Looking back at the 20 before the leap into 2020
It was exactly a couple of decades ago – 1999! As wee stood at the threshold of the 21st century, the Human Resource function found itself in an unfamiliar and unprecedented situation. The ‘millennium bug,’ popularly known as ‘y2k’ seemed to have bitten almost every business! The grappling and the chaos to get our systems in place and sail through the y2k compliance did not spare HR folks. We, with utmost grit and determination, faced it, dealt with it and emerged victorious in the year 2000. Ever since then, what the profession has achieved, in almost every industry sector, is nothing short of a rise from obscurity to vital importance. No one ever thought of a recap of HR in the past and that proves it! Let’s take stock of what all has changed since then. Emergence of the CHRO – As the HR function started to evolve from being a paper pushing, policy making support function to a strategic and trusted business advisor, it made its entry into the C-suite and the CHRO role was born.
Adaptation to technology, the advent of the ERPs – The role of technology in the evolution of HR after the turn of the millennium is beyond imagination. While organizations heavily depended on spreadsheets for databases and implemented manual process, the last 20 years have seen how workflows got designed and deployed in HR. HRIS emerged and robust databases dominated the HR scene and contributed to its credibility.
Empowering Employees – The ERPs have not just brought in process automation but also have eased the mundane data entry role that HR once played. The Employee Self Service (ESS) has empowered employees to fill in their own information without HR having to spend their time on it. All that HR does here is verify and approve.
A silver lining called ‘the cloud’ – While HR was still grappling with adopting and adapting to technology, the ‘cloud’ started to loom large. The function caught up to this pretty fast and many organizations have migrated from on-premise, locally managed systems to cloud-based technology.
Anyone anywhere anytime – Smartphones have greatly influenced how HR works. As processes moved towards being more employee-driven rather than manager-driven, digital technology found mainstream utility, and HR workflows transitioned from PCs to smartphone-apps. This is evident in every HR process from hire to retire. Anyone can be accessed at anytime and anywhere in the world.
Interviews happen on smart phones. Pre-joining formalities are done on smartphones. Throughout the employee lifecycle, smartphones are used to manage everything – performance monitoring to individual development to experiential learning. This technology has been a great boon especially to the Organizational Development are of HR.
Inspite of all these drastic changes, there are a few things that haven’t changed at all! Probably we need to predict whether these will, ever.
People are assets, value them – This is the core of HR. And I am happy to see that this hasn’t changed. In fact, it is getting reinforced more than ever. The myth of technology invasion stands challenged by this and so be it! As we look back over 20 years on the threshold of 2020, this is so reassuring. Although organizations have transformed in structure, and hvebecome more global by establishing offshore and onshore teams working in tandem, huge increase in contingent workforce, aging at the workplace, multigenerational workforce, the war for talent never ends.
HR is an Innovator – Business transformation has been so rapid and rampant that HR has had to keep pace with it. The last 20 years has seen the most of it! Although we perceive this as ‘what has changed’, the core thought that ‘HR can innovate to adapt to change’ is something that has remained intact. Probably, that is the secret mantra of survival and growth. While HR has evolved from being operational to strategic, innovation in the people space to keep engagement levels high to keep pace with the business strategies have kept HR up to its game. The spirit has not changed!
Centralized HR processes – Even large organizations still seem to have centralized control on processes and are hierarchical. Some amount of decentralization is probably evident when it comes to different geographies due to local law compliance. However, within the domain of HR, hierarchy is still prevalent. A lot of HR folks still seem to take pride in ‘owning processes’, ‘driving initiatives’, ‘keeping control’ of employees and ‘taking decisions’.
That brings us to where we are now, year 2019….
A recent survey of over 1000 HR executives early this year, across 64 countries revealed that almost 40% are forward looking and confident HR leaders who are harnessing and transforming businesses by adopting new age technologies and tools seamlessly. However, the majority is still a little perplexed and lost. Before we get on to the 2020 bus, I would like to leave you with a thought to ponder over, from a people perspective…
“To win the marketplace, you must first win the workplace.” -Doug Conant
Author Harini Sreenivasan
Being ‘agile’ to transform the ‘future of work’, an HR Leader who believes that businesses can be turned around by leveraging the power of its people. Mentors B School interns in delivering path breaking projects. Spends balanced time both with Industry and Academia to create a transformation. Makes weekends enriching by teaching at B Schools and Universities.
