69% of companies: the challenge Romanian companies are best prepared for in 2018 is the management of organizational re-design processes
69% of companies say that the most important strategic challenge HR teams are best prepared for in 2018 is the management of organizational re-design processes for better adaptation to market changes – came out from ‘Trends and challenges in HR 2018’, a study conducted by Valoria in collaboration with BusinessMark. The same percentage goes to accessing and a more extensive integration of the services offered by „contingent human resources”, followed by maintaining a high level of employee involvement (68%).
On the other hand, 79% of companies also say that maintaining a high level of employee engagement is one of the most important challenges in 2018. The retention of the high-potential and the highly-performing employees (61%) is the second most important challenge, and on the third place is the creation of an organizational culture that gives a competitive advantage to the company (54%).
„We believe it is timely to develop, together with our partners from Valoria, the study Trends and challenges in HR as it highlights the perceptions of human resources managers and top executives on the challenges of the HR function. In the current context, the human resource is essential for strategic business development. Companies are committed to creating a good organizational culture, having a engaged employees, good retention, access to talent, and developing the leadership skills for managers. The support extended by top management to HR is critical to meet the organization’s strategic challenges”, says Daniel Drăgan, Managing Partner, BusinessMark.
„Business leaders want the HR department to move from a functional to a strategic role to contribute to the growth of the company in a business environment with great challenges in attracting, retaining and motivating the workforce. That’s why the results of this year’s edition bring to the forefront the training of HR staff, as well as the efficiency of HR practices in attracting, retention, and rewarding employees, in automating processes and measuring the performance of the HR function. At the third edition, the study Trends and challenges in HR shows the reality of the role the HR function has in the domestic companies”, says Elena Badea, Managing Partner Valoria, co-author of the study.
HR practices and challenges in 2018
Finding of employees with more and more specialized skills (68%) and their retention (68%) are the most challenging when it comes to HR practices in 2018. On the third place is aligning HR practices with organization management and business strategy (42%) and growing the next generation of leaders of the organization is ranked fourth (37%). Maintaining competitive compensation packages (37%) is down from the fifth to the fourth place.
Regarding the key resources available and that can be used by companies to respond successfully to the current HR challenges, the most important aspects are the solid support from the top management for the HR function (65%), the strong HR skills of the staff in the HR department (47%) and the transparent collaboration between HR and management for strategy alignment (41%).
In terms of attracting practices, retention and rewarding best employees, creating an organizational culture based on trust, open communication and equity in decision-making is the most efficient practice (59%), followed by creating career advancement opportunities for employees (58%), while job security for employees (53%) remains on the third place.
„The ability of companies to stay innovative and competitive is based on the availability of skills of skilled people, correlated with the rapid evolution of the market. For the third consecutive year, we have gathered data from the top management and HR specialists of Romanian companies just to capture the trends in the field of human resources. The third edition of the survey Trends and challenges in HR helps organizations understand where they are now and what are the new rules of the game for the near future in terms of strategic challenges, but also the use of new technologies in HR, process automation or job digitization of HR only from this reference study”, says Constantin Măgdălina, Expert Trends and Emerging Technologies, co-author of the research.
Digitalization of HR role
Only 25% of Romanian companies compared to 30% in 2017 believe it takes 2-5 years until technologies such as artificial intelligence and process automation will be advanced enough to influence the HR role, while 13% compared to 8% of them say digitalization in HR happens right now, and 19% compared to 17% believe this period is expected to be in 6-10 years.
The most important trends that can significantly change the HR function in the future are: artificial intelligence (44% in 2018 vs. 43% in 2017), mobile and social media applications (38% in 2018 vs. 47% in 2017) outsourcing (38% in 2018 vs 34% in 2017), political and economic developments (31% in 2018 vs. 43% in 2017) and demographic change (31% in 2018 vs. 42% in 2017).
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About the survey
This survey gauges the perceptions of executives from the top management of companies and those of HR directors on the strategic challenges facing the HR function. The questionnaire, which received 141 responses, was applied between 11 June and 12 September 2018. 17% of respondents come from companies with a turnover of more than EUR 100 million, 10% from companies with a turnover of EUR 50-100 million, 17% from companies with a turnover of EUR 10-50 million, 19% with turnover between EUR 1-10 million and 37% under EUR 1 million in turnover. 63% of respondents are CHROs / HR Directors / HR Managers, 3% are HR Business Partners, and 16% are CEOs / Presidents / General Managers / Members of the Board of Directors. This survey was conducted by Valoria in collaboration with BusinessMark.
BusinessMark is a business event management company founded in 2013 that aims to provide the Romanian business environment a professional space for discussions and networking. By combining methods of communication and business matchmaking, BusinessMark offers its clients complex development models, connecting them directly with the business environment and creating opportunities for strategic partnership. Learn more about us on: www.business-mark.ro
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