Engineering, Finance, Media, Retail, Manufacturing (Transport)
We have discussed the HR trends of 2020. Let us now see how some specific sectors of the economy are working in the area of HR. Engineering, finance, media, retail, and transport manufacturing are five of the biggest industries that have a big impact on the global economy. In this article, we are going to have an overview of how Human Resources works and the Human Resources trends in these five industries.
Engineering
Starting with the engineering sector, which is a very labour extensive industry and has the utmost need for a strong HR team. Engineering firms are completely dependent on technology. All advances in technology relevant to one engineering firm have a direct impact on the operations of that organisation. This heavy reliance on technology means that these organisations are subject to constant change and the employees are at constant risk of redundancy. That is why the HR teams of engineering companies are so important to their organisations. They constantly need to evolve and upgrade to handle so many redundancies and outplacements.
One trend in this industry is the inclination towards retaining old employees and reducing their chances of redundancy. HR teams encourage the employees to learn and train while they are working. They offer training courses, seminars, lectures and discussions about new and upcoming topics in order to update the workforce with the constantly changing technologies.
Another trend is towards employing fresh graduates. The idea is to get new and energetic blood in the workforce ready to take on challenges. Fresh graduates specialise in degrees that are going to be essential in the functioning of the organisations in the future. Engineers are increasingly complaining about not getting enough out of their job, they say that their work and the responsibility put on them is far greater than what they’re being paid for it. HR is focusing on making work much easier and fun for such employees and paying them adequate compensation for it.
Finance
The second industry we are going to talk about is the finance sector. If there is an industry that has a hand in every other industry in the world it’s the finance industry. This significance gives it a very essential place in the corporate world. HR is central to the successful operation of this industry. Finance firms like banks, insurance companies and the sort are run by employees; each and every part of this industry needs a human to run. The paramount influence of the workforce in this industry calls for paramount consideration of the HR works.
One trend in this industry is towards increasing workplace diversity. More and more banks want females to be on bigger posts and want a more diverse employee base in order to get feedback and perspective from people with different backgrounds. HR in financial organisations have acknowledged the impact of the expanding world of the internet and the potential dangers emanating from it for the financial sector. HR teams are focusing on hiring new individuals and educating old ones about these threats. They look for individuals who have more experience in dealing with such situations and especially people who specialise in cybersecurity.
With the trend towards digitalisation, banks and other firms are looking for more app developers and IT specialists. HR teams are now looking for more software engineers and encourage employees to have better IT skills. Jobs at banks and financial firms are infamous about their monotonous and boring nature. Employees are seen complaining about having to sit all through the day and looking at the clock waiting for 5 PM so they can get up and go home. HR is trying to change this by making those boring jobs fun and challenging by swapping regular duties and by introducing game culture in the office.
Media
Next up in our discussion is the media and entertainment industry. It’s true that it’s a very fun and exciting sector to be a part of. This glamorous and interesting industry means that employees are likely going to have a good time working over here. That means one less problem for the HR teams, but like other sectors, this one also has its unique problems and trends. Organisations in the media and entertainment industry hire a great number of employees with different jobs and who specialise in disparate fields. HR teams are responsible for searching, hiring and managing all these employees.
This industry is active 24 hours. Particularly, the TV and radio sectors work all around the clock, and so many employees have very odd work shifts. Many of them have late night and early morning shifts and the HR department is responsible for managing them.
Switching jobs is a very common practice among the employees in this industry, and HR acknowledges this trend. When an employee is working well they are offered better jobs at different places and they are likely to leave their old posts for better pay-cheques. HR focuses on preventing those productive employees from leaving and at the same time acquiring that type of productive employees from other companies which is of course done by offering greater pay and more perks to those people. But the main task here is that HR needs good networking. They need useful contacts and a hawk-eye view of what’s happening in the industry.
Retail
The retail industry is a very large industry. Being a rudimentary commercial sector, it includes almost all buying and selling of goods and services and represents the journey of a goof from the producer to the end level consumer. The retail industry is much more complex than it seems, involving a great many functions having to be performed by a great big number of people. For the management of all these groups of employees working in different departments, a good HR team is necessary.
Technology has had its impact on this sector. HR is evolving to be better equipped for this high-tech age, the trend of using employee apps and cloud data management is very hot in the retail sector. One major HR trend in this industry is using multilingual communication tools. In most organisations in this industry, many employees speak a different language than the standard language of the country and this communication gap between employees and their managers gives birth to mistakes and misunderstanding in the workplace. Multilingual communication tools are the way to go.
Paperless HR is another trend in this sector. HR offices are now using less and less paper to carry out their operations and focusing on storing data on online clouds and communicating and sending messages to employees through messaging apps. Employee apps are a very hot thing in the retail sector, as they involve on spot deliverance of messages, tracking of sales, achievements and many more.
Last but not least, one HR trend in this sector is that employees are being offered perks and benefits, like groceries at discounted prices and bonus gifts. When a product gets even slightly damaged, it becomes ineligible to be sold to a customer, the company is then left with a product that it can’t sell and simply discarding it would mean a great loss. HR has come with a solution to this problem as these products can be sold to the employees at low prices; this benefits the employees as well as mitigating the loss for the company.
Transportation
The last industry to be discussed in this article is the transport manufacturing industry. This industry can be included under the general term of engineering industries but it has some characteristics and HR aspects that are unique to it. Two interrelated trends in this sector are the focus on redundancy management and learning in the flow of work. HR teams are focusing on better outplacements for redundant employees because in this industry redundancy is a constant danger. Learning while working is trending as various large companies are offering training courses and lectures in order to ready their employees for the upcoming changes and helping them get adept at using cutting edge technology. There is very tough competition in this industry as it is a concentrated market and companies strive to have a good repute, to boost and protect their sales.
The big problem in this industry is sometimes employees get ground and before you know it, your employees are complaining against their working conditions. HR teams of firms in this industry have the responsibility of preventing this from happening by keeping the workplace a safe and fun place. Low employee engagement is one challenge faced by HR departments in this sector. Great chunks of the workforce are working in different cities and even different countries of the world and they are being managed by an executive office which again is far away from the factories. This makes for great distances between employees and their employers, and consequently low employee engagement. HR teams are focusing on receiving more feedback from experienced employees.