3 Crucial Trends That Smart HR Leaders Know About

What is the most viewed document of the TV-streaming service Netflix? An interview about a new season coming out? No. Surprisingly, it was their human resource strategy. Over 13 million people made the effort to read it. Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operation Officer of Facebook, even called it ´one of the most important documents ever to come out of Silicon Valley.´

It shows how crucial HR is becoming. The time that HR departments were mainly involved in bureaucratic tasks like payroll and staff administration is long gone. According to Page Executive´s HR Barometer, modern HR leaders are key figures in the organisation. The future of the company depends on their strategy to recruit and retain the biggest talents out there.

In a competitive job market high potential candidates are scarce. That´s why HR leaders need to look for new ways to attract and to keep talent. These are the 3 most important trends that help them to reach their goals.

Trend 1. Build a strong employer brand to attract the best candidates

The best HR leaders team up with their marketing departments to successfully build a strong employer brand. Because with the growing global economy, the traditional recruitment of new employees is not enough anymore. As the HR Barometer suggests, there is a real need for a people-strategy that helps the company in the long term. Successful HR departments know therefore how to position their company as an attractive place to work, to facilitate the recruitment of the most talented candidates and to ensure their retention afterwards.

Trend 2.  Tailor your HR strategy to the specific needs of employees

Good HR leaders know what the individual needs of their employees are. They segment the workforce into different groups with specific requirements and tailor their HR policies to their wishes. That way the employees feel more engaged and are more likely to stay longer with the organisation. One example of these kind of measures is the creation of a workplace that is female friendly, diverse and inclusive. In practice this results in policies such as flexible working times, a horizontal career path and the possibility to receive coaching & mentoring. The HR Barometer shows that this is an area that still needs to be developed by many companies. But those who already did, have an enormous advantage: employees more engaged, creating more value for the organisation and a better working environment. 

Trend 3. Tracking HR performance through KPIs

Smart HR leaders use sophisticated KPIs to provide insights such as management performance, employee mobility and employee engagement. Because solid numbers are the best way to prove the added value of your department. This data-driven approach is necessary, because there is a constant competition for resources between the different departments in the company. If budgets are allocated to highly data-driven departments like sales or finance, HR misses the opportunity for further professionalisation. And as the role of HR broadens, the need - and internal competition - for more resources becomes bigger. It is therefore no surprise that, according to the HR Barometer, the larger HR departments are more likely to use more advanced KPI systems.