Chika Uwazie’s TalentBase: HR Trends to Watch Out for in 2018

When the story of 2017 is told, it might well be described as the year that saw job hunts take a totally new dimension and brands carve out a new marketing plan that actually included jobs more than it had previously. This begs the question, what will we talk about in 2018?

While certain things stood out in 2017, some things looked quite different at work and seemed like they will be the things that might create a better workplace. This means that some of the things we are about to mention might not be totally new to you, and most likely are happening already if you work in a fast paced environment.

More Jobs Structured Like Gigs
Today’s job demand market is completely skill based and luckily the talent supply is growing. What this means for recruitment is a move away from looking for people who want to stay for a long time, to finding those who can get the job done, fast.

Place the startup revolution side by side with the culture of working remotely and you will understand what we are talking about better. The startup environment is very fast-paced and things happen; maybe not at the speed of light, but really quickly. So most companies aren’t seeing the need for long term contracts anymore, neither are employees totally seeking job security the full nine yards. We might just transmit to a full scale skill market, where people treat jobs like gigs – go in, get things done and move on to the next job (with a higher pay in recognition of a good job from the previous one). It will be exciting to see what this means for freelancing sites.

Full Scale Digital
It has been a long time coming; and now employers probably have enough data to make that move. We don’t really seem to be searching for jobs in all the places where people used to go look for them. The most that happens these days is getting a picture of a newspaper ad on your smartphone or a recording of a TV ad which most likely aired on the brand’s social media channel too. So what’s going to happen in 2018? Organisations will most likely go 100% digital on their recruitment budget, focusing everything on social recruitment because of its efficiency and reach. By the end of 2018, we would made an invaluable disruption in the process of job hunts and brands will be driving it, not job seekers.

Outsourced Payroll
This is another part of HR that is probably going to get the ‘bot’ touch. If you are in HR, things like cloud storage, and automation don’t sound totally new to you, but this year, we expect more companies to make the decision to hand over their payroll management to the experts. Here is why: due to the changing nature of work, organisations are more focused on driving better employee experience, which means HR personnel will need to focus more engaging staff and trying to build stronger company culture while accounting functions of HR like payroll will be in the safe hands, even taking off the burden of requests and all other tasks that bots can lay their hands on. One more tip, this means all those bulky files leave the office and might open doors for full scale HR automation.

It will be exciting to see how these factors improve the workplace this year, and even more exciting to see how it improves your workplace. We still have some trends you need to look out for coming in the next part.