LES_RH – JOBSFERIC

Rising Employee Engagement

Studying and prioritizing engagement grew in popularity in the 1990s when workers were classi ed as at-will employees. This made it easier to let go of employees, but it was a knife that cut both ways. While companies could more easily reduce their head count in tough times, employees were inspired to gure out what made them happy and motivated. This led to companies trying to de ne and build their own culture as
a way of inspiring worker productivity by making their jobs feel less like work. The result was more proactive recruiting of workers who ‘ t the mold,’ investments in stronger workforce management tools, and supportive of ce cultures that empowered employees to contribute in newer, more creative ways.

One example is the flattening of hierarchies. Employees who have The Next Big Idea are more inspired to create and share when they are the ones who can pitch it and take ownership of it. Another engagement strategy is making performance management a continuous process that delivers real-time feedback, rather than waiting until the end of the year, to ensure that the evolving mutual goals of workers and companies are more easily met.

Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics helps companies make smarter, more-data driven decision on everything from recruiting to business strategy, but this growing science is not without its challenges. Reviewing a candidate’s work history, for example, may be too small of a sample size to draw meaningful conclusions. Also, analytics can sometimes create bias and affect how a new hire is treated. If they’re hired, despite a history of short job tenures, stakeholders may be less inclined to give them a long term project since the analytics says they may not stick around for the completion of it. This would prevent that employee from building their competencies.

To better leverage the capabilities of predictive analytics, create a multi-disciplinary team that not only collects and interprets data, but also works with company leadership to gure out how they can address the results in a way that drives productivity and leads to stronger bottom line performance. Invest in a more mature set of analytics tools,
and look for one that is close to being ready “out of the box.” You don’t want a tool that requires an immediate series of upgrades and patches before it works.

Diversity & Inclusion

While these aren’t trends, per se, the technologies previously discussed should be used to build an environment that prioritizes both elements. Diversity challenges peoples’ thinking, while inclusiveness of ideas and backgrounds should be one aspect of your overall culture. The best-performing companies score very high on both metrics because employees can feel comfortable with who they are, which fosters openness, productive exchanges of meaningful ideas, and most importantly, innovation. The end result is increased agility in responding to marketplace demands, and high levels of employee engagement because they know their contributions will be taken seriously.