By Georgiou Maria, President of the Board of Directors of CyHRMA
The beginning of the year is always an opportunity to take stock and reflect on the past and at the same time take time out of our busy schedules to see how the future is shaping and plan ahead. So what does the future look like for HR? We are sharing key trends which will be featuring in the HR strategic agenda within the year.
As the nature of work changes and technology is reshaping jobs, strategic workforce planning is key in aligning talent with long-term business goals. We continue to experience talent shortages in critical roles and have seen new roles and professions emerging. The role of HR is to support the business in defining their needs and identify ways to source these either internally or through recruiting.
Headcount and boxes in organizational charts are not enough to drive organisational success. The culture, vision and values of the organisation are the driving forces behind agility, innovation, engagement and of course financial results. Gartner research finds that 57% of HR leaders believe managers do not enforce the company’s culture, while 53% say leaders don’t feel accountable for demonstrating cultural values. This poses a great challenge for HR, one that is not always easy to bring out in Executive Board meetings.
AI and HR technologies are bringing great opportunities to streamline operations and enhance productivity, allowing HR to focus even more on their strategic role. Optimising these technological solutions and integrating these into HR policies and processes is imperative, not nice to have anymore.
As new technologies emerge, the skills needed in the workplace are rapidly shifting, creating a growing gap between current capabilities and future needs. This leaves organisations vulnerable to decreased productivity, innovation, and competitiveness in the market. Even though it's difficult to clearly identify and anticipate the skills needed for the future, HR needs to reskill and upskill people on crucial skills and adopt strategies to attract, nurture and retain them. These crucial skills include technical expertise, digital acumen, analytical and critical thinking, as well as human skills like empathy, collaboration and influencing.
Another important focus is developing leaders equipped to handle growing and complex responsibilities and business challenges. According to Gartner’s survey, 75% of HR leaders believe managers are overwhelmed, so focusing on leadership development can boost engagement, wellbeing and effectiveness of leaders themselves and their teams.
Wellbeing will also remain in the HR radar, with flexibility, wellbeing programs and alternative working formats continuing to support personal, as well as organisational resilience. At the same time organisations need to shed some light into financial challenges people are facing as economies continue to be volatile. This requires providing employees with the resources they need to succeed, building resilience, and removing barriers that prevent full participation from individuals facing mental, family related or stressful conditions.
Another exciting year lies ahead with these trends and challenges already crossing our doorstep, so 2025 should be the year we take bold steps to secure the longer term future of our economies, our organisations and our people.
