It is always a good time in January to look forward into the new year and see what the trends in HR will be. It seems as we head into 2020, we can consider these three words to sum up the upcoming trends in the HR world:1
- Faster
- Flexible
- Well-being
These words sound more in line with what you’d expect from an ad for a yoga class, rather than what you’d use to describe new organizational trends for HR, so let’s expand on these.
In 2020, the new 5G networks will start to take hold and have an impact in the workplace. Greater and faster communication will lead to the increased use of Artificial Intelligence to speed up all processes in the workplace. Workers will have to be ready to respond to change unlike ever before.
Companies in 2020 may also be forced into embracing the 4-day work week. A financial services company in New Zealand, called Perpetual Guardian, moved to a 4-day work week and saw a 20% increase in productivity.2 According to Human Resources Director article, “Workplace 2020: Key trends for the future of Work”, flexible working “has emerged as a super trend, with 62% of businesses worldwide now offering a flexible working policy.”1 Incorporating flexible schedules into their workplace will be challenging for some organizations, but with the tight labour market in North America, many will have no choice but to offer creative and flexible working schedules for their employees.
Employee burnout is real as well, and “research shows that 95% of HR leaders think that stress is ‘sabotaging workforce retention’.”1 If there can only be one change organizations make in 2020, it should be dealing with workplace stress and employee burnout. As the speed of workplace processes increase, so will workplace stress levels. As things get faster, there is a greater need in our workplaces to counterbalance the speed of change with greater organizational flexibility and well-being to support our employees.
Discussion Question:
Pick one of the three HR trends for 2020 to research. Create a 5-minute presentation to convince your VP of HR that a new program should be implemented so the organization can be more successful in 2020.
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