How do you know it’s the end of the year? Everybody asks for predictions.
This week, I was honored to appear on Changing The Game with HR, Presented by SAP. The host is Bonnie D. Graham, who happens to live down the road from me, and the panelists included Art Mazur and Dr. Patti Fletcher.
I was asked to share my 2019 predictions for HR, which are mostly predictions scraped together from other smart thinkers. But here’s what I believe:
User personalization continued to be a hot consumer trend in 2018, and the desire for customization has arrived within the confines of HR.
At all levels, the employee experience demands a customized user experience in the workplace. In a tight labor market, recruiters and HR leaders have been pushed to put the employee’s experience at the center of their policies and processes to attract and retain highly productive and talented workers. The benefit of personalization is that our workforce doesn’t need to search for resources and information, thus allowing more time for increased productivity, efficiency and collaboration.
Compensation is on the minds of many executives and HR leaders.
Companies benefited from tax breaks in 2018 and awarded bonuses throughout their organizations; however, for most US workers, wages have barely risen in decades. As we move from a traditional labor force to a distributed workforce rooted in the principles of the gig economy, companies will have to wrestle with critical questions about the importance of financial margins versus the importance of economic wellbeing for FTEs, consultants, and contractors alike.
Wellbeing is a trendy buzzword that isn’t going away in 2019.
Rather than focusing on punitive programs meant to guilt people into losing weight, progressive HR departments are getting ahead of the curve and designing creative benefit programs to enhance the quality of life. From nap rooms to pawternity benefits, employers want happier and healthier employees. Do these wellbeing perks work? Only data will tell us.
HR is gonna learn something new.
Traditionally, HR departments focused on the organization’s development needs. Training and learning are absolutely on fire, but, in 2019, training and development will be on the minds of HR professionals who haven’t paid attention to their growth. Whereas it was once essential to build individual learning plans for our workforce, we’ll be doing it for ourselves in 2019.
In 2019, we’ll see more business people join the ranks of HR and lead more and more HR organizations.
HR was once considered a place to send your low-performing leaders before banishing them entirely; however, now it’s regarded as a stepping stone to additional executive opportunities. How can you lead without knowing the intricacies of your people-related agenda?
What are your predictions? What do you see for HR in 2019? Leave a comment below, and feel free to have a listen to this week’s show!