“HR must clearly segregate subcompetencies from operations & career pathing,” Reetu Raina

A big change in 2022

The biggest challenge at the workplace will be to stay steady with plans, and retain talent amidst the mad rush for talent and disruptions in the business. Success in terms of talent retention in 2022 will depend on the ability of organisations to create value without compromising on cost and productivity.

HR splitting into three in 2022: operations, strategy and career pathing

Over the last two years, HR has become a business enabler in the true sense. This change, while creating opportunity for HR, has also pushed HR to be more systemic in the overall way of working. To drive this systemic way of working, HR must clearly segregate subcompetencies from operations, strategy and career pathing.

Operational efficiency, process improvement and automation will be the backbone for HR to create employee experience and ensure productivity and right work-life balance.

The focus of strategy is to analyse the external business environment and its impact on talent management within the organisation, so that talent does not become a hindrance for business delivery.

Key actions which HR strategy should focus on are:

How to create employer value proposition(EVP) for the organisation to attract and retain talent; how to develop successors for the critical roles; and how to build resilience in the leadership team to ensure organisation success. The offshoot of strategy will be career pathing as that will play a critical role in ensuring longevity of employees with the organisation.

“Gig creates a symbiotic relationship between employers and employees”

When employees are clear about how their careers will progress in the organisation, they stay with the organisation.

Gig driven by choice or business challenges

Gig is inevitable and no more a choice. Disruption of models by technology has led to digitisation, which has clearly fast forwarded in the past two years. Employees are now ‘working from anywhere’. Traditional concepts of employment have been replaced by new concepts focussed on value creation and more flexibility to employees to work with different employers. With shortage in talent and need for all the emerging technical skills, organisations can only fill this gap by looking at new ways to engage with talent, and gig is the only answer. Gig creates a symbiotic relationship between employers and employees.

Similarly, employees can maximise their potential by providing their services, as per their capabilities, without being obligated to serve just one employee.

Gig requires new rules of employment for which HR is still evolving. The HR needs to evolve its policies and processes to work with gig workers so that companies can maximise the potential of the gig workforce.