3 Business Trends that will Impact Human Resources in 2016

As 2015 comes to a close, it’s time to focus on what we think are the hot topics for 2016. Whether you call them predictions, prognostications, or whatever, senior management wants to know where human resources should be spending their time. It drives strategy, goals and budgets.

Here are three areas that I believe HR will be focused on in the year to come.

1.       2016 elections. And not just the high-profile Presidential one. Regardless of your political party, there’s the potential for some significant changes as a result of our next election. It will impact people on an individual level as well as our organizations. HR professionals will want to pay attention to what’s happening on a local, state and federal level. Understand the issues and how it can impact employee recruiting, engagement and retention.

2.       The employee experience. Speaking of recruiting and retention, organizations are very focused on identifying and hiring the right talent – which is good, we need to do that. But there’s more to the employee experience that just hiring the right candidate. Organizations need to have competitive onboarding programs and professional development opportunities. The last thing anyone wants is to spend a lot of organizational resources hiring someone only to have them quit a few months later.

3.       A resurgence in social media. The competition for talent I mentioned in number two is going to create a need for HR departments to revisit their current social media strategies. Technology is very dynamic and companies are going to experiment with platforms to see what’s new and whether they are worth dedicating resources. There’s are dozens of smaller social platforms with a very devoted following that could prove valuable for niche recruiting.

I suspect that some HR departments are already having some conversations about these topics. The government might make some legislative changes with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) in 2016. Recruiting is getting tougher as evidenced by an increase in time to fill metrics. And an increasing number of job seekers are looking to technology to help with their careers.

As HR pros, we will be responsible for not only monitoring these individual topics (plus a few more!) but exploring any potential relationship between them. Nothing is ever as simple and one dimensional as it seems.

What’s on your agenda for 2016?