Challenges for HR Professionals in the Knowledge Industry

Contributed by Rahul Sharma, Executive HRD , Datamatics Limited 

“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success” 

Introduction:

The new millennium is here & this is definitely not a bad time for professionals to gear themselves up and think about the future, their future! It is time to plan, envision, prioritize and set goals for the new millennium.

But what is wrong even if we remain the way we are at present. Do we really need to change? If so, what is that which should change and to what extent? Are we referring to the entire reengineering of HR? These are a few questions, which we should pose to ourselves and attempt to answer.

  HR as a strategic partner

HR strategy emanating from the Business strategy

HR’s growing role in the competitive environment

  Impact of Information technology on HR

S/W professionals compensation as the major challenge of future

The manpower scarcity

Training & Development

Revamping and improvement of its major functions like Performance Appraisal, Training & Development etc.

Emergence of predominantly knowledge workers 

The emerging picture:

The result is a picture of HR and the work environment in the year 2000 that's decidedly upbeat and confident in the status and influence of HR professionals. Although we paint a picture of HR taking a tangential path, or rather an altogether U-turn, taking completely unexpected twists and turns, it has its roots in reality. 

The chart below provides a comparative study to show how the role of HR has evolved over the years.  

                          Study of the Changing Role of HR

As we see in the above table, HR has changed greatly since medieval times when the major motivational factors were basic human necessities and the role of HR was to arrange for these in proportion to the work done.

As mankind progressed and the standard of living improved, these traditional motivators changed. Employees were now considered as thinking and rational beings capable of making decisions. It was assumed that humans made decisions in a way so as to increase their state of general well being. Various behavioral scientists investigated the relationship between cause and effect, stimulus and response and came up with various motivational theories. The role of HR was to devise various schemes and policies so as to channelize the employees’ behavior along a desired path. 

The immediate response to this could be that there are some jobs, which are inherently boring, routine and uninspiring. This however is not true. It is the context in which one sees the job, which is more important than the content of the job itself. It is a matter of common experience that when we consider ourselves as working towards a significant goal, even the most dull tasks become meaningful and inspiring.

Today’s company should consist of  fast, flexible and dynamic teams of enthusiastic, motivated, creative and fully self – expressed people. In such a context the team spirit amongst the members will greatly enhance satisfaction on the job.

A new Challenge for us

The challenge is not just in terms of updating technologies but also in terms of keeping young workforce motivated and challenged at all time. This breed of young and energetic individuals is challenging a lot of the time-tested theories of employee recruitment, staffing, motivation and general HR practices. There are lots of challenges while recruiting these young bloods. They are as under:

Attract people with multidimensional experiences and skills.

Infuse fresh blood in the organization.

Develop a culture that attracts people.

Design entry pay that competes on quality and not quantum.

  Anticipate and find people for positions that do not exist yet

Hence it follows that the role of HR will be: -

·        To develop fully "self–expressed" individuals.

·        To enable and facilitate their effective participation in teams.

Emotional Intelligence

We are not able to harness the best from our employees because we are not able to care for their emotional needs. One of our key focus areas in the current year is to enhance the emotional intelligence of our people.  Without it a person can have the best training in the world, an incisive, analytical mind and an endless supply of smart ideas, but he won’t make a leader.  Smart people are no more the ones with high IQ; they are the ones with High EQ.

It has been noticed that there is high co-relation between  Emotional Intelligence and effective performance. Persons who have high Emotional Intelligence has following characteristics:

Good Interpersonal Relations

Independence

Highly driven & Motivated

Emphatic

Self Driven & Managed 

The survey conducted by Daniel Goleman of 188 companies of large and global sizes reveals the following: -

Emotional Intelligence proves to be twice as important as  other job related factors.

Emotional Intelligence played increasingly important role at the highest level of the company.

Star performer has higher Emotional Intelligence capabilities.

90% of the performers attributed to Emotional Intelligence rather than cognitive factors.

Balancing work and personal life

Balancing work and personal life is a significant area of concern for us. We believe that achieving the right balance between the work place and home is crucial to the efficient running of our organization. Incidentally the findings of a recent survey done on 2500 highest-ranking MBA's from B-schools in Europe and USA, management graduates also identified balancing personal life and work life as their top most career objective.

Change Advocate

Now there is need for HR professionals to work as change advocate. Change advocates are those factors that are responsible for bringing the change in the individual behavior patterns. For being a better change advocate we have to be extrovert, possess considerable interpersonal skills, have to be creative and take risks and have to be good in organizing activities. The following are the characteristics that an HR professional should have in order to be a better change advocate:

a)      Homophily: Degree of closeness and similarity between the employee and us. The closer the relationship, the easier and more successful the change.

b)     Empathy: We should be capable enough to understand feeling, emotions and thoughts of the employees. Sincere understanding leads to improved communication between the two, which will be helpful in bringing the change.

c)      Proximity: Easy access to each other.

d)     Structuring: We should have proper and clear planning of all activities that are related to change. If they are planned properly than the change is easier.

e)      Openness: Degree of openness would considerably affect the outcome of the program.

f)       Reward: Members expect that the change will bring potential benefits. These rewards should be for both in the short run as well as in the long run. It is up to us to inform the employees about the same. 

Strategic Partner

Human resource will have to play a substantial role in the business. In order to perform this role HR professionals should have:

a)      Thorough Knowledge of business as well as of Human resource functions.

b)     The ability to lead any change process, innovation, problem solving etc.

c)     The leadership ability to influence the organization. 

Human Touch

To have better HRD practices into the organization, it is important to have a conductive atmosphere. Quality of work life is one of the most important factors that lead to such conductive factors. According to me this will lead to an atmosphere of good interpersonal relations and highly motivated employees who strive for their development. Though monetary benefits still occupy the first place in the list of motivational factors but others should not be ignored like: job restructuring and job redesign, career development, promotional opportunities etc.

In our industry Human resource is the vital resource as they are our raw material and it is our responsibility that we should take care of them. I think that whatever company does for the welfare of its people should have human touch in it.   Gone are the days when candidates use to change jobs just for salary, now what they are looking for is what companies are offering beyond salary. This can be easily justified from the fact that most of the IT companies are concentrating more on the non-financial benefits. 

 We should plan to have get - together to celebrate achievements made by teams and individuals. B'day's gift to be given. dinner coupon on their marriage anniversary.  Flexi time, paid vacation, cards/ mail to recognize personal achievement, appreciation letter, outing of project team at the end of the successful completion of the project, free health check-up, canteen facility, recreation room etc.. These activities will definitely motivate employees to work with full concentration which inturn will increase their efficiency. We need to increase the credibility of HR within the organization that can be done by:

a)      Being accurate in all HR work

b)     Being predictable and maintaining consistency

c)      Meeting commitment to do what we say on time and within specified budget

d)     Being personally comfortable with peers, subordinates and superiors.

I believe that the Human Being is the most underutilized resource and a large amount of human potential lies untapped. By understanding human beings and providing the appropriate environment it is possible to harness that latent power within the human being, which will make all the difference between success and failure in the time to come, the power of the human spirit. 

The main objective of this article is to focus our attention on that primary aspect which is the very cause of the existence of HR --- The Human Being.