The role of HR in the IT industry is more important than ever before. A robust HR strategy can optimize resource utilization, get you the best talent, nurture relationships, and improve your company’s bottom line. This article discusses the latest HR trends in the IT industry. The knowledge of these emerging HR trends in the IT industry will help shape your HR strategy and HR technology investments.
Given the recent upheavals in the global technology and IT landscape, it is important for every business leader to know the latest HR trends in the IT industry. How do you optimize talent acquisition in a period of budgetary constraints? Given recent layoffs, how can IT companies identify and retain top talent, and also maintain employer reputation? How can HR aid in upskilling and change in the age of AI and automation?
HR professionals at IT businesses may now, more than ever, adopt the triple function of change agent, trusted adviser, and strategic business partner, as they interact increasingly and more closely with the C-suite as well as functional leaders.
To better understand what this entails, read about the emerging HR trends in the IT industry.
1. HR teams will spearhead skill transformation to accommodate AI for HR in IT
In one form or another, disruption has been a feature of the IT sector for years now. The effect intelligent automation (everything including AI, robotic process automation, machine learning, AIOps, and cognitive platforms) will have on the traditional IT workforce is among the latest HR trends in the IT industry today.
Cognitive technologies are fast becoming more sophisticated and inexpensive at the same time — even as the global talent pool is shrinking and becoming more expensive. As newer operational models, IT solutions and services are established, qualified individuals will be essential to their development, management, upkeep, and advancement.
Therefore, HR departments will be responsible for enhancing the skills of IT personnel. To tap into the potential of cognitive technologies and to convert IT firms into innovation engines, continuous training and retraining is essential, and HR departments will take responsibility of ensuring that the entire workforce is upskilled and future-ready.
2. A diverse workforce in the IT sector will call for more agile, adaptive HR
The modern workplace has employees belonging to multiple generations, each with their own set of principles, ideas, and motivators. Millennials are now the biggest section of the U.S. labor market and are projected to account for up to 75% of the worldwide labor force by 2025.
In general, however, millennials in the computer and IT industries are less hopeful than senior industry executives about the creation of jobs by AI. For millennials, the managing and keeping up with these changes and upskilling activities will be crucial. Older employees, meanwhile, may require hand-holding when it comes to new skills, changing market conditions, organizational policies, etc.
In a multi-generational workplace that deals with technology, HR professionals will play an important role. They will help managers in performance management and skill gap identification so that organizations can tap into the full potential of every employee. HR teams will also be responsible for training managers to work effectively with a multi-generational, diverse workforce.
3. The HR team’s impact and outcomes will be measured differently
The HR team plays a crucial role in the IT sector, particularly in R&D environments where success or failure is directly attributable to talent. Product development and discovering new solutions for present and future markets can only happen when talent is engaged and secure. This is also true for nurturing client relationships in an IT service delivery scenario.
In the past, IT firms judged the HR team's effectiveness primarily on attrition levels. Low attrition would imply that talent engagement is strong and that talent initiatives are working efficiently.
This no longer holds in a volatile, post-pandemic world, where layoffs are more common than ever before. Due to the current HR techniques implemented by the IT sector, reduced attrition does not always indicate that HR is carrying out its duties flawlessly.
What is crucial to the success of the company is the retaining of top talent, which differentiates services and products and contributes to the bulk of client relationships. Even losing a small number of such employees would have a significant impact on the organization. Therefore, executives should look at the role the HR team plays in consistently engaging its best people. This is one of the key emerging HR trends in the IT industry.
Learn more: Top 11 Employee Engagement Tools for HR Leaders
4. HR leaders must step up as a change manager
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and caused a sudden, increased need for digitalization of the economy, several IT/ITeS firms saw accelerated growth. However, not all of them have been able to adjust to that pace of growth and strategize to maintain good growth over the next couple of years. . This has led to a lot of confusion among employees from the IT industry, because of constantly changing goals, a sudden sharp increase in requirements and targets, etc.
Consequently, the work experience has transformed, and HR departments must now adapt to ensure that employees across the company are able to adapt to this change. Employee mentoring, flexible working, workplace culture, and onboarding will have a strong impact on employee experience.
To manage this, HR teams should assist IT businesses in developing a trusted and successful employee engagement strategy. The HR strategy adopted by the IT industry will be undergoing a lot of changes, and HR leaders will have to work with managers to train them on the transition to an asynchronous, hybrid work environment.
Essentially, HR leaders will have to step up and take a larger role in ensuring that employees are prepared for the new world of work.
5. HR will be part of the core leadership in IT companies
Since the HR function is linked to all every other function in an organization, HR executives have a comprehensive overview of the organization and will lead the conversation around the evolving IT workplace. The HR team is increasingly being seen as the authority on changing workforce dynamics, employee motivation, and also on how organizational culture helps individuals and businesses succeed.
The world of work is definitely changing at an unprecedented pace, and the success of workforce transformation depends on the role HR leaders and their teams play in the overall strategic planning and decision-making at a company.
HR executives must take the responsibility to motivate their leadership to take action, and should advance to the position of a trusted adviser and a strategic business partner. The HR function of tomorrow will play a crucial role in the growth of the IT industry. It will assist in replacing old HR practices and cost-cutting measures with innovative new ideas, organizational structures, tools, and procedures that are measurable.
The objective is for HR teams to function as transformational leaders and facilitators of change. Only then can they offer solutions by which HR and the IT organization's workforce may be transformed, leading to a genuinely competitive edge in a highly challenging environment.
Learn more: Highlights from Darwinbox’s HR ChangeMakers Club Session: Digital Foundation For A Future-Ready Workforce
6. Large IT companies will create new, distinct HR roles
As the world of work changes and the scope of the HR function broadens, it is essential for organizations to build a human resources department that can handle new challenges, such as compliance, hiring, DE&I, payroll, and much more. Over the next few years, every HR department would include:
- Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO): A C-level executive who manages the HR function as a whole, oversees labor relations policies, processes, and operations; also responsible for procuring HR technologies.
- HR Business Partner (HRBP): A liaison between executives, human resources, department management, and other employees.
- Recruiter/recruitment manager: Responsible for achieving the recruiting objectives of the IT organization by matching open positions with skilled and qualified individuals.
- Compliance manager: Ensures that the IT enterprise operates legally and ethically while achieving its commercial objectives.
- Benefits administrator: Plans the day-to-day administration of group benefits programs and acts as a liaison between workers and insurance and retirement plan carriers and brokers.
- Payroll administrator: Accountable for payroll-related tasks, such as tax compliance and direct deposit payments.
- DEI manager: Ensures that the company offers equal opportunities to all prospective employees and staff members ( some studies show that the IT industry tends to be dominated by men); also ensures that the company complies with all applicable regulations and employment law legislation concerning discrimination and inclusion.
Learn more: How to Craft a Successful Hybrid Work Environment
7. Supporting the remote/hybrid IT workforce will be the top priority
Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, only a handful of organizations allowed employees to work from home, indefinitely. Today, this number has skyrocketed. Most organizations now work on a hybrid work model or follow remote-first strategies. I. Using a hybrid or remote-first approach allows businesses to reduce overhead expenses and reallocate resources to ensure better productivity.
However, this necessitates that HR intensify its recruiting procedures for remote employment and attempt to attract top tech professionals from all over the world. While some IT positions are suitable for a work-from-home model, others involve frequent site visits and in-person meetings. HR teams will need to come up with hybrid work policies that are fair and inclusive, yet accommodate the company’s business needs.
Further, this emerging HR trend in the IT industry has led to a decentralization of economic hubs. Just a few years ago, only a few cities in the world were considered IT and tech hubs, but we’re now seeing IT, ITeS, and technology companies across the world.
Over time, as technologies develop further to support and enable remote work, more and more companies will take up remote/hybrid work. HR professionals are now rethinking and reworking their strategies, processes, and workflows to keep up with this change
8. HR teams will have to constantly combat burnout among IT staff
Yerbo polled 30,000 IT experts in 33 countries and discovered that 56% of males and 69% of females cannot unwind at the end of the workday. 43% are disengaged, and 27% do not recognize the purpose or overarching significance of their employment. This indicates employee burnout, which HR leaders must address on a regular basis, rather than as a one-off issue which used to be the case earlier.
The issue is complicated and may be caused by a number of circumstances, including long or irregular working hours, task overload, inadequate rewards or recognition, a lack of camaraderie, poor leadership, and a toxic work culture, among others. As a solution, the HR strategy adopted by the IT industry in the current scenario needs to include investment in mental health technology, manager training, special benefits, etc.
Learn more: 75+ Ways for HR to Enhance the Employee Experience (EX)
Conclusion
The role of HR in the IT sector is quite unique. As these latest HR trends in the IT industry illustrate, the next few months will be challenging, and those who can adapt will be able to stand out, achieve recognition, and obtain a seat at the leaders’ table.
Technology plays a vital role in achieving HR success, even more so in the IT sector, which relies heavily on digitization as part of its business value proposition.
Choosing solutions that are in line with the latest HR trends in the IT industry can help you navigate the upcoming months more effectively. Schedule a demo with Darwinbox to learn how!
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