As we come to the end of 2019, it’s important to look back at this year’s changes to our industry. This past year, we saw more than one HR trend of note. In particular, a lot of important work is being done to improve HR departments and workplaces around the world. Read on for 7 of the biggest HR takeaways we saw in 2019, and how they may affect your own team!
1. Technology is your friend –not foe!
Employers are facing exponential changes in technology, and many of them are underusing the technology they have. Technology can free up a lot of HR’s time for other meaningful activities and enable employers to stand above the crowd, but only if used effectively.
Organizations that don’t adapt to technological changes risk wasting valuable resources and spending significantly more money on tasks that their competitors do on the cheap.
2. Avoiding distrust and drama is critical.
Distrust and drama are a death sentence to collaboration and communication and will cause innovation and creativity to dry up. However, fortunately for us, you don’t need a huge budget or costly program to counter distrust and drama in the workplace.
Instead, self-reflection, shared accountability, and setting others up for success are all useful tactics to alleviate the stressors that bring us down, cause us to distrust one another, and clog up our day with unnecessary drama. In the words of Brené Brown, “people are the hardest part of work, but people are all we have.”
3. Know your employees’ expectations.
Another HR trend is for employees–especially younger ones–to expect more from their employers. To illustrate, an increasing number of employees want to work for mission-driven people. It’s important that the business they work for understands their needs and the needs of society.
To boost your own corporate responsibility, try reaching out to a local non-profit in your area for partnership opportunities. Or, take advantage of some of the mission-driven, free employee benefits SDP offers to make an impact with your business and boost your employee benefits package:
- Paycards With a Purpose: For every employer that reaches 100% direct deposit, we’ll plant a grove of trees in your name!
- ZayZoon Wages On Demand: Our fintech partner on a mission to stop predatory lending by giving employees 24/7 access to wages for their already-worked hours.
- FinFit Financial Wellness: Free employee financial wellness tools including free coaching, assessments, budget calculators, and more.
Contact us to activate any of these services with no cost or work required from your business!
4. Level up your management style.
Expectations are also changing for managers, who are more and more expected to be attentive. The best managers today understand human psychology. They’re able to read emotional cues and spot signs of stress. And they have the people skills to help employees navigate strong emotions and uncertain situations.
5. Work with marketing on your employer brand.
Another HR trend we saw this year was an increasing number of HR and Marketing departments working together to improve their company’s employer brand—the image that prospective employees have of the company.
Every employer has a brand. It’s the internal culture of the organization as seen from outside the organization. Job postings, social media activity, and online employee reviews all shape your employer brand, and that brand plays a big role in your organization’s recruitment efforts.
6. A reason to improve and expand training.
Next, we saw harassment prevention efforts take on greater urgency following the #MeToo movement. As a result, more companies began looking to improve and expand their harassment prevention efforts to combat other forms of unwelcome conduct based on a protected class.
As an extension of this, we saw a growing HR trend for employers to re-evaluate their training efforts overall. Additionally, we saw new technology like Learning Management Systems (LMS) gain popularity as a solution to help by standardizing training and improving ease of administration.
Ask us about SDP’s Learning Management System to learn how you can access our training library of over 300 courses including harassment prevention, safety, and professional development.
7. A community for HR professionals.
The final HR trend we saw in 2019 was a growing collaborative spirit in the HR world. Recruiters, specialists, generalists, directors, and other HR professionals want to connect, learn, and grow together.
For example, nearly 20,000 HR professionals attended this year’s annual SHRM conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. If you’re not already connected to your own HR network, consider joining an organization like SHRM to differentiate yourself and join the HR community today!
What do you think?
What were your HR takeaways from this past year? Let us know in the comments below! Additionally, be sure to contact us for more information on SDP’s free employee benefits and new Learning Management System. Lastly, be sure to follow us out on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for even more business tips & tricks!