10 HR TRENDS TO WATCH IN 2018

As we close out another year, we don’t have much time to kick up our feet before we have to get hard to work on our 2018 goals. I’ve put together a list of 10 HR Trends for 2018 to keep your eye on.

1. Artificial Intelligence Artificial Intelligence is making its way into our organisations’ day-to-day operations, and that means your HR department, too. AI is already invisibly working for the department (think of something as small as the spam filter on your email), and 2018 is going to be its year to come to the forefront of your strategy. Before you close your screen and run off scared, make it a priority to understand AI and how it enhances work versus threatening human jobs. For example how often do you log on to a site to look up how to fix something or shop for a gift online and a chat screen pops up? If you’ve ever used the chat feature, you know it works and it makes sense. HR provides a lot of customer service support, so why not automate some of it via some AI?

2. Harassment Training This one should go without saying, but anti-sexual harassment training are going to be pervasive on the calendar. This training doesn’t necessarily have to come from your in-house HR team, but HR is going to be heavily involved in saturating their organisations with the right training and policies to make sure everyone knows how to keep their hands and their comments to themselves.

3. Diversity and Exclusion?HR 2018 will focus on how inclusion may cause exclusion. We need to understand and anticipate how this can happen. For example, if an organisation starts a young professionals’ group, do the parameters of that group exclude another group of people? What are our inclusion efforts doing to exclude and how can we alleviate risk by addressing this question head on?

4. Micro Education as a Real Qualification Technology changes fast, and simply having a 4-year degree doesn’t mean an employee is keeping up with those changes. Several organisations still require a traditional education, but as more and more credible micro-education options become available, more workplaces are going to accept these short, online courses as a viable source of learning. Many organisations are using micro-education as a continuing education option, as the times, they are a-changing! If your organisation is sceptical of micro-education, consider doing some skills testing to verify that candidates can demonstrate what they say they know how to do! HR will have to explore micro-education and then integrate it into their talent acquisition, compensation and performance management strategy.

5. Millennial Executives Millennials will move up to roles at the top level of your company. Key responsibility for HR in 2018: HR will spend some time back-filling these vacated positions and provide management coaching. This coaching will be required as millennials will be new to higher level management positions and need to be equipped with the right resources.

6. Conversations Using HR Analytics Big data and HR analytics are not new, HR will take the work and really put it into motion in 2018 outside the HR department. HR will continue to use HR analytics to share valuable insights with key executives and the rest of the company. However, as more HR departments work towards transparency, more HR professionals need not only to understand how the analytics impact the organisation but also will have to share in plain language everyone can understand when we discuss HR’s data-driven solutions for helping the organisation reach its business objectives.

7. Employee Wellness HR has been attempting to induce employee wellness right for years. With health care changes and prices rising, Human Resource departments have taken responsibility for encouraging and educating employees, and, after some trial and error, several hr departments have finally found the sweet spot once it comes to providing helpful resources and respecting employees’ privacy.For example, we tend to started by attempting to get everybody to meet a step goal on a daily basis or by rewarding employees who quit smoking, however we now look at the specific needs of our employee population and cater our wellness initiatives to real risks that we want to help our people avoid. A smoking cessation plan could be a nice plan, however if you don’t have lots of smokers in your employee population, then you’ll be wasting your time putting together a resource that doesn’t facilitate the requirements of those inside your organisation.

8. The Fight for Talent Unemployment rates are less than they’ve been in years,  which suggests that  we  aren’t simply fighting for the best of the best  practised  employees, we also are fighting for solid entry-level candidates too. This is a decent  chance for hr to take a deep dive into their organisation's talent  needs  and  learn the way to screen candidates quickly and acquire  them on the job before they lose interest.  Using skills testing as a part of your screening method can facilitate your organisation  to determine which candidates are capable of or, if you discover they have  a skills gap,  determine if you have got the resources for coaching. Talent acquisition  throughout  a period with a 5%  would require creative thinking, thus hr will to use its resources wisely!

9. Compensation Overhaul Compensation & Benefits have many moving factors, and organisations that lack a solid C&B strategy will find themselves in the weeds in 2018. HR has a lot of work to do to make sure we educate interviewers and hiring managers on the new don’ts of salary-related questions: New laws in several states have banned prospective employers from asking questions about a candidate’s previous salary. The reality is, we are all going to have to adopt the rule that we can’t ask about previous compensation, so now is the time to drop any compensation discussion strategy you may have used in the past and find a new and improved approach that satisfies everyone’s needs. To do this, HR must focus on determining fair pay for skills, experience, and education across the organisation as we trend towards compensating for the role, not the person.

10. Performance Management HR professionals  are  attempting to pinpoint the most effective performance management system for years, and forecasts for 2018 show that organisations are turning traditional performance management on its side by giving  employees additional responsibility. HR will still use its tools and provide training, but, with every other article telling HR which generation wants what in the ways of feedback, some organisations are giving employees the responsibility to ensure a truly individualised approach.One example is 360-degree feedback in which an employee requests anonymous feedback from the individuals with whom he or she works directly (supervisors, coworkers, those who report back to you, customers, etc.). The employee receives the feedback results directly, noting strengths, weaknesses, and areas wherever professional development is required. He or she may choose to discuss the results with a supervisor, or not. This creates a chance for your organisation to offer  employees  personalised skills testing to sharpen their skills and gives  your  employees the prospect to explore areas they’ve identified as a strength or interest.

2018 will be a year of pulling in all the great data and information we’ve gathered from the last few years and using it to build a strategy that fits the organisations we serve instead of trying to apply a one-size-fits-all solution.

What does your HR department has planned to tackle in the upcoming year?