Top 5 Trends that will drive HR industry in 2019

The global human resource management (HRM) sector is projected to reach $30 billion by 2025. In other words, the business of creating innovative HR solutions is booming. HR, an industry comprising professionals that have been historically overburdened with the complicated processes of managing the life cycle of every employee, is currently experiencing a deluge of innovation.

Let’s have a look at the top 5 HR trends we would encounter in 2019

1.AI TO IMPROVE HR OPERATIONS

Companies are increasingly leveraging AI technology to help identify data opportunities, improve internal workflows, and increase productivity, to name a few. 

Machine learning, an application of AI, uses data to learn, identify patterns, and make decisions. These tools reduce the amount of human power needed to perform a job quickly and effectively; meanwhile, they increase both response time and access to information.

•  Take, for example, our blind hiring trend for 2019.  AI can be trained to avoid unconscious bias by ignoring information such as names, universities, locations, and dates previous positions have been held. However, these systems are still at the mercy of human-based decision making and therefore require constant innovation.
•  Meanwhile, HR service delivery software, for example, helps organizations and HR personnel simplify complex HR operations.AI can learn commonly asked questions and automate responses thereby reducing the time HR personnel need to spend reviewing and responding to employee requests.
• Furthermore, AI is implemented throughout Application Tracking System(ATS) which is commonly used to streamline the process of scanning resumes.

2.BLIND HIRING TECHNOLOGY

The focus on increasing diversity to improve company-wide performance and workplace culture is already on the rise. Organizations are increasingly expanding diversity hiring goals to focus on inclusion around gender, ethnicity, culture, age, and LGBT-identifying individuals.

And yet, implicit, or unconscious, bias is still prevalent throughout the resume screening process. In a recent resume audit study, researchers identified pervasive racial discrimination throughout the resume screening process.     

•  Resumes with traditionally male names were 40% more likely to get an interview request than identical resumes with “female-sounding” names.
•  In US, resumes with “white-sounding” names were 75% more likely to get an interview request than identical resumes with Asian names, and 50% more likely to get an interview request than identical resumes with “black-sounding” names.

More companies will set diversity goals which HR personnel and hiring managers will then need to meet. To do so, they will need to start by designing clear roadmaps for achieving gender, ethnic, cultural, and generational diversity.

HR personnel will increase their use of blind hiring technology in 2019 to remove unconscious bias from the entire hiring process. These solutions will expand the candidate pool to include qualified talent that has been left out for far too long.

3. EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Employee engagement is the level of an employee’s emotional connection, involvement, and commitment to their organization. When employees feel valued—their dedication and enthusiasm for their jobs, coworkers and companies grow. This in turn,increases employee retention, performance and productivity.

Eighty percent of HR employees, surveyed, found that using HR technologies improved employee attitude toward the company. Meanwhile, 57% of HR employees strongly agree that employee engagement initiatives will help their company retain productive staff.

HR personnel will turn to employee engagement solutions to improve engagement and increase retention. The challenge will be in deciding which solutions will most benefit their employees, company, and culture. There are many options for improving employee engagement. 

• HR personnel can use employee engagement software to solicit and track feedback from their employees, recognize employee achievements, and promote positive activity.
•  There are a variety of solutions to help engage employees beyond employee engagement software. These include solutions that provide continual training and education, career development, employee recognition, as well as creating programs around topics like wellness—physical, mental, and financial.

Prediction: Businesses will increase their employee engagement spending by 45% in 2019.

4. WORKFORCE WILL BECOME MORE AGILE

Expect to see more organizations using their workforce in a more agile way in 2019, rather than hiring in new staff. Because return on investment is much better if you grow your own talent. “But the difficulty is in matching the opportunities with the resources you have available. I think we’re going to see more around how you can redeploy a workforce – how you can retrain good workers for new roles, rather than sacking them.” said an HR professional.

You would have to understand each individual: what’s important to them, what motivates them, and what they like doing – and then try to sculpt the job around those three factors.

 5.FLEXIBLE WORKFORCE REMAINS AT FORE

Offering flexible working options and accommodating staff requests will continue to be a significant concern for HR in 2019.

In HR industry, a lot of people go freelance in search of flexibility – making recruitment a struggle sometimes. But by introducing more flexible working relationships with people on permanent contracts, these roles will become much more attractive.

Now that you have a glimpse into the future of HR, are you prepared to bring your organization where it needs to go?