HR Trends for 2007

HR trends for 2007 continue to be exeiting as ever and it will worth pondering over some of issues which HR folks are likely to face and gear up for the new year ahead. Its fascinating how the role of HR has been a talking point in shaping business decisions.

Talent war: The war for talent will become more intense and the job market is going to offer lot of opportunities. Organisations will continue to come up with innovative ideas to attract, retain and develop talent.

Update : According to a survey by ORC worldwide when asked about the highest-priority HR initiatives for 2007, 37.1 percent of survey respondents say talent management, while only 2 percent mention succession planning.

“While we believe that succession planning continues to be an important initiative in most organizations, the processes and programs may be in place and working well, allowing member companies to expand their focus into other areas of managing talent,” the study says.

Job market will continue to grow and the demand and supply equation in the talent market is going to be in favour of niche skilled people. Supply side constraints will continue to push the wage rates towards north.

Another important challenge which organizations are going to face is to retain their best talent, star performers. More and more people are willing to take the risk to start an enterprise of their own and experience the thrills of entrepreneurship. More than competitors, organizations will loose their best people to market economy.

Collaborative approach in building talent pool: Organizations will be collaborating with institutions and adapting new ways to scale up and develop and train people based on industry requirements.

Recruitment : Social networking and media tools, job boards and employee referral will continue to grow and improve in terms of making an impact on organizations hiring philosophy.

HR outsourcing will continue to grow and more and more focus will be on effectiveness and metrics than sheer operational efficiency.

Workplace safety and employees work life balance will be one major area where HR will be expected to make its impact felt in improving employee’s workplace experience.

HR functions will focus more on internal and external branding. HR branding will be part of organization wide communication plan as this will be used more aggressively to counter talent crunch.

Workforce diversity and growing no. of females in the workforce will see changes in diversity and composition of organization workforce. Policies will be framed or modified to accommodate these changes at workplace.

Strategic HR will be the focus area in most of the organizations and efforts will be made to find areas of alignment where HR can partner in business decision making process and executing organization goals and objectives.
- Ajit Chouhan