HR is constantly evolving, with so many organizations constantly collecting data on employees’ activities and performance. What is found is that most of these trends involve data mining.
Based on research conducted by Hogan Assessments and the University College London, there are 5 significant trends that look very likely to shape how we assess employees within the HR field in 2018.
1. Gamification
Gamification is the application of gaming elements to improve elements such as user engagement and organizational productivity, which attempts to enhance the user experience at work, often with mobile-friendly solutions.
Hogan believes that the future is bright for gamification, where we would be able to mine data from video gamers who possess the necessary skills needed for specific jobs.
2. Social media analytics
Hogan finds that social media analytics are also improving by the day, and becoming more sophisticated in terms of what we can learn about candidates. Here a few ways it might work:
- Using digital activity to paint a clear picture of candidates, not only in terms of gender and age but moving even towards their alcohol or drug use.
- Using Facebook ‘likes’ and word usage to product key talent signals, such as a candidates cognitive ability or personality.
- Using Spotify to understand a candidate’s emotional stability.
- Using Amazon purchases to understand a candidate’s conscientiousness.
3. Performance management
Moving on, Hogan also finds that performance management is a trend to look out for, because of the fact we are in the era of the war on talent. Employees crave immediate, constant and constructive feedback on their performance.
With billions of pounds being lost to performance due to low engagement, Hogan believes that focus on performance management will become more and more intensified as personal development is not only important for the employee, but also for the organization.
There are plenty of online tools and apps for organizing employee feedback, performance reviews, goal management or surveys to measure the mood of your team.
4. Employee engagement
Research from Hogan identifies that employee engagement will have everything to do with an employee’s wellbeing. Thus, the role of an engagement manager will have to evolve.
For example, the role of an Employee Engagement Manager is starting to evolve, whose main tasks are to constantly analyze and monitor employee happiness through surveys and other data analytical tools, and carry out proactive actions based on these data.
They will need to maintain both an employees physical wellbeing, as well as their mental wellbeing, in order to sustain healthy engagement and overall performance.
5. Big data
With the potential to gather a large amount of the most accurate information on candidates and employees, people analytics. the usage of big data has evolved as the primary tool for HR professionals in almost every aspect of workforce planning.
Hogan report that the most advanced algorithms can not only mine and analyze data to make strategic personnel decisions, but also take it to a higher level by forecasting future actions.
HR decision makers can already merge these data into ‘relationship analytics’, and can analyze not only each individual’s activity but also team interactions and the functions of the whole organization.
With the help of such tools, HR professionals can predict crucial factors such as who will leave the company soon, who will work together most effectively or who will be the best candidate for the job. This vast knowledge doesn’t only determine the evolution of all the other HR trends but also leads to AI-driven HR processes.
