The dynamics of the labor market has been increasingly accelerated over the last 20 years, due to the technological evolution and its psychological impact on the new generations entering the labor field. And this dynamics means more than hiring new people.
From the employers’ perspective, the change involves the diversification of products and services, of the marketing or logistics component to adapt to increased competition or expansion to new markets.
From the perspective of the employees, dynamism in the labor market is not reduced to changing the company that pays the salary, but often when looking for a new area of activity or choosing another country to work. From seasonal jobs and fixed careers for several years in fields related to the previous specialization, the migration of employees at European and even worldwide levels is becoming easier.
In Romania, all global HR trends are being seen. More than ever, in the context of depopulation caused by labor migration, 2020 is the year of immigrants. As Romanians traveling across the borders cover the staff shortage in Western countries, immigrants who come to work will fill those vacancies for which local employers no longer find people.
Immigrants are no longer just workers in construction or retail but are already present in companies opening on international markets. It is natural to have more and more non-EU workers in Romania, even if their employment involves a rather difficult procedure. This is why immigration assistance services are available to employers who are pressured by the lack of local professionals and who have found an alternative in non-EU countries.
Globalization and equal opportunities
A globalized labor market implies openness for any specialist, regardless of the country of origin. Equal opportunities, although a utopia, can have echoes of getting real through the access of professionals in companies located in countries around the world. One way in which this tendency of globalization can be manifested refers to remote jobs and specific jobs in the gig economy, accessed especially by the younger generations in search of new challenges and professionally.
If for a long time the gig economy was a supplement to full-time jobs, it now seems that the focus is shifting to short-term, flexible schedules.
Artificial intelligence and automation
If attracting immigrants is one of the solutions that employers can resort to in the case of personnel shortages, another option would be, in the areas that allow this, digitalization, automation and artificial intelligence.
Professionals who have adapted to digitalization and have specialized in areas such as software development, artificial intelligence manipulation and development, digital marketing, and automation are a solution for replacing a large number of employees. From self-service retail houses to fully-automated customer interaction flows in digital business, the world is heading for innovations that are slipping and becoming tomorrow’s natural way of being. A digitized world in which the mobile phone is a constant reacts positively to the technological facilities that shorten their waiting and interaction times.
From the perspective of HR specialists, this “depopulation” of the jobs through automation redirects the focus on personalized processes of retention of employees on the one hand and the call to data (HR analytics) for recruiting the proper professionals. The analysis of data and their use leads to decisions based on objectives rather than value judgments and intuitions. Of course, the human approach, that human-touch should not be lost sight of, otherwise, the whole process could be very well executed by a robot based solely on the data collected.
Automation in HR refers to the shift of focus from repetitive processes to a personalized approach, from the slow to the fast and even faster. Agile methodologies versus long-term plans and the ability to adapt by enhancing the importance of HR operations for meaningful employee experience is a must-have of 2020 in organizations that know how to look to the future.
Of course, long-term HR trends are still valid in 2020: technology as a promoter for organizational and labor market transformations, open and transparent versus traditional organizations, based on hierarchy and customizing employee approaches.
In a dynamic world, where everything is moving faster and faster, and accessibility through digital leads to boredom and meaninglessness, the key is openness, getting rid of prejudices and adaptation through the search for human in every action.
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