SHRM PR has new message for a new generation
Companies need to look at and address employees’ new priorities and ponder the difference between human resources and human beings.
With a new focus in 2025, the Puerto Rico chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is aligning itself more precisely with the times.
Today’s employees are paying more attention to whether companies treat them like human resources or human beings, Daisy Aguilar, vice chair of SHRM’s board of directors and president-elect for 2025, told News is my Business.
“That’s what we’re going focus on next year — to go beyond talking about human resources and focus on human beings. We have to rethink what it means to be a human being within the social structures we have established in the workplace,” she said.
This is especially important for the new generation of workers: Gen Zers and younger millennials, many of whom started their careers during either The Great Recession or the COVID-19 pandemic. These employees are more accustomed to feeling uncertain about their jobs and are more skeptical about their employers than previous generations.
On top of uncertainty and skepticism, the newer generations are wrestling with satisfaction levels that don’t match their high expectations. Many are just realizing that their jobs are not providing and are not likely to provide the satisfaction they expected.
“It’s difficult for people in their 40s and 50s who didn’t grow up in that environment to understand that mindset,” Aguilar said. In the past, she said, when the boss said to do something, employees just did it.
Not anymore.
“Having grown up with immediate access to information, this generation questions everything. Why do I need to do it? How is that going to benefit me? How are you going to reward me for that? Hierarchical structures also don’t matter to them. We think that they want everything fast, that they don’t want to do anything they don’t like, but why would they?” Aguilar explained.
Aguilar further noted that we live in a society where the systems we have for determining compensation, benefits, promotions, etc., were established decades ago under a patriarchal structure that placed women at home and men occupying positions of power at work.
These systems that determined how people got rewarded for work now have to adapt to a generation that wants more freedom and autonomy, less structure and more flexibility.
“They want more time with family, time to travel, to take care of their aging parents. So time turns into money. Time is a reward they want and expect for work,” Aguilar said.
“In the past, personal time was not even part of the conversation. In fact, people knew they would get rewarded for dedicating more time to the company. Now people want time — their time. Organizations need to understand that time is part of the currency,” she said.
As human beings, not just human resources, employees have needs. The ability to leave work at 2 p.m. for a yoga class can be more important to an employee than a promotion.
Companies need to look at and address employees’ new priorities and ponder the difference between human resources and human beings, Aguilar said.
“The ones that figure it out, are the ones that will succeed,” she added.
