Nine emerging HR trends for 2015

The HR Trend Institute distinguishes eight trends influencing the domain of organisations and people in organisations.
The table below gives an overview of the eight trend areas.

Looking at the trends and following developments in the market, I tried to capture some of the emerging HR trends for 2015.

1. No more performance reviews
   Finally organisations are sensing that they have wasted an enormous amount of time, money and effort on a process that will never work properly. No more sophisticated performance review forms and no more ludicrous performance scales. In a company I worked for the rating scale was: poor/good/very good/excellent. This was the result of negotiations with the workers council, and this was a way to secure that most of the people were rated at least ‘good’.
   Read a nice article by Josh Bersin: The myth of the bell curve.
   Question: are you abolishing your performance reviews?
2. The org chart is fading away
   This is partly wishful thinking from my side, but there are weak signals that the org chart is fading away. More and more graduates are recruited mainly looking at the fit between the values of the graduate and the company, and less if the graduate fits in a specific starting position. As the flexible workforce is growing, less and less people can be captured in the traditional org chart.
   Question: do you still have org charts in your organisation? To what extend do they reflect reality?
3. Privacy seems to be less of an issue
   New generations of ‘people trackers’, far beyond time tracking, are emerging. This week I heard about an experiment where a company is trying to detect the emotions of people who call a call center by analysing the tone of their voice. In this way you can detect people who are really angry or disappointed, and switch these callers to your most capable call center staff.
   Question: do you also have the feeling people consider privacy to be less of an issue?
4. The sharing economy is also entering organisational life
   Sharing cars, sharing houses and sharing garden equipment is getting more usual. The possibilities for organisations are big, and this will take off in 2015. Who needs 100% of the office space 24/7? What are the trucks doing in the weekend? What percentage of their time are super technical specialists really working at full capability?
   Question: can you think about other elements you would be willing to share?
5. Mobile/ Mobile/ Mobile
   Also in the HR domain mobile solutions will become more and more the standard. The smartphone is essential equipment for almost all employees. Today it is all about apps, the future will probably offer a more integrated user experience. It is not only smartphones, but also virtual reality tools (as Oculus Rift) will enter the workplace.
   Question: are your HR solutions assessable via smart phones? Are you considering to use virtual reality tools, e.g. for training?
6. Real time succession management
   Technology and the smart use of HR analytics enable a far more effective succession management. In the past the succession management process was too slow, too late and too limited. If you need good connectors to implement the strategy of your organisations, it is not very helpful to ask senior management: “Who are the good connectors in your business unit?”. The line of sight of senior management is too limited, and it takes too much time to gather the information anyway. You better analyse the data you have, and look for certain patterns to detect possible good connectors. A social network analysis, for example, can be very revealing.
   Question: have you started renewing your succession management process?
7. Robots in the boardroom
   Robots are not just for manufacturing. The first robots have entered the boardroom, and this trend will continue. It can be very helpful to have a member in your team who does not have emotions, who has a very good memory and who can analyse internal and external data very quickly. And a robot you can always shut off (I hope…).
   Question: who in your boardroom do you want to replace by a robot?
8. The end of Powerpoint
   Who likes if when a presenter enters the room and it turns out she or he is going to present a large number of slides to illustrate the presentation? Hardly anybody likes this, only the people who have more work to do and who can process some e-mails while the presentation is dragging on. 2015 can be the year that the storytelling skills are really used and that stories can be told with just a few good visuals and not a large Powerpoint pack.
   Question: are you also fed up with Powerpoint and are you taking measures to promote alternatives?
9. Community management as a recruitment tool
   Recruitment has to make the shift from reactive to proactive. The practice to create communities around your organisation, a kind of “fan clubs”, is growing. The communities are connected to your organisations and through the community you can give people a real experience of what it means to be part of your organisation. When opportunities occur, candidates from the communities can very organically become part of your organisation.
   Question: are you creating communities around your organisation with recruitment in mind?

This article was also published on the website of the HR Trend Institute.

About the author: Tom Haak is the founder and director of the HR Trend Institute (http://hrtrendinstitute.com). Prior to founding the HR Trend Institute in 2014, Tom held senior HR positions in companies as ARCADIS, Aon, KPMG and Philips.

The HR Trend Institute detects, follows and encourages smart and creative use of trends in the field of people and organisations, and also in adjacent areas.
Tom has a keen interest in organisations and service providers that use trends in a creative and innovative way. He advices organizations on how to get more focus in their HR interventions and how use trends to increase the impact of HR.

He can be followed on Twitter (@tomwhaak and @hrtrendinst) and on Instagram @tomwhaak.
The HR Trend Institute also has a Pinterest page.

Subscribe for the best of HR Management direct to your inbox: