2021 brings a new year with new challenges. As we make a slow but steady recovery from the pandemic and its aftermath, it becomes critical for businesses to reposition their HR strategy. Fortunately, the anticipated transformation of this year would not be as drastic as the bygone year. And as we prepare to step into the post-COVID world, here are the top HR strategies that will help you stay at the helm of affairs:
- Add HR Tech to Your Arsenal
It is no secret that the marriage of technology and HR management has borne a fruitful progeny – HR Tech.
HR Tech is successfully making far-reaching contributions to all aspects of personnel management, right from talent acquisition to performance assessment. It addresses a few of the greatest HR challenges: recruitment, onboarding, training, and management. Plus, it leaves room for automation, which takes some load off of your HR teams. Hence, such integrated solutions like PeopleStrong’s Human Capital Management add value to every HR process and make operations smooth.
2. Employ a Hybrid Workforce
According to Gartner’s “Top 5 Priorities for HR Leaders in 2021” report, “organizational design and change management” features at the second spot. And what can be a better way to manage the restructured organization than through a hybrid workforce?
The pandemic has successfully demonstrated the value and potential offered by remote employees. At the same time, one simply cannot ignore the contributions of on-site employees either. Hence, the solution, in this case, would be a blend of the two. Naturally, managing this hybrid workforce can pose to be a challenge. However, once businesses are successful in implementing the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) model, they can build a cohesive work environment.
Read More: Design Your Own Performance Management Process.
3. Enhancing Employee Experience
Gartner’s report also highlights the sustained priority to employee experience from 2019 through 2021. Businesses are eager to adopt an employee-centric framework that focuses on the employee’s health, wellbeing, and interests to boost engagement and productivity. Companies are going beyond the usual perks or incentives to retain talent and increase employee satisfaction levels. HR leaders find themselves at the epicentre of this employee-first transformation and shall get the unique opportunity to orchestrate the employee experience journey.
4. Harness the Power of AI and ML
Cutting down on redundancy and routine matter is one of the greatest offerings of AI and ML. Naturally, it would only make sense to leverage their capabilities to build efficient workflows, improve productivity, and cut down on labour-intensive tasks. Plus, it offers the unique advantage of eliminating human bias, which may come at play during recruitment or while offering employee benefits. So, in a way, AI and ML shall also contribute to greater employee satisfaction and improved EXM.
PeopleStrong’s conversational AI-Chatbot Jinie is simplifying HR processes and helping HR teams improve employee engagement for employees working remotely.
Want to Know More About Jinie?
5. Accelerate Digital Transformation
2020 was the year that snowballed the mass-migration to digital platforms. And when your business and employees are online, the HR department should also make its presence felt on the said platform. Hence, HR must also come under the ambit of digital transformation.
Luckily, the large-scale penetration of HR tech and the growing reliance on digital solutions drive this change. And while it may not be possible to embrace an overnight change in all spheres, businesses can always prioritize the areas of interest and make incremental changes.
Final Thoughts
HR will undergo some ground-breaking changes in 2021, and it is exciting to witness the same in action. One can only hope that such disruptions bring about the winds of change that will make HR more efficient, productive, and resilient.
What HR Leaders need are implementation-ready strategies which not only address issues of the past but also acknowledges growth priorities of the future. Access our recently launched handbook “A KPI Driven HR Leader’s Toolkit for 2021” assisting HR leaders in achieving operational excellence in more relevant topics such as employee skill development, organizational design, change management, and strategic leadership.
