[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/07\/08\/hr-in-latin-america\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/07\/08\/hr-in-latin-america\/","headline":"HR in Latin America: Discover the power of employee-centric tech","name":"HR in Latin America: Discover the power of employee-centric tech","description":"The state of HR in Latin America is critical to dealing with the pandemic and future business success. Read real-life examples of companies excelling with HXM.","datePublished":"2021-07-08","dateModified":"2021-07-08","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/laurie-ruettimann\/#Person","name":"Laurie Ruettimann","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/laurie-ruettimann\/","identifier":460,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/29057434eb12993625044c37714336f1f5e443ad81a89fa02d764ed13ec90c14?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/29057434eb12993625044c37714336f1f5e443ad81a89fa02d764ed13ec90c14?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Future of Commerce","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","width":172,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/HXM_Latin_1200x375.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/HXM_Latin_1200x375.jpg","height":375,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/07\/08\/hr-in-latin-america\/","about":[{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/customer-experience\/employee-engagement\/","name":"Employee Engagement","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Employee_engagement","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q14937678"]},"Employee Experience & Engagement","HXM: Human Experience Management","HXM: Human Experience Management"],"wordCount":1142,"articleBody":"This pandemic has proven on a new level that it\u2019s people who make a business exceptional. When businesses amplify employee engagement and productivity with solid human experience management (HXM), they create an environment in which everybody can win.And that\u2019s what we want in today\u2019s business world: Putting people and their experiences first is no longer a nice concept; it\u2019s a must.This topic was just one of the issues recently discussed as part of our LinkedIn Live series, \u201cThe Rise of HXM.\u201d This week my cohost Lars Schmidt from Amplify and our special guest N\u00e9stor M\u00e1rquez talked with me about the state of HR in the Latin America region. (You can watch the replay here.)The state of HR in Latin America: Critical to business successN\u00e9stor M\u00e1rquez is a researcher in Mexico City for Future of Work 2050 and a veteran of several consulting engagements in digital transformation. The need to shift from HCM to HXM \u2013 to adopt an employee-centric mindset with solutions designed to meet people\u2019s individual needs \u2013 is especially acute in areas where COVID-19 infection rates are fluctuating.M\u00e1rquez begins by outlining the status of the COVID-19 pandemic in the very large region we lump together with the term \u201cLatin America.\u201dIn Mexico, where he currently lives, the situation is relatively calm, as it is across the temperate zone in which countries are experiencing spring and summer. But in the southern regions \u2013 in Chile, Paraguay, and Argentina \u2013 winter is approaching, so the next few months could be harrowing.The emergence of variants and the shortage of vaccines, along with governmental decisions to relax protective rules, are complicating the challenge.Across the region, M\u00e1rquez explains, \u201cHR is very important both as we deal with the public health crisis and as we prepare for getting out of it.\u201dHR in Latin America is tasked first with keeping people productive as the definition of \u201cworkplace\u201d gets turned on its head. The immediate challenges include:Keeping people safe in officesConstructing processes to empower them to work at least part-time from remote locationsAlso on the crammed HR agenda is making smart workspaces and processes available to everyone, including women with children, minorities, and those with disabilities      2021 HR trends: The future of human resources, humanized                The employee experience sits atop 2021 HR trends, which also include engagement, productivity, wellness, flexibility, tech, and purpose.      Acknowledging the people factors of productivity\u201cIn general, Latin America has not been very rigorous about HR processes,\u201d says Marquez. \u201cWe clearly need modern tools to track and measure employee activities and achievements.\u201d He also points out that in the volatile marketplace, workers must be able to adapt quickly to move into new duties.Latin American companies have thus begun to prefer generalists over specialists as they recruit. Until now, the workforce has largely been responsible for investing in training, but technology helps identify broader skillsets for recruiters and highlight training opportunities for candidates.M\u00e1rquez advises companies that front-end investment in training is the key to attracting, engaging, and retaining a productive workforce.Schmidt notes that the need for upskilling and reskilling is not limited to Latin America, summarizing that \u201ckeeping employees happy and productive through human-centric process design is at the core of the global imperative for HXM.\u201dKeeping track of objectives and progress suddenly becomes a major challenge\u00a0 with people working in multiple locations, including from private spaces.Tools are helping to collect and analyze feedback, but companies have to be able to level up so that the information can be used to benefit everyone in the organization. Support should be a two-way flow, in which employees support the organization\u2019s business and the organization supports employees.Employee mental health is another area in which technology can provide better monitoring tools. \u201cOrganizations were simply not used to facing those challenges so extensively in the past,\u201d explains M\u00e1rquez. \u201cIn fact, before the pandemic, we didn\u2019t even want to talk about the issue at the executive level. But now the biggest question may be how to design processes that pay attention to the whole person, with his or her many connections to family and society \u2013 to life beyond work.\u201d      Remote employee wellness in a WFH world: Top tips                Employee well-being is good for employees and for business. Discover the top tips to support remote employee wellness in a WFH-friendly world.      Paying attention to the future of the organizationM\u00e1rquez points out that the pandemic is also responsible for waking companies up to the need to \u201cplan for the future in an age of accelerating change. Before last year, it was easy to talk loudly about managing the employee experience while keeping everything the same. Now, we really need to act.As an example of an enlightened Latin American company, M\u00e1rquez offers Mercado Libre, an aggregator of online marketplaces based in Buenos Aires, which he calls \u201cour version of Amazon.\u201d He explains, \u201cMercado Libre has become a leader in revenue and compensation. Today, everybody wants to work for them because of their excellent relationship with its people.\u201dHe says that several banks, for example, Santander, are also making a strong showing in the advancement of HXM and are thus seen as desirable workplaces. He continues, \u201cSuch organizations \u2013 and my own Future of Work 2050 \u2013 are working with universities to build talent and put people at the center of product generation and business development.\u201dM\u00e1rquez also mentions Walmart as a case study. Although the company is leaving the equatorial and southern regions of Latin America, it’s thriving in Mexico. He says Walmart\u2019s story demonstrates the power of HXM and technology to transform business and prepare organizations to manage ongoing change long after the threat of COVID-19 has been minimized.The process of mentoring managers is also essential to the evolution of HXM. At Future of Work 2050, M\u00e1rquez helps train leaders to understand employee needs and help them be most productive by providing the best tools and support.He stresses \u201chow to make organizations more open to investments in training along with discussion and resolution of problems among their people. In the past, you had to leave your problems at the door of the company. But now managers must acknowledge that business success depends on satisfying the whole personhood of the employee.\u201dEmbracing technological transformation will continue to be essential to improving business outcomes.As M\u00e1rquez says, \u201cWe have to show that technology is much more than a set of robots coming to take our jobs. It\u2019s all about changing how we create value and how we perceive value. If we see value only in the generation of products and services, we are not keeping up with the times. \u201c  HR, better.Employees, happier.Businesses, healthier.It’s time to modernize the employee experience."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2021","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"07","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/\/07\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"08","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/\/07\/\/08\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"HR in Latin America: Discover the power of employee-centric tech","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/07\/08\/hr-in-latin-america\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]