Use Human Resource Trends Information to Review HR Plan

Future Executives

It is not always easy to determine Human Resource trends. But it is wise to get information on human resource trends so that organizations can take proactive action.

Being sensitive to any changes in the business environment, HR can take timely action and make plans. Alertness of HR people to new developments can affect the role played by HR which may change over time.

HR trends demonstrate the changing role of human resources. For example, Personnel management has given way to human resource management.

Some writers, such as Michael Armstrong, use the phrase "strategic human resource management."

Here, HR is headed in the direction of the need to use strategies to manage people. The HR department is required to make pro-active manpower plan and to ensure that employees can contribute to the financial success of the organization. HR people plays more than an administrative role or merely to make people happy.

The business environment is dynamic. Judging from past experience, the occurrence of certain events is predictable. But there are things that are difficult to know in advance. There are events beyond the control of organizations.

The events in an ever-changing environment that affect how organizations carry out their activities force corporate leaders to rethink their approaches compared to methods presently being used. These include decisions that affect people and how best they can play their role.

With these developments, what can managers and senior executives especially HR Managers and HR professionals do. It is a good idea to keep track of human resource trends to ensure readiness always.

Response to Human Resource Trends

This is how you can respond to human resource trends once you get wind of them.

  1. Get to know what changes are occurring, anticipate possible future changes and see whether there is a trend
  2. Study and understand why these changes are happening
  3. Determine how you can change your current HR policy and objectives in line with the new scenario
  4. Check out how other organizations are facing up to the new realities
  5. Discuss with line managers and or focus groups
  6. Determine the new direction that HR needs to go and prepare a new HR blueprint
  7. Submit your findings and proposal to the Chief Executive Officer or Strategic Planning Team
  8. Implement approve framework or go back to the drawing board if required to do so

Conduct a SWOT analysis. Build a "worst case scenario." This will help to anticipate some of the potential problems arising from events that can occur.

Check out the media, offline and online, in which direction current human resource trends are possibly heading for.

Examples include how economic recessions in the past impacted on HR, the fall of large organizations due to unethical actions of corporate leaders, and failure to follow strict safety procedures and high performance standards.

HR trends in various countries

One Sharad Verma wrote in SHRM, 4/15/2014, "Overall SMAC (Social media, Mobile, Analytics and the Cloud) is especially appealing to the younger Indian demographic. The expectation of this younger, tech-savvy, networked workforce is to see an equally flexible, dynamic, tech-friendly HR. It also means sweeping changes in terms of how talent is spotted, hired, on-boarded, retained and engaged."

However this is not the only HR trend in India.

Dave MacKay said in 2005, "The most important corporate resource over the next 20 years will be talent: smart, sophisticated business-people who are technologically literate, globally astute, and operationally agile."

20 years later will be 2025. So, Canada is half-way into this trend. If, indeed, there is the trend.

United Kingdom
No. 4 in Richard Coombes "Ten trends that will reshape the future of HR" (05 Feb 2014) states, "The global talent map loses its borders. With a mismatch between areas of supply and demand of jobs globally, companies will be composed of highly diverse workforce. HR will need to adopt new recruitment strategies to effectively match talent with task across the world."

This can mean that global HR trend can impact the UK.

One of the current trends, according to Personnel Today, is skills shortage.


HR Connect Australia quotes a 2013 survey under a the title "Help your employees grow their wealth in 2014".

It states that many organizations offer financial education and well-being services to their employees. HR Connect Australia uses findings from Aon Hewitt's 2013 Best Employers as the basis of the argument that this "contributes to high employee engagement..."

Chloe Taylor (January 7, 2015) listed ten workplace trends for 2015 which are -

  1. Workers no longer to stay in their jobs for life
  2. More millennials want to start their company
  3. Increasing number of employees want to go casual on Fridays
  4. Internships will become more widespread
  5. Technology allows employees to carry out responsibilities outside the physical office
  6. Rapid turnover
  7. Work-life balance is of increasing concern
  8. Cultural-character fit
  9. Developing talent to ensure employee retention
  10. Rise of flexible freelance workers

Time will tell whether or not all of these will become a trend in the countries concerned. But one of the common trends that seems to cut across organizations and countries falls under talent attraction and retention.

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