Talking About a Revolution: HR and the Digital Era

The speed with which technological advances have occurred has resulted in a digital revolution where recurring change is the only constant. Today, there are various platforms and software, full access to information, and advances that improve different aspects of our lives; to the point that sometimes it can be difficult to have enough resilience to adapt to these constant changes.

The digital revolution has affected every aspect of human life, including workplaces and the human resources area,  but besides technology, what has driven the wave of constant change?

There are different factors, including the arrival of the pandemic, which impacted the way employees and candidates relate to companies, giving way to new, more humane processes that should adapt to the current reality.

It is not that the pandemic has innovated in the bipartite relationship between associates and companies; rather, it hastened the transformation that was coming at a steady but calm pace. This transformation met a lot of resistance because it was not being defeated in the empirical field. Once the organizations had to adapt to the new way of working, it was possible to demonstrate with a greater or lesser degree of success that certain changes in the usual dynamics not only do not affect productivity but, as there is greater flexibility, could increase it.

One of the changes that has occurred in the relations between associates and companies is the focus on people, or human resources. Those of us who are part of this sector have promoted the idea that the main objective is no longer to ensure exclusively the productivity of companies, but also the well-being of associates based on benefits, a competitive salary, a good working environment and attractive growth plans, among others. Doing so consequently helps to increase productivity, since employee satisfaction is directly related to performance.

That is why thinking about the well-being and mental health of employees is vital for any company or organization. In addition, it gives rise to breaking preconceived paradigms and allows us to realize that it is possible to be happy at work and that companies that are concerned about their teams do exist.

If we focus on the well-being of employees, we can stop focusing on recruiting staff (which is the preconceived term for wanting to hire more workers), and instead attract talent through benefits. The decision-making power is no longer held by the companies, but by the associates , who can choose to join a company taking into account whether or not they agree with its values and organizational culture. Actually, the role of organizations now is to offer benefits to candidates and have an attractive organizational culture to ensure these candidates remain interested in being part of the company.

The so-called revolution in the workplace is so imperative that what seemed impossible before now is more common than we even realize. Right now, any company can have talent around the world. Anyone can apply for jobs whose offices or "headquarters" are on the other side of the world. The spectrum or the location barrier has been broken, at least for those jobs that can be executed through a computer and internet connection. Consequently, a feeling of “normality” has been growing around remote and hybrid work schemes, which increases the difficulty of schemes that do not have this flexibility.

As we know, HR processes will continue to evolve, which is why adapting to change is essential. We must acquire new skills that allow us to develop resilience to face this transformation. We should not fight against these changes, but make the most of them.

Surely you are wondering, what are those skills that I mention? But to get to them, we must first consider  how things will be this year.

We will focus on mental health and emotional well-being. Burnout has affected the performance of employees, so we will implement strategies to make them more motivated and communicative while taking care of all aspects of their lives.

Companies that have not yet done so, will automate their processes through digital platforms to simplify tasks and play a much more strategic role. In addition, the teams will be encouraged to develop soft skills to foster synergy in the teams.

It will be a must for organizations to be diverse and inclusive, to store, manage, and analyze data for decision-making, and to take care of their employer brand. On the other hand, employees will look for jobs where there is effective leadership and they can enjoy a remote or hybrid scheme.

Now that we have talked about the HR approach for 2023, we can ask ourselves: What do we need to face in 2023? Are there tools that we must acquire to obtain the necessary resilience to succeed in  2023?

The answer to this latter question will always be yes. We cannot continue to do things as before when the world is changing drastically. We have seen that it is not possible; Nokia forgot the importance of modernizing, MySpace avoided thinking about the user experience, Blockbuster resisted going digital, and they were all left behind.

To face today's world, we need analytical thinking to understand what the metrics reflect and to make the best decisions based on those. We also need negotiation skills to be able to convince a candidate about the great benefits of the company; leadership and empathy to connect with teams and take care of their mental health and emotional well-being; and use of new technologies as a reflection of their ability to adapt and for the management of teams and associates to retain the best talent, and the organizational capacity to be able to keep track of all the administrative processes in our work environment.

The two steps to adapt to change through these skills are:

● First of all, we must be aware of these skills and put them into practice.

● Secondly, understanding how we can take advantage of these abilities so that they are as beneficial as possible and help us  face changes with resilience.

What about you? What are your plans to face the challenges of 2023?