CHALLENGES AHEAD

The new business environment also poses some challenges to the HR Professional which he/she should gear himself for :

Countering Erosion of trust :

The work-place could become a very insensitive place because of business-decisions like lay-offs, GoldenHandshakes, etc which might leave those left behind in a state of fright and suspicion. It is upon the HR Professional to take up this challenge of bringing in some sensitivity and trust into the work-place.

Re-humanising :

The past decade saw major efforts in th direction of humanising the work-place.The future might again require major efforts on part of the HR Professional to make bonds which have got more or less severed due to the onset of e-mail, telecommunication, flexitime etc.Employees would see less of each other due to the convenience offered by modern technology.

Managing the Contingent Work-force :

A by-product of business strategy of keeping the permanent work-force as small as possible is that there would be a substantial no of people who would be required on contingencies only. This work-force chips in a fairly big way towards the business goals without being treated as part of the organisation.The contingent component could comprise of consultants, specialists, project teams, part-timers, temporary appointees etc. and the HR Person needs to make them feel required and appreciated.

Double-income families :

The trend already is towards both the husband-wife going out of their homes in pursuit of their careers. This trend is only going to increase which would require the HRD to be responsive to their needs. An HR Department which could provide a in-house Liesure-planner,a Travel Manager, and an entertainment adviser would be appreciated.

Faster, Non-Fussier Response :

The old bureaucratic ways of queries being replied to after filling up scores of forms and of policies, procedures being kept away in wraps should be challenged. A fresh air of transparency should be allowed to blow across the HRD setup.

Individual attention :

As customizing is taking place in the services being offered and products being manufactured keeping in mind the needs of the discerning customer,so should the HR Professional handle the work-force. Each individual is different from the other and hence deserves to handled differently. Discard those reams of policies and procedure manuals if they are not tuned to treat the individual knowledge worker in a just manner.

B2B (Back to Basics) :

The HR professional would have to go back to those basic behavioural knowledge and put them to use in order to do justice to the multi-hued workforce. For quite some time these behavourial inputs have been put onto the back-burner and more administrative aspects have gained importance, which in turn has been the reason for the HR function to be treated as a non-critical function .

Environment-Scanning :

The latest trends in business and in its own function need to be known to the HR profeesional more than ever before for adding value to the function. For this the HR professional needs to be in touch with the external environment through any medium possible.