Ask The Industry: HR Predictions For 2019

See what 15+ HR professionals have to say

2018 was an interesting year for human resources and benefits administration. Several new and exciting trends emerged while technology continued to grow in the areas of artificial intelligence, decision support and more. What do these changes and trends mean for HR professionals and teams in 2019? 

 

In this edition of ‘Ask The Industry’, we spoke with HR experts from across the nation on what their top predictions are for the upcoming year. Here’s what they had to say…
   
“HR professionals should be paying attention to the trend of remote workers. There are more workers wanting to work from home or a shared workspace. Employers need to be thinking about how their policies address confidentiality when a worker is sharing a workspace with others. Also, working remotely can create wage and hour issues, as well as workers compensation questions.”
 
“Artificial intelligence is going to take over – Robotics and AI are opening up new doors for HR. There is software that can now identify gender, identify mood based on voices, and identify education level based on decoding video interviews. Artificial intelligence can also tell if a person is lying and assess their cognitive ability based on the video interview.”
 
“Full 365-day support will help to demystify benefits. Open enrollment season will come and go, but this no longer means that conversations around benefits will stop, and it’s critical that consumers truly understand the value of each type of benefit account.”
“In 2019, we’ll see personalized engagement become even more precise, with wellness programs that take individuals’ data and present care, coaching, and health and wellness recommendations that precisely address their set of conditions and their lifestyle. Instead of offering a canned set of content that fits a broad solution to a health symptom, it is important to understand the individual and their specific motivations, with solutions that are particular to their lifestyle in small, manageable steps.”
“One trend I see increasing is the addition of student loan repayments to employee benefits. My clients tend to be on a smaller scale, so not all can afford to match large firm salary packages. What they do instead is offer a benefit that many workers struggle to balance: student debt and retirement planning. One of my client’s companies, to help employees plan and encourage debt relief, employees who contributed at least 0.5% of their salary to debt relief would receive a 2% match in their retirement plan, in addition to an already existing retirement matching plan. I think we will see the increase of such nontraditional benefits in 2019.”
 
“Anonymous reporting technology gives employees the power to speak up and ask for help with issues like sexual harassment without any fear of reprisal. More and more companies are taking a proactive approach to empower employees in the workplace so they can be more productive, safer and happier — and mobile application technologies are quickly becoming a solution of choice to power opportunities and solve problems.”
 
“The employee’s share of health insurance continues to rise in 2019, which is pushing employers to offer alternate options. High-deductible health plans and telemedicine options are becoming more popular with large employers. Employees want to be able to choose plans that work for their lifestyle and financial fitness.”
 
 “Employee relations will be an area of significant growth in 2019 with 43% of organizations we recently surveyed expected to increase the number of full-time employee relations professionals. No doubt, this, at least in part, reflects the widespread increase in the number of issues related to #MeToo over the past 18 months and the toll it is already taking on internal resources. The professionals we spoke to repeatedly cited caseload volume as one of their biggest challenges, so adding team members may help prevent burn out.”
 
“More companies will offer service-based benefits, such as a subscription to LifeLock, or other internet security/identity security programs. I also predict that companies will offer programs that encourage employee retention, such as cross-training and job shadowing, so their younger employees won’t feel the need to leave the company in a year or two after being hired.”
“More employees are seeking companies who offer total rewards programs that support a healthier lifestyle. At Solutran, we offer instant-gratification healthy eating incentives like Healthy Savings to help our employees eat better and stay healthier. In addition, we’ve shifted our rewards spending away from giving gift cards to providing incentives and rewards that can be directed towards healthier products or away from unhealthy products, and allows us to retain unused funding and apply it to future rewards.”
 
Interactive Report: Full HR Trends Report