As with 2016, this year’s job market “will continue to improve causing both job seekers and employees to have more leverage, which will cause salaries to increase and employers to invest more [on] job advertising, staffing firms and employee benefits,” notes Forbes contributing writer Dan Schawbel.
“The demand for a more flexible work environment will continue and you will see an emergence of HR practitioners with new skills, including people analytics, Internet marketing, branding and knowledge on new technologies like virtual reality and wearables,” writes Schawbel, partner and research director at Future Workplace.
One thing employers and HR do not want to repeat from past years is turning off potential job candidates because of a poor recruiting process. The implications from such experiences can have unforeseen consequences for the bottom line. “…A bad candidate experience can turn away customers who may be your candidates, thus resulting in a loss of potential revenue,” Schawbel notes.
More firms also will heed Virgin founder Richard Branson’s call several years back to quash formal business attire. “With the rise of younger generations, and more employees working remote, there’s no doubt that the workplace is increasingly casual,” Schawbel writes. “In 2017, you will see a continuation of this trend, with more employees demanding to drop their suits and ties in exchange for jeans and shirts.”
To create a more positive job candidate experience, firms will encourage their HR staff to learn from other departments. For example, HR could look to marketing and customer service to see how they engender loyalty and then tailor those strategies to the recruiting process.
HR departments also need to step it up when it comes to embracing and deploying relevant technology or risk being held back by obsolete workplace practices, Nagarjuna Ageer writes for Project Management.
Having staff use wearable technology, such as Fitbit, that gauges employee health, could help HR lower sick time and health care cost. Other areas set to gain greater prominence this year are increased automation of HR and payroll, more attention to engaging employees, increased use of social media for hiring, greater flexibility in work schedules and attention to office design.
“More business owners are approaching minimalistic ways in designing their workplace to look decluttered and organized,” writer Ageer, a software product marketer at India-based Keka Payroll Software. “This approach gives a distraction free environment and helps employees to work more productively.”
While HR has traditionally been slow to adopt new technology for improving the recruitment and hiring process, the pressure to adapt will only intensify this year, reports CIO.com.
Some of the reluctance to adapt to new technology more quickly “stems from HR not being willing to move out of its comfort zone,” says Karen Williams, chief product officer for Halogen Software, a Canadian-based workforce management company. “Some of it is because of organizations not being willing to invest in new technology for their HR and recruiting departments--but now, as talent is recognized as critical, technology is seen as a way to enable things like better and faster hiring, retention, and once people are on board, performance management.”
The contributions of teams, rather than just an individual, also will gain greater attention. "We've now realized that it takes high-performing teams to produce the kinds of results organizations want,” says Jeanne Meister, founding partner of HR consultant, Future Workplace. “So, future-focused companies will look at what makes a great team? How they communicate, how to reward and recognize them, how to push intact teams through growth and development.”