HR Challenges in the 21st Century

HR Challenges in the 21st Century
BENGAT K. JOSEPH, HR Consultant, Kenya, Member
The greatest challenge is matching the 'existing job opportunities' with the ever rising population's demand.
Through technological advancements there are alternative ways of doing things than by labour. On the other hand, new technology has created a demand for highly technically skilled employees.
The irony is whereas jobs shrink and population expands, technological innovation expands at an even higher rate, enabling organizations to discover newer and more efficient ways of doing things.
As such, there is mismatch between rising opportunities, technological expansion and new enlightened labour force striving to join the labour market.

HR Challenges in the 21st Century
Christerbel Emeh, Human Resources Manager, Nigeria, Member
I think the challenges include trusting employees to a fault. More employees should be trained on how to do different jobs or how to operate different machines so one person cannot feel over-important or try to boss the work place.
Another challenge is that HR persons don't make serious enquiries about the person they want to hire.

The Current Global Economy Appears to Be a Major Challenge to Organizations and Jobsekers
Habtamu Kelemework, Student (Other), Ethiopia, Member
The greatest challenge is mismatch between the uncontrolled population growth and the existing job opportunities. With an increased population growth there is an increased demand.
The economic crisis now a days our world confronts is also another threat to the human resource. As the economy decline the demand for human resource also declined which results in job cut.
Technological advancement also contributed to the challenge with the human resource. As technology excels it is obvious that it simplified the work. This in turn reduced the demand for human resource because a work to be accomplished using many human resource is expected to be accomplished by few human resource using the technology.

HR Software / Organization Charts
Rebeiro, HR Consultant, India, Member
Succession planning is definitely the greatest challenge for HR. The ability to create a rich talent pool of employees will decide the rise and fall of organizations.
Many organizations have already switched gears and use technological tools such as HR software, org chart softwares, transition manager, succession planning suite to overcome the HR challenges.

The Biggest HR Challenge in the Present Century
Arun Kumar, Business, United Arab Emirates, Member
The biggest challenge in the coming years is to manage the aspirations of the human resources and their skill sets given the economic scenario in the Euro zone and the USA. This would require a global effort so that the adverse situation can be turned into an opportunity. The center of gravity is shifting from the developed world to the developing one and free societies of India and Brazil with their young populations will have a very significant role to play. It is up to them how best to maximize their position.

HR Challenges for the Upcoming Decades
Arif ur Rehman, Professor, Pakistan, Member
Mindsets don’t change – minds do! This places a phenomenal responsibility in the decades ahead on HR managers worldwide of measuring up to the changing and challenging HR demands of internal stakeholders, doing away with yesterday’s theories and paradigms and aligning today’s HR needs and determinants. This is both an art and a science!

Learn to Live Without Them..
HARDY, HR Consultant, United States, Member
The way we organize ourselves to achieve a common purpose is evolving, isn't it? We who seek satisfaction in productive work can't depend solely on employers.
There are new ways and there will be better ways for us to find adequate compensation for our contributions. And, too many of these large organizations have harmed people and other living things.

Ethical HR Role
chakradhar, Manager, India, Member
In the current tough scenario, the Human Resource Management Role is far from easy to perform, because most of the organisation wants to reduce the number of employees, so the HR people are trying to find out their mistakes to fire them, in stead of motivating and giving training to employees.
I don't know if it's ethical or not for a HR manager.

HR and Ethics
David Wilson, Manager, Canada, Premium Member
@chakradhar: HR should be responsible for engaging and encouraging employees to be the best they can be at all times. Employees also need to be fully trained to ensure they can perform their job.
I would suggest that the decision to dismiss an employee should be and is usually made by management, not HR.
While HR may implement management decisions, part of its role is to recommend alternatives to dismissal (i.e. ensure discipline is progressive). Some incidents or behaviors may be so serious to warrant immediate dismissal.

HR Challenges for the Coming 5-10 Years
Mohun Aujayeb, HR Consultant, Mauritius, Member
Given the pace of change particularly with the advent of it, it would be a real challenge to undo what we know well but is no longer relevant, and learn something new that that relevant.
We should not continue to do things efficiently which should not be done at all.

HR in the Years Ahead
Arif ur Rehman, Professor, Pakistan, Member
The world challenges resulting from global geo-eco-political warfare is raising its ugly tentacles for corporate and management contributions to society. And the first affected is the internal customer.
This demands a reformed, transformed HR approach to rationalizing and revolutionizing HR thinking. Some of yesteryear’s theories are a misfit today.
Inequity/discrimination on the bases of gender, origin, race, religion, must stop forthwith. This calls for a psychological and physiological contract rather than just an employment contract and the worker has to be guaranteed a life-time working relationship. This entails an all-time learning for them which the employer must see as an investment and not an expenditure.

Biggest Challenge in HR
ANUJ KUMAR SHRIVASTAVA, Manager, India, Premium Member
To be frank, in a country like India where there is enough talent and lots of manpower, the greatest problem of HR is balancing the demand/supply ratio, as there are more people than vacancies suiting there potential and capabilities.
The challenge for the HR manager would be to get the work done by the person up to his capabilities at the price (package) he has been offered. While on the other hand because of psychologic tendencies of humans, they always compare and are greedy and as a result feel undervalued.

Biggest Challenge in HR: The Differing Employee Needs
Abdul-Malik Ishmaeel A, HR Consultant, Nigeria, Member
I think HR Managers are finding it difficult in the 21 century to assess what exactly can motivate their employees to be more effective, as every employee differs in their needs, wants and desires.
Money alone cannot make all workers to be effective as well as motivated since many would prefer recognition and job satisfaction. Furthermore quality of work-life is very important to every worker. Therefore, HR practitioners are faced with managing the dynamic nature of 21st century employees where technological advancement has reshaped everything.

HR must Die to be Reborn
James Muir, Consultant, United States, Member
The revolution brewing in organizations will kill HR as we know it. New leadership in HR will be required to solve new complex problems.
There is an evolution brewing that will change all organizations over the 50 years and some of us will be dead in the process. I don't think HR is going away instantly any more than I think 50-100 year old ideas based on tenants of business and organization will rule. Organizations, businesses, and government that are riddled with imbalance, greed, and malfeasance and as people get more information served up about them, they will suffer greatly. The transition to ideas like "Conscious Capitalism", Memenomics (great book just published by Said Elias Dawlabani), start-up technology from Steve Blank, Meshworks, good organization change technology and, of course, Spiral Dynamics, "the theory of everything" require holistic new thinking to solve the old thinking problems that now look insurmountable. Not everyone, everywhere will embrace the new ideas until they have to.
I am no longer dismissing new views of things as the "worst" thing I read in the media. In fact, if I could filter for them and exclude the old tired whining for productivity and profits, I would. HR may be dead, but people who live on will require organizations that help them prosper and grow not the other way around (in current thinking, where organizations require productivity and profits first). In the new realm, new thinking will be win-win-win as Don Beck (Spiral Dynamics Integral) puts it. In that way of thinking people win prosperity and freedom, organizations prosper, and society and its environments benefit. Sounds utopian, and yet, trust me, we will create problems in the new thinking too that will need solved at a higher evolution of thinking!

HR Challenges in Next 5-10 Years
K.Narayana Moorthy, HR Consultant, India, Member
In my thinking following are the main HR challenges:
1. Managing Talent: turning potential into achievement;
2. Leadership Development: leading self, leading others, leading teams;
3. Managing Work-Life Balance: balancing time, money, quality;
4. Change: improving in culture, people and processes;
5. Managing Globalization: becoming creative and adaptive;
6. Enabling the Organization: knowledge management;
7. Self-governing Ethics: duty to society.

21st Century HR Challenges: Experience Gap and Aging Workforce
Taies Sansan, CEO, Papua New Guinea, Member
One of the major challenges in a developing country or emerging economy like Papua New Guinea is the experience gap and aging workforce and no strategies put in place for learning and developing to address the issue. A capacity needs analysis framework could address this but it would take years before this framework can be realized.

HRD Trends in Public Adminstration
K.Narayana Moorthy, HR Consultant, India, Member
Current trends in Public Administration are:
1. Reducing administrative burdens and improving quality & friendly business role;
2. Smart socialization & innovation;
3. Collecting good information & establishing more friendly communication;
4. Using telecommunication & building more media infrastructure;
5. Improving disabled people's skill, confidence and self esteem;
6. Bold aspirations;
7. Coherence performance measures;
8. Establishing clear accountability; 9. Meaningful reinforcement, and
10. Establishing public service values.
In the fast changing business demography, main issues come from-lack of culturally competent administration; lack of multi-disciplinary approach; lack of political science knowledge in administration; lack of effective and philosophical laws in business administration.

Aligning the HR Policies with Business Goals
shefali agrawal, HR Consultant, India, Member
HR is a subsystem, but every system in the business should meet the challenges of the business and help to overcome them. HR has taken a strategic importance but many organizations fail to sense this and lose out on the main essence of HR. The 21st century will definitely call for overcoming this challenge.

Aligning HR Policies with Business Goals
K.Narayana Moorthy, HR Consultant, India, Member
HR-Policies include: Compensation and Classification; Employment Practices; Hiring Practices; Leave; Job Performance; Workplace Conduct & Control.
Business Goals include: Measuring Success; Leadership Cohesion; Knowledge; Increasing Profits; Cutting Costs; Improving Human resources; Improving Efficiency; Expanding into new Opportunities; Customer Service Satisfaction; Social Goals;
Aligning HR policies with business goals:
- Solicit employees input;
- Stay organized and focused;
- Be consistent;
As said earlier, it is easier said than done: pursuance of the above is the only answer.