Anne Donovan, Tana Thomson, and Alishia Young give their top predictions for trends and buzzwords to expect in 2016:
What should small business owners focus on this year?
Anne: Give your managers tools and resources to be better managers. At the end of the day, the relationship between the manager and employee is what makes or breaks the employee’s experience. Managers need tools and resources to improve themselves, as their ability to perform their job as an effective manager will serve as a huge portion of an employee’s fulfillment and happiness in their job.
Studies go back years and years: in exit interviews it’s found again and again that people don’t quit companies, they quit managers.
Tana: HR is needed as a strategic partner to help drive organizational sustainability and growth. HR metrics and HRIS will continue to be important, even for small businesses. With HRIS, we can remove some of the tactical work with automation and improve efficiency allowing HR to focus on strategic people initiatives.
Alishia: Employee retention is key. We’re seeing a significant amount of money lost in turnover, and one of the major problems is the organizations culture. If we’re not focused on culture, employer branding, and supporting a work environment to promote creativity and a healthy work life balance, I think we’ll continue to see a lot of turnover.
What will be the HR buzzword or concept of 2016?
Anne: Development. Traditionally, when executives look at the top and bottom line, they see HR as a necessary evil. But what if HR could become extremely productive and help to move work through the pipeline? It’s not just about solving a problem and then moving on to the next one. It’s about solving a problem in a way that eliminates the problem in future.
Tana: Work-life flexibility. There will continue to be a shift to work/life integration supported by expanded flexibility in the workplace to stay competitive in attracting and retaining talent.
Alishia: Sustainability. Some organizations have started to invest in people and technology, or they have been for the last four or five years after coming out of a down economy. We’re now at a point where organizations have to see the returns on where they’ve invested.