As a tumultuous and challenging 2020 is now firmly behind us, it’s time to look forward to the year ahead and the 4 biggest new trends in HR that are set to change the way we work over the coming months:
1. Remote working
Having employees work from home was a boom for some small businesses, and as it’s a trend that isn’t set to go away anytime soon, what challenges it does present, must be tackled. HR leaders and other professionals must try to adopt new infrastructure and programs to ensure productivity and increase efficiency, and it’s predicted that clear guidelines will be introduced this year.
2. The use of big data
Accurate and real-time employee data has never been more important, and people analytics is a growing, global trend in the arena of HR. Discovering how employees perform and what influences their productivity and motivations, is made so much easier using such big data, and can give powerful insights surrounding performance, hiring trends and attrition, to name but a few. Those HR professionals with the appropriate technology will be able to give themselves a competitive edge.
3. Cross-functional work strategies embraced
With the common goal of business continuity, HR professionals need to unite people with different functional expertise; enabling more ideas to be generated, innovative business solutions to be created and new skills to be gained. In return, employee engagement will be boosted thanks to the introduction of new behaviors, and a sense of team spirit or comradery.
4. Mental wellbeing programs
Mental health and awareness surrounding it has improved tenfold in recent years, and with physical and mental health going hand in hand, employees and employers are seeking ways to help others take care of their mental health in the workplace. A fantastically positive trend, this should be leveraged by all HR leaders.
Upcoming challenges:
Having done its best to disrupt the methods HR leaders typically use to deliver a positive employee experience, the pandemic has presented a whole host of challenges over the past year or more, and forced HR teams to rethink their processes and procedures. Thankfully, with digital infrastructure evolving and improving constantly, HR leaders have many resources at their fingertips, to help them tackle the challenges and make a shift in the policies and tools they use to manage employees.
Help with HR:
If some of the challenges presented by COVID-19 are proving too much for you as a HR professional, or as the owner of a small business trying to handle the role yourself, why not hire an outsourced payroll processing agency who can take care of all the important issues for you? With their people-centric, empathetic and balanced business strategies, they could help you conquer the turbulent waters of the pandemic, and sail to success as we head into 2021.