Technology, data, employee experience: What’s high on agenda
For me, 2020 will be an year of employee experience. A lot has already happened in data. The upcoming technologies have helped us in churning out a lot of data and now we have to analyse the data and culminate that into employee experience. The kind of environment that we are living in is very critical. The businesses are not doing well. We see that a lot of industries are going through a turmoil; they will need to put pressure on enhancing employee experience and use data to do that.
Many of the big companies in each sector are over and done with technology, now they will need to use the data generated from these technologies to enhance employee experience. We are looking at various aspects of an employee journey. In our organisation we are analysing the employee life cycle from their induction to exit and feedbacks are being taken.
The biggest challenge for HR in your sector
The first challenge is the coming in of technology in the banking sector. There are new ways of banking now and a lot of fintech companies have emerged over the years. Upskilling the existing talent and acquiring new talent for the business will be a challenge.
The second challenge will be matching up with the regulatory compliances. Banking sector is a heavily regulated sector which will pose a challenge for the HR. Building a culture of compliance and making people do business with respect to following the regulatory norms.
Another challenge would be around cost of funds. The smaller the organisation, the cost of funds would be high. In all these things, HR has a role to play.
There are a lot of mergers which are happening in the banking sector. The challenge will be around how to accommodate people.
Time to say goodbye to a few age-old HR practices
The policies which are same across all the organisations have to go away. One size does not fit all. Newer policies will need to be introduced which are tailor made for various segments of employees. We will have to do away with the older ways of engaging with employees and the communication set up. There are different ways of communicating with millennials which the organisations will have to adopt. Anything which is fixed and rudimentary has to go away, like coming to office on time and fixed working hours. Newer and flexible policies such working from home should be introduced. We need to get over with fixed benefits such as fixed medical leaves, fixed maternity leaves and fixed compensation.
Internal Equality and Internal Equity
All modern organisations have moved from internal equality to internal equity. For example, an HR professional working in a bank may not earn equal to a wholesale banker but the former may earn more than an HR head from the manufacturing sector simply because the quantum of work is more in the banking space. Today three HR managers in an organisation will have different salaries according to their performance and responsibility which is internal equity, and equal benefits all across the organisation is internal equality. All modern organisations have moved from internal equality to internal equity. There is no performance culture in traditional organisation which follow internal equality.
GenZ: a catalyst to change
HR has a new role to play in with GenZ coming into the workforce. The role of an HR will be to create a bridge between the older generation and the newer generation.
HR has to be mature to understand the older generations and the newer generation. We need to create platforms where they can exchange their thoughts and ideas to understand each other. Another role that HR needs to play is identifying leaders in the organisations who handle and connect with the newer generation and create a right kind of environment for the GenZs. The GenZs need to be put in the right kind of teams with the right bosses leading them.
