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Trending 2012: What’s Up, What’s Down, What’s Out
By Linda Quigley
When you steal a glance at the trendspotter’s notebook (iPad, Tablet, coffee-stained napkin or whatever era the spotter represents), you get a great feeling about what you’re doing with HR.
− “The importance of globalization and integrating markets.” Of course, that’s a no-brainer.
− “The influence of new technologies, especially social networking and HR technologies.” Hey, I’m all over it.
− “The growing importance of demonstrating ethics and corporate social responsibility.” Check.
So 2012 has barely begun, and you can slap yourself on the back for your anticipation of the trends and their implementation. Then you see another annotation: SHRM, 2007.
But fast-forward five years from that date, and you’re not totally off base.
2012 will be “The Year of the Mobile Platform.” By the end of the year, “even the skeptics will have to admit that the mobile platform will have become the dominant communications and interaction platform by early-adopting best-practice organizations,” said Dr. John Sullivan, professor of management at San Francisco State University.
Sullivan noted that those who use smartphones and tablet devices have ever increasing capabilities — you’ve got multi-level “in” and “out” boxes in the palm of your hand to manage your professional life digitally.
Remote work changes everything in talent management. Sullivan pointed to the continued growth of technology, social media, and easy communications that now make it possible for most knowledge work and team activities to occur remotely. “Allowing top talent to work ‘wherever they want to work’ improves retention and makes recruiting dramatically easier.”
While 50 percent of many firms’ jobs can be done remotely, Sullivan said manager and HR resistance has limited the trend, but that is changing with their realization “that teamwork, learning, development, recruiting, and best-practice sharing can now successfully be accomplished using remote methods.”
Employees have expectations. “Ease of use will become more important to employees when it comes to HR technology solutions, “ the 2012 SHRM Trends Report tells us. The same is true for integration — employees want their interactions with HR departments to become a more integrated digital experience. They’re individuals and one-size fits-all solutions will decrease in popularity and effectiveness.
And the lists go on. Talent management will be a challenge because the workforce that survived the downturn has more options. On the other hand, a tighter budget means selectivity is key to hiring. Multicultural work environments call for greater awareness of diversity and inclusion. Problems with the healthcare system continue to motivate benefits managers to bring in workplace wellness programs and other options that don’t jack up costs and also improve productivity.
Yes, the future is in your face. It’s daunting in many ways, but it’s also exciting. And even if career transition is in your future, you won’t lose your job to a robot in 2012. Dr. Tracey Wilen-Daugenti, author and visiting scholar at Stanford University’s Media X Program, said that even though the value of professional service robots being used will grow to upwards of $15 billion through 2013. “We’re at the dawn of a new partnership with mechanical and software-based assistants, but a robot uprising is still the stuff of Hollywood,” she said.
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Linda Quigley, OI Partners Newsletter Editor, is an award-winning journalist who spent 30 years as a newspaper reporter and editor. She began her career in newspaper journalism in her hometown, Florence, Ala., in 1970, and finished it in 2000, after working 14 years as a features writer at The Tennessean in Nashville. She joined the journalism faculty at Belmont University where she serves as adviser to the student newspaper, the Belmont Vision, and teaches classes in writing and editing.
