2020 Maybe The Final Push HR Needs To Focus On Betterment

This New Year’s Eve will hit people on a whole new level

Each year, as the clock ticks down to midnight, the world shares in a sigh of relief that the year is coming to an end. New Year’s Eve is a glorious evening offering the opportunity to reflect upon a year full of both successes and struggles. Bidding farewell to one year and embracing a new one, it is easy to get excited about the prospects the future holds. However, this New Year’s Eve will hit people on a whole new level. 

Covid needs no introduction and at this point and everyone is well aware of the recent protests that have taken the world by a storm. Even though 2020 is only halfway done, it is easy to find ourselves eagerly awaiting a new year for a fresh start. But this is a dangerous frame of mind to have.

HR has seen their share of struggles this year with record-breaking hiring freezes, wonky adaptations to remote working, the depleting of employees’ mental health, and a harsh reminder that their teams really are not all that diverse. 

Should they also be looking towards the future? Or should they embrace the controversy and use it as fuel to motivate them to spark long-overdue changes? 2020 maybe the final push HR needs to focus on betterment.

For years now, diversity has been a hot topic in the talent acquisition world. How to diversify your team; why diverse teams perform better; what is keeping you from hiring diverse candidates; all topics that have been written, read, and acted upon. And for the most part, companies have been listening. Teams are not shy about talking about how they need to become more diverse, but the actual execution still lags behind the enthusiasm.

While recognition is the first part of solving a serious problem, it is not enough to fix it on its own. We still have to confront tricky unconscious biases. Confirmation bias, affinity bias, conformity bias, they are all still there no matter how much you talk about changing. Sometimes looking at ourselves and understanding the mistakes we make can be the hardest steps towards self-improvement. This critical step has undoubtedly slowed the push for diverse hiring.

But this is about to change. Systematic oppression and unconscious racial biases are being talked about on a global scale. Protests on this issue are not limited to the US, but have extended to the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, and many more. It is not about shaming anymore, but instead about understanding the problem and facing them head-on.

With the entire world looking to change their ways by focusing on conscious and unconscious biases, hiring is poised to change. Diversity in the workplace is one of the keys to creating an equal society and 2020 is the year it finally starts to become a reality and not a goal. 

Why do companies have policies in place? What is the overarching purpose they hold in the business world? People may be the backbone of the workplace that pushes it forward, but policies and processes are the map that keep people pushing in the right direction. Without them, you have employee’s pushing towards contradictory futures with differing opinions on how to get there. But it is not just about creating policies, it’s also about updating and adapting them to the current business environment.

Right now, this is not happening, at least in the HR world. Over 50% of companies have not put in place policies for remote hiring and onboarding, both crucial in ensuring a successful hire. How do you successfully hire a remote employee? How do you ensure that newly hired remote employees are introduced and integrated in the team? Surely there isn’t any “water cooler chat” when there is no mutual water cooler or coffee machine. Without policies guiding hiring teams how to do this correctly, the chances it gets done right are dramatically reduced. 

Historically speaking, business leaders are slow to change. As a result, policies suffer the consequences. A tedious task that may seem futile if the market is rapidly evolving. However, policies prior to Covid have needed updating, so it's important that now then get the attention they have been missing. 

If something as integral as hiring hasn’t even had its policies updated, what others are missing? Do businesses have policies that adequately reflect how things are done during the current times? 

But remote working has pushed employees to the limits. Burnouts are at an all-time high as people have had to struggle to separate their personal and professional lives. HR teams are now being forced to react and re-evaluate all processes and policies, which in return will leave companies fresh, realigned and ready to tackle the rest of 2020 and beyond. 

How many times have you heard that technology is the future? Probably just as often as you’ve read that technology is ruining it as well. The latter has clearly created hesitation around the adoption of the latest software created to make working more effective and efficient. As a result of this hesitation, Covid nearly threatened to shut down the world. While shops and restaurants still had to close, many businesses were able to continue working from their homes remotely, with the help of technology. 

For a long time, HR leaders have been suggesting the use of technology to help ease the burden of a growing workload and the increased stress that follows. However, the adoption rate has been a slow one. Things like an applicant tracking system or CV parsers increase organization and efficiency, yet only just over half of hiring teams are using them. 

But Covid hasn’t been kind to many industries, and HR has taken a good deal of the weight. With the rest of the world realizing that technology really can make a difference in the workplace, will HR finally turn to it to better their processes?

2020, while seemingly bleak, actually has the potential to be impactful. Change is great, especially when it’s been a long time coming. So don’t shy away from this confronting year, instead embrace it and use it as motivation.