By shedding light on four strategic HR trends moving forward, Soteria HR helps our client companies to understand the human resources side of their ongoing business model. After all, by preparing for the unknown, you can turn potential pitfalls into future advantages. For the human resource professionals and consultants at Soteria HR, staying one step ahead of the latest HR trends is the name of the game.
By emphasizing foresight and precaution, insight and due diligence, we keep our client companies safe and ready for whatever is coming around the next bend. In that manner, let’s take a look at the top four HR trends moving forward into 2019 and beyond.
Four Strategic HR Trends in 2019
1) Branding Company Culture to Foster Meaning
In 2019, both clients and employees are driven by values and a search for meaning. Thus, an emphasis on integrity in a company’s culture is one of the top five HR trends. Your clients and employees want to know why they should work with and for your business from this perspective. Beyond advertising campaigns and slogans, a company culture of trust and success beyond the workplace needs to branded into your company’s culture. Such branding is effectively expressed when you level the playing field in hiring practices and promotions for minorities and women.
The equations that are produced by branding your company’s culture with integrity and decency make sense. If your employees believe in your company, they will work harder for your company. If your clients respect and trust your company, they will be loyal to your brand. In the 21st century, the connection between integrity and the brand of a company’s culture is essential.
2) The Inevitability of Automation and Artificial Intelligence
Business owners and their employees need to realize that the inevitability of automation and artificial intelligence (AI), particularly with the busy work of human resources and office management, is not a threat but an opportunity. As HR consultants, Soteria HR is not threatened by automation and AI. Instead, we celebrate whatever technological tools help improve the business engines of our client companies. The goal always is to increase profitability and productivity.
For example, AI now can be used to automate the initial part of recruitment and selection, allowing managers to focus more time on delving into one-on-one relationships. AI technology can be used to remove unconscious bias from the hiring process.
3) Training and Development for Employees and Managers
In a competitive business environment of quickly evolving technological applications, the training and development of employees and managers are vital to a company’s success in 2019 and beyond. With online training growing faster than ever, Soteria HR offers our client companies the best of both worlds. Our training and development programs focus both on person-to-person and online opportunities. In many cases, like technological updates of existing software or applications, online training proves to be quite effective. In other cases, the physical presence of a training expert is required.
For example, there is a growing need for managers to be better coaches and develop skill sets that support their employee teams. According to The Business Backer, a respected financing source for business owners, 93 percent of employees claim that trust in their superiors is essential to succeeding at their jobs. However, a survey conducted by Ernst & Young shows that less than half of employees have “a great deal of trust” in their current employers. Such trust leads to better job performance, and it can be garnished when a manager has training in employee engagement and motivational communication techniques.
4) Preparing to Effectively Manage Generation Z
In 2019, more young people from Generation Z (people born between 1995 and 2010) will be entering the workforce than ever before. Managing the youngest generation will be challenging for managers in all age ranges from Baby Boomers and Generation X to younger Millennial executives. Although somewhat similar to Millennials, Generation Z presents its own set of challenges as well. If you thought Millennials were adept at integrating technological advances into their lives, wait until you have Generation Z employees on the payroll.
Having grown up with social media and mobile technologies, Generation Z employees are lightning fast at adapting to technological changes. They also were born to multi-task. At the same time, they have less of an ability to keep focused on a single task, and they can be easily distracted. Thus, Generation Z employees demand effective onboarding strategies to make sure they are aware of what is expected of them. Every expectation needs to be made crystal clear for Generation Z.
At the same time, like the Millennials, Generation Z moves on when they lose faith in an employer. According to a recent Gallup workplace poll, 60% of Millennials say they’re always open to new job opportunities. The percentage is much higher when it comes to Generation Z. Although they thrive in the new gig economy, they also can be managed in such a way that they become loyal to their current employer. Once Generation Z employees become personally invested in their jobs, they quickly evolve into valuable employees. For example, the branding of company culture and the institution of training and development opportunities foster true loyalty in Generation Z employees and Millennials as well.
2019 HR Trends = Future Success
By paying attention to the latest HR trends in 2019 and beyond, you can help pave the way to future success for your company. Soteria HR can help with tailored HR consulting options that support your company.
