Balancing Digital Efficiency With Human Connection

Post Pandemic effects, political instability in Ukraine, the Israel war, Recession fears, troubled start up world, Return to office debate, impulsive hiring, changing job profiles, short-term thinking by organizations, led to both extremes – Great resignation and then mass layoffs.

In the rapidly changing employment market, the balance of power is shifting. The tide has now turned from the employer to the candidate, now the negotiating power sits firmly with the employee.

As the waves of the COVID subside and economic growth returns this will renew consumer confidence, which in turn will stimulate recovery and expansion initiatives. All of this will lead to businesses increasing headcount. So, the Hiring Havoc will continue.

Employee Experience will be center stage

Skill gap bridging through Upskilling, cross-skilling will gain traction.

Back to office mantra – provided Covid does not raise its ugly head again.

HR will continue to face an unprecedented amount of disruption. Critical talent will continue to get a premium. With all of us relying so much on digital communication, especially video-conferencing, our workspace design needs to transform too.

By creating a company culture based on mutual trust and respect, you can improve employee engagement, and push productivity to the next level.

Productivity, profitability, and engagement all begin with employee wellbeing. To entice this competitive market, the office of the future will need to embrace the needs of this emerging workforce.

Employees still want the freedom of WFH, yet want all the perquisites of a well-paid job.

Companies want 100% commitment. The race will continue to find the balance. The truth is that the future of work has arrived, but in a completely different package than what we expected it to!

The insurance industry is sitting on massive growth potential.

As the industry is preparing for this phase of growth, insurance companies have to prepare for major transformation—in the kind of employees, the size of the workforce, the volumes the industry operates with, the way insurance companies are structured, and the scale of growth, among other things.

HR leaders will be tasked with building a workforce that is skilled for the new ways of working in the insurance industry. Implementing a transformation of this scale is a massive task. Strategizing the process, securing approvals from the leadership, and finalizing the HR tech product vendor is but a small part of the process.

Ensuring that every employee in the organization uses the tech tools is the real challenge.

CHROs should focus on three areas in my view

Capacity building - Developing and strengthening the skills, instincts, abilities, processes, and resources that organizations and communities need to survive, adapt, and thrive in a fast-changing world.

Capability building – Developing a scalable plan for how an organisation can identify, develop and nurture the capabilities critical to business success.

Culture building – Developing a plan to promote the values, beliefs, and actions in an organization.

I believe the top 5 HR priorities for 2024 will be:

1. Leader and manager effectiveness.

2. Organizational culture.

3. HR technology.

4. Change management.

5. Career management and internal mobility.

The Indian insurance market is experiencing a transformation to ‘digital-first’ business models that can unlock new value worth billions of rupees. This will require skilled resources in niche areas like Technology, Data Science, Analytics and actuarial science.

The compensation market for qualified and trained resources has moved up sharply over the last few quarters.

With the advent of the internet and digital technology, the hiring landscape has changed dramatically. Employers can now post job openings on online job boards, social media platforms, and company websites, reaching a wider audience in a matter of minutes.

Overall, growth is expected in 2023 – 24 for the insurance industry, despite a downturn in insurtech valuations at the end of 2022.

Indications are that the highest projected growth for 2023 – 24 will be in the areas of technology, claims, and underwriting, with technology, actuarial, and underwriting positions being the most difficult to fill.

I believe that the mission of HR should be to collaborate with internal customers & enable employees to deliver outstanding results aligned with the overall business results.

As millennials have started taking leadership roles, it is high time we balance our thinking and execution, keeping them in mind. I disagree with the thought that having an engaged workforce is the sole responsibility of HR function.

Sadly, only HR folks are made accountable for low engagement scores. A delightful employee experience is made when a new employee sails through the journey of his tenure in a company at various touch points until he/she exits.

It is said that we either make ourselves accountable or we will be made accountable by our circumstances.

In my view, managers in general should be made accountable for engagement scores.

I have come across five things that are common across countries, cultures, organizations, and generations - when it comes to employees – Trust, Respect, Flexibility, Empowerment and Compassion.