Article: 2019's top 10 trending stories on People & Work by People Matters

HR Technology

2019's top 10 trending stories on People & Work by People Matters

On diverse themes, including HR technology, skilling, future of HR and employee experience, here are some trending stories that were most read by our readers in 2019.
2019's top 10 trending stories on People & Work by People Matters

The falling GDP, the struggling aviation and telecom industries, several companies laying off employees and restructuring. The year 2019 has been quite overwhelming for the world of work. On one side we talked about the possibilities of technology enabling the workforce, on the other, a lack of consumer demand and many other socio-economic and political factors impacted the businesses to cut costs and hence jobs. 

The changing demands of business and work created new challenges for the HR community. Amid such rapid state of disruption, HR leaders turned to stories that equipped them with the latest trends in HR and HR technology. 

If some of you missed reading them, this list might come in handy and for others, you might enjoy reading it another time with a new perspective. 

Here are 10 trending stories in 2019:

Run HR as a business: Dr. Santrupt Misra

Read this story where Dr. Santrupt Misra, Director, Global HR & CEO, Carbon Black Business at Aditya Birla Group, elaborated on how tomorrow can be perplexing, and how the only facet we can control as leaders is how we approach it. One can be “tentative”. That is, hide away from tomorrow as it goes past us. One can be “skeptical”, that is “dreary” and walk towards tomorrow as slowly as we can, hoping that way that tomorrow will come slowly towards us. Lastly, one can be “enthusiastic” that is “child-like” where no matter how fast or slow tomorrow is coming towards us, we will move forward to meet tomorrow and make it our own.

HR technology trends in 2019

AR/VR training, Behavior Analysis, Big Data & Data Analytics, and Intelligent Self-Service Tool, and a few other aspects of HR technologies redefined HR priorities in India in 2019. More and more organizations are shifting to cloud-based technology every day; companies are investing in AI-based tools to change the perspective of the talent acquisition process. Multinational organizations like Google, Facebook, IBM are on the same track, which means HR technology is a mainstream trend. The article talks about the top trends in HR technology in India in 2019 and highlights how implementing them can benefit an organization.

Importance of soft skills in learning and development

The nature of jobs and businesses is changing at an unprecedented pace. This has resulted in a large number of ‘unemployable educated’ youth. Even for existing employees, L&D managers find it a challenge to design and deliver development programs which can re-skill them at such a pace. As industry gets more and more automated, the human jobs of the future are going to be those which rely on soft skills and the human touch. There is a growing emphasis on customer service, and impactful and professional communication skills will be in even greater demand in the new age of AI. Future leaders need these skills. Not just be knowledgeable, they need to work with others -- communicate, cooperate, collaborate, and more challenging, inspire! Read this article to learn more about the relevance of building more soft skills focused learning interventions and learn about the top soft skills essential for any L&D plan. 

At Amway, we want the right people in the right roles: Amway CHRO

In an exclusive conversation with People Matters, Shantanu Das, CHRO, Amway India shared the essential practices that the company follows globally. He highlighted the values that he considers while hiring. Speaking on culture he said, “The culture is inclusive enough to have an open, transparent and yet a result-oriented culture with strong bonding and feelings for each other.” He shares that Amway’s values are not just to be put up for display, but they live those values. “Whenever a business policy or practice is designed at Amway – we first think – which of these value/s will get further strengthened by it? If we do not get an answer, we do not go ahead with it. And that is what results in a uniform culture across all countries and affiliates as it is built on the same foundation of the shared values,” Das said. 

On making HR easy and employee-centric: Emcure case-study

Emcure, a rapidly-growing Indian pharmaceutical firm engaged in developing, manufacturing and marketing a broad range of pharmaceutical products globally,  aspired to bring about a Tech Transformation to nurture talent from within rather than hiring laterally. They wanted to have not just a world class system, but one that fits their pace of growth and a diverse set of employees. They wanted it to be centralised, simple and functionally deep at the same time; one that not just solves automation of HR processes but is also scalable, global and configurable. Most importantly, one that ticks the four boxes of SMAC - (Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud). Read how they lead HR technology transformation within 70 days and with zero deviation.

Six HR Technologies that will revolutionize the recruitment process

As more companies wake up to the need to make a long-range strategy for technology-driven recruitment, companies need to think a step ahead. In order to create new strategies to drive the organization’s recruitment process, recruiters must stay in sync with the current technology trends. It is important for recruiters to keep in pace with the advancement of technology and provide a competitive edge to its competitors. Read about some of the pivotal HR technologies, which will transform the hiring process. 

If you’ve got a strategy, the only way you’ll get it done is through your people: President & CEO, SHRM

In this interview, Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP, The President and Chief Executive Officer of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) took us through his journey from a lawyer to the CEO of world's largest HR professional society. Besides learning about his journey and his key takeaways from it, also know his thoughts on gig economy, automation, AI and technology coming, and what would it mean for HR leaders to prepare better for them. He said, “Curiosity is the key. To look around the corner and say, “HR is going to be disrupted, not just once, twice, but in everything.”

MBA in India: Facing the reality & busting some myths

Is an MBA worth it? The topic is controversial and has been discussed time and again. However, no one has yet come to any conclusion when it comes to the relevance and importance of pursuing MBA in India. This article deep dives into the various reasons why people choose to do an MBA in India, looks at the applicant and employer side and creates a picture of what is happening behind the campuses of majority of B-Schools in India.

Going digital, yet keeping it human: An ADP case study

ADP India – the global in-house center of ADP Inc. started in 1999. Till 2011, ADP India had 4,000 associates and 65 HR associates on board. Eight years down the line, the company now employs 10,000 associates with just 63 HR associates for the full lifecycle of HR functions. The case in point here is how the HR team remained flat to service twice the workforce size, and how this reduced the delivery time by half and built a consistent associate experience across the organization. Read how ADP redefined its traditional HR function to fit into the digital age by keeping human touch and personalized experience as the core of all the HR practices.

Prabir Jha on leadership, culture and future of work

In this interaction, Prabir Jha, the Founder, and CEO of Prabir Jha People Advisory talked about leadership, digital transformation, and the future of work and jobs. He said, “I have been an ardent champion of digitizing plenty of stuff in companies. In my last tenure, we had moved almost eight decades of paper & pen doing to most of it on the mobile in less than 12 months. It allows us to democratize information flow, improve stakeholder experience, build a more transparent culture and enhance agility in the corporation.” Learn about his take on the dilemma of how to nurture an environment of trust, accountability, and respect in the workplace and know his thoughts on creating and sustaining an ethical business culture. 

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Topics: HR Technology, #Rewind2019

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