HR Trends for The Next Decade

For decades, HR employees have been seen as diligent paper pushers.  Business owners tended to view them as that quiet group in the back who reviewed resumes and scolded people when they broke the rules. 

Times, as they say, they are a’changing, and HR is growing up. Now, they’re much more people focused than paper focused, and in the years ahead, time and technology will bring about tremendous changes to an already dynamic and growing field. Here’s a quick look at what lies ahead:

HR trends for 2020 and Beyond

HR will be Advisory

Increasingly, HR professionals are losing their reputation as scolds, and becoming more like career coaches for employees, guiding them on their path of development and turning employees with promise and potential into rock stars for the companies they serve.  This trend is bound to continue over time.

HR will Explore and Expand Benefits

HR employees have their finger on the pulse of the industry and stay abreast of what other companies are doing and offering where benefits are concerned.  In the olden days, a company could get away with offering a steady paycheck and health insurance but today’s employees expect much more than that. 

With the unemployment rate near historic lows, companies are having to think outside the box in order to attract and retain top-tier talent.  With few exceptions, that out of the box thinking is coming from the HR departments of companies around the nation.

It’s not enough though, to merely come up with new and enticing benefits to draw prospective employees in.  That won’t work unless the employees you’re hoping to attract are actually aware of the benefits, which means that marketing is an increasing part of an HR department’s job.

HR Compliance is Always Changing

With marked changes to what employees are looking for and the steady drumbeat of new worker-related legislation coming down from Congress, it’s more important than ever that every member of an HR department be up to speed on what the latest changes are and how those changes impact the company they serve from a compliance perspective.

HR Certifications will be a Becessity

Finally, all of the changes described above are being studied, codified and ultimately, HR staff’s understanding of those changes is being quantified.  One way this is being expressed is in the growing number of HR-related certifications employees can get which demonstrate their mastery over the growing number of disciplines that are coalescing under the umbrella of HR.  Wise is the HR employee who is proactive on this front and keeps his or her resume up to date with a growing collection of relevant HR certifications.

The pace of change is increasing everywhere in business but there are few areas of any company that are changing faster than HR.  As a discipline, Human Resources is undergoing a profound transformation that’s being driven by a number of factors including a changing workforce, maturing technology and evolving business needs.

In the years ahead, we can expect to see HR become increasingly driven by data and analytics and playing a much more proactive role in shaping the future leaders of a company.  In short, it’s an amazing time to be working in HR.