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Global HR Trends Worth Revisiting

The second quarter of the year went by quickly – much like the NBA Finals! As we look ahead at the rest of the year with much speculation about what’s next, let’s take a look at some recent and notable HR Trends in the year so far. With more companies competing for top talent, it’s helpful to understand some of the key HR trends that are relevant to a company’s hiring efforts today. Recession may no longer be in the driver’s seat but is replaced by the need for growth. As a result, organizations are faced with an even greater demand and competition for top quality human capital as fuel.

Global Human Capital Trends 2014, a study commissioned by the Deloitte University Press, noted the challenges of talent acquisition and its relationship to a company’s success.

Organizations need to adapt to these HR trends quickly or be prepared to fail. Leaders have the opportunity to catch up on the talent front and adapt to the HR trends critical to their company’s growth.

Getting BIG on Data Analytics

Experts on HR trends have predicted that big data will be at the starting line of each recruitment process and will continue to do so in the coming years. Talent acquisition being one of the fastest growing and ever changing facets of HR, will need to rely on the newest and next-gen recruiting platforms that can track and analyze huge amounts of data and come up with analytical conclusions to help improve the effectiveness of their hiring process.

Data analytics is one of the key HR trends becoming essential for a recruiting team’s overall success. Josh Bersin’s study predicts that by 2030, the global labor force will be at 3.5 billion, a big jump from the current 2.9 billion. This also presents a big challenge in terms of processing all related data. While there are many options available to track and manage recruitment data, the key is to select a system that works best for your organization.

Triple Outburst: Cloud, Mobile, and Social World Domination

  • Let’s take a moment and look at some of these incredible stats.
  • Market research firm eMarketer reports that there will be 1.75 billion smartphone users this year alone. This number is expected to double in the coming years.
  • There are 1.23 billion users of Facebook. Quite a feat considering its humble beginnings started from a college dorm ten years ago.
  • It only takes 5 days to reach 1 billion tweets.
  • 40% of LinkedIn’s 300 million users check the site every day.
  • According to an article by Paul Korzeniowski for midsizeinsider.com, Cloud computing spending is predicted to exceed $180 billion by 2015.
  • 100 hours worth of video are uploaded on YouTube every minute.

These data points are also a clear indication of some of the most dominant trends that affect how people and companies interact in this time and age. It is also a clear signal to update your hiring practices to incorporate these HR trends. The top talent you want to attract is always on the go, always connected, always looking to engage with employers with an online presence. The limitless ways of connecting to potential employees should be capitalized by every great recruiter as expressed in these numbers.

Changing Workforce

The Shift Index, also by Deloitte, illustrates a clear picture of how the workforce has changed in the last forty years.  Talent Acquisition has definitely been a witness to a lot of HR trends. From gold collar positions like banking and finance peaking in the 1980s, to green collar positions in the 90’s that were created to cater more to environmental impact and changes, then to year 2000 where grey collars or the increase in baby boomers postponing retirement to the 21st century workforce. Now, the term “free agent” is a common status of many talented individuals in this rapidly emerging market of freelancers and workers connected to the online world and available on demand.

Changing the way we work

The HR trends for this year also include a shift from traditional workplace to online work and this has been a continuous trend over the last few years. The emergence of freelancer sites like Odesk, Elance, and even Craigslist are proof that technology and globalization are helping drive the change and those not attuned to these changes are easily left behind. The younger generation of workers is now more likely to jump from one job to another and recruiters are faced with the huge challenge of ensuring a steady flow of talent that can be converted to employees with higher retention. More than compensation, you may need a little bit of creativity such as offering telecommuting or flexible work hours. More importantly, though, what matters most is a company’s ability to keep its workforce challenged and excited about the work they do.

Many choices exist today for the new generation of job seekers. Understanding the market trends and the best ways to engage top talent may be the key to reaching your recruitment targets. Paying attention to these HR trends can help your company in attracting, motivating and retaining top talent.

Is your company making the necessary improvements to its HR practices and adapting to the changing landscape in human capital management?

Photo by Stephen Dawson on Unsplash