Employment trends

With the summer holidays having done their dash, most of us are quite ready to settle back into a routine again, a routine that will allow us to go for and achieve our goals.

A big contributor to achieving goals is understanding the “now” environment in which we operate. HR-wise, we have identified some key employment trends for 2017.

1. People Focus Rises to the Top.  Organisations will increasingly become more people focused with the competition for top and high performing people increasing. Organisations both want and need to have the best people in their fields working for them to succeed in a highly competitive, global world. Allied to this will be the long awaited and hard fought for recognition that HR has a leadership, not just a supportive, role in organisations.
2. Technology Invades. The traditional HR space has, in recent years, been invaded by technology and this will continue to happen as technology evolves and as HR professionals come to grips with how best to apply and combine these technologies with relationship management in their workplaces to help steer performance to higher levels.
3. An Employee Experience that matches the Employment Brand. The relationship between what employees actually experience at work and what the employment brand presents, will increasingly take centre stage. Employers will need to work hard to deliver an on-going positive experience for employees that both confirms the employment brand as genuine and also attracts top people into their organisations.
4. Performance Management will be more continuous and more frequent. Regular, ongoing one-on-one discussions will become more prevalent to guide performance. Performance Appraisals will still have a place, but will increasingly play the part of a “stand back” development review.
5. Flexible options will continue to gain momentum for employees . As flexibility becomes entrenched as a way of working, allowing for a work/life balance, more flexible workplaces will increasingly become the norm.
6. Open Plans will be challenged .The love affair with open plan offices will start to wane and a “one size fits all” approach will lose ground. Offices will emerge that are more of an amalgam of open and partitioned styles to suit individual and team preferences.
7. Creating a Culture of Care. Creating Wellness and Wellbeing programs will become an imperative for employers as employees increasingly expect to be working in an environment that genuinely cares for them. What can demonstrate valuing your individual team members more than looking after their personal wellbeing?
8. Workplaces Pro-actively taking action to Save the Environment .The smartest organisations will clearly see the global environmental wave that is fast gaining momentum. Progressive employers will understand that the welfare of their employees is inextricably linked to the health of the planet. With the coalescence of life at and outside of work, many employees already have expectations that their employers be pro-active and take innovative action to make a contribution to a healthier and more sustainable future.

These trends will unfold, some quickly and some more slowly. Is your approach to your people changing and evolving to meet the times and their expectations of you as an employer? Everyone likes working for a progressive organisation that is moving forward.

Please contact us on 445-1077 to discuss any of these employment trends.