Top 10 Management Trends Of 2019

Increased focus on culture and people

In a FlexJobs survey, 84 percent of working parents said that work flexibility is the number one most important factor in a job, with the work-life balance a close second at 80 percent. In a Harvard Business Review study on flexibility in the modern workforce, 96 percent of the 1,583 professionals in the U.S. surveyed said that they need flexibility. Yet only 47 percent say that they have access to the types of flexibility they need — a gap of 54 percent. This gap is even more pronounced for women, only 34 percent of whom have access to the flexibility they need.
 

In this increasingly sparse labor market, we believe that companies will offer increased flexibility to their employees in 2019. These will come in the form of more remote work options, flexible work hours as well as paid time off.

We predicted this in 2018 and believe that continuous performance management will continue to grow as more and more companies abandon the annual performance review for regular feedback and coaching conversations with managers.
 
Millennials form a third of the American workforce and are expected to go up to half the workforce by 2020. This generation of workers demands regular feedback and open dialogue with their managers that lead to growth and development. According to a TriNet survey, 74 percent of millennials felt “in the dark” about how they’re performing at work and 40 percent said that the annual review is too vague to be helpful.

With the U.S. unemployment rate hovering at around 4 percent for most of 2018, the lowest it’s been in decades, finding, attracting and retaining talent has become even more challenging.
 
A study that surveyed job seekers, as well as HR professionals in the US, found that 83 percent of HR leaders believe "employee experience" is either important or very important to their organization’s success. In fact, 56 percent of them are investing more in training; 51 percent in improving workspaces; and 47 percent are giving more rewards.
 
A focus on employee experience will continue to gain ground with organizations, especially those tracking data points on how people work, make decisions, and organize their day. When employee turnover is high, organizational goals aren’t being met, and employee survey data indicate widespread dissatisfaction, that’s not an engagement issue, it’s all about poor employee experience.

According to Gallup, 87% of Millennials cite access to professional development and career growth opportunities as the most important factor in a job. Millennials are ambitious and hardworking and they want to constantly learn new skills and grow. However, traditional training doesn’t cut it for them. Micro-learning opportunities, which are short, informal, self-directed and mobile-optimized on single topics will pick-up in 2019. Mediums of delivery too will vary from videos, webinars, podcasts, or even games that provide learning materials in an easy-to-absorb format.

Periodic performance evaluations provide managers with a much-needed opportunity to review an employee’s progress on goals and the bigger picture of their career trajectory. Likewise, employee self-assessments provide key insights to the manager on what the employee thinks and perceives of himself/ herself. For the employee, self-reviews also help with the perception of fairness surrounding the entire performance evaluation process.
 
As self-evaluations continue to grow and become an intrinsic part of overall performance management, they will also continue to mature. Organizations that make it safe for employees to share candid feedback by setting the context of “conspiring for everyone’s success”, will encourage employees to be honest and vulnerable as well as ask pointed questions that encourage their own growth.

Technology can’t replace the human connection, but it does a great job of streamlining processes so that there’s more time for managers to make the most of face time.
 
For example, productivity and collaboration tools such as Slack, Zoom, and Asana enable increasing flexibility for workers who either telecommute or work flexible hours. In performance management, as employees expect regular feedback, technology tools can enable weekly or bi-weekly check-ins and help give structure to such meetings.
 
In 2019, use tech to keep accurate notes, set meeting agendas, track performance, and have fluid communication across the organization. Fill the space created by those software applications by improving your chops as a coach and mentor to employees.

2018 brought forth several workplace issues (#metoo, gender pay gap etc.) that showed us that even though some companies demonstrated increasing diversity in terms of workforce percentages, they weren’t necessarily exhibiting inclusion.
 
As our workforce continues to become more diverse - multi-generational, multicultural and multi-gender, fostering a culture of openness and inclusion needs to come from the top. CEOs can lead by example in 2019, by promoting a more open and acceptable culture, while continuously checking their individual biases in the workplace. Not only is this the right thing to do, but research has repeatedly shown that diverse teams perform better.

According to Gallup, only one in ten people have the talent to manage. Another two in ten people exhibit some characteristics of basic managerial talent and can function at a high level if their company develops them. Managers form the heart of an organization, pumping lifeblood into the organization with the teams they lead and inspire. If your managers aren’t good at “managing”, the company will eventually falter.
 
As more and more companies come to this realization, we expect them to only promote those people who have the desire and natural talents to manage others. We’ll see more investment in leadership training, and businesses who create extra-managerial tracks for advancement based on one’s skill-set as an individual contributor.

According to the famed 1992 Framingham Heart Study men who don’t take vacations increase their risk of heart attacks by 30 percent, and women increase theirs by 50 percent.
 
Of course, most organizations today understand the importance of vacation and give a certain number of paid leave days. Some even give unlimited paid vacation days. However, a Glassdoor report found that most people who receive paid time off only take about half (54%) of it. Fear is the overriding reason; fear that projects won’t get finished, that deadlines won’t get met, or that critical details on a release will be overlooked. Or worse, that the company will manage just fine without us and we’ll lose our jobs.
 
We believe that 2019 will see the rise of mandated paid time off. A recent study confirms that when employees took a week or more off for vacation, employee engagement increases and those people developed a stronger work ethic.

For years now, businesses have practiced “performance management”. That is, managers, focused on outcomes more than the drivers that produced those outcomes. While practices like setting objectives and tracking data on completing them is important, those practices must fit into a greater management methodology.
 
In 2019, managers will focus on the culture and support people in learning, developing, and evolving not just at work but as whole human beings. Today what organizations need most are people who are tapped into their greatest gifts and strengths, who are passionate, committed to the mission, loyal and who are able to express genius-level performance through their work. Finding and keeping those people requires creating workplaces that are psychologically safe, genuinely caring about people, and adopting an understanding that we are not fixed and have unlimited potential to grow if we are only given the space to do so.
 

David Hassell is a serial entrepreneur who is currently the CEO and co-founder of 15Five, a pioneer in the continuous performance management category. Connect David Hassell Visit www.15five.com Follow @15Five