Where Singapore’s Human Resource Management Is Headed in the Next Years
We’re not afraid of the future. We’re not afraid of ‘new.’
Michael Tubbs, Mayor of Stockton, Calif
Wherever we go, trends are ubiquitous. No matter the industry, there’s always a pattern that develops and becomes part of the norm.
We’ve counted down four main trends in Human Resource Management in Singapore that will be prevalent in the coming years, based on issues, needs and emerging global trends.
Increased Employee Engagement
Despite its significant economic and market growth, Singapore’s level of employee engagement remains unaffected. Sitting at a steady rate of a little short of 60%, Singaporean employers need to ramp up efforts to increase engagement with their employees.
The most common area of concern among employees is the need to remain relevant, competent and competitive. Singaporeans are known to be very hardworking, thus being good enough or average just won’t cut it. They want to remain dedicated to their work by knowing what career path they can take.
What does the future hold? How can I remain skillful and able in my area of competence or zone of genius? These are only some of the common questions and concerns employees have about their future, so this is an emerging trend that needs to be addressed by management.
Millennials in particular are the most disengaged and uninvested in their profession. They are the most likely to flee and hop on to a new job with a more promising future, so companies and enterprises should be on the lookout on how to engage this generation.
Employee engagement can be increased through various means of improving communication channels. Career pathing is another highly successful engagement tool. Let the employee be part of the brainstorming process of building his career and future. People are most likely to accomplish something that they have co-authored or have their stamp of approval on.
Going Digital in an Analogue Field
Well, technically the human resource management landscape in Singapore has long turned its back on manual approaches. Almost everything — from timekeeping, computation of benefits and privileges, and communication channels — has been turned digital.
It is projected that by the year 2020, there will be over six connected devices per individual . This is already greatly affected the way job seekers hunt for career opportunities. Also, social and mobile platforms have paved the way for employee feedback to reach management ears quicker, albeit not smoother.
Digitization has also impacted an employee’s life cycle in an organization. Now, employers need to be more creative in recruiting and selecting employees; orienting and on-boarding them to the company; and developing their careers until the time they separate from the company. With the digital age, there’s just no more excuse to be lackadaisical in these areas.
The Paradoxical World of Analytics
In 2018, numbers rule. In any area of discipline where numbers can be crunched, data analysts are there to the rescue.
In previous decades, HR data and information are only generated occasionally and usually for reportorial requirements. But recently, data analytics is fast becoming an important managerial discipline that constitutes generating various fields of data and combining these data to be consumed and used for the benefit of particular stakeholders.
Data specialist extract information and provide these to decision-makers and trailblazers within the organization. Nowadays, it seems that management could no longer make a decision that is not based on the numbers. How many employees are competent or capable? How many are qualified? How many will be affected by the retrenchment? How many can we fit into the managerial training class.
With the rise of data analytics, almost everything — save for heart, passion and grit — can be quantifiable in the HR world.
Oh and why paradoxical, you ask? Because it can be perceived as fairly simple and straightforward — both to prepare and interpret, but its usage and application can be far more complex as it could lead to a number of possibilities. Nevertheless, it is now an integral HR practice and won’t be going away anytime soon from the looks of it.
The Gig Economy
This is the new era of freelancers. The emergence of web-based, borderless online work communities has grown from a burgeoning area of discipline to a bonafide multi-million dollar industry.
The Internet has not only accelerated the rise of this career trend but empowered job seekers to be bolder by taking on work that is commonly viewed as volatile or unstable. And surprisingly, what works for investments also works for HR management: the more risk you take in, the greater the rewards. Freelancers are enjoying exponential growth in their income while maintaining work-life balance and pursuing more business opportunities.
In the gig economy, contracts are short-term, instead of being permanent like traditional jobs ten to thirty years ago. This kind of employee-employer model drives up prioritization of work goals and immediate targets over work that is important but probably not urgent.
In Singapore alone, the gig economy has been making more progress. A staggering figure of three out of five employees are more likely to accept freelance or contracting work if they will not be able to find permanent or long-term jobs. Now, contractual job arrangements also include benefits and allowances that are available somehow similar to permanent jobs, thereby increasing employment in this kind of model.
These emerging employment models and patterns will surely shape the next decade of human resource management. What’s important is for both employers and employees to keep abreast of latest issues, challenges and solutions that will drive the future of human resource.
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