HR and workplace culture have undergone an unprecedented wave of changes during the last decade. But this new decade is going to bring even more challenges for HR. Our position is that the main focus of the next decade will be centered around employee experience; supported by further digitization of HR processes as companies finally catch-up with their respective market leaders.
# Generation Z – the rising workforce
For starters, a new generation is on the horizon. Generation Z will account for about 24% of the global workforce, which means that HR will need to stay on their toes, ready to adapt their approach (yet again) according to their habits and needs; similarly to what happened with generation X or the so-called Millenials.
Even though this generation is the most digitally oriented and tech-savvy, it prefers face-to-face interactions and human contact. It’s predicted that they will be in need of constant communication with their peers, managers and colleagues; seeking feedback on their performance.
For the sake of talent retention, HR can create a culture of continuous feedback and further learning via digitization of performance evaluations, goal setting and appropriate learning and development planning.
# Data-Driven HR
Data analytics are a global trend giving great insights and the ability to make robust, unbiased decisions. In the HR industry, people analytics is a data-driven and goal-oriented method of examining people processes, functions, challenges and opportunities; to improve the performance of the company.
HR specialists will use these to a huge extent for employee performance tracking; identifying aspects influencing their motivation and if needed, for further employee re-skilling or team reorganization.
Having said that, it’s worth mentioning that the rise of people analytics in HR is only set to grow. The challenge though is not to get dragged into a “paralysis by analysis” phenomena. In other words, HR specialists will need to learn to handle and interpret the vast amounts of data coming their way.
#Gamification
Gamification has been working its way into the HR industry for some time now. It is already being used as a way to screen candidates, turning tests into a fun and engaging way to measure personality and skills.
Gamification will continue to blend into other internal HR activities such as the creation of job families or employee leaderboards, which can help in re-skilling jobs, people or even entire teams. By the means of employee leaderboards, companies will be able to make employee recognition visible throughout the whole organization; gain improved insights; and as a result boost employee motivation and improve performance as a whole.
At the initial phase, HR will have to devote time to search and incorporate the necessary tools, which can be quite tricky due to the large plethora of tools available. But as a result, it will create more room for HR leaders to deal with important strategic tasks, boosting the development of the company.
# HR Chatbots
Chatbots are already widely used in customer service, technical support, automated lead generation, social selling, and from now on we will also see a greater expansion into HR processes. For instance, chatbots will be used as a channel to guide newcomers through their onboarding process automatically.
Onboarding is all about scheduling and running interviews, filtering the candidates, completing their paperwork, welcoming the new employees to the team or introducing corporate policies to them. All of the above are quite time-consuming tasks when run by a human, instead of a bot. HR chatbots will modernize your HR department, helping to make the most out of your HR investments.
# Automation and A.I.
During the last few years AI has created a lot of buzz in the HR industry, however its application still hasn’t reached the level of the buzz it created. AI in recruiting was designed to automate time-consuming, repetitive activities such as CV screening or identifying potentially biased language in job descriptions.
In the following years, AI will change the HR industry and the roles of recruiters, letting them become more efficient with hiring decisions, helping to determine candidate’s culture fit, and finally it will improve functioning of the whole HR department by using people analytics to measure such KPIs as quality of new hires.
#Wellness & Healthcare
Times when the employee wellness programs were supported only by huge market players like Google and Apple are over. As the main focus has shifted from “pleasing bosses” to “positive employee experience”, HR now leverages the employee wellness programs. And the results are win-win, as the employees enjoying these kinds of perks show lower turnover rates and higher rates of engagement and productivity.
# Final touches
Steadily the digital world is going to overlap more and more with the real world, letting HR technology rule the industry. All of the above mentioned trends, are going to become the essentials of HR professionals, supporting them in achieving their ultimate goal – attracting the right talents in a way that enhances their experience. In addition, digital transformation, processes automation and the employer branding are presented as the main challenges for HR of the upcoming years.
