It’s undeniable; more so than ever before, HR managers and departments across the nation are making a concerted effort to get more intimate with their employees, desiring to learn more about the precious human capital that’s essential towards their ultimate success in the marketplace. It’s excellent news for the HR industry and for businesses everywhere that companies are starting to place a greater emphasis on connecting with the needs and desires of their workers, but some managers still don’t know where to begin when it comes to fostering an intimate, friendly culture within the halls of your company.

Here’s how HR departments everywhere are getting intimate with their employees, and how you can emulate them yourself to build closer bonds with the employees who make your company thrive.

It’s finally the era of human needs

For far too long, HR officials found themselves complacent in an era that established corporate needs over human needs, often failing to establish intimate connections with workers because their bosses pressured them to enforce the company’s bottom line before all else. Nowadays, however, some positive change is finally being brought about; for perhaps the first time ever, it’s finally the era of human needs, where worker’s wants and needs are placed at the forefront of a company’s concern in all realms of business.

This isn’t to say that all companies and all HR departments everywhere are cherishing their workers in the ways that they should, or that there’s not more work to go, but rather to assert that the case for investing in people is growing stronger by the day, and will soon be the norm across the industry. It’s now all but indisputable that putting your human capital first is essentially necessary for any business to succeed in the 21st century marketplace, so HR departments around the globe are pivoting as quickly as they can to place a greater emphasis on building valuable connections between themselves and the employees they’re there to protect and help.

If you check out some of the biggest trends that are driving HR forward this year, you’ll quickly notice a pattern; companies are ditching HR models that are too focused on the bottom line, and instead embracing employee training initiatives and pro-worker culture movements across the board. Flexible work strategies and the wise companies that exploit them are now becoming the norm, precisely because labor solutions that emphasize the health, well-being, and productivity of your labor force are proving to be vastly more efficient and profitable than those which cater too much to corporate whims.

Now that we’ve established that we’ve finally entered the era of human needs, how can HR managers enter this era themselves if they’re lagging behind, and what key steps should your department be taking when it comes to forging an employee-centric workplace culture?

The pivot to empowerment

In order to make the pivot to empowerment that will see your HR department devoting significantly greater amounts of time, money, and effort towards improving the lot of your workers, you need to understand how the digital economy is changing the way we labor on a daily basis. Tech is fundamentally upending most contemporary standards of work; it enables us to work for fewer hours while still producing greater results than ever before. The pivot to tech isn’t exclusively to manufacturing, nor any other industry, for that matter; indeed, even HR is learning that tech can be used to encourage productivity to a tremendous extent.

To truly get intimate with your employees and give them the skills and tools they need to thrive in a 21st century economy, then, your HR department will need to work hand in hand with your company’s IT team in order to fully digitize its operations so that you’re not letting your workers down. Employees don’t just need computers and the software programs they use on a day to day basis, but also need constant training regimes and new, better equipment that can only be furnished by upper management and HR. Don’t drop the tech ball when it comes to prepping your workforce for the future, or your company culture building initiatives will be doomed from the get-go.

It’s important you don’t go overboard when it comes to tech, however, especially as it pertains to getting intimate with your employees; it’s easier now than ever before to collect data on your workers, for instance. Companies that want to truly build intimate connections with their workers should avoid surveillance regimes, and instead focus on fostering transparency in the workplace to learn more about their human capital’s habits and needs.

If your HR department is struggling to get intimate with its employees, don’t panic, because this process can’t be completed overnight. You’ll need to take small, measured steps before finding success. Keep at it, however, and never forget that you’re fighting on behalf of your workers, and you’ll have established a closer connection with your labor force in no time.

It’s undeniable; more so than ever before, HR managers and departments across the nation are making a concerted effort to get more intimate with their employees, desiring to learn more about the precious human capital that’s essential towards their ultimate success in the marketplace. It’s excellent news for the HR industry and for businesses everywhere that companies are starting to place a greater emphasis on connecting with the needs and desires of their workers, but some managers still don’t know where to begin when it comes to fostering an intimate, friendly culture within the halls of your company.

Here’s how HR departments everywhere are getting intimate with their employees, and how you can emulate them yourself to build closer bonds with the employees who make your company thrive.

It’s finally the era of human needs

For far too long, HR officials found themselves complacent in an era that established corporate needs over human needs, often failing to establish intimate connections with workers because their bosses pressured them to enforce the company’s bottom line before all else. Nowadays, however, some positive change is finally being brought about; for perhaps the first time ever, it’s finally the era of human needs, where worker’s wants and needs are placed at the forefront of a company’s concern in all realms of business.

This isn’t to say that all companies and all HR departments everywhere are cherishing their workers in the ways that they should, or that there’s not more work to go, but rather to assert that the case for investing in people is growing stronger by the day, and will soon be the norm across the industry. It’s now all but indisputable that putting your human capital first is essentially necessary for any business to succeed in the 21st century marketplace, so HR departments around the globe are pivoting as quickly as they can to place a greater emphasis on building valuable connections between themselves and the employees they’re there to protect and help.

If you check out some of the biggest trends that are driving HR forward this year, you’ll quickly notice a pattern; companies are ditching HR models that are too focused on the bottom line, and instead embracing employee training initiatives and pro-worker culture movements across the board. Flexible work strategies and the wise companies that exploit them are now becoming the norm, precisely because labor solutions that emphasize the health, well-being, and productivity of your labor force are proving to be vastly more efficient and profitable than those which cater too much to corporate whims.

Now that we’ve established that we’ve finally entered the era of human needs, how can HR managers enter this era themselves if they’re lagging behind, and what key steps should your department be taking when it comes to forging an employee-centric workplace culture?

The pivot to empowerment

In order to make the pivot to empowerment that will see your HR department devoting significantly greater amounts of time, money, and effort towards improving the lot of your workers, you need to understand how the digital economy is changing the way we labor on a daily basis. Tech is fundamentally upending most contemporary standards of work; it enables us to work for fewer hours while still producing greater results than ever before. The pivot to tech isn’t exclusively to manufacturing, nor any other industry, for that matter; indeed, even HR is learning that tech can be used to encourage productivity to a tremendous extent.

To truly get intimate with your employees and give them the skills and tools they need to thrive in a 21st century economy, then, your HR department will need to work hand in hand with your company’s IT team in order to fully digitize its operations so that you’re not letting your workers down. Employees don’t just need computers and the software programs they use on a day to day basis, but also need constant training regimes and new, better equipment that can only be furnished by upper management and HR. Don’t drop the tech ball when it comes to prepping your workforce for the future, or your company culture building initiatives will be doomed from the get-go.

It’s important you don’t go overboard when it comes to tech, however, especially as it pertains to getting intimate with your employees; it’s easier now than ever before to collect data on your workers, for instance. Companies that want to truly build intimate connections with their workers should avoid surveillance regimes, and instead focus on fostering transparency in the workplace to learn more about their human capital’s habits and needs.

If your HR department is struggling to get intimate with its employees, don’t panic, because this process can’t be completed overnight. You’ll need to take small, measured steps before finding success. Keep at it, however, and never forget that you’re fighting on behalf of your workers, and you’ll have established a closer connection with your labor force in no time.