What a year it has been!  

But it is over. Let us let go of the past and keep the lessons that we learned forever in our hearts. 

In the business sphere, performance management and HR trends that were predicted at the beginning of 2020 have been achieved in 2020. In fact, a few of the trends for the next few years like remote working and flexible work timings have also been realized. And it is now the decision of the companies whether to go forward with the changes or to go back to the familiar normal.  

However, there are a few trends for 2021 predicted by business experts after analyzing their clients’ behavior and the market. 

Employee Experience

“The fourth stage of economic evolution, which is the experience economy, has already started. The changes in the workforce behavior will further be accelerated with the influx of millennials and the advancement in technology. Just like how the companies are after providing the best customer experience, they will soon be completely indulged in creating a splendid employee experience.

Adopting technology and creating workplaces that attract the employees will be the top priority for the companies as they experienced all sorts of difficulties in managing employee performance in 2020. This decision helps them to retain the existing employees and also to attract the best talents in the industry. Digitization will not be an option anymore, but an absolute necessity. 

Digitization of the workplace and HR is the best strategy to increase the overall productivity of the organization and also the employee retention rate. Evolving with economic changes and business needs is a sign of prudence.

When the mundane administrative tasks are off the list, the HR would be able to focus more on the strategies that are inevitable to growth and success. Besides, leveraging technology will keep the employees engaged and create the right environment for the birth of innovation. Having top-notch hiring solutions for onboarding and recruitment will give the best experience to the candidates, thus, improving the image of the company in the talent market.”

-Shankar Krishnamoorthy, Co-founder and CEO, Synergita

Technology takes the upper hand

“Artificial intelligence, machine learning, predictive analysis, and virtual and augmented reality will be the buzzwords that will rule 2021 and beyond. Just like how COVID-19 mandated all organizations to leverage technology to work remotely, its impacts will innovate more sophisticated tech solutions to run businesses and manage people seamlessly in the upcoming work model, be it completely remote or hybrid.

There might soon be a Holographic VR in the home office space, which would help HRs and managers to communicate with their remote employees. Though these technology solutions seem to be still in their infancy, it would soon boom as the current business environment needs such high-end technology in the coming days to withstand any storm.

Businesses, today, are focusing more on giving the best experience to the customers as well as the employees. Sentiment analysis in the HR tech tools is proof of the care taken by the companies.

The sentiment analysis tool would analyze the emotions of employees and managers and try to enhance the quality of feedback and surveys. Here, artificial intelligence is assisting humans in carrying out their jobs in an easier way, breaking down the conception that technology replaces humans.” 

-Shankar Krishnamoorthy, Co-founder and CEO, Synergita 

Mentorship Culture and Continuous Check-ins   

“Long gone are the days where the managers boss around, at least in Synergita. That type of work culture does not work anymore and impacts the company negatively, increasing the employee attrition rate and decreasing productivity. Innovation needs freedom and so companies need to create mentoring cultures, where the managers act as a coach, not as a nagging boss.

The only way to do that is to adopt continuous check-ins and one-on-one meetings into your performance management system. That is how I manage my team and the results are excellent. When the employees learn that their leaders care about them and their professional growth, they work with sheer commitment and share ideas that will help the company to explore different horizons.  

This Pandemic has taught many lessons to business leaders: one of them being the importance of continuous check-ins and I reckon that this realization is about to bring a great change in how organizations work.”

-Prabhakar, Vice President Of Engineering, Synergita )

Growth After the Storm   

“The pandemic has affected all sectors and businesses. However, the IT sector was able to find another way to ensure business continuity, but the other sectors like manufacturing and hospitality were unable to do that. IT, just because they found a way, doesn’t mean that they had a smooth sail. They had so much to take care of: Their customers, their employees, and the performance of the company. There were sleepless nights for system admins, endless concerns for the customer success department, technical troubles while working remotely for other employees, etc.  

Finally, now 2020 is over. The new year has begun and we have learned many lessons and ways to develop BCP in any kind of storm and a few sectors have ways to thrive too. In 2021, the companies which include the employees will have a growth mindset to make up for the lost year and also to recapture their market position.”

-Raghu Raghavan, Vice President Marketing, Aspire Systems & Synergita )

Culture Matters a Lot   

“Employees are the heart of any organization and HR’s legacy and future is to be caregivers to all employees. But, at the same time, HR must attend to the organization set to ensure the right culture and capabilities, to be an organization architect. Navigating individual needs with organization requirements balances what is right for both the employee and the organization. When employee decisions are made or actions are taken, HR should ensure that those employee actions reflect organization values. 

The HRs found that their quick top of mind identifiers did not fully capture all the values they espoused (e.g., innovation, collaboration, accountability), so they tweaked their desired identifiers to more align with their espoused values. They recognized the importance of caring for employees while simultaneously attending to their organization’s values.”      

 -Dave Ulrich, Thought Leader on HR and Author

HANDPICKED RELATED LINKS: 

• Top 6 HR trends in 2020
• Top 5 Performance Appraisal Trends in 2020
• 6 Performance Management trends of 2019 that will revolutionize the way we work