It’s all in the name! Well, not really, but that’s the start.
Businesses are expanding – not only in terms of size but also their knowledge frameworks, practices adopted, and processes. HR professionals should be at the core of these changes.
HR Terminologies
Modern management is people-centric and has come to accept some common terminologies HR professionals cannot do without. Here’s an attempt to help you navigate through HR trends through the new age jargons that have become routine for workforce management.
The Human Resource (HR) professionals are helping managements rise above pedantic hierarchies. They are taking up the role of an innovator by introducing top-level to employee experience and mindset of millennials; some are assuming a more active role by bringing HR analytics to recruitment, retention and exit strategies.
Before you reinvent your HR career around new age requirements of 2024, you should be familiar with the concepts and terminologies central to these changes.
Learning New Age Basics: 10 Common HR Terminologies
1.HR Analytics or People Analytics
In your HR career, you must have heard this term a thousand times. But the problem is best described by Intel General Manager of Talent Intelligence and Analytics. Most people use data analytics the way drunks use lampposts: for support instead of illumination.
What exactly is HR analytics or People Analytics? It is a data-driven approach that can be leveraged by HR professionals to identify problems in the organization related to workforce management.
For instance, say you face the problem of high employee turnover. By employing HR Analytics, you can explore not only that why people are leaving your organization, but also predict if someone is likely to leave. It can be first done by looking at resignation rates, and then establishing correlations with rate of increase in pay, performance, etc. HR certifications are powering careers of HR professionals by providing knowledge and expertise in people analytics.
2.Holacracy
Holacracy is the biggest challenger to traditional working methods. It entails supporting decentralized work environment and a power dynamic that doesn’t move top-down, but where the power is distributed throughout the organization. For those in HR careers, it boils down to giving employees the freedom to manage themselves and ‘own their work’. However, a structure of set rules should grant this freedom, not mere guesswork.
3.Gig Economy
Gig Economy is another common terminology of new age. It refers to the economy run on gigs or temporary and flexible jobs where short-term contracts and freelancing gains preference over permanent jobs. For new generation, gig economy provides their desired lifestyle than one offered by traditional working life. It gives them freedom to be their own boss, and flexibility to pick and choose jobs.
The prevalence of gig economy has in-fact become a challenge for professionals in HR careers to retain employees.
4.Teal Organization
14,000 employees and 0 managers. Can you imagine? Buutzorg healthcare in Netherlands has it. These types of organizations are called teal organizations.
Teal Organizations is an emerging paradigm of organizations that centers around three values – self-management (a system where there is neither hierarchy nor a central command); wholeness (bringing to the workplace “all of who you are”); and an evolutionary purpose (propounds organization is a living being with a direction of its own).
For HR professionals, in practice it means carving an organization with no hierarchies where people are encouraged to be their true selves while heading towards a common goal without competition.
5.New Work
Job as a vocation is the central idea of the concept of “new work”. Developed by Frithjof Bergman, he was critical of how the world views liberty. He said, liberty is not merely having choices or choosing from better worse and far worse; but it should consider what you really want.
Job shouldn’t be a mild disease that you tolerate your entire life. Taking a view of job as a vocation is a major step in the direction of new work. While employees get more autonomy and freedom over their work, those in HR careers must ensure that managers take a conscious approach to give people job fulfillment when delegating responsibilities.
6.Millennials
Millennials have come across as the main drivers of positive change. Characterized by a generation who attained adulthood in early 2000s, this generation is digital savvy and value the comforts brought by online mediums. They are the biggest force to introduce traditional hierarchy centric organizations to fresh ideas and new workflows.
Professionals starting or already deep in their HR careers are required to know what this generation prefers in terms of aspects of working life, what makes them tick, and so on – it could be flexible work arrangements, provision of remote work hours, better work-life balance, etc.
7.Employee Experience
It entails the observations and perceptions employees have during the entire time of working for an organization. Employee Experience cycle includes – phases from attracting and hiring, to onboarding and engaging new employees, and performance development, to offboarding. HR professionals should be at the top of employee experience as that can lead to enormous benefits for organizations as well as employees – decrease sick leaves, increase well-being, etc.
8.Employee Engagement
Employees spend over 90,000 hours on an average in their workplaces. How they feel about their goals there and their professional relationships have a huge part to play in employee experience. Employee engagement is about fostering a commitment in employees to the company’s vision through increased engagement. HR professionals can achieve this by training and conducting other such activities.
9.VR Tech in HR
In the domain of human resources, VR can be used to overcome recruitment challenges. It entails bringing virtual reality to the screening process, enabling candidates to demonstrate their practical skills, and so on. It is like how the army is including combat training, adventure training, tank training, and parachute training in its recruitment strategy.
10.AI meets HR
AI in HR means reducing recruiting timelines, getting valuable insights and actionable strategies from the data, freeing up professionals in HR careers for decision-making, and other purposes.
Use these terminologies, understand the context behind before putting forth a proposition to your management. It will do you a world of good!
