Talent tango: Fresh faces, sharp skills, or tech triumph? HR’s 2024 balancing act
2023 witnessed technology’s pervasive impact on the workplace, profoundly influencing nearly every variable. The true challenge, therefore, lay in addressing the growing workforce obsolescence across generations. New AI-powered tools and applications offer superior results, rendering traditional skills obsolete in many sectors. Their scope widened significantly in 2023, impacting a far larger workforce. Reskilling a large swathe of the workforce is essential to shift the productivity paradigm. However, traditional massscale skilling methods may not suffice for this rapid transformation.
Individual employees must also abandon the outdated ‘one-time skillup’ approach. Continuous learning and agile adaptation are now the keys to remaining relevant throughout one’s career. More than domain-specific skills, instilling a change-embracing mindset–one that anticipates, adapts to, and even leads tech-driven change–is critical. This transition requires deep, long-term collaboration between individuals, peers and the organisation, with individual ownership a key driver.
HR 2.0: From paper pusher to strategic brain trust?
As automation and tech adoption ramp up, HR service delivery will become more personalised and efficient. The true value lies in leveraging technology for refined talent matching, skill development, enhanced mobility for diverse experiences and robust succession planning. Analysing employee aspirations and interests through technology will propel HR up the value chain. Human resources stands at the crossroads, poised to transform people management through the potent blend of technology and behavioural science. This transformation includes the distinction between talent management and HR operations, both of which will climb the value chain with technology as their guide.
Managers are the crucial link, translating engagement initiatives into action for their teams
Work-life jenga: Can HR help stack it right in 2024?
In a growing economy such as India, work and life can be complementary. Continuous economic growth will present fantastic opportunities for current and future generations to maximise their potential. White-collar managers, aware of present and future possibilities, believe in their ability to grow through effort and ingenuity. However, they also seek to fulfil social and family commitments. While organisations must continue promoting holistic well-being through a balanced work-life agenda, individual executives must find their own equilibrium based on their unique context and career stage. In 2024 and beyond, organisations must prioritise ease of work, simplified work methods and digitisation to ascend the well-being curve and avoid employee burnout and obsolescence.
Quiet quitting tsunami: Can HR turn the tide on disengagement?
By analysing multidimensional data on people, work, drive, skills, competencies, interests and aspirations, technology can personalise and amplify engagement at the micro level. This approach unlocks the best in individuals, harnessing their ingenuity and creativity through challenging assignments and the rewarding feeling of achievement.
At the macro level, managers are the crucial link, translating engagement initiatives into action for their teams. Their beliefs, intent, drive, abilities and genuine conviction in the importance of people matter deeply. Leadership and HR must safeguard the workplace culture to empower managers in this vital role. Formal programmes that sharpen managers’ understanding of their role, beyond just achieving results, can have a profound impact.
This article is sponsored by Thomas Assessments
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1 Comment
Good post. Skills are becoming obsolete. Time, technology and knowledge of people are becoming more valuable. Only people with learning agility are likely to succeed better. However fundamentals discovered over a period on humans may not change for some more time.