Q1: How has the 21st Century transformed the practice of HR Management?

Explain by giving an
example of a company which has gone through this transformation, elaborating how its
characteristics have changed.

The HR role and responsibility has been changing for some time. The switching to human resources from
personnel was a step to acknowledge the worth of employees as an organizational asset. In addition,
this shift was intended to call for HR to show up as a strategic partner to advice on critical matters and to
participate in major business decisions.

It is proposed that HR managers should keep in mind that they are required to adopt proactive rather
than reactive approach. It is the requirement of time that HR managers must be responsive to the
flexible environment facing organizations. It is not a good idea to stick to traditional methods to fulfill
unique needs instead new processes must be adopted to achieve effective and efficient outcomes.

In order to respond to 21st century challenges, the HR managers have to become the pioneer of change
by showing the attitude of a change agent of the business who counsel employees to enhance their
capabilities and reshape their expectations regarding the role of HR and what it delivers for
organization. They should be involved in effective talent acquisition by investing in modern ways to
attract and retain the best people as this will incur them a competitive edge over others. The HR
managers should be able to anticipate that how certain changes are going to influence business.

AI and Advanced Technology:

The HR cloud solution SuccessFactors (SF), with conversational AI capabilities through Recast.AI, SAP
Leonardo ML Foundation, IBM Watson, ServiceNow and Microsoft Azure/Skype, demonstrated ways
cognitive engines can help employees arrive at key dayto-day decisions in the workplace. Historically, HR
team members, employees or managers would have had to handle these tasks.

Viewing and updating employee information: Access to HR business transaction data an employee can
access his or her personal information, e.g., address, emergency contacts, organization details, vacation
days available, approval status of vacation requests and authorized HR business data.

Access to HR data: Managers or HR members can access employee data per authorization, e.g., an
employee’s job history, team information or performance rating. Conversational AI also can bring
analytical and key performance indicator information, e.g head count, top performers and pending
transaction requests — just by asking chatbots.

Team training: Team managers can plan digital training opportunities for their team based on skill-gap
assessments. Conversational AI can help employees and managers track their training progress.
Automation of repetitive, low-value tasks: AI presents an opportunity for HR to automate repetitive,
lowvalue tasks and to increase focus on more strategic work. In general HR services include a large
amount of time spent on standard onboarding processes for new employees, triaging common
questions and employee requests, and basic benefits management. Saving time in those areas can help
HR teams do more creative and strategic work for the success of the company.
The hiring process: Cognitive solutions can help organizations tap into multiple data sources and reveal
new insights for better candidate profiles, improving the hiring and recruiting process.

Demographic shift: Due to the dynamic environment, there is a challenge of demographic shift.
Demographic categories include gender, race, nationality, age, religion and physical disability. The
percentage of female employees increases to 48% by 2008 with an increase in their turnout ratio. With
the growth of urbanization, opportunities of jobs for females also got increased. The workforce is aging
with 10,000 “baby boomers” turning 55 every days and many organizations employed part retirement
age either for financial reasons or due to importance of their work. In this era, organizations hire
employees from different countries so there is unique environment of organization because they have
different languages and cultures. Organizations have their own culture which makes employees feel free
and communicate with each other and also with the top management.

Work arrangements: Work arrangement is another reason for change in workforce. Due to the latest
technology including high speed internet and mobile communication, there is great variety that how and
where employees do work. Now a number of employees work in outskirts. For example: software
engineers get their projects through online linkage and complete their work at home instead of going to
offices. Work preferences are also another amazing factor for the diversity in workforce. The young and
unmarried workers are willing to work 60 hours per week for the sake of their career while married
people manage both the work and family both and need flexible work arrangement and prefer lenient
job.

Above mentioned are some of the challenges about diversity in the work arrangements and
demographic shift which put pressure on the organizations to create a cohesive team with vastly
different skills and knowledge to support organizational strategies.

Knowledge- based economy: There is need to diversify the HRM strategies due to the knowledge-based
economy and to compete with the today’s competitors and achieve competitive advantage. The trend is
shifted from industry-based economy to knowledge based economy for providing value to the
customers as well as to the employees at the same time. In industry-based economy, manager focuses
on the efficiency of work only but now in knowledge-based economy, the manager’s focus is on both the
effectiveness and efficiency. In this Era, there is demand of expertise, innovation, entrepreneurial skills
and need of diverse workforce.

Enhancement in creativity & innovation: The well-known organizations focus on the skills of workforce
and their synergistic power to compete with the dynamic environment. For example Apple and other
companies locate their research labs all around the world to identify the market changes and
preferences. By identifying changes, they create new and innovative product.

Employee-employer relationship: In the 21st century, there is also a change in the relationship between
employee and employer. Organization work without centralization and operate in the flexible
environment. Employees work under friendly environment. In the global competitive environment,
employees are loyal to organizations and work with full interest. They easily communicate with the top
management about new strategies and trends of global market. Through exchange of ideas, they come
to end with new innovative thing which are really helpful for achieving organizational goal.

EXAMPLE OF FIRM:

Imtiaz super market has implemented the ERP system in their organization. It has changed whole
dynamics in the company, with easy payroll management; complete tracking of employee performance,
overtime compensations and efficient performance management system. Via this software an applicant
pool is also generated for future hiring.

Apart from all this due to complete and transparent tracking of performance management and on
record performance appraisal the chances of bias or no feedback chances is reduced. All
communications are formal via system portals which also as reduced the risk of miscommunication or
misconduct.

Employees are well appraised and compensated for their achievements.

Profiles are created for employees to check on their tasks and feedback from supervisors along with
their day to day goals including the working hours they were in and out of the company, when they
came and when they left to self monitor their punctuality.