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Just as for every year, we like to review the trends for the next one. We have selected five we believe to best represent the overall evolution of the sector; nevertheless we will continue to keep you up to date throughout 2015 in this space. Besides we would like you to also share with us your ideas on the future trends, at the end of the article you can post your comments. What else would you add? What do you think of the impact these changes will have on talent management in organizations?
- The challenge of the collaborative environment: Recently I attended an interesting talk by the expert, Yves Morieux at HR Tech Europe in Amsterdam where he specifically pointed out that despite technological advances companies are far less productive than a few years ago, and paradoxically in a hyper-connected world, the real challenge of our times is to connect employees. The bottom line is to create true collaboration networks for real internal communication, since unfortunately we face ever increasing information silos and ever more unnecessary departments popping up: instead of boosting union and collaboration, we are diving and creating new structures to resolve a fictitious complexity. To put this right, the keys are to simplify and encourage cooperation. This is not just about corporate social networks; it’s about changing corporate culture and creating more transparent organizations.
- Digital skills: one of the greatest concerns organizations have today is the famous talent gap, or the existing imbalance between the required skills and availability of professionals possessing these. In this context, the challenge is to track down these professionals, not only outside but also within our organization, and be able to retain and train them in these new competencies. The majority of these newly created skills and jobs are related to the digital world. In the recent Ficod Conference in Madrid, the panel of e-skills experts stressed the importance that digital skills are gaining, even to the point that most jobs today and in the near future have ties to the digital world. Statements like “digital skills are the creativity of the 21st century” or “the digital economy is the driver of modern economy” are some of the keys to this change that the panel highlighted. Upon further examining the reason for this talent gap, especially in the digital sphere, there is a growing realization that the crux of the problem lies with the training offered by schools and universities that are not ready for this change yet. To resolve this, rather interesting initiatives are emerging in different places around the planet, one such example is the “E-skills for Jobs 2014” campaign of the European Union aimed to make citizens aware of the importance of improving their ITC skills for work.
- Big Data and Predictive Analytics: Since the last four years we have been witnessing the development of Big Data in many areas of HR. According to Gartner, there are various states of maturity in talent analytics: level 1 or reactive, level 2 or proactive, level 3 or strategic, and level 4 or predictive, which is the ideal state of maturity for Big Data in talent management. Although there are few companies who have reached this stage, the benefits are evident in many areas. First, all the applications that big data has in talent management at the micro or intra-organizational level, for example, recruitment, performance appraisal, employee retention or training. Next, applying and harnessing this mass volume of information as a source of macro-economic trends and predictions, like for example world labour market indicators.
- Smart Machines: According to the Tech Target definition, smart machines are “systems that use machine learning to perform work traditionally conducted by humans in an effort to boost efficiency and productivity”. According to Gartner for 2020, we will see this technology blossom as one of the most disruptive of our times. For the first time, technology devices are beginning to take on activities traditionally tied to human reasoning and consequently this will impact organizations at all levels. The challenge is to make the most of this new technological capacity so that people can dedicate themselves to more inspirational activities.
- Generations side by side: No name has been given to the generation born since 2010, but it is assumed that these kids will be called Generation Alpha. For the first time with this generation we will see a greater generation gap compared to the one now entering the labour market, Generation Z. From the present Millennials generation, past Generation Z, through to this Generation Alpha, we are seeing a progressive uptake of technology, which these Alpha kids have already interiorized with some very interesting neurological consequences we will be discovering. In these new generations we are spotting certain trends, such as a greater need for their work to mean something and bring value to their lives rather than the traditional work to live, and a greater desire for mobility, flexibility, and overall autonomy to develop their projects, although it is always difficult to generalize. What’s clear is that attracting and retaining these generations is one of the concerns many companies have; they need to take on a general cultural change at the organizational level to handle this.
Bibliography
- Smart Machines, TechTarget: http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/smart-machines
- Gartner Identifies the Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2014 http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2603623
- Smart Machines Shaping The Workforce Of The Future http://www.forbes.com/sites/emc/2014/01/09/smart-machines-shaping-the-workforce-of-the-future/
- Digital Europe http://www.digitaleurope.org/
- Big Data in Human Resources: A World of Haves And Have-Nots, Bersin, http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2013/10/07/big-data-in-human-resources-a-world-of-haves-and-have-nots/
- Babies born from 2010 to form Generation Alpha, http://www.news.com.au/babies-born-from-2010-to-form-generation-alpha/story-e6frfl49-1225797766713
