Emerging trends/ developments and

challenges in IHRM:
Seven major trends and challenges point to how the HR profession will
have to adjust to the changing nature of work and the workplace.

1. Globalization:

Global competition is the new norm, with employers and employees

seeing themselves as global players in product and HR markets.

2. Demographic changes:

Demographic shifts are constantly changing workforce patterns. The

most prominent aspect is the ageing population, which raises two
concerns: the potential loss of organizational memory and intellectual
property when ageing workers retire; and the subsequent demand for
post-retirement incomes/pensions, and public health and welfare
services.

3. Technological changes on the employment market:

The structure of the workforce is changing too. The power of IT is

causing a permanent loss of jobs in the middle tier and at first-job entry
level. Also experiencing hardship are those with narrow industry-
specific skills that are becoming outmoded, such as automotive
workers, and the future re-education burden will be heavy.

4. Technological changes on how work is undertaken:

Technological innovations provide both threats and opportunities.

Fewer people need to work in a central office location, and are instead
able to do their jobs remotely. On the other hand, these trends are
increasing workplace diversity through the growth of a
multigenerational, flexibly skilled, cross-cultural workforce, which is
requiring more sophisticated people management practices.

5. Education:

While education responses are common solutions to demographic

challenges, the traditional educational sector is becoming a workplace
challenge in itself. Business practitioners are finding the divide between
acquired formal professional qualifications and workplace learning
needs is getting wider. Plus, the quality of tertiary and technical
qualifications varies enormously across institutional providers.

6. Smart work:

Smart work in the services sector is now dominating employment

growth patterns. The momentum of this is being met by relative
reductions for labor required in the agriculture and manufacturing
sectors, and the social and political resistance to this is finally
crumbling.

7. Income distribution:

Not all our global changes are simple net positives. Many bring serious
tensions. Society’s standards for greater equity are intensifying
demands for better income distribution and benefit sharing between
wages and profits, and to even out regional growth disparities
internationally.