7 Alarming Future Trends in Human Capital & How to Manage Them

The world of business is changing at a rapid pace. Fortunes rise and fall on how well companies can visualize the future trends in human capital and adjust to them.

Here are 7 future trends in human capital and the ways to handle them.

1. Analytics and Job Assessment.

   With increased emphasis on core competencies, HR needs to better understand them and the essential knowledge and skills needed to support them. Their job is not just a people job, but a “keep the business going” job. As such, they may need to develop better ways of analyzing needed skills and knowledge for each job, assessing job effectiveness, and insuring each employee is utilized to the fullest.

2. Global Growth.

   Talent management now occurs on a global level. As businesses monitor demand for key positions, they need to consider the best ways of retaining top talent. Do they relocate key people to foreign countries? Use the talent in local countries? And should the pay scale be based on the country or the business standard? Considering these future trends helps companies plan the best use of their human capital.

3. Skilled Talent Shortage.

   Increasingly there is a shortage of skilled talent. Businesses worry about U.S. schools’ ability to turn out a skilled workforce. Visas and other restrictions limit excellent talent. As companies manage their workforce, they must develop a better structure for training young talent and grooming selected employees for advancement.

4. Life Balance Needs.

   Since top talent is limited, leaders need to understand their employees desire for life balance. Some workers are juggling aged parents and young children. Younger workers are not willing to sacrifice quality of life for pay. Future trends require careful management of human capital so workers feel valued, rewarded, and can maintain balance in their lives.

5. Focus on Core Competencies.

   Because resources will become increasingly limited, companies and divisions in the future will focus more completely on the things that produce the most value to the company. Employee motivation and retention will be front and center. HR will focus more on managing human capital — training, understanding statistics, job analysis- and will likely outsource other parts of their work to other experts. Payroll companies and records companies may take over tasks formerly performed by the HR division.

6. More Hire-as-Needed.

   “The recovery from the ‘great recession’ has led to a significant increase in contingent workers,” says Dr. Bob Nelson in discussing future trends. In the future you’ll see more successful companies using flex time, part time, and hire-as-needed as human capital recruitment strategies. This benefits employees who prefer to work from home. The hire-as-needed helps companies keep a better bottom line. From Elance kinds of temporary employment to places like Gerson Lehran Group that offers $100/hour experts, companies are drawing on a creative pool of specialists only on an as-needed basis.

7. Aging Workforce.

   The recession and global slowdown damaged employee’s retirement accounts. This means some staff will choose to continue working until later in life. HR needs to be aware that this can slow the upward mobility of young top talent causing them to go elsewhere.

HR doesn’t need to manage future trends in human capital by itself.

HR doesn’t have to manage this alone. The future trends of human capital indicate that the CEO will be much more involved. There is growing understanding that to develop strength in the company’s core competencies they must also focus on the skills and knowledge needed to support that core. For example, they can provide executive leadership coaching that prepares aspiring leaders to take on greater responsibility.

By being aware of these future trends, businesses can immediately start implementing solutions. Those solutions will lift their company and increase its competitive edge.