January 27, 2020

Earlier this month, the Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated released its annual predictions for the top trends that will impact the global workforce in the coming year. The following topics made it to the list:

• 1 | Holistic employee wellness takes center stage as total rewards strategies drive recruitment and retention in a tight economy. Competition for talent and demand from employees mean that global employers continue to offer innovative benefits that support employees inside and outside of work.  
• 2 | Modernizing and regulating paid time off, family leave and income stability will be hot button issues. The multigenerational workforce is asking for, and receiving, the time off they need to balance their personal and professional lives. Companies are increasing parental and other types of leave in order to comply with new regulations and to recruit and retain employees in countries with low unemployment.
• 3 | Guidelines, ground rules and guardrails: Handling political discourse, activism and the employer-employee relationship in divisive times. Employee activism and political turbulence have become business as usual. Companies are putting formalized D&I policies into place, and those that establish ground rules regarding civility and tolerance will be best suited to handle today’s realities.
• 4 | Alternative talent pools will fill the talent supply chain and help close the skills gap globally. Although unemployment rates in many countries are at record lows, there are unfilled jobs around the world that employers have been unable to fill. To do so, employers will need to consider non-traditional applicant pools, such as retirees, gig workers and others, as well as how to upskill existing employees to do different jobs.
• 5 | Practical artificial intelligence (AI) uses and access to data will narrow chasm between the HR ”haves” and ”have nots.: In 2020 the gap between large organizations that already have AI and other modern tools and those that do not will begin to close. Companies that want to automate processes like scheduling and shift swapping will have the tools to take baby steps to make these changes.

These predictions reflect much of what we are seeing among Business Group on Health member companies. Several years ago, leading companies began making the shift from a focus on physical wellness to one that also reflects the many facets of an employees’ lives, such as social connectedness, job satisfaction, financial security and emotional health. In fact, 75% of employers plan to expand their well-being offerings over the next 3-5 years. Employers are also expanding or implementing maternity, paternity and parental leave policies and are considering other benefits like caregiving leave and sabbaticals. In fact, almost 20% of employers already have a global parental leave strategy in place.

For more information about these trending topics and others, please see:

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