Ivana Marinović Matović
2 New challenges of human resource management
In the most successful organizations, managers recognize the importance of human resource management for achievement of profitability and sustainable business. They know how important human resources are for organizational competitiveness, growth and development. The human resources management represents a cast center in organization. Contemporary trends in the global business environment show that from year to year the allocations for human resources management are increasing, which indicates the growing importance of this function within organization.
According to previous analyzes, in the 21st century, it can be stated that several factors will significantly affect the world of work, among which stand out [2]:
transparency, agility, collaboration, innovation and productivity. In many organizations - both in the world and in Serbia - all these trends are already widely present and have strong impact on human relations in business organization.
Extreme technological development has been recorded and continues in the 21st century. Intensive progress of information technology has caused major changes in production processes, work tasks and the ways in which organizations perform their business activities. Globaly, a great demand for a highly skilled workforce has emerged, as well as a demand for completely new work profiles and job descriptions.
The development of information technology affects the collecting, processing, and analysing of new informations for management, business administration and decision making process. Information technology is a tool that can be used to pass on organizational goals, and supporting the sustainable development of organization. The development of technology implies the need for continuous education, and they also cause a change of job description. Flexibility is one of the preconditions for all employees who think proactively about their career. The development of information technology is used for solving organizational problems or responding to opportunities.
Globalization of economy provoked intense competition between organizations and employees in the global market. Information technology have a different impact on unskilled and highly skilled workers. The workers will also be far more mobile, due to the growing presence of virtual work teams. Technological progress requires significant changes in knowledge and skills that workers must possess in order to respond to new labor market demands. Dynamism of modern technological progress requires faster adjustment of workforce. The focus is increasingly on adult education and lifelong learning. Workforce is open for employment opportunities around the world. Adjustment of business strategy is vital to organization’s survival, it is a process that continues, and it increases competitiveness of organization in the global market [3].
Due to technological progress and globalization, organizations go towards specialization and development of knowledge organization, as they are important for achieving competitive advantage. Specialization allows focusing on comparative advantages of organization, and outsourcing of secondary business operation, not belonging to core business. Specialization and outsourcing enables individuals to compete globally, to be remote workers who work on multiple projects simultaneously.
Non-standard forms of work are increasingly present. Non-standard work or non-standard forms of employment refer to the increase in the number of different forms of work that have appeared in the recent past. Non-standard work is usually used to denote work that is outside the standard employment, ie full-time employment, permanent contracts, and subordinate and bilateral employment. It implies different types of employment status that are regulated in labor legislation and that are represented in conventional labor market, but also includes forms of employment that are unclear or not regulated at all, and which are very poorly or not represented in official statistics [4].
Another significant challenge for human resource management is labor mobility, which has become common in large and global corporations. Work engagement in the offices of same corporation in different countries brings the necessary specific knowledge and experience to different locations.
Globalization has conditioned the relocation activity of a large number of organizations, from home countries abroad. Today, organizations are expected to know different cultures in order to achieve business success. The development of global organizational strategy requires the new management approach, directed towards a better understanding of different influences of culture and other characteristics of individual geographical areas. Human resources management is directly exposed to interpret many business decisions and integrate them into global corporations. Often neglecting the influence of cultural factors in the implementation of business decisions leads to their failure. Understanding the culture is certainly one of the foundations of successful business decisions making. Management must always keep in mind that the characteristics of organization are the culture and attitudes that each employee has incorporated.
Technological development is increasing the demand for highly skilled workers, and workers who are able to adapt quickly to technological changes and progress.
The skills that the workforce will have will be the main, basic precondition for further economic development. Jobs in production require a good knowledge of technology and have suppressed traditional factory jobs [5]. In a time of accelerated informatization of society, there is the emergence of numerous non-standard forms of work, and new jobs. People are increasingly engaged in the production of information and this leads to the necessity of lifelong continuous learning. Lifelong learning, thanks to the Internet, is more accessible and can be more enjoyable and meaningful than traditional forms of learning.
Technology is transforming organizations, workforce skills needs are changing rapidly, and organizations cannot find the talent they need. Employees who possess skills are precisely those who want to constantly learn and adopt new things. All employees will need digital skills, collaboration, as well as ability problem solving, in response to the growing impact of digitization in organizations of different sizes. Successful global companies have realized that they achieve the best results by combining diversity. Diversity includes visible and invisible differences. Involvement is a way of combining the knowledge, experience, culture, ways of doing business and problem solving. The primary goal is to create an environment where all people, regardless of race, gender, generation, nationality or religion, feel valued and are able to express and maximize their potential.