What are the biggest HR pains in business going to be in 2021? In order to find out, we talked with IT and gaming industry leaders.

The world has dipped its legs well above the ankles in this 2021, and although business waters are looking calmer and more predictable, it seems that everyone is still waiting to figure out what kind of beasts are lurking below before they get their heads, budgets, and hiring schedules wet coming May and June. Everyone… Except IT and gaming.

It is already well known that more than 800 billion$ worth of business is going digital and looking from the outside it really seems that IT and gaming industries will take advantage of everyone’s distraction and keep doing what they do best – develop and improve, but is this really going to be the case?

In a recent survey, BPS World spoke with IT and gaming industry leaders and tried to cross-reference their opinions with a wider, more global perspective, with the goal of breaking down what HR issues will be keeping even the best in business awake at night (not being COVID-19 infused fewer), and our findings are listed below:

Hiring and finding the right staff

Is there a secret recipe for finding the right people for your company? If there is, 50% of our respondents would like to know about it. Discovering, attracting, and retaining candidates that truly match all your needs seems harder than ever according to the answers we received. The main reason for this occurrence at the moment is the fact that people are mostly relying on the material advantages in a certain company due to the lack of certainty that the pandemic provoke. Stability becomes one of the highest priorities and challenges many companies in the IT industry are going to be facing in the near future.

Retention

According to the obtained results, retention of the employees is definitely considered as a big challenge by our interlocutors. Transformed into numbers, 21% of answers show their concern about the management of their employee’s expectations and motivation during and after the „new normality“. Keeping the right people in your team was always challenging but this time it requires additional and continuous „brainstorming“ to be ahead of the competition.

Company culture

How to be precautious, manage flexible remote work, maintain your company’s culture, and motivating team spirit at the same time, while everyone is working from their home? Another 21% of our industry leaders wonder the same thing. They say that it’s rather challenging, sometimes seems impossible and other times quite manageable. According to their answers, it depends on mutual support, good communication among co-workers, and a well-distributed business plan.

Online onboarding

Good old face-to-face interviews with candidates are now being moved to online meeting platforms everywhere in the world. Suits and dresses people were choosing days before their first interviews with HR departments are now being placed with lightning in the households and internet speed. This shift from a real-world to a virtual one is considered a challenge by 8% of our respondents, and it’s quite easy to understand why. Despite all the perks this method may have brought to us, it still seems hard to transmit a company’s culture, values, and team atmosphere if your new potential co-worker is not sitting in the same room as you. This chapter requires a lot of effort both from the hiring managers and the candidates since a more thorough integration in the team is needed from the start. Luckily for both parties, it seems that these circumstances are slowly coming to an end, meaning that discussions over a coffee-table with your colleagues in the office will soon come back to life, along with many new ideas on how to continue thriving in your business and personal goals. 

Are there any other business and HR challenges you believe we could face during 2021?