Maria Georgiou: Technological, social and operational changes have created new challenges for the HR sector

"The most important challenges arise from the wider technological, social and operational changes we have all experienced in recent years," Maria Georgiou, President, the Cyprus Human Resource Management Association suggests while analysing theHR sector's difficulties.

Speaking to CBN, she elaborated, "The most obvious ones concern the shortages in personnel and skills, the differentiated requirements of the four generations that currently make up the human resources of organisations, the greater turnover of personnel and the need for greater flexibility and integration of professional and personal life. These global challenges are very much aligned with the realities of our local market as well to a big extent."

As well as sharing her view of the local and international HR scene and where it is heading, she also talks to the portal about the Association's role in supporting its over 640 members, and its future plans for the HR sector's development.

Can you tell us more about the formation of the Cyprus Human Resource Management Association and its main purpose and aims?

The Human Resource Management Association was formed in 1991 by a group of professionals working in the public and private sector at the time, who were the first ones with specialised expertise and experience in the fields of Industrial Relations and Personnel Management. The Association adopted its current name and formal status in 1993. Since then many things have changed, the profession itself, the labour market, peoples’ priorities, the economic and business environment. The main purpose of the Association however remains the same: to actively support, represent and develop the profession and our members in Cyprus.

Our aim is to educate the local business community and society in general about the vital importance of human capital to the success of organisations and to advance the level of HRM professionals in Cyprus through education, research and opportunities for collaboration and exchange.

Our core priorities throughout the years remain to enable:

● The strategic role of HRM as an essential business and social partner

● Human Resource Management “Best Practices”

● Continuous learning and development

● Collaboration, scientific research and networking

How has the Association developed over the years? For example, how many members do you have at this time?

The Cyprus Human Resources Association currently has more than 640 members, who are professionals or students in the field of Human Resources. We are also a member of the EAPM (European Association of Personnel Management), which is the European Network of the corresponding Associations in the European countries as well as the World Federation of People Management Association (WFPMA) which is a global network of professionals in people management.

We have recently refined our Vision through a series of strategic workshops to ‘being a Community, which acts as an Ally to any professional who wants to influence and shape a positive people experience within any work environment.’ We are proud to continue and build further the legacy and accomplishments of our Association, keeping in mind the business, economic and labour context, we and our organisations are operating and living in.

Can you tell us more about the Association’s activities in Cyprus and overseas? For example, what are some of the events you organise and/or are involved in and what are some of the ways you cooperate with international HR bodies?

The ongoing activities which enable the achievement of our vision and strategic goals include, among others, conducting events and seminars to educate, inform and network our members, conducting, in collaboration with other agencies, relevant research concerning our field and the publication of the magazine "People and Work" which informs our members about the trends in the field and the activities of the Association. We are also proud of holding our Annual Conference, which for 2024 took place on 23 May, with the participation of distinguished speakers from abroad and the presence of over 260 participants.

In addition, we focus on the Association's participation in projects and committees that influence and shape our profession (such as the Standardization Organization relating to the Professional Standards Committee Human Resource Development Authority relating to professional qualifications, etc.). We have also started a collaboration with PASYKAF, which includes joint actions and support of its work mainly in the field of information on cancer issues in the wider working environment.

Looking forward, what are some of the Association’s strategic plans for the coming years?

We are committed to our mission and strategic goals and intend to continue to provide networking, information and education opportunities for our members. At the same time, we want to maintain and strengthen our presence in centers of influence and decisions in the field of human resources. We remain in close collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance, the Cyprus Employers & Industrialists Federation, the Human Resource Development Authority and the Productivity Centre, to support initiatives with positive impact on the labour market. We also collaborate with a number of organisations on conducting surveys in our field, including amongst others Cranet Institute, EAPM (Creating People Advantage Survey), as well as carrying out our own surveys on hot topics in HR.

Through our participation in EAPM we continue to offer expertise and information on current trends in our field. Our presence and impact at the EAPM is becoming increasingly stronger and we are proud to have an alumni member of the Board, Elli Matsouka, currently being a member of the EAPM Board. A testament of this strong relationship is the hosting of the Annual EAPM Delegates assembly in October 2024 in Cyprus, alongside the EAPM Board Meeting and WFPMA Board meeting. We are honored and proud to have distinguished HR professionals from all over the world in Cyprus. To mark this important milestone, we are organising an event with Sir Christopher Pissarides to present his review into the future of work and wellbeing, a three-year collaboration study between the Institute for the Future of Work, Imperial College London, and Warwick Business School.

Moving on to the HR sector in general, what do you consider to be some of the main challenges in the local HR scene and how is your Association working to help the sector overcome them?

The most important challenges arise from the wider technological, social and operational changes we have all experienced in recent years. The most obvious ones concern the shortages in personnel and skills, the differentiated requirements of the four generations that currently make up the human resources of organisations, the greater turnover of personnel and the need for greater flexibility and integration of professional and personal life. These global challenges are very much aligned with the realities of our local market as well to a big extent.

More specifically, digital transformation and increasing technological advances impact significantly the structures and cultures of organisations and the nature of work for many people. Particularly vulnerable are staff with limited skills and expertise who are lower paid and can be more easily replaced by other staff or by technology and work automation. To match these gaps organisations need to embark on a serious upskilling and reskilling journey.

We observe that up to four different generations co-exist in an organisation, a fact which forms a diverse work environment with the staff's needs differing to a great extent. We also notice a greater mobility between organisations for everyone (especially for people with specialised knowledge and experience) and at the same time there is a trend towards more freelancers, which affects the stability of the human resources of the organisations.

It's also widely acknowledged that the nature of work has significantly changed over the past years, with remote and hybrid working being very much integrated and established in many organisations.

Our role is to provide to our members with insights and opportunities for experience sharing and education on these hot topics. At the same time, we share our views publicly on important matters, being the voice of our members and our profession. A recent example is our own survey on remote work, wellbeing and diversity practices in organisations, which consolidated both best practises and open questions on how to deal with these important issues.

More widely, what do you consider to be some of the most interesting global trends in the HR industry?

● Rapid technological developments lead to the constant need to identify the necessary skills, their development and their proper utilisation within the organisation

● Attraction and management of talents and people with specialised skills, through opportunities for development, promotion and internal movements within the organisation. In Gartner research, 70% of HR Directors say talent management is their top priority

● Adoption of AI and HR tech to automate processes, leveraging AI to better understand HR data and predict trends in staff demographics, enabling proactive interventions to meet organisational skills needs and staff and freeing valuable time from routine tasks to valuable interventions

● Increasing need to strengthening the culture of trust and support from the leadership and managers, which creates a humane, flexible and productive work environment at the level of the organisation as well as each group separately

● Inclusion and anti-bias issues will continue to be on the agenda of HR Directors to strengthen these very important initiatives which help with psychological safety, innovation and continuous learning

● Flexible forms of work also lead to diversified forms of employment where staff and partners coexist to create a more flexible and productive structure