NEW TRENDS IN HR

Human resource management is a process of bringing people and organizations together so that the goals of each other are met. The role of HR manager is shifting from that of a protector and screener to the role of a planner and change agent. Personnel directors are the new corporate heroes. The name of the game today in business is personnel . Nowadays it is not possible to show a good financial or operating report unless your personnel relations are in order.

Over the years, highly skilled and knowledge based jobs are increasing while low skilled jobs are decreasing. This calls for future skill mapping through proper HRM initiatives.

Indian organizations are also witnessing a change in systems, management cultures and philosophy due to the global alignment of Indian organizations. There is a need for multi skill development. Role of HRM is becoming all the more important.

Some of the recent trends that are being observed are as follows:

The recent quality management standards ISO 9001 and ISO 9004 of 2000 focus more on people centric organizations. Organizations now need to prepare themselves in order to address people centered issues with commitment from the top management, with renewed thrust on HR issues, more particularly on training.

Charles Handy also advocated future organizational models like Shamrock, Federal and Triple I. Such organizational models also refocus on people centric issues and call for redefining the future role of HR professionals.

To leapfrog ahead of competition in this world of uncertainty, organizations have introduced six- sigma practices. Six- sigma uses rigorous analytical tools with leadership from the top and develops a method for sustainable improvement. These practices improve organizational values and helps in creating defect free product or services at minimum cost.

Human resource outsourcing is a new accession that makes a traditional HR department redundant in an organization. Exult, the international pioneer in HR BPO already roped in Bank of America, international players BP Amoco & over the years plan to spread their business to most of the Fortune 500 companies.

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With the increase of global job mobility, recruiting competent people is also increasingly becoming difficult, especially in India. Therefore by creating an enabling culture, organizations are also required to work out a retention strategy for the existing skilled manpower.

NEW TRENDS IN INTERNATIONAL HRMHRM places greater emphasis on a number of responsibilities and functions such as relocation, orientation and translation services to help employees adapt to a new and different environment outside their own country.

Selection of employees requires careful evaluation of the personal characteristics of the candidate and his/her spouse.

Training and development extends beyond information and orientation training to include sensitivity training and field experiences that will enable the manager to understand cultural differences better. Managers need to be protected from career development risks, re-entry problems and culture shock.

To balance the pros and cons of home country and host country evaluations, performance evaluations should combine the two sources of appraisal information.

Compensation systems should support the overall strategic intent of the organization but should be customized for local conditions.

In many European countries - Germany for one, law establishes representation. Organizations typically negotiate the agreement with the unions at a national level. In Europe it is more likely for salaried employees and managers to be unionized.

HR Managers should do the following things to ensure success-

Use workforce skills and abilities in order to exploit environmental opportunities and neutralize threats.

Employ innovative reward plans that recognize employee contributions and grant enhancements.

Indulge in continuous quality improvement through TQM and HR contributions like training, development, counseling, etc

Utilize people with distinctive capabilities to create unsurpassed competence in an area, e.g. Xerox in photocopiers, 3M in adhesives, Telco in trucks etc.

Decentralize operations and rely on self-managed teams to deliver goods in difficult times e.g. Motorola is famous for short product development cycles. It has quickly commercialized ideas from its research labs.

Lay off workers in a smooth way explaining facts to unions, workers and other affected groups e.g. IBM , Kodak, Xerox, etc.

HR Managers today are focusing attention on the following-a) Policies- HR policies based on trust, openness, equity and consensus.

b) Motivation- Create conditions in which people are willing to work with zeal, initiative and enthusiasm; make people feel like winners.

c) Relations- Fair treatment of people and prompt redress of grievances would pave the way for healthy work-place relations.

d) Change agent- Prepare workers to accept technological changes by clarifying doubts.

e) Quality Consciousness- Commitment to quality in all aspects of personnel administration will ensure success.

Due to the new trends in HR, in a nutshell the HR manager should treat people as resources, reward them equitably, and integrate their aspirations with corporate goals through suitable HR policies.

NEW TRENDS IN INTERNATIONAL HRMInternational HRM places greater emphasis on a number of responsibilities and functions such as relocation, orientation and translation services to help employees adapt to a new and different environment outside their own country.

Selection of employees requires careful evaluation of the personal characteristics of the candidate and his/her spouse.

Training and development extends beyond information and orientation training to include sensitivity training and field experiences that will enable the manager to understand cultural differences better. Managers need to be protected from career development risks, re-entry problems and culture shock.

To balance the pros and cons of home country and host country evaluations, performance evaluations should combine the two sources of appraisal information.

Compensation systems should support the overall strategic intent of the organization but should be customized for local conditions.

In many European countries - Germany for one, law establishes representation. Organizations typically negotiate the agreement with the unions at a national level. In Europe it is more likely for salaried employees and managers to be unionized.

HR Managers should do the following things to ensure success-

Use workforce skills and abilities in order to exploit environmental opportunities and neutralize threats.

Employ innovative reward plans that recognize employee contributions and grant enhancements.

Indulge in continuous quality improvement through TQM and HR contributions like training, development, counseling, etc

Utilize people with distinctive capabilities to create unsurpassed competence in an area, e.g. Xerox in photocopiers, 3M in adhesives, Telco in trucks etc.

Decentralize operations and rely on self-managed teams to deliver goods in difficult times e.g. Motorola is famous for short product development cycles. It has quickly commercialized ideas from its research labs.

Lay off workers in a smooth way explaining facts to unions, workers and other affected groups e.g. IBM , Kodak, Xerox, etc.

Human Resources Costs come under scrutiny as the economy falters As companies look to constrain spending to cope with the reeling global

economy, it’s no surprise that personnel-related costs are in the crosshairs of any cost-cutting program,

since these costs represent more than 35% of annual operating expenses.1 Yet actions such as hiring

freezes, delayed salary increases, reduced benefits, and dreaded layoffs have significant hidden

costs. These measures dampen employee morale, slow new product rollouts, hasten departures of higher-

performing talent, and potentially reduce customer service levels. The following key drivers will

affect trends in HRM processes and technology for 2009: · Recruitment activity will decrease while layoffs increase. During

2008, the economic downturn evolved from sector-based (e.g., financial services, automobiles) to broad-

based. The economic conditions have brought on increasing layoffs and limited hiring, conditions

that may persist through the first half of 2009. Certain geographies (e.g., China, India, Middle

East), industries (e.g., healthcare), companies, and job categories may continue to grow as the

overall global economy slows to a crawl. · Employee performance and development will drive business

performance. Employee performance objectives will become more aligned with business goals. Firms

will attempt to get a grasp on and drive employee skills and competencies through performance

management and development to support strategic decisions. For example, this information is

needed to fast-track high performers and weed out low performers. Performance information will

also drive variable

compensation programs, providing some cushion for bottom-line results when targets are missed.

· The workforce is becoming younger and more global. Despite the presidential campaign rhetoric

to the contrary, offshoring and labor arbitrage will continue as companies invest in globalization. Inexperienced new workers will continue to replace retiring baby boomers, encouraging moreinvestment in extended onboarding and talent development programs.2009 Tr ends To Watch In Human Resource ManagementThe following technology and business process-driven trends will be evident in HRM in 2009:· Web 2.0 will become institutionalized. Social technologies are critical to reaching andconnecting with the younger workforce, infusing and retaining knowledge, and turbo-chargingprograms such as alumni relations and mentoring. Fifty-five percent of HR decision-makersagree that this innovation is very important, but 51% believe that their current tools andprocess capabilities are below average.2 This means that HR pros will start to augment theirtransactional process-based apps by institutionalizing today’s rogue social technologies.· Core HR systems strategies will focus on master data. The notion of a single source of truthfor who works for the company today is still an elusive goal. Based on pioneering work donewith customer data hubs, strategies evolved for master data management arerelated to the employee life cycle. This will enable the employee data to be kept in sync acrossmultiple HR, payroll, benefits, and talent management systems, as well as third-party businesspartners and operational applications that use employee data.· The definition of the workforce will continue to evolve. Whereas the workforce hastraditionally meant employees who are actually on the payroll, business needs encompasstracking and provisioning a variety of “nonemployees” as well. “Nonemployees includecontractors, consultants, temporary workers, volunteers, and others who represent part of theproductive workforce. Nonemployees will be managed within the human resource managementsystem (HRMS) to allow for headcount and productivity analysis, project staffing, securityprovisioning, training programs, and other HR-related processes.· Talent management initiatives and solutions will become more integrated. For years, bestof-

breed application vendors and enterprise resource planning vendors who offer strategicHR capabilities have been touting and educating buyers about the importance of integratedHR technologies. The real benefit of integration is the ability to leverage employee data acrosshistorically siloed processes such as recruiting, performance management, succession planning,compensation management, and learning management. Having fewer HR systems and vendorsto manage lowers IT support and integration costs and provides a more consistent userexperience for business stakeholders.· Analytics will help HR become more strategic. Traditional metrics that answer “what was”or “what is” will remain to prove operational return on investment, but they’ll pale in prioritycompared to forward-looking analytics. Why? Analytics are the cornerstone to predicting andmodeling “what-if ” scenarios. They will arm HR with the ability to predict the future results ofprocess and technology changes made today.3

· HR outsourcing initiatives will become more focused and selective. The notion ofoutsourcing a broad set of HR processes and systems has less and less support. Many of theseattempted initiatives have failed to deliver the expected cost savings and service-level goals,and vendors aren’t making any money. Outsourcing selective HR processes of a compliance intensiveor repetitive nature, like payroll, will remain viable. Cost savings is becoming less of adriver of HR outsourcing, with expertise and reliability being higher priorities.· HRM will continue to lead in software-as-a-service (SaaS) adoption. We continue to findthe SaaS model to be more accepted in HRM than other application areas (with the possibleexception of customer relationship management). Expect to see continued growth of thisdeployment model in 2009. Advancements in software technology related to configurability andintegration help to make the SaaS model more palatable to bigger companies, especially thosethat are weary of upgrading on-premise HRM solutions.W H AT I T M E A N SHR will Be More Business-Focused and Less Dependent On Internal ITThe traditional HR shop has been heavily focused on managing records in monolithic systems,processing routine transactions, and dealing with compliance and legal issues. This type of

HR function has been viewed by top management as a candidate for outsourcing, along withother back-office tasks. The more enlightened HR organization is focused on talent as a strategicresource to make the overall business successful. HR professionals are acquiring more businessacumen as HR processes and talent initiatives are becoming more integrated with the day-to-dayoperations of the lines of business. On the technology front, HR is becoming less technophobic,more self-sufficient, and less dependent on corporate IT. HRM applications are being designed tobe owned and managed by the business stakeholders while also being deployed via a vendormanaged,SaaS model. These parallel developments signal the ascendancy of the HR function as a

more prominent player in strategic business growth

The management has to recognize the important role of Human Resource Department in order to successfully steer organizations towards profitability. It is necessary for the management to invest considerable time and amount, to learn the changing scenario of the HR department in the 21st century. In order to survive the competition and be in the race, HR department should consciously update itself with the transformation in HR and be aware of the HR issues cropping up. With high attrition rates, poaching strategies of competitors, there is a huge shortage of skilled employees and hence, a company’s HR activities play a vital role in combating this crisis. Suitable HR policies that would lead to the achievement of the Organization as well as the individual’s goals should be formulated. HR managers have to manage all the challenges that they would face from recruiting employees, to training them, and then developing strategies for retaining them and building up an effective career management system for them. Just taking care of employees would not be enough; new HR initiatives should also focus on the quality needs, customer-orientation, productivity and stress, team work and leadership building. This book is divided into two sections that throw light on the emerging HR trends and discusses HR issues in various industries like financial services, IT, Power, Healthcare, to name a few. This book should be valuable for practicing HR managers of every organization and also for those who have a significant interest in the area of Human Resource Management, to realize the growing importance of human resources and understand the need to build up effective HR strategies to combat HR issues arising in the 21st century.

IntroductionHuman Resource Management has evolved considerably over the past century, and experienced a major transformation in form and function primarily within the past two decades. Driven by a number of significant internal and external environmental forces, HRM has progressed from a largely maintenance function, with little if any bottom line impact, to what many scholars and practitioners today regard as the source of sustained competitive advantage for organizations operating in a global economy.

CHANGES IN HRM :   Some of the significant changes that are likely to take place in the human resource management are as follows:

1. Increase in education levels: Due to technological progress and the spread of educational institutions workers will increasingly become aware of their higher level needs, managers will have to evolve appropriate policies and techniques to motivate the knowledge of workers. Better educated and organized workforce will demand greater discretion and autonomy at the work place.

2. Technological developments: This will require retraining and mid-career training of both workers and managers. Rise of the international corporation is proving new challenges for personnel function.

3. Changing composition of work force: In future, women and minority groups, SCs and STs would become an important source of man power in future on account of easy access to better educational and employment opportunities. Therefore manpower planning of every organization will have to take into consideration the potential availability of talent in these groups. Changing mix of the workforce will lead to new values in organizations.

4. Increasing government role: In India, personnel management has become very legalized. In future private organizations will have to co-ordinate their labour welfare programmes with those of the government private sector will be required increasingly to support government efforts for improving public health, education training and development and infrastructure.

5. occupational health and safety: Due to legislative presence and trade union movement, personnel management will have to be more healthy and safety conscious in future.

6. Organizational development: in future, change will have to be initiated and managed to improve organizational effectiveness. Top management will become more actively involved in the development of human resources.

7. New work ethic: greater forces will be on project and team forms of organization. As changing work ethic requires increasing emphasis on individual. Jobs will have to redesigned to provide challenge.

8. Development planning: personnel management will be involved increasingly in organizational planning, structure, composition etc. Greater cost-consciousness and profit-orientations will be required on the part of the personnel department.

9. Better appraisal and reward systems: organizations will be required to share gains of higher periodicity with workers more objective and result oriented systems of performance, appraisal and performance linked compensation will have to be developed.

10. New personnel policies: new and better polices will be required for the work force of the future. Traditional family management will give way to professional management with greater forces on human dignity.

Thus, in future personnel management will face new challenges and perform new responsibilities. Participative leadership will take the place of autocratic leadership. Creative skills will have to be redeveloped and rewarded emphasis will shift from legal and rule bound approach to more open and humanitarian approach.

NEW TRENDS IN HR

Human resource management is a process of bringing people and organizations together so that the goals of each other are met. The role of HR manager is shifting from that of a protector and screener to the role of a planner and change agent. Personnel directors are the new corporate heroes. The name of the game today in business is personnel . Nowadays it is not possible to show a good financial or operating report unless your personnel relations are in order.

Over the years, highly skilled and knowledge based jobs are increasing while low skilled jobs are decreasing. This calls for future skill mapping through proper HRM initiatives.

Indian organizations are also witnessing a change in systems, management cultures and philosophy due to the global alignment of Indian organizations. There is a need for multi skill development. Role of HRM is becoming all the more important.

Some of the recent trends that are being observed are as follows:

The recent quality management standards ISO 9001 and ISO 9004 of 2000 focus more on people centric organizations. Organizations now need to prepare themselves in order to address people centered issues with commitment from the top management, with renewed thrust on HR issues, more particularly on training.

Charles Handy also advocated future organizational models like Shamrock, Federal and Triple I. Such organizational models also refocus on people centric issues and call for redefining the future role of HR professionals.

To leapfrog ahead of competition in this world of uncertainty, organizations have introduced six- sigma practices. Six- sigma uses rigorous analytical tools with leadership from the top and develops a method for sustainable improvement. These practices improve organizational values and helps in creating defect free product or services at minimum cost.

Human resource outsourcing is a new accession that makes a traditional HR department redundant in an organization. Exult, the international pioneer in HR BPO already roped in Bank of America, international players BP Amoco & over the years plan to spread their business to most of the Fortune 500 companies.

With the increase of global job mobility, recruiting competent people is also increasingly becoming difficult, especially in India. Therefore by creating an enabling culture, organizations are also required to work out a retention strategy for the existing skilled manpower.

FUTURE ROLE OF PERSONNEL MANAGERS

            Some of the emerging trends in the role of personnel manager are as follows:-

    (i).   Personnel managers of future will have to stress upon overall development of human resources in all respects.

  (ii).   The scope of human resource management will be extended to cover career planning and development, organization development, social justice etc.

 (iii).   Enlightened trade unions will become an active participant in the organization and management of industry.

(iv).   The personnel manager will be required to act as a change agent through greater involvement in ‘environment and scanning and development planning. They will have to devote more time to promote changes than to maintain the status quo.

  (v).  The personnel function will become more cost-conscious and profit oriented. Instead of merely administering personnel activities, the personnel department will have to search out opportunities for profit improvement and growth.

(vi).   Greater authority and responsibilities will be delegated to personnel managers particularly in the field of employee welfare services.

(vii).  Personnel managers will have to continuously retrain themselves to avoid obsolescence of their knowledge and skills.

Thus, the job of personnel managers will become more difficult and challenging in future. They will have to be experts in behavioral sciences. They will play a creative and development role. They will thus have play a creative and development role. They will have to acquire new skills, values, attitudes to discharge their new responsibilities successfully.

 Conclusion:

“I never predict. I just look out the window and see what is visible – but not yet seen” (Peter Drucker)Trends in Human resource management have changed the way we work, as organizations are more depended on HRM to increase the success ratio in today’s competitive global environment.

 Latest trend of hr

In each area of HRM, there is at at least one new contribution everyday. Some of the recent trends followed in India are: 1. Competency Mapping 2. Six sigma 3. SAP However it all depends on the need of the organization what to use or not to use. Thus be clear on what exactly you are looking for or at least the area. Regards

HR has to play a vital role in todays competitive age. Company's who are employee focus are able to retain the staff.

Involvement of employees in decisions, asking for their views, suggestions, keeping a continuous and close touch with them are kept on priority by many multinationals.

Appreciation and recognisation for thier outstanding contirbution boots the morale of the employee.

There are many more things aprat from this..

Talent Management Organisational Growth & Strategic Human Resource Management Organisational excellence through Leadership Impact of Mergers & Acquisitions on Human Resources

HRD in Cross-Cultural Environment Competency Mapping Building High Performance Culture E- HR Outsourcing – Redefining Jobs and Work Work-Life Balance in 24*7 Environment

1.GLOBALIZATION OF BUSINESS.- creating a global mind-set within the HR group, creatingpractices that will be consistently applied in differentlocations/offices while also maintaining the variouslocal cultures and practices, and communicating aconsistent corporate culture across the entireorganization.--------------------------------------------------------------2. BUSINESS ALIGNMENT-considering the HR function not as just anadministrative service but as a strategic businesspartner.Companies are involving the human resourcesdepartment in developing and implementing bothbusiness and people strategies. ----------------------------------------------------3.MOBILE CULTURE

- Communicate to all locations about a commoncorporate culture.- Allow local cultures to maintain their identityin the context of the corporate culture.- Establish common systems (e.g., accounting,marketing, MIS).- Provide management with education outlininghow the company does business.- Create an organizational mission with inputfrom all locations.- Create a written strategy outlining thecorporate culture.----------------------------------------------------4.NEW TECHNOLOGY IMPACT ON SKILLS REQUIREMENTS

Technology-related skills • Skills in identifying new applications of technologies • Skills in developing new technologies, or advancing existing technologies • Skills in identifying technological solutions to problems

Operative/Technical skills • Skills in operating new tools or equipment, or applying new methods/processes

• Skills in applying new processes or tools to existing work • Skills in installing and maintaining new products, and • Skills in manufacturing new products.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------5.BUSINESS INNOVATION DEMAND ON MANAGMENT

Management skills • Skills in identifying which innovation outcomes are appropriate for commercialisation • Skills in knowing when and how to market a new product, tool or process (or other innovation outcome) successfully • Skills in securing intellectual property rights over innovation outcomes • Skills in setting up efficient manufacturing processes for new products • Skills in negotiating appropriate training provision with education and training providers ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.DEMAND FOR INNOVATION THROUGH TRAINING/DEVELOPMENT : * Building an educated and highly skilled workforce. *Becoming a leader in knowledge creation and innovation.*Developing linkages, clusters and networks to become a more integrated and networked local economy. *Fostering high levels of enterprise formation and business growth. *Becoming a globally focused and internationally integrated economy. *Creating a business environment and infrastructure base that facilitates business success. establishing a culture of innovations THRU#Co-operative Research Centres #Knowledge and Technology Diffusion #Technology, Research Parks and Precincts #Education #Commercialisation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.IT TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT.-more systems / more software for the business meansdifferent methods of working, which affect the working human resources.HRM have to face / meet/ manage the human resources to deliver the results.------------------------------------------------------------------------8.OUTSOURCING OPPORTUNITIES-the demand for cheaper labor forced the companies toseek more destinations in the underdeveloped countries.This created an enormous challenge to the HRMto seek/develop/manage overseas HR.----------------------------------------------------------------- 9.DEVELOPING ECONOMIES GROWTH RATE-MAJOR ECONOMIC REFORMS

-the rapid development of underdeveloped countriesforced many companies to shift their production baseoverseas.This created an enormous challenge to the HRMto seek/develop/manage overseas HR.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------10.RISE IN PER CAPITA INCOME-the rise in per capita income created more educatedhuman resources.FOR HRM, IT WAS A CHALLENGE TO MAINTAIN/ MANAGE TALENTS

Trends

The top ten trends of the decade for Human Resources staff and the employees served at work were not obvious nor were they easy to pick from my original list. Depending on your company size, your location, and the health and progress of your company and industry, the top ten Human Resources trends may have differed for you.

Although the selection was a challenge, and I still go back and forth, these are my top ten Human Resources trends of the decade. These Human Resources trends are presented in no particular order aside from the first trend, which has swamped HR the past couple of years.

Now that you have had a look at the top ten Human Resources trends I've presented, plus several of my runner ups, what are yours? Do you agree or disagree with the Human Resources trends I have selected? Please share your thoughts on the "Readers Respond" form below.

It's the Economy

With US unemployment at 10.2%, as I write this, and extended unemployment benefits and COBRA subsidies keeping many families afloat, this economic downturn has left no one unaffected. Even people still employed have watched as their 401(k)s and savings sunk to new lows. Almost no employees have received a raise without a promotion this past year. Normal bonuses and profit sharing have been replaced with mandatory furloughs and more work to replace that of laid-off coworkers.

Mourning the loss of laid-off coworkers with feelings of guilt, anxiety, and fear has also chipped away at the employee’s comfort level at work. Looking over their shoulder and protecting their own job has become commonplace. No one can predict how bad the economy could become or how long the downturn will last. So, business leaders don’t know whether they are managing from an economic perspective that the economy has been reset forever or a down economy that will recover. Business leaders are struggling to manage in times they have never before experienced – and the employees, who may also be experiencing stressful economic trauma outside of work, are watching and concerned.

Millennials Are on the March

A generation of employees who were pampered and scheduled by their Baby Boomer parents have taken the workplace by storm. They bring pluses and minuses to your workplace, but come on, who ever heard of a play date before 1990? So, not only is your workplace trying to absorb these offspring

of the Baby Boomer generation - and millennials bring special challenges – employers are dealing with helping three generations of workers happily co-exist to serve customers as a team.

The economic downturn has made the three generation situation worst with Boomers who planned retirement, to make way for up and coming employees, unable to retire - and not happy about it. Millennials and Gen X employees are supervising Boomers and Boomers are mentoring those who wish to learn from the leaving generation.

For the employer, managing millennials is a skill managers need to develop. The millennial quest for work-life balance and for having a life outside of work is legend. Employers accommodate these talented young people and develop their strengths and ability to contribute, or you'll lose them to an employer who will. Many of them have options. They bear no resemblance to the "company man,” touted as the ideal employee in earlier years. And, the workplace is changing to accommodate them.

Employee Recruiting and Networking Online

This decade has brought about the transformation of employee recruiting and social and media interaction and networking. When I first started writing about recruiting, the big job boards like Monster, had not been around very long. Employers have seen a transformation in how people find each other for networking and jobs this decade.

From large job boards like Indeed to niche job sites, from networking on discussion lists to sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Ecademy, networking and recruiting will never be the same again. Human Resources employees have either kept up with the new ways of interacting and communicating or they are doing their organizations a disservice.

Social media networking is the new way to find employees, find jobs, get answers to questions, build a wide-spread, mutually supportive network of contacts, and keep track of colleagues and friends. Social media and online recruiting bring the employer new challenges. Developing social media and blogging policies, deciding whether to monitor employee time online, and checking candidate backgrounds online, just scratch the surface of new employer challenges. But, don’t let the power of this online media pass you by.

Made to Order Employment Relationships

Perhaps it’s the push from the millennials, and definitely it’s the availability of technology that facilitates the customization, but the made to order work relationship has become a dominant force in the past decade. Teleworking or telecommuting, a rare privilege in the 1990s, has taken workplaces by storm. One giant computer company reports that 55% of its employees not only telecommute, they work from home all of the time. A New York City publishing company allows telecommuting two days a week and employees can bargain for more.

Teleworking is not the only component of the new made to order work arrangements. Flexible anything has become the new norm. Flexible work hours, flexible four day work weeks, flexible time off for appointments, and the most important trend of all: Paid time off (PTO) allows employees to take time off when they need the time as it consolidates sick leave, personal time, and vacation time into a bank of days for employees to use.

Additionally, trends such as bringing baby or the family pet to the office also fall within this workplace flexibility.

Superficially, all of these components of the made to order Human Resources employment trend offer benefits for employees. But, they offer benefits for employers, too. Employers don’t need to police employee time. They need to make work and communication more transparent and measurable so the flexibility yields results. Their employees are more motivated and engaged, and less stressed out about family and life issues, because they have the time necessary to address work-life balance issues.

The Big Blur

Online, all the time, and availability via technology, has blurred the line between work and home. Employees work at home in the evening on collaborative reports and email. They shop at work and take brief breaks by playing online games. Employees do their banking at work and their work accounting at home. Almost no one goes on vacation without their smart phone, laptop, and kindle-like device. Employees taking PTO email colleagues with the number of their cell phone if they won’t have access to email.

No generation has ever been this connected, and for good and bad, some employees never stop working. This interferes with down time, relaxing time, and work-life balance, but most employees just see it as a way of life. Employers need to make sure this degree of connectivity is not required. They must also back away from old rules about what an employee was allowed to do at work.

Employers do need to heed wage and hour laws when dealing with hourly employees who must be paid for every hour they work. Indeed, this work – home blurring is a nightmare for employers who must pay for overtime. So, most employers forbid hourly employees, for the most part, to work at home. This emphasizes the differences between exempt and nonexempt employees, already a distance.

The Rise of Technology

No Human Resources trend list would be complete without an explicit mention of the impact of technology on all aspects of the field. As mentioned the power of technology all through these trends, but still cite technology as a major trend. Technology has transformed the way in which Human Resources offices manage and communicate employee information and communicate with employees, in general.

In a world in which identity theft is prevalent and can cost an employee countless working hours over several years to correct, safeguarding employee records is critical. Identity theft is so serious and rising that every employer needs a plan to prevent.

Did words like Intranets, wikis, webinars, and blogs exist in common language ten years ago? Now, employees use them internally to stockpile information, work collaboratively, and share opinions and project progress. They can even work virtually and with distant teams simultaneously. They hold meetings and share visuals with teams from all over the world.

Employee Training and Development Transformed

This decade has seen the rise of technology-enabled opportunities for training, employee development, and training meetings and seminars. Podcasts, teleseminars, online learning, screen capture and recording software, and webinars provide employee development opportunities.

Additionally, during this decade, as the technology-enabled delivery options expanded, so did other training and development opportunities and definitions, including increased expectation for learning transfer to the job.

Online learning, earning an online degree or credits, and all forms of web-enabled education and training provide options that employees never had when training occurred in a classroom. Employers are saving millions of dollars in employee travel expenses, and the employee’s access to the training does not walk out the door at the seminar’s end. This is the decade when employers experiment with classroom training in a virtual world called Second Life. You can expect even more progress and experimentation in the years to come.

Plus, another Human Resources trend that flourished, though did not start in this decade, is the concept of alternative forms of employee learning such as coaching and formal mentoring. They hit the mainstream in this past decade.

Tension Increases Over Government Intervention in the Employer-Employee Relationship

A debate exists in the US between people who think the government is already intervening too much by making laws that require employers to provide particular benefits for employees, and those who don’t. People who support the government intervention believe that the US government has been negligent in not mandating benefits such as paid sick leave. They consider it the “right” or humanitarian action to take.

Opponents want benefits for employees but argue that employers should make benefits choices that their employees desire and that they can afford. Opponents argue that employer mandated benefits will cost the country jobs and opportunity. Small business, the engine of job creation in the US, is currently sitting on the sidelines because of the uncertain economy including threatened government mandates and potential changes to health care.

One of the more significant examples of government intervention occurred with the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) in 1993. The affects of its passage continued to be an employer’s nightmare this past decade as, especially, its intermittent leave requirements created recordkeeping quagmires and made trial lawyers smile. I expect I will be including this Human Resources trend after the next decade, too.

The Rising Cost of Health Care

Much as I’d prefer to leave this Human Resources trend off the table, it’s not going away. The continually rising cost of health care insurance and health care is affecting what employers can provide in terms of additional benefits for their employees. The rise of employee payments for part of insurance coverage, the practice of seeking insurance first from a spouse’s employer, increased payments for covered family members, and higher health care provider co-pay office fees are all highlights of the rising cost of care.

Americans disagree about what needs to be done in this arena. (I support capping fees to trial lawyers and limiting payouts in medical malpractice suits, providing incentives to people becoming family practice physicians, and making basic insurance more affordable.) But, most agree that something does need to happen so that Americans can retain the best health care system in the world. Legislation is currently pending, which as I write this piece, is not supported by over 56% of Americans, so we shall see. Health care costs will remain a Human Resources trend in the next decade.

Globalization, Outsourcing, and Off shoring

Increasing government regulation in the US along with increasing corporate taxation (maybe highest in the world), higher wages, and less desirable, business friendly policies and incentives are causing employers to rethink locations for their operations. High taxation, high regulation states are seeing an outpouring of business (and jobs) from their locations. The US is seeing an overall rise in outsourcing jobs to overseas locations that are viewed as more friendly to business.

In an era of globalization, this makes sense. Employers seek global, rather than local markets, so that economic factors in one location do not hinder progress. Employers see the positive impacts of locating offices and factories in global markets and tapping the strengths of local employees who are familiar with business and employment practices in the new locations.

Whether work is off-shored, outsourced, or the company is simply expanding globally, the challenges to Human Resources with a globally-located workforce are serious. If a US company has five employees in Hong Kong or six in Europe, local Human Resources offices do not make sense. In fact, the US HR Director, with assistance from local employment agencies, probably hired the staff. Managing and working with these global locations, while obeying the laws and honoring the customs of the host country, is a challenge for managers, Human Resources, and coworkers.

I remember hiring my first employee in Hong Kong. I learned the monetary system, the required holidays, the government regulations, and more. I also found that, until I had local, trusted employment staffing assistance, the new employee and subsequent employees took advantage of my limited knowledge.

It's a whole new world of global challenges out there. Get ready.

Human Resources Trends of the Decade: Honorable Mentions

I considered these Human Resources trends and they are worthy and deserve a mention. Several of them will see their biggest impact in the next ten years.

This includes diversity which is already affecting workplaces and legislation. See my favorite piece about diversity: Search for Similarities: Just Like Me. Discrimination laws have had a profound impact on recruiting and hiring practices and in all areas of equal opportunity employment.

The labor union movement in the US is in the process of undergoing a radical change. Recently, public sector employees became the majority of union members leaving private sector union member numbers behind. Additionally, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has stated publicly that their members include illegal immigrants. This will produce changes in the next decade about

Political Action Committees (PACs), raise questions about who is funding union activities, and also impact the illegal immigration debates in Congress and for employers.

In the wake of the horrific events of 9-11-2001, much of which most employees watched unfold on their televisions at work, a feeling of a loss of safety swept the nation. When tragedy struck the workplace, employers responded with new building evacuation plans, safety and crisis management plans, and business continuation strategies. People who lived closer to the events and who lost family members and friends were most profoundly affected. But, the events of 9-11-2001 will never be forgotten in America. Hopefully, this will never be a trend, but several readers nominated this event.

The evolution of performance management as an employee development, goal setting, and performance evaluation strategy is an important Human Resources trend in my book. It allows an employer to develop an employee from onboarding until they leave your company. It moves evaluation and goal setting away from an annual appraisal administered by the employee’s manager to a mutually beneficial defined contribution and development plan.

We’ll see considerably more from each of these trends in the next decade. Hold on to your seat. The next wave of Human Resources trends for the next decade will soon leave the station. Are you ready to enhance and take advantage of them in your workplace?

Please share your best trends of the decade and your worst trends of the decade. Have comments on these top 10 trends and Human Resources trends of the decade, in general? Share your thoughts about the top 10 Human Resources trends of the decade.

Enhancing creative thinking:-

When Bill Gates led Microsoft, he realized that he didn't have to know everything. He recognized that he had employees who did. But, he appreciated the importance of taking the time to learn what they knew and absorb their creative thinking. He took time to listen to their ideas. He took time to think, to ponder the direction of Microsoft. The Wall Street Journal highlighted Gates’ bi-annual Think Weeks in an article a few years ago, In Secret Hideaway, Bill Gates Ponders Microsoft’s Future by Robert A. Guth. (You must be a subscriber.) The concept took hold in my imagination.

Essentially, for many years, Gates went into seclusion for two, one-week “Think Weeks” a year. Family, friends and Microsoft employees were banned from his retreat.

Alone, he read manuscripts from Microsoft associates on topics that ranged from the future of technology to speculation about the next “hot” products. Some papers suggested new products or different versions of current products. Any employee could use their creative thinking to write up ideas and send them for Gates’ perusal. He has said that he may read 100 papers during a Think Week and his record is 112 papers.

Not just reading, Gates took the time to respond to employee suggestions. One paper might have resulted in an email sent to hundreds of Microsoft employees world-wide. Employees waited with

baited breath to see if their paper or idea might receive the go ahead following one of these famous Think Weeks.

The process of reviewing employee ideas, and encouraging creative thinking from employees, has evolved over the years. An assistant later culled the submitted papers prior to Think Week and a computerized response system let Gates easily respond to papers. But the basic idea - to read and think during time alone – to review ideas from the creative thinking of employees - remained constant.

Think Week Implications for Creative Thinking

Bill Gates took the time, twice a year, to read and ponder the future of Microsoft and the creative thinking of his employees. How often do you take time to read about new ideas, revel in the creative thinking of your staff, consider creatively your current work and life, and make changes? Not often enough, I’ll bet.

But, if the founder and long term CEO of one of the most powerful corporations in the world set this example, I am willing to learn from his creative thinking. This article idea came to me during a one-hour think time. I jotted down four additional ideas – in just an hour of reading and creative thinking.

I know, take time to think; take time to read and learn may be simple messages. But do you do it? If not, take time for creative thinking; take time to read and learn. You can transform your world.

Ten Exercises to Promote Creative Thinking and Innovation

Read with pen and notebook in hand; jot down any idea that comes into your consciousness.

Keep a notebook in which you can keep track of ideas, by your bed and in your car.

Write one idea down on a piece of paper and brainstorm any thought that comes from it: how to accomplish the idea, what to do about the idea, where to use the idea, who can help you implement the idea, and any other thought that enters your mind.

Read a non-fiction book every week. Read magazines, journals, online articles, all-the-time.

Clip articles and place them in a folder of related articles or ideas. Periodically, glance through the folder.

Create “idea files” in most folders in your computer. Create an idea or to-do file in your email program. Add ideas as they come to you.

Take time to stare out your window (if your setting deserves attention), play with a desk toy, take a quiet walk. Do any rote activity that allows thoughts to swirl through your mind.

Encourage your staff and coworkers to do all of the above and share ideas with each other at “think” or brainstorm sessions. Schedule annual retreats or off-site meetings to plan and generate ideas.

Develop an employee suggestion process.

Schedule think weeks, think days, or think hours for yourself or your work group.

Thinking time and learning time are both critical to creativity and innovation. The old adage: “stop to smell the roses” is true for both your current work and your career. Take time to plant and harvest the ideas that fuel your progress and success. Creative thinking rules.