Key shifts that differentiate current HR from legacy approaches
Leading Edge
…As we all know people and teams enable and impact on business, however, research shows it is magnitudes above what it was believed to be…
Unsolved Trends
Even though most of these trends have been trending for a while and companies around the globe have put these initiatives in place, the challenges remain because:
- 95% of enterprises go out of business in the first 10 years.
- 65 – 90% people are discontent at work.
- The economy wide return on invested capital (ROIC) 1965 – 2009 in the USA is down from 7% to 1% (Deloitte).
Surely something’s amiss…
Complacency breeds contempt. Check to verify that your assumptions are based on fact rather than assumption.
Top earning companies
- Top earning companies know that staff is their biggest asset so they find ways to maximize this. [HR drives this initiative.]
- Top earning companies know their numbers. [Insights from assessments, analytics, stats and measurement give proof of progress and better qualitative and quantitative data for more informed decision-making.
- Top earning companies know it makes sense to get external parties to do staff assessments and audits, for the same reasons one would use external parties to do financial audits – i.e. to get more reliable, independent results.
Top 20 Trends for 2020
… and you might say… most of the trends mentioned have been going on for years…
This then begs the question “Why are most people still unhappy, discontent, distressed at work – if this has been going on for so long?
Research has shown this is more true than ever before, which means it still requires attention.
The answer is simple; it is difficult to gauge what is really going on if you depend on internal metrics and measurements (whether you have systems in place to capture stats on employee experience or not) because you get conflicting information depending on who is collating and interpreting data.
- Another point to make is that people (staff) might feel threatened or uncomfortable giving a true reflection of how they feel in case it should reflect negatively on them, or be a career limiting move, especially if the surveys are done internally because they may have heard horror stories, feel that management do not have their best interests at heart or do not trust the management clique, or they know of someone who had a bad experience.
- In a strong hierarchical system, top management are far removed from what goes on ‘at the rock face’, yet they have to make decisions that impact on the workforce.
- Enforcement of ‘new’ ideas can be time-consuming and require consistency. Implementing and managing change without buy-in and in a change-averse company culture is frustrating and exhausting. Without a champion and ample incentive ‘business as usual’ takes over.
Top 20 Trends for 2020 – Comparison Legacy vs. New HR
| Legacy HR | New HR | ||
| 1 | Employee Experience | People treated like numbers or cogs in the machine | Put ‘human’ back in HR re: treatment of workforce
Give staff a ‘voice’
Social Platform |
| 2 | C-Suite HR Skill Requirements | HR Acumen & Fundamentals | HR Acumen & Fundamentals PLUS Business Acumen |
| 3 | Management Practice | Dictatorship – manage by command and control (fear-based) – breeds discontent, distrust, fight competition Talent Management |
Leadership – foster autonomy (empowering, enabling) Fair, honest, inclusive Cooperate Human Asset Management |
| 4 | Company Culture | Monochromatic, literally & figuratively, (exclusivity – ‘them’, ‘they’) | Initiate & Encourage Diversity and Integration (inclusive – ‘us’, ‘we’) |
| 5 | Performance Management and Performance Enhancement |
Annual top-down Performance Reviews [internal] incentives; carrot and stick, external motivation Performance acceptable to good |
Agile/ Just-in-time 360 degree Performance Reviews [internal + external Staff Audit] Fun, internal motivation, peer pressure Performance great to exceptional |
| 6 | Orientation | Customers first | Human Capital; staff = biggest asset; staff first (‘happier’ staff take better care of customers, as well as everything else) [Discovery – Assessments, polls, surveys, audits, questionnaires, focus groups…] |
| 7 | Dissemination of information | ‘Need to know’ Bureaucracy & red tape |
Transparency Share information |
| 8 | Primary Focus | Single-minded profit-orientation | Profit orientation plus Social Responsibility; community-minded – we all win together |
| 9 | Infrastructure | Hierarchical Structure (deep, many levels) | Flattened Structure (shallow, reduced management levels) |
| 10 | Sustainability – Change Management | Change averse, stagnant, maintain status-quo (“If it ain’t broke, why change it?” or “This is the way it has always been done”) | Change Management: Initiate and embrace change, disrupt, continuous improvement, fix, challenge status-quo, constant renewal and reinvention |
| 11 | Technology | Worker Bees Metrics and Reporting with subjective Interpretation and representation of numbers Multiple platforms, systems, applications, proprietary software and technology Knowledge Management & Decision Support |
People plus Machine & Technology: Automation, Workflow, Processes Centralized, Integrated Business Insights, Metrics, Analytics, Statistics Quantifiable devices /apps on cell phones – measure activity, blood-sugar levels, etc. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Network effects & Social Communication Tools |
| 12 | Thinking & Problem Solving | Left Brain; logic, reason, science, intellect, practical, step-by-step Incremental innovation |
Right brain; boost ingenuity, creativity, imagination, vision, joy, fun, pleasure and enjoyment Whole-brain; Right + Left = the whole is MUCH greater than the sum of the parts = Exponential results = Extraordinary leaps |
| 13 | Relationships | Professionally aloof, uphold status of position and ‘pecking-order’ even with ‘open door policy’ | Friendly, engaging, emotionally intelligent, mature, secure, kind, caring, considerate, social and cultural dexterity |
| 14 | Communication | One-sided – Top-down Command and control Encourage blind obedience |
Interaction, interchange Staff input valued Encourage questions & exchange |
| 15 | Time Base | Past to present (this is the way it has always been done) | Past to future – learn from past, improve present to thrive in the future. |
| 16 | Outlook [Frame of Reference] | Language: Talk of problems, Issues, challenges, crises, difficulties, troubles, rows, obstacles, dilemmas, concerns, inconvenience, disputes, quarrels. Life is a struggle |
Language: Talk of opportunities, potential, options, prospects, possibilities, openings, range, choices, alternatives, chance, promise. Life is an adventure |
| 17 | Negotiations | Remove objections, ‘sell’, compromise Winner vs. loser |
Engage, entertain, inspire, educate, build relationship We all win |
| 18 | Paradigm Shifts | Information Technology HR Management & Management Practice |
Management Information Systems Humanistic Management Social Aspect/ Impact |
| 19 | Business Model | Military Model – do as you are told | Democratic Model – you have a say |
| 20 | Planning & Execution | Strategic, tactical, predict Manage & maintain, follow, experience, experts, authority Transactional, Technical |
Visionary, work towards ideal Break new ground, pioneer, explore, create future Transformational |
| Legacy HR | New HR |
| Compete, competition – fight the giants | Cooperate, cooperation – stand on the shoulders of giants |
Moving Forward
… OR … 
HR Future
In the next few weeks these top 2020 HR trends will be fleshed out.
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Human Resources – Definition
Human resources is used to describe both the people who work for a company or organization and the department responsible for managing people resources i.e. employees, as well as issues related to staff such as compensation, benefits, recruiting, hiring, performance management, career planning, training, organizational development and culture.
Human Capital – Definition
Human capital is an intangible asset or quality, classified as the economic value that an employee’s experience, skills and talents bring to the business – i.e. education, intelligence, skills, health, productivity, creativity, social skills, leadership qualities and other things employers value.
Genius Within Website – Links to other pages on the site
… Read more on…
- Grumbles, Gripes & Grievances
- Effect of Company Culture on Business
- Staff Assessments
- Genius Within [Return to Home Page for this site]
- Major shift in HR trends for 2020 – Legacy vs Current HR Systems [Return to top of this page]
- Top HR Trend 2020 – Employee Experience (EX) – Human Capital – people are your greatest asset
- Top HR Trend 2020 – Analytics and Insights – organizations with predictive analytics substantially outperform their peers
- Technology
- Integrated Software Solutions – Platform to take care of operational needs from small to mega projects and businesses and boost performance 10-fold.
- Kudos – a peer to peer reward system to help transform and streamline massive organizational change.
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