skilled recruiter is detrimental to finding the right person for the right job, it should always be noted that a talent acquisition leader is also of specific utility to any organization.

A talent acquisition leader happens to be one of the most important HR leaders that an organization in today’s scenario requires. Hence it becomes important to have a comprehensive understanding of who a talent acquisition leader is, what are his key skills, and what is of utmost value to the organization.

A recruiter and a talent acquisition leader co-exist and work in interdependency to fulfill the HR needs of a company. Recruitment can both focus on the long-term as well as short-term goals of an organization. Talent acquisition on the other hand specifically focuses on the long-term needs and goals of an organization. Besides, the process of talent acquisition aims to target very particular skill sets that add value to the mentioned organization.

Let us have a quick look at who a talent acquisition leader is.

WHO IS A TALENT ACQUISITION LEADER?

A talent acquisition leader is someone who heads a continuous and ongoing hiring process in an organization. This hiring process goes on irrespective of the existing vacancies in the organization. A talent acquisition leader makes sure that the broader organizational perspective is taken into account. This means that the talent acquisition manager specifically works to meet the long-term goals or the long-term needs of the company. This includes looking for specific skill-sets that cater to organizational needs.

It is a fierce marketplace where the hiring scene is increasingly aggressive. In a situation like that, the work of a talent acquisition leader is not only important to an organization. It is also very competitive and intense. The talent acquisition leader always has to be on the grind for spotting and acquiring the best talents that suit the particular needs of the organization. In a position where companies struggle with talent management, the role of a talent acquisition leader is unsubstitutable. 

NEED OF A TALENT ACQUISITION LEADER

A talent acquisition leader has multifaceted advantages to a company. It spots the best talent, helps attain long-term organizational goals, and also helps a great deal in economizing on time. The needs and job descriptions of a talent acquisition leader are vast and diverse. 

1. The TA leader is responsible for planning, developing, and maintaining a productive and attainable talent acquisition strategy for the company.
2. He/she should devise a strategy so economic that it saves time and is also cost-efficient.
3. He/She should investigate the current needs of the employees.
4. The TA leader should also identify the long-term needs of the company and which skill-sets align with them.
5. He/she should devise not only a productive but also a sustainable plan.
6. He/she should be in charge of setting up branding activities by involving the current employees.
7. A talent acquisition leader should plan employee referral programs.
8. He/She should be in complete charge of sourcing the candidates from all sources available.
9. Devise end-to-end solutions for a successful selection process.
10. Create a model to track and review employee grievances in addition to addressing them.

KEY SKILLS OF A TALENT ACQUISITION LEADER

A successful talent acquisition leader should have several skills that make him good at his job. Since the TA leader works closely with the human resources of the organization, he/she should primarily be a people person. This is to say that the person has to be believable, gullible, and a good listener. If the employees do not see the TA leader as one of their own, the rate of success of talent acquisition becomes relatively low.

A talent acquisition leader has to hone his/her skills and these skills are not mandatorily inherent. Most of them are polished by experience and knowledge. However, possessing these skills is extremely important to be a successful talent acquisition manager.

Communication skills

Talent acquisition is a people-centric job and hence the ability to communicate effectively through verbal, written or non-verbal communication is of utmost importance. A TA leader is a bridge between the employees and the organization. Hence he/she should have the ability to effectively communicate, and negotiate with the employees. Communication skills include inter-organizational communication, communication through social media as well as body language, and non-verbal cues.

Active-listening

Active listening is an advanced skill that talent acquisition leaders must possess. This is highly significant for face-to-face conversations or situations where decision-making is involved. In a fast-paced world like this, employees and candidates have a fragmented presence. Active listening will allow the TA leader to join the dots and figure out information that does not meet the eye.

Broader Perspective

A talent acquisition leader should always be long-sighted. Being a manager who attempts to fulfill long-term goals, the TA leader should always take the whole picture into account before planning strategies. He/she should be far-sighted enough to look beyond the immediate vacancies and needs and create an effective talent pipeline.

Interpersonal Skills

Building a good candidate experience is of utmost importance to present-day employers. Good candidate experience does not only improve the employer branding but also largely helps in employee retention which is again, one of the biggest goals of talent acquisition. Hence, the TA leader’s interpersonal skills come in handy. This means that he/she should be able to create a good and positive rapport with the employees. Good interpersonal skills also pertain to effective communication and gullibility.

Empathy

No wonder AI is swiftly taking over the traditional workplace. No matter how technically advanced and accurate that is, it still lacks the human element. That on the lacking side worsens candidate experience. An empathetic talent acquisition leader ensures that the candidates feel that their real challenges and issues are being heard and taken into account.

Analytical Skills

In a world that has become primarily data-driven, having analytical skills is extremely important to a talent acquisition leader. Having said that, it is noteworthy to mention that analytical skills are not just the ability to read data. It is also the ability to process and analyze this data to implement it effectively.

WRAPPING UP

Standing in 2020, when companies need the best talents to keep their productivity at pace, a talent acquisition leader is one of the most important positions in an organization. Honed with social skills, emotional intelligence, and analytical knowledge, a talent acquisition leader can be detrimental to a company’s success.

By Gestalt, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Talent Acquisition Leaders look at that whole to continue their work.

To get more such information and insights about HR, click here. 

Human Resource Information System is one of the widely used software packages in the HR scenario. It has streamlined the entire HR procedure and brought varied aspects of HR under one roof. Needless to say, HRIS is the present and future of human resource management.

Here we will cover a few aspects of HRIS ranging from its meaning, its importance, its types, and its use in organizations. This will be a comprehensive guide to all the basic know-how of HRIS and how organizations can implement it for higher productivity.

What is an HRIS? – Human Resource Information System

Human Resource Information System is defined as a software package or an online solution that is used to manage employee and organizational data. It is used to store the data, track the data as well as manage the data. HRIS is used to store sets of data and retrieve them as and when necessary. 

HRIS is an HR automation software that applies to all functions of human resource management. It is a database for storing employee data. This contains information such as the contact details, the address details, the work permit, the social security numbers, etc. HRIS pertains to functions such as recruitment, applicant tracking procedure, employee management, compensation management, leave management, so on and so forth.

In short, HRIS can be considered as an intelligent database that stores all employee information makes it easily accessible, thereby automating the HR functions.

TYPES OF HRIS

As already mentioned the HRIS software does not only pertain to one kind of task. It applies to people functions, procedure functions as well as policy functions. This gives rise to four major types or varieties of HRIS with their respective subsets. Read on to find out.

Operational HRIS

Operational HRIS primarily deals with recurring and regular HR functions. At the operational level, the primary work of HRIS is to collect various employee data and store it. The systems under operational HRIS are as follows:

●      Employee Information System is a database for all employee information ranging from their age, sex, religion to background history, work experience, social security number, etc.

●      A position control system that gives detailed information about the current positions in an organization, with the employees assigned to it, the job title, and also the positions that need to be filled.

●      The applicant selection system helps the HR personnel in the evaluation, screening, and onboarding functions of candidates post recruitment.

●      Government Reporting and Compliance Information Systems keeps track of all government regulations and compliances about the organization and its employees.

Tactical HRIS

Tactical HRIS is primarily used at the managerial level and not at the operational level. It aids upper-level managers in the organization in facilitating the decision-making process. The subset functions under tactical-HRIS are as follows-

●      Job analysis and design information system– It cumulates all the internal and external organizational information to create job descriptions and job specifications. The internal information includes those from supervisors, workers, etc. The external information includes those from labor unions, competitors, market research, etc.

●      Recruitment Information System- Every recruitment procedure requires a plan. This plan includes information about the organizational needs, the positions that need to be filled as well as the skill required. Recruitment Information system aids in these functions as well as streamlines information regarding employee transfers, pensions, job preferences, etc.

●      The compensation Management system deals with the benefits and compensations meted to the employees. This function is also tactical as it can help in increasing productivity through various incentive plans.

●      The training and development system aims to streamline the training process to meet the needs of the specific job roles that are previously determined by operational HRIS.

Strategic HRIS 

The subset functions under strategic HRIS are described below :

●      Information system supporting workforce planning- This is used in long-term strategic decisions of the organization such as market expansion, construction in new locations, diversifying the product line, etc. These need comprehensive data about the workforce which is exactly what the system facilitates.

●      Information system supporting labor negotiations – The human resource team completing the negotiating needs to be able to obtain numerous ad hoc reports that analyze the organization’s and union’s positions within the framework of both the industry and the current economic situation. 

Comprehensive HRIS

The other HR functions produce several files like employee files, information files, position files, skills inventory files, etc. It gets a difficult task to skim through all of them to find out the desired results. Comprehensive HRIS, therefore, cumulates all these files to create a comprehensive database that can be accessed for retrieving information required in HR planning.

IMPORTANCE OF HRIS

HR automation is the future that we are currently looking at. The automation of HR by HRIS has proved beneficial to modern-day organizations in more ways than one. It has multi-dimensional benefits starting from cost-effectiveness to increased productivity. The implementation of HRIS has changed the scenario of HR operations and hence is of utmost importance to any organization. The reasons are as stated below :

• Clear Definition of The Goal

The analytical approach of HRIS makes the definition of organizational goals very clear. Both the long term and short term goals are not just merely planned by the strategic level, it is planned by an analytical algorithm.

• Reduction In Cost

The human resource of any organization is a huge field. Hence, data has to be stored in the account of employee data, position data, compensation data, etc. It does not only require a lot of paperwork but also incurs a huge deal of cost to the organization. HRIS streamlines this operation thereby economizing on the cost.

• Easy Retrieval of Data

When any information is required, scrolling through huge tons of information is time-consuming work. It also results in diminished accuracy and delays the retrieval of such data. HRIS being a systematic and comprehensive database makes retrieval of data easy and timely.

• Better Decision-Making

Hence HRIS induces analytics in the decision-making process, it makes the decision-making process more accurate and data-oriented. It leaves no room for bias and human error and the analytical approach also speeds up the decision-making process.

• Appropriate Training Programs

Training programs are detrimental to the long-term and short-term productivity of the organization. Operational HRIS facilitates laying down the exact needs of the organization in terms of skill-sets and workforce planning. That allows tailor-made training programs for the organizational needs and hence further paving way for better productivity.

SUMMING UP

HRIS doesn’t seem to be a luxury for organizations anymore. It seems to be a need. With the proper utilization of this software, organizations can effectively streamline all of their processes to attain greater productivity at lower costs. However, complete dependence on HRIS will take away the human element from HRIS which it so direly needs. But, with a proper balance of the human effort as well as the analytical HRIS, organizations can see heights of productivity that have been long unknown. 

In 2020, the world is not the same. To say that the world will go back to its old ways is still a long-shot. In a scenario like that the entire market has shifted from its ‘normal’ course and taken a turn towards something which is, to say the least, unfamiliar. Most jobs have gone online with every operation occurring in the digital platform. Meetings, conferences, recruitment, termination, parties, you name it and it is conducted online.

According to a recent study, more than 63 percent of employees are aiming to switch their jobs this year. This may be due to various reasons like insufficient pay, heavy work-stress, propensity to choose a new career path, etc. However, this heavy job-shifting phenomenon has put considerable pressure on the HR departments of many organizations.

A high number of employees changing jobs means a high number of employees to be recruited by other organizations. This means that the recruitment process should be top-notch to handle these new candidates. It not only has to be efficient and accurate but also cost-effective and time-economical. 

WHAT DOES STREAMLINING THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS MEAN?

Since everything has gone online and there are numerous job boards and online portals where candidates can apply, the number of potential candidates has dramatically increased in the recruitment procedure. This has shown the inefficiencies in the recruitment strategy, evaluation procedure, and ultimate onboarding process.

Streamlining the recruitment process means that simplifying each level of the recruitment process to attain better productivity and efficiency while simultaneously economizing on the costs and efforts that are put in the process. This includes making changes like incorporating collaborations in the strategy, adding innovations to the strategy, automating the strategy as well as adding checklists in the process, While substituting the traditional long-haul strategies with these advanced ones, the recruitment process can be successfully streamlined.

WHAT ARE THE WAYS TO STREAMLINE THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS

Let us dive into a descriptive analysis of the tips and tricks to streamline the process of recruitment in an organization. 

Re-thinking access to the recruitment procedure:

Most companies, upon having a vacant position in their organization make hiring posts to attract candidates. In most cases, these posts or hiring calls are made on the same kind of platforms regardless of the type of the job, the need of the company, or the urgency of the position. 

This dilution of the job posting leads to the organization receiving thousands of applications. This slows down the recruitment process posing greater stress on the recruitment manager. This also poses a risk that the truly deserving candidates might get miss out due to the huge number of miscellaneous applications that have been received. Hence, to streamline the recruitment process, organizations should rethink the given access to their job postings.

Instead of posting the jobs in similar forums, the organizations can firstly, analyze these online job portals. Upon doing that, they can post respective jobs on respective platforms depending upon the kind of candidates that are generally found there. This will naturally filter the number of applications received. In addition to that, it will also filter the kinds of candidates that the organization is potentially looking for.

The organization may also employ a recruitment agency to cater to their needs. This means that the organization will showcase the job role as well as the kind of candidates that they are looking for. The recruitment agency then will do the outreach on the company’s behalf and therefore yield a pool of more specific and targetted candidates.

Sourcing candidates internally is also an effective way to streamline the recruitment process. Upskilling and reskilling existing employees are not only extremely cost-effective but also have proven to provide higher and better output in terms of productivity.

Incorporating innovation

In almost every field in today’s time, a degree of innovation is needed for the operations to function properly without many bottlenecks. It is the same for the HR process. The numerous software and systems that are out there in the market help streamline the recruitment process in multi-dimensional ways. Be it the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to filter the candidates or the numerous psychometric and personality tests to evaluate the candidate’s current and future potential of the organization.

Incorporating systems like ATS ensures that the applications are automatically filtered according to the company’s requirements and hence the recruiters have to only evaluate the candidates who have the required KSA. Also, traditional ways of evaluation are time-consuming and have an element of human error in them. However, various online psychometric tests are relatively highly accurate. They make sure that a candidate is the right fit for the job both in the short run and in the long run. This is significant because people with a certain set of personality traits are proven to be better at certain kinds of jobs.

Automating the recruitment process 

While attempting to employ candidates with a relatively more basic skillset, the automation process works better than any other. 

This incorporates potential candidate sourcing through automatic enrollment advertisements, prescreening with the assistance of a robotized list of reference scrubbers, screening with video-examining tools that search for body signals, and word decisions in a pre-recorded video interviews, and speaking with applicants in regards to their application. The process of automation may likewise be reached out to different parts of Human Resources, such as onboarding.

Create Check-lists through different stages of the process

To think of it generally, the recruitment process can be extremely messy given its ever-changing nature. Various functions of the process are always overlapping and the need assessments are equally dimensional. 

To smooth out these different situations, it is suggested that an organization fabricates a work process outline or a work-flow chart. This will rundown each progression in the recruitment process and how to continue with the work process contingent upon the candidate or the part being referred to. This guarantees that recruiters can execute a smoothed-out recruitment measure despite candidate contrasts.

SUMMING UP

Streamlining the recruitment process is the current need of every modern organization. Bogged down by the open access to candidates, and a high rate of new candidate-influx, streamlining the entire process is probably the closest sure-fire way to ensure productivity as well as making the process economical and time-economical.

The performing stage of the group formation starts after the group becomes stable and steady in their structural sense. At this point, the team is mature, organized, and clear on what they have to do to reach their goal. Even though conflict still arises due to the human element of the group, they have already become efficient at solving the conflicts and they can securely focus on problem-solving, meeting goals, and being productive at their peak. The digital transformation of the current world is the truth we cannot even choose to ignore. Beginning from daily grocery to shopping, to interviews and termination, the world has not only just gone online, but it has also successfully settled there. Owing to the pandemic, social distancing has become the new normal. Having said that, it is noteworthy to mention that, the entire online framework is not just safer but in most cases, very convenient.

In a scene where organizations are coping up with everything new, recruitment is also undergoing a massive change. The online recruitment process is relatively new to both the candidates and the employers. However, the most important question that employers and HR managers are asking is that, “how to make the online recruiting process successful?”. From a layman’s perspective, it might look like a cakewalk to onboard candidates by conducting an online interview. In reality, online recruitment includes aspects like choosing the right place to post the job, sourcing and managing the data of potential candidates, conducting interviews, performing evaluation and et cetera.

If you are someone struggling with your online recruitment process and looking for sure-fire ways to make your online recruitment process successful, you are in the right place. Read on to know about the best tools and strategies that you can incorporate in your online recruitment process to extract the best of the best while also economizing on your resources.

STRATEGIES FOR A SUCCESSFUL ONLINE RECRUITMENT PROCESS

Before embarking on an online recruitment procedure, make sure that the strategies are in place and well-versed. Without a concrete strategy, the recruitment process will not only fail but also wreak havoc on the company’s resources. 

Following listed are some of the most important strategies to ace your online recruitment game :

• Building a Brand

One of the most important reasons why a candidate would be interested in a particular company is because of the brand value of that company. The employer has to make sure that it has a strong online presence that exudes the brand value of the company. Social media is a good place to start where the company can establish a fruitful presence. A good brand would ensure that a large pool of candidates are interested in the company and hence apply.

• Diverse Sources

Recruitment or not, it is always a bad idea to keep all your coins in one place. In the same way, while conducting an online recruitment process, the employer should make sure to leverage diverse channels to source potential candidates. The diverse sources may include online job boards, various job portals, social media, e-mail marketing, et cetera.

• Attending To Passive Candidates

Passive candidates are a great way to source several talents that your company can potentially use. Passive candidates are those who are not actively looking for a job and already have one. The employer should be able to reach these candidates and pitch the brand of the company so that these candidates feel attracted to this job. This can be done by creating a great social presence. Creating informational and beneficial content on platforms like LinkedIn will also make sure that the passive candidates notice and engage with the company socially thereby increasing the possibility of turning them into active leads.

• Attractive Job Postings

Instead of choosing text formats or generic posters, job postings can be made relatively attractive. This can be done by incorporating video postings or attractive graphic images as a part of the recruitment procedure. It is to be ensured that these graphics or videos tell something about the company and match with the company’s presence. 

• Utilize Employee Channels

Your company’s current employees serve as your company’s best testimonial. The word-of-mouth communication from your current employees will prove the genuinity of the company’s goodwill. Hence, it is also important to use the current employees for a successful online recruitment process. Encourage your employees to share the job postings on their social media handles for not only a better reach but also for creating a better image.

TOOLS FOR A SUCCESSFUL ONLINE RECRUITMENT PROCESS

Apart from the above-mentioned strategies, several specific tools can be used for a successful online recruitment process. These tools economize on time, reduce the possibility of human error, and also make storage and retrieval of necessary data very easy.

• Video Tools

Instead of using voice interviews or using low-quality video apps, using tools like Skype will ensure a hassle-free interview experience for both the interviewer and the interviewee. This, in turn, will ensure that the interview process is transparent and well-conducted.

• Applicant Tracking System

ATS tools are a great way to speed up the online recruitment process. They make the storing and retrieval of candidate data easy. This ensures more accurate evaluation and easy retrieval of candidate information according to the needs of the process.

• Psychometric Tools

Online psychometric tools will evaluate the candidates based on the required personality traits for the job that is being offered. The use of these tools will automatically screen out the ineligible candidates and retrieve a pool of candidates most suitable for the job that is being offered.

• Candidate Surveys

Various tools of candidate survey that is available online needs to be incorporated into the online recruitment process. This would be a great way to extract the candidate experience and also give a transparent picture of the bottlenecks in the process which can be used for further improvement.

The online recruitment process requires some strategies and a certain degree of planning to make it successful. However, once these strategies are set and onboarded into the process, it would effectively streamline the entire recruitment process. In addition to that, it would also save time and human efforts that could be utilized in other avenues where it is most necessary. 

If you are still having second thoughts, maybe it’s time to take that plunge of faith and see the zeniths of success your company can reach with an online recruitment process. 

In general terms, most of us associate HR with several quintessential tasks that we think Human Resources abide by. These include hiring employees, terminating them, handling the benefits and compensation of the workforce, resolving employee conflicts at the workplace, etc. To divide the workplace into various demarcations, it can be seen how it has evolved over the years and over different times in history. 

HR is an integral part of any organization. An organization’s human resource is one of its most important assets. Likewise, the management of this resource is also one of the most vital tasks. With the evolution of this work culture, the role of HR has indeed changed over the years. During the period surrounding the industrial revolution, the role of HR was mostly inclined to the management of employees. This included recruitment, termination, compensation management, etc.

To look at it analytically, the role of HR was solely confined to the employees and what are the ways they function or cease to function. HR had nothing to do with their performance or organizational productivity. On the flip side, HR in today’s time has multi-dimensional roles and functions. While the traditional functions of HR remain constant, there has been a great diversification of the role. HR is also detrimental to the productivity of the organization. The new role of HR also includes working on employee performance by ensuring employee motivation. The use of big data technology and various automation tools is also a part of the role to streamline the process and also ensure cost-effectiveness.

WAYS IN WHICH HR HAS EVOLVED

Needless to say, the work and role of HR are not the same as it was 10 years back. It would not be wrong to say that the work has increased. But the most appropriate statement to make here would be to say that the work of HR has diversified. It has been enriched over time to being a responsibility that is more than just interviewing, hiring, and terminating candidates. 

Below described are some of the most notable and significant developments in the changing role of HR over the years and phases.

Empowering The Employees

Employee empowerment might not be the most common term for laymen. Besides, its meaning or concept is also not something that most people can relate to. Like already mentioned, today’s HR plays a detrimental role in ensuring the productivity of the organization. This means that HR makes sure that employee performance is at par with the organizational goals.

Employees’ performance depends on many factors, employee engagement is one of them. Employee engagement is undoubtedly identified as one of the changing roles of HR. This refers to the idea that an employee is engaged and focused on the work that he/she is engaged in. 

This also means that he/she likes the specific work in question.

However, merely employee engagement might not yield the most desired results. High engagement does not always yield high success. This may lead to easy burnout and high absenteeism. Hence the HR department should be responsible for empowering the employees as well. This means the role of HR here is to inculcate a sense of competency within the employees. In addition to that, HR is also responsible for giving the employees an idea of impact and accountability.

Once the HR blends engagement and empowerment of employees in its role, the direct successor of the organization can be ensured. 

Technological Familiarity

Above all, in totality, the role of HR is to ensure that the core human resource of an organization is attended to. This means storing and studying employee records, retrieving these records as and when necessary, analyzing these records, producing these records for evaluation, so on and so forth.

HR in the traditional days was responsible for these tasks but almost all of it was conducted offline. This meant a great deal of paperwork, manual labor, and a degree of human error involved with it. As a consequence, the output was shaky and delayed, there were inadequate results and increased dissatisfaction among the employees as their needs and grievances were not meant on time. This greatly affected the overall productivity of the organization as well.

The changing role of HR requires HR to be familiar with the latest technology in Human Resource Management. This will economize on both time and cost, ensuring faster and better results with improved productivity. This means that the HR personnel has to be well acquainted with the various employee management software to be able to effectively use them and yield the desired results.

Data Specialists

Traditionally HR has not been an analytical and data-driven role. It mainly records primary data from the organization and employs humane analysis and evaluation to conclude. Even though that has been occurring for years now, with the change of time and recent development of technology, this entire process can have a different approach.

HR personnel, now, employ big data technology to analyze all records to design and implement their various programs. This includes incorporating solid evidence to figure out the needs and shortcomings of the human resource of the organization and how to overcome that challenge. 

SUMMING UP

When we chalk out a timeline of the evolution of HR over the past couple of years, a significant number of path-breaking changes could be observed. This includes more employee-focused schemes, implementation of automation and technology, employing a data-driven approach to HR, etc.

What doesn’t change is the sole focus of HR. Whatever might be the change and diversification of the role, the ultimate footnote of HR responsibility is to ensure that employee satisfaction is intact, that the employee performance meets the organizational needs and the rate of retention is very high. 

To say the very least, the change in the role of HR is massive and the change is not going to be constant. However, the current seat of HR is highly evolved and futuristic in itself. The happier the employees, the happier is the organisation. A few more years and HR will probably completely revolutionize into an unprecedented process. 

Human Resource Management (HRM) is a partial segment of management responsible for allowing effective use of the human capital or workforce of the company and supplying workers with flexible working conditions. This incorporates those activities which plan and manage a company’s human capital. HRM also focuses on building and maintaining a healthy relationship among the employees and at different management levels.

Whereas Human Resource Development (HRD) is a subset of HRM that aims towards the betterment, empowerment and development of the human capital or workforce. HRD mostly puts its effort into training and developing the manpower of the company so that the organisation and it’s employees both achieve growth and success. HRM and HRD are often misinterpreted and is considered to have a similar meaning, but it is not. Therefore to provide a better understanding and help you distinguish between HRM and HRD, here are furthermore details to how they are different from each other.

Human Resource Management

Human Resource Management, often known as HRM, implies a particular management segment that is dealing with handling employees in a company so that to ensure maximum quality output to meet the mission and vision of the entity. The principles of management are brought into practical application on the employees of the organisation. It helps to boost the organisation’s efficiency and profitability by discovering the quality and capability of the workforce. HRM is, therefore, the allocation of work to the accurate person at the right time to get the maximum result.

The procedure consists of various steps beginning with recruiting, screening, orientation, integration, training & development, performance assessment, incentive, compensation, inspiration, employee protection, health & wellness policy, corporate partnership management, change management.

Human Resource Development

The word Human Resource Development or HRD indicates the growth of the workforce in an organization. This is a component of HRM; it helps to develop the organization’s workers’ abilities, expertise, capabilities, mindset, nature and attitude. The HRD aim at empowering and improving the employees ‘ abilities so that their productivity is more efficient.

Human Resource Development provides employees with these prospects that will respond effectively to their overall growth. Such prospects involve training and development programs, career development, performance management, KSA improvement, leadership development, identification of specific staff, strategic planning, etc. Nowadays, several companies work for HRD of workers from the very beginning, and the practice remains until their employment.

Role of Human Resource Management

The basic role of HRM is to design, organize and plan the policies and norms that support and work along with the benefits and upliftment of the employees working for the organisation. Also, it’s role is to maintain relations within the workplace.

There are three major roles of HRM:

• Administrative role of HRM – here, Human Resource Management is mainly to keep records, and legal paper works about the employees in the organisation. With this tie, the administrative role has been improved with technology that maintains huge databases, and the paper works can be easily done online or through accessible forms over the internet.
• Operational role of HRM – this handles the relationship barriers in the organisation. Often the HRM department is said to act as an advocate, and it helps in maintaining relationships between different levels of the organisation and also internal relations. This helps in avoiding conflicts and creates a healthy work atmosphere for the maximum benefit of employees as well as organisation.
• Strategical role of HRM – the strategical role of Human Resource Management is the footsteps towards HRP ( Human Resource Planning ), i.e., the organisation includes the HRM head in the strategical planning and takes into consideration the opinions and viewpoint of the HR manager as they have a better insight to the potentiality of candidates in the market.

Role of Human Resource Development

As HRD is a component of HRM, and its role is precise and particular in the organisation. The major role of Human Resource Development is to enhance the KSA factor of the employees, that is, brushing upon their knowledge, skills and abilities toward the job they have been assigned for. Also, the HRD department must provide the required training to the employees. Nowadays, many companies invest a lot in T&D programs to increase the efficiency of the employees.

Objectives of HRM

• Personal objective – helping the employees accomplish personal goals that also benefit the organisation.
• Functional objective – the contribution toward the organisational achievements as a department of the firm that shows motivation and teamwork and the relation among the employees.
• Organisational objective – putting efforts towards the mission and vision of the organisation. Organisational success should be one of the goals of the employees to increase their productivity.
• Societal objective – when the above objectives are met by an organisation, it creates an image, preaches teamwork and motivates others and also attract new potential in the market.

Objectives of HRD

• To develop and uplift the workforce altogether to enhance the performance of the organisation.
• To design better and more efficient training and development programs to attract greater potentiality and find talent.
• To enhance the performance level of the employees to make them capable of achieving their personal goals.
• To motivate the employees to have similar goals as the organisation.

Difference between HRM and HRD

To conclude, HRM is a wider and broader concept of management. It consists of the traditional principles of management that are applied to the human capital to make them grow personally that further results in the enhancement or improvement of the organization as well. It also helps in creating an image in the society and therefore creating its public profile based on how the company’s performance is.

Human Resource Development is a subset or subsystem of HRM. This department of an organisation is more of a functional part of the system that comes into action in developing both employees and the organization together. The employees are trained towards meeting personal and organisational goals and motivates the workforce to have mutual objectives as the entity.

Gamification is the use of recreation-wondering and recreation mechanics in non-recreation eventualities inclusive of commercial enterprise surroundings and procedures, specially in recruitment, schooling and improvement, and motivation, with a purpose to interact with customers and remedy problems, as described through Gartner Group.

According to Gallup studies launched in April 2012, much less than one in 10 personnel are ‘engaged’ in their jobs. The closures are ‘now no longer engaged’ (60 %) or are ‘actively disengaged’ (32 %) – the maximum dangerous shape of disengagement. The goal is to take strategies from recreation layout and effect them in non-recreation contexts so that the general revel in for the worker or ‘user’ is extra enticing.

The writer of Gamification of Learning & Instruction, Karl Kapp, says the important thing to gamification is how addictive it could end up throughout all generations of people. Kapp believes the benefits which might be a part of gamification inspire customers to live engaged and engage with each other, constructing more potent relationships. Several companies like Marriott, Cognizant, Deloitte, Aetna, and others are using gaming to enhance staff alignment, decorate worker skills, remedy complex troubles, and faucet into new expertise pools. Typical recreation layout strategies encompass intention setting, competition, real-time comments, and rewards. There also are systems inclusive of eMee and MindTickle that facilitate Gamification in companies.

TCabs, a nearby radio cab provider issuer from Pune, India, has converted its everyday Call a Cab commercial enterprise right into a gamified consumer-enticing offering, using the eMee gamification engine. TCabs has added one of the first consumer loyalty software for cabs in India, referred to as TMiles. They have additionally brought recreation mechanics to inspire consumer sports like presenting comments at the cab journey, encouraging customers to actively take part in enhancing their provider, and sharing their TCabs revel in with their friends.

How Does It Work?

The energy of Gamification works like this: it makes use of the aggressive streak all of us have inside us, and as we play a recreation, we end up extra absorbed and engaged, we experience a different experience of fulfillment and are extra inclined to head the greater mile in both making extra efforts to pick the proper people or finishing extra schooling programs, or maybe assisting personnel to live motivated. And as we progress, we retain to boost our engagement with the sport and attain new levels.

In Recruitment and Selection

Marriott International Inc. became an early implementer to check how gamification may be applied in recruiting the proper people. It advanced a motel-themed video game, much like Farmville or The Sims, to acclimatize potential personnel with the Marriott as an organization, the corporation tradition, and the motel industry. Anil Garg, VP-HR, Whirlpool, said at some point in the latest TimesJobs.Com boardroom convention that they had been drastically using social media and gamification (cryptic puzzles) to interact with potential personnel to preserve the emblem join alive. It’s clear that gamification withinside the recruitment sphere has proved to achieve success for those businesses and is getting outstanding results.

Also Read: Difference between Recruitment and Selection

In Training and Development

The famed Deloitte Leadership Academy has skilled 10000+ executives from everywhere in the international, grants getting to know gamification through Badgeville to boom expertise sharing and emblem improvement. TCS has additionally stepped withinside the international of gamification through imposing recreation engines that permit the introduction of real-existence environments with integrated networking features, allowing the improvement of such Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG). The software of MMORPG for real-international commercial schooling and simulation can cause extra collaboration and group play and decrease the dreariness concerned in solo-schooling, says the group.

In Retention of Employees

Accenture is the use of the gamification gear for worker engagement and administrative center conduct modification. The World Bank’s Evoke is a social collaboration recreation for fixing social problems. A very promising region of engagement and retention wherein gamification may be applied to worker health. For example, Mindbloom’s Life Game being used by Aetna is a freemium online social recreation aimed toward enhancing worker fitness and health through encouraging interactions with a metaphorical “self.” In essence, customers can preserve a test on their health by choosing and growing plans to foster health.

The marketplace for gamification is anticipated to develop drastically, withinside the subsequent coming years. The Gartner studies suggest that through 2015, 50% of companies that cope with innovation procedures will gamify the one’s procedures, and that through 2014, extra than 70% of Global 2000 companies can have as a minimum one gamified app.

Importance of Gamification

1.  HR can alternate the education content material with the aid of using revamping it right into a game. Activities may be added if you want to permit personnel to advantage factors and badges via levels.
2. Onboarding costs bureaucracy, and files may be very time consuming and complicated. Reward factors via gamification can result in performance withinside the commercial enterprise processes.
3. It facilitates the HRs to install a difficult machine for worker well-being. There is an organisation answer known as Welbe, which aggregates information from wearables and worker well-being right into a dashboard. All people can determine every difference via leaderboards.
4. It lets personnel understand every difference via aggressive and collaborative processes to commercial enterprise processes, necessities, and events.
5. It lets in personnel to cost every difference once they excel at a specific activity. This is carried out via the assist of cost badges and lifestyle factors supplied to personnel if they comply with the agency values appropriately.

Example of Gamification

In 2015, PWC Hungary introduced a sport referred to as a Multipoly video game that carried out the commercial enterprise demanding situations right into a digital surrounding wherein the personnel get a hazard to check their flair and abilities via means of receiving guidelines and remarks via the in-sport performances. It now no longer best improved worker retention however additionally boosted the agency recruitment,

Another New Zealand famed agency, Deloitte, used a recruiting video that became gamified and interactive. It went by way of the call of ‘Will you be healthy in Deloitte?’. It defined the firm’s offerings and agency lifestyle in information permitting applicants to play a position to get entry to their sports via desired points.

From getting to know and improvement to recruiting, gamification withinside the destiny will migrate from the place of work surroundings to new domain names if you want to assist HRs to realise excessive appearing personnel. If you’re one of these people who’s searching ahead to growing an attentive, worthwhile, and interactive workforce, it’s time which you to leverage their intrinsic motivators via exceptional gamification approaches.

HR trends are an important part of HR operations. HR trend depends on a lot of internal and external factors. These include market conditions, changing social dynamics, changing political dynamics, laws and legislations, predictive analysis etc. HR professionals predict and study these various trends to get an idea and decide on how the HR operations are going to take place.

HR trends are important both in terms of the welfare of the organisations as well as from the perspective of the employees.

2020 was a roller-coaster year in terms of everything. It has changed the economic situation, changed the social dynamics and completely shifted how workplaces used to work. With almost all the entire planet in lockdown and confined to their homes, the work has shifted to the homes as well, and all work has gone digital. With all the workforce going digital, it is only natural that the HR trends will take a digital turn too. Let’s find out a few top HR trends in 2024.

Top 5 HR Trends in 2024

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1. AI in The Recruitment Process

Artificial intelligence has made its way in the various sectors in the market. Be it baking, finance, health, marketing, retail, artificial intelligence has operations everywhere by substituting the traditionally used human labour.

AI will also make its way in the HR hiring and recruitment process. It is not only supposed to be saving a lot of time but also supposed to yield more accurate results. Chatbots are going to be implemented in the recruitment procedure. This would largely eliminate the repetitive tasks of the recruiters by providing automated responses. Most applicants have several Frequently Asked Questions, and by employing the bot to answer them, the recruiters will save upon a lot of time that they can use somewhere else.

Screening and elimination of candidates will also become easier and faster. The job requirements of the candidate would be recorded by AI, and the candidates would be screened accordingly. Otherwise, to screen candidates for a single hire, it takes 20 hours on an average by recruiters. As an additional advantage, the AI-based recruitment will not only be faster but also more accurate due to the absence of human bias.

Also Read: Role Of Artificial Intelligence In Recruitment

2. Implementation Of Data Analytics

Data analytics will make a striking presence in the HR trends in the coming years. Instead of the observatory and recorded information, HR decisions will be guided by data-driven results. This can help HR professionals to attract potential best candidates for their jobs. Data analytics will also help in retaining talented employees. Employee absenteeism, turnover rate, level of engagement etc. will have tremendous scope to be recorded under data analytics. Studying and predicting these trends by analytics will give HR professionals a great added advantage.

Implementation of data analytics will have varied impacts on the HR domain. Employee satisfaction and experience can be greatly improved by the use of data analytics. This will eventually lead to greater productivity. Studying the trends will also help in reducing employee turnover rate. Planning of workforce and development of training can also be improved by the use of data analytics.

3. Employee Experience Platforms

Ensuring a good employee experience is not just important to the employees but also hugely important to the company. Just a good pay and a healthy work environment are not enough to keep the employees satisfied. With widespread digitalisation and such a great social forum, employees can anytime take to websites like Glassdoor and review their current company. The reviews can be based on their workplace policies, compensation, benefits, etc. If an employee is not satisfied, negative reviews on these forums can impact the goodwill of the company.

Hence improving the experiences of the employees is an important part to focus on. This is where changing HR trends come into play. This means that global experts suggest that implementing HR technologies can positively impact the experience of these employees.

Hence, Employee Experience Platforms or EXPs can be used. These help in managing and designing different kinds of employee interactions that take place across the company. EXPs will help a great deal in to economise on cost and time that help in the development of custom employee portals, developing backend integrated systems etc.

The EXP will also help in integrating several processes on a single platform. These include the development of career, administration of benefits, performance management, payroll management, onboarding procedures, etc. The EXP uses an intuitive procedure to perform these tasks. In totality, HR will see an amalgamation of HR and IT functions that would lead to higher productivity.

Also Read: 7 Workplace Rules for Happy Life

4. On The Job Training

Training is very important for the employees to understand the functions of the organisation and to be able to fit in with that. On the job training is an important part of the entire training procedure where the employees are provided hands-on training about how to perform their specific job roles to meet the various long term and short term goals.

 However, the traditions methods of training are most likely to be replaced by more technologically advanced ones in the coming time. The companies can make use of augmented reality, virtual reality, gamification, etc. to provide training to their employees before they get on with their jobs. 

5. Feedback Tools

Feedback is an important part of engaging the employees in an organisation. Engaging the employees also mean increasing the possibility of their retention and improving their satisfaction. Hence an important trend in HR would be about employing feedback tools to increase employee engagement in the organisation. These tools would largely help in managing and tracking the concerns of the employees and thereby taking corrective measures.

All of these trends are based on predictive analysis and are not be trusted in blindsight about determining the functioning of a company. However, they are made by extensive studying of patterns, and other external factors and hence can be used as a framework upon which the operations will take place. These are created after analysis and in real-time should be implemented in steps after considering the needs and current status of the company. 

Job simplification is a widely used process in many organizations. In simple terms, job simplification means simplifying a complex job into several simpler parts. It is intended to improve the productivity of the individual by lessening the work-pressure on him. The work-pressure includes strenuous physical activity, mental pressure, and psychological stress caused due to complex jobs.

A complex job is considered, and then it is broken down into smaller and simpler parts. These simpler parts are reach assigned to employees, and they are employed to work on that part of the job only. The employees’ work is repetitive, and that increases the expertise of the employee on that particular job. Therefore it leads to individual skill formation of the employee as well as increases the productivity of the company. It is a component of job design where job rotation and job enlargement is also a part.

Also Read: What is Job Enlargement? – Definition, Advantages and Disadvantages

Under the job simplification procedure, the organization spares its preparation cost, as a low degree of aptitude is required to play out the improved employments. Additionally, the activity speed increments, as the individual is required to play out a little segment of the beforehand bigger and complex activity.

Because of expansion in mechanization and expanded familiarity with working conditions for representatives, work simplification tumbled from popularity. Rather than a building approach, a persuasive methodology was supported. This methodology concentrated on making employments inspiring to chip away at – particularly for information laborers. 

Notwithstanding the lessening in prevalence, job simplification stays one of the four key approaches to job design. Moreover, a contention could be made to reintroduce job simplification as a strategy to improve jobs during a time where extreme work-pressure can prompt pressure and medical issues.

Techniques of Job Simplification

1. Identification of the Job

The first step towards simplifying a job is identifying or selecting which job is to be simplified. The best way to identify such a job is to check which one is most strenuous or produce the most unproductive results. If the knowledge about the said job is inadequate, then interviews must be conducted with people who have the experience to get a better insight.

2. Collecting Relevant Data

The second step is collecting all relevant information about the job that is being simplified. This involves gathering information about the total time taken, the steps involved in the job, how they are performed, etc.

3. Analysis of Collected Data

After the collection of data about the job is done, it needs to be analyzed. This is the step for analysis. This is where all the questions are asked, and analysis is made for alternatives are investigated.

4. Finding Alternate Solutions

This is the step for the development of different possibilities and alternatives for the simplification of the job. This is the core step where job simplification is done. Four criteria are employed for the jobs that are to be simplified. These criteria are elimination, combination, re-arranging, and simplification. The main objective of this step is that the current job has to be made safer, easier, and the effectiveness of the job has to be improved.

While simplification of the job at this stage, different tools can be used. These can be newer technology, digitalization, automation even physical instruments. Once the simplification of the job is finally done, the result should be duly noted, and the new method should be proposed.

5. Evaluation of Such Solutions

The last and the final step is the implementation and optimization of the ultimate simplified job. At this step, the new result is taken into account to test the new prototype. Henceforth, it is optimized and adjusted. This step mainly includes managing stakeholders and convincing superiors to facilitate the final implementation of job simplification.

Job Simplification Advantages

• Since the job is broken down and simplified, it makes the job a lot easier than complex jobs.
• Since an employee is continuously associated with a narrow line of job, it increases the skill and productivity of the employee.
• More straightforward jobs reduce various kinds of physical and mental stress that the employees otherwise go through due to complex jobs.
• The training process of staff becomes simpler as the jobs are simplified.
• It is easier to replace unproductive employees with newer ones as the training attached is not very complicated.
• It is a cost-effective method as the cost incurred to the organization after job simplification is practically negligible.
• It achieves specialization.
• Employees under job simplification are prone to get higher rewards.

Job Simplification Disadvantages

Job simplification has several significant drawbacks, and they are why better alternatives to job simplification are chosen in recent times. Maybe it poses many benefits to the organization, but on more in-depth analysis, it has underlying limitations. Even to the employees, it causes several issues that have to be considered. The limitations of job simplification are listed as follows:

• It affects the quality of work of the employee in the long-run due to the constant repetition of the job.
• Presence of monotony in the employees due to the same narrow nature of the job.
• Increased tardiness among the employees.
• Even though the productivity increases initially, in the long run, the productivity of work due to repetition goes on decreasing.
• Increasing absenteeism among the employees.
• The companies are most likely have to increase the wages to retain the employees in the job.
• The process decreases the pressure and complexity of the job upon the employees but increases the frustration.

In totality, job simplification can be used as a short-term approach to achieve short-term goals. However, in the long run, it does more harm than good. The productivity and cost-effectiveness that it achieves in the short-term get overshadowed by the decreasing productivity and employee tardiness in the long-run.

This is why several alternatives are preferred in place of job simplification. Even though it is part and parcel of job design, the other components like job rotation and job design have better benefits and lesser drawbacks in terms of both the employee and the organization. 

In the Human Resource perspective, skills and competencies are often used interchangeably. They are often considered similar to the other and put into a similar context. However, skills and competencies have a few differences that are, if not significant, noticeable. It can be said that skills are a subset of competencies. Competency, as the literal meaning of the term, considers all the abilities, skills, and personality traits of a person. Competencies are behavioural, whereas skills only test the raw abilities of a person. 

Let us find out some of the key differences between Skills and Competencies under different heads.

Meaning

There have been different attempts to define what skills are and various definitions have emerged to point out the meaning of skills distinctively. It is defined as the capability or aptitude that is obtained or created through preparing or experience. It is the capacity, originating from one’s information, practice, inclination, and so forth., to accomplish something great. A capacity and limit obtained through conscious, precise, and supported exertion to easily and adaptively complete complex exercises or employment capacities, including thoughts (psychological abilities), things (specialized aptitudes), as well as individuals (relational aptitudes) can be successfully described as a skill set. 

Skill is the educated ability to do pre-decided outcomes and an educated capacity to achieve the result one needs, with the most extreme conviction and effectiveness. It is the capability or adroitness that is procured or created through preparing or experience. So, a Skill is something Learned to be able to carry out one or more job functions.

Different sources and different definitions also attempt to pin-point ta exact definition of competencies to set it notably apart from skills. It is defined as a group of related capacities, duties, information, and abilities that empower an individual (or an association) to act adequately in an occupation or circumstance. Competencies mean abilities or knowledge that lead to overall execution. 

Quantifiable aptitudes, skills, and character qualities that distinguish effective workers against characterized jobs inside an association. A competency is something other than just information and skills. It includes the capacity to fulfill complex needs by drawing on and assembling psychosocial assets (counting abilities and perspectives) in a specific setting. It is a quantifiable example of information, aptitudes, capacities, practices, and different attributes that an individual needs to perform work jobs or word related capacities effectively. Competencies determine the “how” (rather than the what) of performing work errands or what the individual needs to carry out the responsibility effectively. 

Competencies employ skills, but it is not just limited to skills. It also uses knowledge and action. They incorporate capacities and practices only as information that is principal to the utilization of a potential skill-set.

Approach

Skills have a universal approach, per se. It means that a specific individual with a particular skill is universally the same. The skills remain constant irrespective of place, situation, or type of employment. For example, if a person has a technical skill of Digital Marketing, his skill can and will be listed everywhere the same provided he/she has the proper certification.

However, competencies are contextual. This means that just because a person has a particular skill does not mean that he/she is competent in the same. Competencies include skill, knowledge as well as the ability. Hence a person with skill has to analytically and logically apply it in a correct situation, then only will he/she prove to be competent. Taking the above example, a skilled employee in Digital Marketing must know and have the ability to apply that knowledge in his term of requirement; otherwise, he/she would not be considered as competent.

Position

Skills are generally transferable across various job roles in an organization. This means that an employee with a specific skill can be moved across different jobs that demand that specific skill-set that the person possesses. Hence, it is more dynamic. Skills are not aspirational. These are need-based and absolute.

Competencies, on the other hand, are extremely aspirational and job-specific. When moved across various jobs, a person’s skill set will remain the same. However, his/her competencies will vary to a great extent. A person with skill will be put in a position of work. When the person employs that skill into execution to perform the job efficiently, his/her competency will be proved. 

Relationship

It can be so regarded that skills and competencies have a cause and effect relationship. Skills are what is the initial requirement for a person to perform a particular job. Without the required skills, a person is not eligible to be employed in a job that demands it.

However, competencies are how the job is performed. With the effective implementation of skills, knowledge, and ability, when the job is completed, and the result is obtained, which determines the competency.

Concept

Skills are a narrower concept comprising technical or non-technical knowledge that is required for a job.

Competency is much broader that is more result-oriented by employing skills, knowledge, and abilities.

Example

Digital marketing, coding, language proficiency, software proficiency, computer programming are some of the things that can be defined as skills.

Whereas professionalism, time-management, analytical abilities, excellent communication are some of the competencies, to name a few. 

Difference between Skill and Competency

Skills and competencies might not be interchangeable but not inseparable. However, skills can exist without competencies. But, competencies cannot exist without skills. Competency is a superset of which skill is a component. That is why it is essential to acquire skills. It is also important to know how to apply them. Employers are not looking for just skilled employees; they are looking for competent ones.