Transformation trends in the Mexican workforce

One of the central tenets of Mexican culture is the concept of family. In order to forge lasting relationships with the country, it is essential that one understands the position family occupies. In Mexico, family and personal relationships are very important. So deeply ingrained is the concept, that it dictates their corporate and business culture. Therefore, in traditional Mexican business models, it is common to see business and professional life mingle.

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Traditional Mexican corporate culture is also characterised by strong hierarchies, authoritarian leadership style, and long working hours. This often results in employee dissatisfaction, drop in productivity, and low motivation. However, with foreign companies setting up shop in Mexico, rigid and traditional structures of Mexican corporate culture are being challenged. In order attract the workforce, foreign companies present themselves as cultural disruptors by offering more attractive working conditions, like higher wages and better work hours.

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Today, there is a growing awareness about the benefits of investing in improved working relationships and working conditions among local companies, thus igniting a transformation in Mexican workforce culture, where employee satisfaction and efficient work processes are given top priority. However, the onslaught of Covid-19 has presented a new set of challenges. And overcoming this hurdle will require a new set of transformative processes.

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The Covid situation

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The pandemic accelerated the downturn of the Mexican economy. Close to 12.5 million people lost their jobs at the beginning of Covid-19, and through September 2020 had recovered 7.9 million of them. Getting through the pandemic would require the workforce to face a series of transformational challenges. Human Resources in Mexican organizations will play a critical role in rebuilding the workforce.

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Around the world, the pandemic gave rise to the digitization of employee activities and processes. The same holds true for the 23 million employees of the Mexican workforce that have adopted digital platforms into their work routines. A majority of these are employed in Mexico’s prominent industries, including manufacturing, IT, corporates, and financial services. Prior to the pandemic, traditional Mexican industries were lagging on the digitization front; but its introduction during this critical time is a great place to understand how it impacts work, workforces, and workplaces in Mexico, both now and post pandemic.

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The Mexican workforce transformation trends

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Recruitment

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Recruitment has always been a challenging endeavour for HR professionals in Mexico, to find qualified candidates with the skills sets that matches the company’s needs. Now, with a growing workforce and technology that has become more complex and knowledge-based, recruiting the right person has become more difficult.

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The pandemic accelerated the digital transformation of recruitment. HR professionals recognise the efficiency recruitment tools add to their operations. In fact, it’s been reported that 58% of talent acquisition specialists are now implementing virtual interviews to help them find candidates in reduced times.

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But it doesn’t have to stop there. With technologies like resume parsing, a recruitment software could read a resume using machine learning to avoid the need for data entry. Probability determination could match resumes to job needs, filtering and narrowing qualified candidates. Once that is done, the recruitment software can coordinate and schedule interviews & follow-ups, track candidate progress, and offer employment and onboard the new employees. And all this functionality is integrated on unified HCM systems like peopleHum.

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Flexibility

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Traditional workplace practices are still predominant across Mexican businesses, but the current health crisis has compelled companies to adopt remote work strategies. Apart from following the work from home norms, companies employing workforce in Mexico noted the many benefits of adopting remote work strategies, like the reduction of employee-related cost, real-estate cost, improvement in productivity and employee satisfaction. As of May 19, 2021, most Mexican states have permitted work from office to resume; however, it is anticipated that remote work will continue to be a trend even after the pandemic.

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With an increasing support for remote work by the Mexican workforce, HR professionals are embracing AI tools in their daily operations. Including recruitment softwares like the one mentioned before, AI-driven employee management tools can digitize more than just administrative work. With the absence of employees in a physical workspace, employee engagement has to go online.

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Employee engagement tools will help HR encourage engagement amongst a dispersed workforce. Tools like customisable surveys and polls will help leaders get a pulse of the workforce. Rewards and recognition programs will make employees feel appreciated for their efforts. Announcements provide a central board for company-wide news. Communication tools ensure that employee’s are never out of touch with their colleagues. With peopleHum, all these tools are accessible at the tip of one’s fingers. On the web and even on mobile.

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Diversity and inclusion

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Diversity and inclusion are key HR principles. Recent studies show that gender-diverse organizations outperform other companies by 15%. But Mexico has some outstanding issues with the gender gap in employment. For instance, in 2019, women were paid 19% less than their male counterparts, on an average. And when Covid-19 hit, women in the workforce lost their jobs  more than twice the rate of men. The pandemic may have set back the clock on women’s labour progress in Mexico…

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But the situation won’t always remain this way. Companies are growing in-tune with the modern workplace. For instance, by embracing new workplace trends like remote working, the freedom of being flexible scheduling can provide greater liberation for the women in the workforce. Unlike traditional workplace arrangements, the flexibility of working remotely can improve job performance and productivity.

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The workplace flexibility is also a great draw for Gen Z’s, the newest entrants to the Mexican workforce. That, along with their deep regard for communication are the aspects that determine their pull towards employment opportunities.

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Leveraging technology for the future of work

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The recent growth trends in the Mexican workforce points positively towards the adoption of digitized work processes. With companies increasingly adopting workplace tools to manage remote as well as hybrid workplaces, the future looks more flexible and less dependent on traditional processes. In a study by RunaHR on the future of work in Latin America, 45% of responders have planned to implement AI within their operations in 2021.

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Human Resources and leadership must not just stop at employee engagement and recruitment to improve the efficiency of workforce processes. Performance management, which forms the backbone of every people-driven operation, also needs new age processes to rebuild the workforce during the pandemic. peopleHum’s integrated performance management system makes the performance cycle automated and effective, minus the paper and tediousness. With all processes streamlines on a single dashboard, HR can remove the stress out of planning people processes.

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Since HR plays an important role in designing the workforce processes, it also has the job of collecting and analysing data. With HR analytics integrated within the workforce f,  technology can drastically reduce the time spent on data collection by automating those processes, and free-up time for HR to focus other critical employee issues. Customisable graphs, heat maps and pulse clouds provide real-time insights into team and individual performance.

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With companies already climbing the road towards digitization, it an excellent time to embrace processes that can enable them to become more efficient in their processes. peopleHum’s one-view integrated workforce management system is a platform for the complete employee experience, from hiring to off-boarding.

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Enable your employees to communicate, collaborate, and focus on resilience and productivity through a unique approach focused on experience design. All for a value equation for the Mexican market priced in Mexican peso that is hard to beat.

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No wonder a plethora of companies of all sizes and partners, integrators and consultants are flocking to peopleHum to drive the future of cloud based human capital platforms in markets like Mexico.

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Reach out to us to hear our story and how we can help your organization align and transform the future of the organization.