HR Issues for 2015 Kim S. Aydlette State Human Resources Director
Governing: The State of Public Employment in 2014 • “[ T]here were three major issues facing state and local government employees across the country in 2014: 1. pensions, 2. health care, and 3. jobs. Kerrigan, H., “The State of Public Employment,” Governing (Dec. 18, 2014).
Governing: The State of Public Employment in 2014 • Pensions – States have a combined unfunded pension liability somewhere between $1 trillion (Pew Research Center) and upwards of $4 trillion (State Budget Solutions) – Illinois leads the nation as the worst funded pension at only 22 percent, closely followed by Connecticut (23 percent), Kentucky (24 percent), Alaska (25 percent) and Mississippi (27 percent – To shore up these funds, most states have sought to increase employee contributions and decrease or eliminate cost-of-living adjustments
Governing: The State of Public Employment in 2014 • Health Care – “A report by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that states pay around $25 billion a year in employee health care, which is approximately 3.4 percent of states' spending….” – States and localities tackled the issue this year in a variety of ways -- from instituting wellness programs (which many argue are ineffective) to making their employees pay more for health insurance.
Governing: The State of Public Employment in 2014 • Jobs – “In January, state and local governments shed 19,000 jobs; in September, they added 22,000; and in November, they only added 2,000 jobs.” – “Most of the hiring is happening in public safety and education; in fact, a majority of the November jobs are seasonal education employees.” – “…[T]he public sector (including the federal sector) needs to add 1.6 million jobs to reach pre-recession employment levels. But, excluding December, state and local governments added barely over 100,000 jobs in 2014.”
Forbes: “10 Workplace Trends For 2015” 1. Companies hiring Generation Z for internships. “Gen Z’s, born between 1994 and 2010, will become a major target for companies looking to recruit interns next year. The oldest Gen Z will be a senior in college in 2015. In addition, more companies are going to be recruiting high school students for their internship programs….”
Forbes: “10 Workplace Trends For 2015” 2. More millennials are taking leadership roles. “ A few years ago, PayScale.com and [Forbes] found that nearly 13% of all millennials in America were managers already. That number is expected to grow in 2015 as millennials become the largest percentage of the workforce for the very first time…The problem these new managers are having is that they are unprepared for the positions. They were never trained on how to be good managers and are being pushed into these roles out of necessity – companies are losing older workers and positions are opening up fast.”
Forbes: “10 Workplace Trends For 2015” 3. Honesty becomes a revered leadership trait. “Companies are going to start embracing transparency more next year as younger generations are demanding it. Leaders won’t just have to be good at inspiring and educating, they will have to be able to instill trust through honesty.”
Forbes: “10 Workplace Trends For 2015” 4. The skills gap continues to widen. “If you ask any HR executive what their biggest challenges are, the skills gap is typically unanimously noted…The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that there were 4.7 million job openings in June and more than half of employers say that they can’t find qualified candidates.”
Forbes: “10 Workplace Trends For 2015” 5. The continuous job search picks up. “Companies are going to have to deal with even more retention issues next year as job hopping picks up. Employees are undergoing a continuous job search and are never settling. This is happening because technology has enabled people to easily find new jobs and for recruiters to steal talent in numbers…The only thing that companies can do to increase retention rates is by creating a superior work culture where employees have friends, are engaged in their work and get perks.”
Forbes: “10 Workplace Trends For 2015” 6. Mobile hiring and the mobile job search explode. “Next year there will be an even greater emphasis on mobile recruiting. 83% of job seekers currently use smartphones to search for job openings yet only 20% of the Fortune 500 companies have a mobile friendly career site…Companies are going to have to start optimizing their websites and even creating mobile applications in order to appeal to the on the go job seeker.”
Forbes: “10 Workplace Trends For 2015” 7. Social media posts used to attract and retain talent. “We will start seeing more social media updates, and blog posts, from companies in 2015. In order to stand out as an employer, companies will need to start posting more work culture related posts and leveraging their employees to share them.…”
Forbes: “10 Workplace Trends For 2015” 8. Succession planning becomes a top priority. “There is no doubt that succession planning is going to be a major concern for companies starting next year as more boomers start to retire. One of the ways that companies are handling succession planning is to keep some workers on the payroll. About 65% of workers plan to work for pay in retirement….”
Forbes: “10 Workplace Trends For 2015” 9. Women continue to seize power positions in the workplace. “As more millennials occupy positions in the workplace, the wage gap will start to close. A study by Pew Research shows that millennial women are now earning 93 cents for every dollar earned by men. New research also shows that the top financially successful companies have 37% of their leaders as women and 12% are high-potential women.”
Forbes: “10 Workplace Trends For 2015” 10. More people stepping out of traditional career paths. “Every year we are going to see even more freelancers, both out of choice and out of necessity. Companies are looking to hire more temp workers and consultants because it’s cheaper and they don’t have to pay them benefits. Also, freelancing is seen as a more legitimate and obtainable career path these days due the Internet and the accessibility it’s given people….” Schawbel , Dan, “10 Workforce Trends For 2015,” http://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2014/10/29/the-top-10- workplace-trends-for-2015/ (10/29/2014).
Visier Predictions on 2015 Workforce Trends 1. Companies will double-down on retention and recruiting: In the improving economy, retention challenges will arise as workers become more confident in exploring new jobs…there will be increased competition for recruiting talent and vacancy rates will increase...HR will shift from reacting to hiring demands to proactively planning the workforce. HR will identify critical resources, forecast turnover, and develop more accurate hiring plans based on delivering talent for critical business strategies."
Visier Predictions on 2015 Workforce Trends 2. Organizations will move their focus from headcount to total workforce costs: “…organizations will increasingly seek to understand the complete picture of workforce costs...Organizations looking to optimize spending will perform more accurate, scenario- based workforce planning, and make decisions based on their actual Total Costs rather than simply looking at headcount."
Visier Predictions on 2015 Workforce Trends 3. Generational shifts will be an increasingly hot topic: “The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that by 2015, millennials will overtake the majority representation of the workforce, as Baby Boomers retire in greater and greater numbers…HR will face challenges of engaging and retaining newly hired Millennials, while also ensuring the knowledge and skills of retiring Baby Boomers are maintained."
Visier Predictions on 2015 Workforce Trends 4. Depth of insight into diversity will become more valued: “Empirical studies have shown that diverse organizations perform better than organizations that are largely homogeneous. Workforce Intelligence will play an important role in putting theory and ideas into action, enabling organizations to analyze diversity across topic areas such as recruitment, succession, promotions, and turnover, and understand how they compare against industry benchmarks."
Visier Predictions on 2015 Workforce Trends 5. From analyzing the past, to planning and predicting the future: “Reacting to past trends will not give the business the insight necessary to align and act. HR will look to more sophisticated workforce plans that incorporate data projections and increase workforce decision agility…[They] will also implement regular forecasting to ensure plans remain on track, that the business can react to changing needs, and that the business strategy is on track in people resources and costs.“ Baker, Pam, “HR's big data challenges for 2015 aren't what you think,” http://www.fiercebigdata.com/story/hrs-big-data-challenges-2015-arent-what-you-think/2014-09-30 (10/8/2014).
SHRM: Top Five Future HR Challenges 1. Managing Talent • Managing talent was defined as the means used to attract, recruit, retain, identify and develop high potential people. • This topic ranked as the most critical HR topic facing organizations in the future.
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