Sarah Fletcher asked members of HR Zone what they predict to be the biggest changes affecting HR in 2007. No crystal balls required.
RoseMarie Loft, HR director, SMBC:
“I do wonder if the rush towards shared service centres is a bit like a batch of lemmings heading for the cliffs (and that’s coming from someone who has so far worked in three organisations with ‘shared services projects’)! After ten years of “we’re not transactional, we need to work within the business, we add value”, it’s now “HR is primarily transactional, can be removed from any proximity to the business, and its main value is in standardisation”. It demoralises professionals and damages HR’s relationships with the business by removing the actual work to some hidden call centre. It removes career structures (who is going to appoint an HR business partner, whose only experience is via a ‘shared services centre’ with limited client contact?).
“I have no doubt that it works for some organisations, where the labour pool is large, skills base requirements low, and the main activities are hiring and firing, but it just seems too many organisations are being persuaded that it will fit them simply because someone else says it saved them money!”
Steve Watson, consultant:
“HR is on the back foot. Could we blame Ulrich for this? Like Finance, HR must get the basics right first; which, in practical terms, is about having and paying the right people correctly and on time. Quality requirement 100 percent. And removing the wrong people with minimal adverse impact.
HR is trying to be strategic. I’m not sure any other part of a business really wants them in the strategic party as ‘partners’.
So the major challenge will be ‘Survival, Dr. Spock, but not as we know it.”
Mike Morrison, consultant:
“More confusion around employment law – more people leaving the blanket of employment to join the ever expanding world of the independent, more and more free resources on the net de-valuing knowledge, an increase in the trend that superficial is good and deep is a waste of time – and we wonder why organisations repeat the same mistakes!”
Nina Waters, HR manager, British School of Osteopathy:
I think we’ll start to get some case law that defines the limitations or extensions of the new age legislation. I think equal opportunities will continue to be on the agenda, as the Gender and Disability Equality Duties bite in the public sector, and this will have an impact on training and service delivery across the public and private sectors.
Mike Kewal, managing director,
“Increasingly litigious facing, I wish I owned a red tape factory because most organisations (if they have any sense) should be protecting themselves against dissatisfied staff. And there will be many of those no matter how well or fairly they are treated. Ah well!”
Richard Ciechan, director, In My Prime Ltd:
“In the future we are going to see more companies using HR in a more strategic light. That is, we are going to see firms strategically looking at how their employees contribute to the business and what those employees’ needs are at different stages in their careers and their lives. Without intruding into personal lives, firms must be sensitive to the different concerns and pressures which confront people at different times.
“What motivates a younger worker is not likely to be the same as what motivates an older worker. Career advancement, personal development, pensions, family commitments, health, and work–life balance are just a few of the considerations that will play a part. However, once the initial coverage of such things as Age Discrimination legislation dies away, firms will need to manage within the new environment on an everyday basis. This means that management, and HR in particular, must develop a comprehensive and equitable framework to ensure that people may be considered on an individual basis while, at the same time, the business continues to survive and flourish.”
Don Rhodes, consultant:
My hope for HR for 2007 is that HR people need to get closer and closer to managers so they understand very clearly the issues managers have to deal with rather than relying on surveys and papers from practitioners like myself; or by being invited to meetings rather than talking to them down at the coal face. Once they have that relationship, move on to establish the same relationship with the executives or owners of the organisation, and not just the executive in charge of HR. It will take time, but must be done. If not, then there will be continuing moaning and gnashing of teeth from HR people about being undervalued and not understood and not being at the forefront of decision making… and so it goes on.”
Tim Edwards, managing director, Cahro Ltd:
“There will be more confusion in employment law, especially with discrimination – what is an acceptable dress code seen as discriminative and what is not. A continued debate of what is allowed to be worn in public or work and what is not. This will continue to divide cultural sectors and polarise views.”
“Also, the first major Age Discrimination case will hit the tribunals, probably from the public sector. The government will try to make more legislative changes, and employers will become more confused, whilst they try to achieve a definitive answer to the dilemma of culture, race, equality and diversity.
“Finally, the Learning and Skills Council will re-organise, yet again, throwing confusion to the UK’s training providers.”
