HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES

Introduction

HR management encompasses the ability of your organization to identify, understand and

remedy the needs of your employees – an ability that will ultimately impact how your business

competes for talent, both now and in the future. The first step to curating your workplace culture

and business values to best suit the needs of your employees, while maintaining productivity and

success, is to recognize the key modern HR challenges business owners and HR managers are

dealing with in today’s workplace.

The Top 7 HR Challenges

1. Attracting Top Talent

focus for any business seeking sustainably high results. However, in 2020, attraction and

retention require more discernment, time, and work than ever, making it one of the most

important, and arguably daunting, tasks of Human Resources altogether.

In order to attract the right individuals for your organization, you first need to have a clear

understanding of the requirements of the job and the objectives of the company. But as roles and

expectations are continuously changing in the modern workplace, modifying your recruitment

strategy to your shifting organizational culture can be difficult. A good starting point to

grappling with this challenge in 2020 is to first examine how and where your company is
marketing its vacancies. Identify the platforms and mediums your target talent is most likely to

be frequenting, focusing most of your advertisements there. The preferred platforms will depend

largely on your target talent’s skills, industry, and job level, so advertising in the spaces where

candidates with those target characteristics will see it will save you a lot of time in the screening

stage.

Once you have gathered a pool of potential candidates from your advertisement efforts, it is now

time to screen them. Rather than sticking by the traditional screening method of assessing how

well the candidate is fit for the job, it is more critical than ever to focus instead on how well they

will fit into the organization. Generate interview questions that gauge their willingness to learn,

their readiness for taking on challenges, and their comfort level with change and adaption to the

current shifting nature of work itself. By focusing on these essential qualities, you are much

more likely to create a team of employees who can remain responsive and comfortable with

change, even as organizational needs transform and shift over time. Remaining vigilant to

the future of your company, rather than assessing they are a good fit today, is critical to

overcoming this HR challenge.

2. Embracing Change
Aligning with organizational change is essential, affecting every dimension of the

workplace from the working environment, to the nature of competition, to customer interactions.

However, whether the change is managerial, structural, procedural, or technological, it is likely

to invoke at least some amount of discomfort amongst your employees. Especially today, when

so many organizations are forced to change in ways they never have before to accommodate the
effects of the pandemic on business, the feeling of uncertainty that change evokes can bring

about severe levels of anxiety amongst your team.

Human Resource departments are typically tasked with managing employee morale, happiness,

and cooperation through periods of change. They now need to be consistently upskilling

team members, so they are better prepared to meet the constantly changing needs of the

business.

Grappling with this HR challenge is particularly challenging and will depend largely on the

nature of change occurring for your business. While many companies are encountering relatively

similar demands for change simply based on the global situation, the ways in which your HR

department chooses to best prepare your team members will vary. A good starting point for

organizations is to simply aim to communicate frequently and transparently before, during, and

after periods of change. Provide significant warning and notice of changes that will be coming

and equip employees with the skills and competencies they will need to respond to and overcome

it.

3. Developing Leaders
According to a 2018 survey, employees with poor relationships with their direct managers are

four times more likely to separate from their company than employees who feel their leader is

competent and skilled.

Now more than ever, employees look to their managers as a source of inspiration and

motivation. But this can be potentially problematic if those leaders-in-the-making stick around
long enough to become leaders. And, in an increasingly millennial-heavy workforce, companies

are seeing higher turnover rates from potential leaders than ever. This is what makes leadership

development one of the largest HR challenges being faced today.

How you actually go about responding to this challenge will vary, but at its core, retention is

largely linked to motivation. Motivating your employees to stay by providing training that aligns

with a clear career path is critical, since it demonstrates to your talented employees that you truly

value them, recognize their potential for leadership growth, and are willing to actively invest in

that growth.

4. Fostering a Culture of Continuous Learning

distinct lack of development opportunities being offered to them. In fact, offering career training

and development programs would keep up to 86% of millennials from leaving their current

position, according to this study. Essentially, learning and development opportunities are a

critical recruitment tactic for attracting and keeping your team members stimulated, engaged, and

loyal to your company.

But, this hinges on a few key points. Training and development programs will only keep your

employees engaged and loyal if it includes engaging content and is available in formats that

allow for flexible learning styles. Gone are the days when training was a one-and-done, lecture-

style process. Instead, companies that wish to remain competitive need to offer continuous

training opportunities.
But to the modern employee, this may make burnout or boredom all-the-more present.

Addressing this HR challenge hinges on your ability to leverage the tools available to you. A

great example is to implement eLearning options, or installing a Learning Management System

into your company’s bank of resources. With online learning options available to your

employees, they can complete their development opportunities from anywhere, and at any time.

In addition, the unique features that online learning systems offer are much more likely to keep

employees engaged in their training from start to finish. They will appreciate the flexibility of

smaller chunks of learning and leverage them at times that are most convenient to them, which

generally yields the most effective learning.

5. Managing Diversity
Globalization and diversification are affecting business everywhere. Not only are customer

reaches extended past the traditional Head Offices, but talent can now be sourced from across

oceans and borders.

However, diversity in the workplace come with a few HR challenges, including managing

diverse cultures in localized teams. While adhering to local policies and procedures,

the Human Resources department’s principle goal should always be to foster a workplace

environment that is comfortable, welcoming, and free of conflict. Implementing cultural

awareness programs can be helpful in making employees aware of the benefits of a diverse

workplace, drawing attention to the better ideas and innovations a diverse team yields, and the

wider customer reach attainable for a diverse business. Another helpful tool for managing

diversity in the workplace are team building activities, which can assist in integrating employees

of different cultures and uniting them towards a collective business objective.

challenges faced by businesses globally. Not only are these concerns governed by regional labor

laws, they are also incredibly important to overall employee wellbeing, an area under increased

focus as of late.

In 2020, health in the workplace is about much more than just hygiene and safety. Higher

demands and arduous workloads can cause the psychological well-being of your employees

to deteriorate or lead to employee burnout altogether. Periods of stress are to be expected, and

some employees may even produce their best work under times of healthy pressure, but high

levels of stress are simply damaging over long periods of time.

In response to the pandemic, employee stress levels are resting at an even higher rate than usual.

This means being receptive to their individual health during this time and remaining aware of the

need for appropriate levels of organizational lenience, is as critical as ever. Keeping a close eye

on escalating workloads and stress levels, and checking in with your employees regularly, is a

good way to overcome this HR challenge. An open-door policy where employees can freely

discuss their anxiety, issues with their working hours, and any unfair expectations with you is

critical.

7. Creating a Quality Employee Experience

you may be extremely skilled in hiring the right people, it is keeping them around that becomes

the next obstacle, and one of the largest and most persistent HR challenges

professionals must overcome.

When employees are satisfied with their role, responsibilities, workplace, and peers, they are far

less likely to consider seeking employment elsewhere. In a 2018 Job Seeker study, over one third

of job seekers reported leaving a job within 90 days of their employment. 43% stated that their

day-to-day role wasn’t what they thought it would be, 34% reported that they were driven away

by a bad experience, 32% cited company culture, and 11% said they had signed onto a new job

but later changed their minds.

While a strong recruitment process, and appropriately directed vacancy marketing, is critical,

employers of today need to place the same level of focus on retaining that top talent. This can be

done by focusing on fostering an employee experience that is above that of your competition.

Offer engaging online training opportunities, benefits for gym facility access, flexible working

time, remote work arrangements (though many organizations have been forced into this practice

regardless), or other incentives you feel would best keep your employees’ content in their

working environment. The best way to combat this HR challenge is to create a culture that

solicits the opinions of their employees and that responds, by building sustainable programs and

initiatives that both address and support those needs.