HR in the eye of the storm of the “new normal”
By our Senior Manager Peter Tordeur
The world is more in flux than ever. The Covid crisis obviously played a key role in this, but we won’t go any further down this already well-trodden path. There are other dynamics emerging that present HR with rapidly changing challenges.
Skyrocketing energy prices are forcing companies to rethink their home working strategy and their available office space.
As a company, how do you deal with this? Do you offer your employees the opportunity to enjoy a fully equipped office space and thus help them save on their personal energy bill during the day? Or do you offer them the opportunity and tools to work from home so the company can save on office space and the related overhead costs?
Fuel prices have increased by more than 25% on average in one year, LPG with as much as 75%.
As an employee who commutes by car to work every day, you may be inclined to work more from home. Or you count on your employer to offer you other, more flexible forms of mobility to go to the office. The mobility budget can offer a solution here, but how do you deal with this as an employer?
A rapidly changing world also means that the competencies we expect from our employees are changing rapidly.
More than ever, employees are expected to act as “entrepreneurs” , to shape their careers themselves and to continually hone their personal competencies. This expectation also places a certain responsibility on the employer: you must be able to offer the resources to meet the employee’s personal ambitions and also frame them, as much as possible, within the company’s strategic objectives. With the half-life of professional knowledge noticeably diminishing, gamification of training and micro-learning can also play an important role.
The transition to “activity based” working and a flexible “hybrid” working environment.
The “new normal” is gradually becoming more of a reality than a hype or a buzzword. Fixed office hours are increasingly being replaced by result-oriented work. Attention needs to be paid to the individualization of the work/life balance and the demand for more flexibility, both from the point of view of the employer and the employee. HR can play an advising, facilitating and steering role by creating a clear framework and by adapting to the changing labor market where the commuting distance (depending on the role, of course) no longer plays a major role in the search for new employees. The “local labor market” is therefore increasingly being exchanged for a “culture and skills market.”
These are just a few examples of a veritable tidal wave of dynamic factors that, in addition to the traditional operational challenges, necessitate a rapidly shifting HR policy. If you would like to know more about these (and other) HR-relevant topics and evolutions, we will be discussing each of them in more detail shortly. In the meantime, if you would like to discuss this matter with one of our domain specialists, give us a call and we will schedule an informal meeting.