During the last week of every year, I scout business articles and professional journals for next year’s workplace trends (so you don’t have to). Here are the three I found most interesting for 2017:
The blended workforce.
We are not talking about blended generations of millennials and boomers. We’re talking about the growing prevalence of the gig economy and how many companies (93% in this study) are seeing their full-time regular employees working alongside freelancers. What’s the most sought after skill for freelancers in the blended workforce? Not surprisingly, it’s teamwork. IMPLICATION: Employers should have a plan for “onboarding” gig-economy workers, to make them more effective, quicker. Working remotely, which many freelancer do also presents additional challenges. I recently worked successfully with someone from Bulgaria, and I can say that we definitely had to adjust our timing and expectations to our different time zones.
Yearly performance reviews morph into more frequent feedback.
Let’s face it, we have all become accustomed to immediate feedback, so employees today (not just millennials) want to know how they are doing more often than once a year. But the change is not just being driven by workers, it’s that annual reviews have also become less helpful and effective for companies. According to Forbes, GE, one of the largest companies in the world- has abolished their yearly review in favor of frequent feedback. They created “Touchpoints,” a new system where there is a “daily development focusing on results and changing business demands”.
IMPLICATION: You can expect a new generation of performance management tools to emerge and be available for smaller companies. These tools will likely expand the direction of the feedback to include not just top-down but also peer-to-peer feedback.
Augmented and virtual reality used in recruiting and training.
No longer exotic items, VR equipment and hardware can now be found at any big box electronics store. And the success of Pokémon the augmented reality app shows that people are ready to embrace this technology. Companies that are already incorporating it into recruiting include General Mills with a virtual reality tour of their offices and GE implementing VR at career fairs where students wear headsets to explore their oil-and-gas recovery machines.
IMPLICATION: Smaller companies may have to wait a bit to get into this trend, but it’s exciting to know it’s already out there.
Now, consider yourself “in the know”. Happy 2017.
©Copyright Eva Del Rio
Eva Del Rio is creator of HR Box™ – tools for small businesses and startups. Send questions to Eva@evadelrio.com
