While it’s a given that the workforce is in a state of constant change and always has been it’s quite fair to say that today, it changes faster than ever. In this culture of rapid change fueled by generational shifts and technological advancement, human resources departments have their work cut out for them. From sourcing the best talent and developing it to be even better, to driving leadership and navigating the tricky waters of the “gig economy,” HR faces more challenges than ever. Here are some of the largest concerns facing today’s human resources:

The Gig Economy Is Growing

The last few years have seen a shift in the way that people work a shift that will only continue. Freelance and contract-based work are at an all-time high, and the portion of the workforce made up of such contingent workers is expected to reach 40 per cent by 2020. The reason is two-fold: for the contingent worker, they make more money per hour, and for the employer, they spend less on labor. But this presents a significant challenge to human resources. The talent pool, for one, is harder to navigate. Additionally, if companies are not careful about properly classifying contingent workers, they may find themselves in a difficult situation come tax season.

Creating a Powerful Team

This issue sees some overlap with the growth of freelance and contract work. Crafting the best possible team has always been a prevalent human resources concern a team that includes top talent in their fields, that can communicate and collaborate and succeed together. When you add a growth in the gig economy to this, it becomes more challenging. How do you make the best team, when a portion of that team works remotely? This is likely to be an ongoing challenge for human resources, one that will require true dedication to solve.

Streamlining HR Management

With the job of human resources management becoming more complex over time, any opportunity to make it more efficient is a welcome one. By taking advantage of new and powerful purpose-driven software programs, human resources managers are empowered to take their work to the next level without having to put in hours and hours of overtime. Integrated software solutions that combine human resource management, customer relationship management, and more, can be an incredible asset.

Talent Acquisition

Whether the talent you are looking for is full-time, freelance, or contract-based, getting your hands on top talent is going to be a major issue moving forwards. Holding onto that talent in an incredibly competitive job market will be even harder. Today’s workforce is seeingshorter and shorter tenures at jobs and the reason for this, at least in part, is that people are less willing than ever to tolerate low levels of job satisfaction. So in addition to being able to find great talent in your sector, you also have to be able to offer them an attractive position, and work consistently to maintain high qualities of job satisfaction.

Fostering Leadership

With shorter and shorter tenures at jobs, you’ll also see fewer people staying in one place long enough to grow into a leadership role. This is a major issue for human resources, and one that can’t be ignored. It’s of great importance to not only recognize leadership potential in people but to develop those qualities, nurturing them so that they grow and mature. By investing in leadership development, you not only make employees more invested in their work, but you create powerful leaders who go on to do great things.

To stay relevant in an increasingly new and constantly evolving job market, human resources managers need to be certain that they face these challenges head-on while being ready to adapt to new models and paradigms of work. But then again, hasn’t this always been the case? As previously stated, change is the only constant. How you navigate that change is how you define your future.