HR Strategy in the VUCA world
VUCA, an acronym for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity finds its roots in leadership theories developed by Burt Nanus and Warren Bennis. Though it was first used in military education, it gradually found its place in the emerging ideas of strategic leadership that steer all the organizations across the globe. Needless to say, the world is becoming even more volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous with each passing day. Even so, with the advent of Covid-19 it has now become a different ball game altogether. Business operations took hit and the operating models of the organizations had to be revamped overnight to ensure smooth enablement and to keep the organization up and running. The role of an HR became even more significant since HRs were the enablers of a smooth transition of the workplace from a physical space to a virtual one which has now become the “New normal”.
The world is changing at a faster pace and fixed workplaces are slowly turning into a myth. A hybrid working model is replacing pre-determined workhours and workplaces. Organizations are turning out to be location-agnostic and gig economy is on rise like never before. What can keep an organization thrive in such an evolving world is an impeccable HR strategy. Right from hiring the right people to keeping all the employees engaged and motivated, HR strategy is going to be of utmost importance.
New Ecosystem in the VUCA World
The VUCA world demands HR Professionals themselves to be risk takers and no way should they hesitate to embrace change. Only then will the HR professionals help an organization achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Moreover, In the VUCA world, organizations work with customers, partners, vendors, suppliers and employees as stakeholders. The onus now lies on HR to create an ecosystem where all the stakeholders can come together seamlessly and benefit the organization by creating a purpose, helping the organization sustain an ever-evolving business world. HRs should make use of emergent technologies and communicate the importance of collaboration by leveraging enterprise social networks (ESNs) ad keep the diverse and distributed workforce connected.
It is equally important for all employees to stay updated and upskill themselves with the emerging technologies since they cannot afford to fall behind. HRs should facilitate learning and create avenues to enable self-paced learning portals for building a workforce that is learning agile and future ready. Social learning takes a back seat in a remote working world. To ensure that employees are well-connected, HR should encourage a culture of collaboration and participation. A growth mindset places a pivotal role in keeping oneself motivated and move ahead in an extremely volatile world. A person with a growth mindset tries to learn from failures and is in a constant process of developing himself/herself. Hence, developing a culture of growth mindset should be the go-to strategy of HR.
Changing strategy of HR
It is also important to keep the flow of information in check. Since the change is very rapid in the VUCA world, too much of information can turn out to be overwhelming. According to a report by Gartner, 70% of the employees reported that they are tired of a change. Employee change fatigue is emerging as one of the pressing challenges. To curb this, HRs should reassess the nature of changes faced by the employees. It should also be seen that employees are receiving enough help to steer through this ever-changing world.
It is also pivotal to bring in fundamental shift to how employees think about change. For this HRs should adopt an ‘always-on change strategy’. Regular communication has to be made with employees, where they convey customary, general messages that are not explicit to any one authoritative change, but instead talk about how the association works in a reliably evolving state.
Summing Up
HR of the organization should be completely mindful of the essence of the business and should have the option to realign jobs and roles as per the need of the organization on top of the changing prerequisites of customers and clients. The recruiting system will distinctly search for ability that is revamped with the most recent ranges of abilities required for the work. HR should have the option to acquire a course of consistent learning and fortify the Learning and Development center to ensure a steady pool of ready to work employees.
HRs should have the option to help the organizations in getting workers who are technologically superior and have the capacity than resolve problems quicker and faster utilizing emerging technologies. This could incorporate involving Artificial Intelligence and robotics for screening resumes, conducting interviews, recovering data. Big Data tools would be utilized amazingly to manage gigantic information, both qualitative and quantitative that could enable business leaders to take decisions rapidly and move to acquire advantage. This can assist firms with getting customer and client needs and work with most recent tools and technologies to give an upgraded and superior client experience.
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