1. Employee experience
Employee experience or EX has been a buzzword in HR circles for a while now but only recently has it become a top priority. In fact, in our report last year employee experience didn’t even make the top 5 list, yet now over 23% of HR professionals view employee experience as a top HR trend. A positive sign that employers are well on their way to shifting their focus from siloed objectives like employee engagement or satisfaction onto a broader view that encompases the overall employee experience.
What does it actually mean?
Former head of Employee Experience at Airbnb Mark Levy (yes, there are now entire job roles for it), describes it as:
“Anything that sets employees up for success or improves our culture should be a part of EX.”
Similar to a client or customer experience strategy for the marketing department, employee experience is about measuring and improving the employee’s journey and experience. Considering influential factors such as physical environment and making their jobs easier through tools and technology but also improving their experience with development plans and wellbeing support. It’s about mapping out that journey from their first touchpoint applying for a job, beyond interview and onboarding into their long-term development within the business.
Why is it important?
More and more employers are struggling with attracting top talent and employee expectations for forward-thinking flexible working and working cultures is at an all-time high as a consequence. Employers like Glassdoor and LinkedIn view EX as a key strategy to give them competitive edge, going above and beyond giving employees access to tools that help them manage their experience. There are even new social contracts emerging between employer and employee according to a Deloitte report. In fact, Brand Leadership Expert Denise Lee Yohn says signs indicate so strongly that EX will become the next priority for organizations that she’s calling 2018 The Year of Employee Experience, in her Forbes article she said:
“I’m excited and encouraged by the focus that is now being put on EX — and I plan to report throughout 2018 on companies that are using EX to increase not only employee satisfaction, productivity, and retention, but also brand equity, competitive advantage, and sustainable growth.”
How could this benefit your business?
Broadening your focus to the employees’ overall experience will help you create a healthier working culture. This makes your employees’ lives easier and their experience more enjoyable but also improves core objectives like engagement, retention, satisfaction and productivity in the process.
2. Workplace connectivity & collaboration
Collaboration has long been considered important but employers are now starting to invest in technology and adapt working environments to facilitate connectivity throughout the business. Beyond encouraging collaboration to encourage innovation and improve morale, connected working is also a topline priority to increase efficiency within the business with 21.9% of HR professionals saying its a top HR trend in 2018.
What does it actually mean?
As a trend this isn’t about sitting in a circle and having a nice brainstorm, workplace connectivity and collaboration is primarily a HR trend for its potential to fuel wider business objectives like productivity, engagement and data accuracy. This includes resolving any disconnects due to remote working and global colleagues through improved communication tools, messaging apps or BYOD (bring your own device) initiatives but also integrating software across departments to build one full view of the business and empower managers to run accurate reports.
In a 2018 UK Small Business Marketing Trends Report one of the world’s foremost experts on Facebook marketing Mari Smith also highlighted that we are in the age of ‘conversational commerce’ and at the centre of it are messaging apps, referencing China’s WeChat platform as an example of the future, she said:
“It has been said, my friends, that China’s Wechat is the top messaging app in the world, and they are light years ahead of the Western World in terms of messaging apps and how everything is in the same app. And the only two messaging apps in the world that are poised to compete are Facebook’s Messenger and Whatsapp, owned by Facebook.”
Why is it important?
The sheer volume of differing tools now used by each department has led to departmental siloes that inhibit an accurate view of business performance. Unscalable disparate data points and disjointed software is then exasperated by rapid business growth. Collaboration and connectivity between departments is the first step to resolving these issues by integrating business systems but also encouraging accessible communication. One Cisco study even found that:
“If companies were willing to incorporate a BYOD culture, then they may see what some research validates as being a 16% boost in productivity over a 40-hour week, a 23% rise in job satisfaction and a 21% rise in company loyalty.”
There's a strong link between workplace connectivity and productivity, efficiency and accuracy, which in turn boosts motivation and engagement. Departments are more aligned with the same cut of data to build one version of the truth. These efficiencies are cumulative with less duplication of work across the business, facilitated by improved data sharing and reduced admin or manual re-entry across departments.
3. People data and analytics
As technology evolves, the opportunity for improved people data and analytics grows but so does the risk for a business - especially through rapid growth. Addressing those risks and getting a handle on people data and analytics is something 21.9% of HR professionals have in their sights as a top trend in 2018.
What does it actually mean?
People data and analytics isn’t new in itself but facilitating the quality of people data and analytics through connected working is. This trend comes on the back of increasingly powerful tools that can be integrated throughout the workplace and deliver one version of the truth for the business. If people data is combined with finance data for instance, it can inform strategic decision making. This connectivity could also link productivity, financial performance and engagement levels of each individual team, department or employee. The HR industry are recognising the need to leverage their people data now more than ever. In The Reality of HR report, we explain:
While more than half of our survey respondents are actively managing the risk of employee perceptions of personal data use, and a similar proportion is managing the risk of legal liability, only a quarter are managing the impact on their consumer brand. Organizations face a tipping point: Develop a set of well-defined policies, security safeguards, transparency measures, and ongoing communication around the use of people data, or risk employee, customer, and societal backlash.
Why is it important?
Powerful and accurate people data enables the business to take a proactive approach to rectify any issues before they arise. Spotting patterns through intuitive analytics can also lead to repetition in areas that are working well and contribute to reaching top business goals. One version of the truth also saves the whole business time on reporting, reducing lag time and frustration with disparate data points and empowers managers with the data they need to make real progress. These are all factors that can help you reach objectives like improving employee engagement, boosting employee morale, increasing productivity and reducing employee turnover.
Does this sound like HR trends you can get behind?
Whatever challenges you are up against, we hope that we have helped validate your instincts on upcoming trends. To find out more about upcoming HR trends and challenges so that you can prepare for the year ahead download our Reality of HR report now.