Personal Finance

Talent management that gives you an edge

management

HR managers should be involved in effective talent acquisition by investing in modern ways to attract and retain the best employees as this will give them a competitive edge. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The Human Resources (HR) role and responsibility has been changing from time to time. The shifting to human resources from personnel was a step to acknowledge the worth of employees as an organisational asset. To respond to 21st century challenges, HR managers have to become the pioneers of change by showing the attitude of a change agent who counsels employees to enhance their capabilities.

HR managers should be involved in effective talent acquisition by investing in modern ways to attract and retain the best employees as this will give them a competitive edge. HR managers should be able to anticipate how certain changes are going to influence business.

They need to go the extra mile to meet the challenges of global environment. They must come up with strategies for both flexibility and creativity that may help to compete well in international market and succeed in new territory, with new employees and clients.

It is extremely important for HR function to stay consistent with other organisational functions or units. In this period of transition, the HR managers need to develop competency framework that defines the skills and expertise required for performing job efficiently.

These frameworks will help to revitalise the workforce and lead to excellence. In today’s competitive world the need is to invest in the right technology and be armed with the right expertise to use that technology.

Technology has brought tremendous changes in almost everything; from the techniques of production to recruitment and training.

From the viewpoint of 21st century HR management emergence, the globalisation has many implications for the firms that may entail the diversity of cultures. As the trend has moved from industry based economy to knowledge-based economy, thus it is required to diversify HRM strategies to endow with value to both customers and employees.

Work-life balance is a recent phenomenon that must be embraced by HR professionals as a positive drift. They must look at ways that can utilise work -life balance as a tool to attract and retain qualified employees.

The HR manager as a strategic partner needs to understand that work-life balance trend is equally good for employee and employers that can lead to enhanced productivity and lower cost.

The HRM in today’s era has to mount the expertise, mindset and capabilities that are needed to gain competitive edge on global scale. It is recommended that organisations must put efforts to align their HR processes with organisational goal on broader perspective.

The role of HR has been shifted towards becoming strategic partners of organisation which in turn forces HR to coordinate with all the function and provide support in various activities like attracting and retaining the best talent, developing organisational structure, train and retrain employees.

As companies grow by acquisition and merger, they make multiple HR groups. In 21st century, the HR has the handle many challenges like; change management, conflict management, managing multi generational workforce, workforce diversity, globalization, striking work life balance, succession planning etc.

It is the responsibility of HR to increase organizational efficiency and effectiveness by adding value and gaining competitive edge over competitors for a long term survival in complex and highly uncertain market place. It is clearly the time for a quantum leap in the field of human resource. HR professional can contribute in this transition by taking some serious steps to meet the challenges of organizational change; they can serve to find out ways to measure HR value for the organisation. Lastly HR managers can conduct significant research related to human resource and their performance in future organisations.