In 2020, HR must retire legacy approaches to workforce management in favor of the New Work model. We share six tips to reimagine workforce management in 2020 and tech solutions to help you on this journey.
Workforce management 2020 will involve more than making schedules, tracking productivity, and meeting your people’s key performance indicators (KPIs). It’s time for HR to pivot in an employee-centric direction, delivering superior experiences that add value to a company’s most precious asset – its people.
So, how is workforce management poised to change in 2020? And, how can HR leaders adapt to these changes? We spoke to Carley Childress, CEO of the employee engagement platform MacorvaOpens a new window , to delve deeper into this question.
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How Can You Realign Workforce Management for 2020? 6 Pro Tips
The most significant shift is probably the absence of a single owner for workforce management. In 2020, it’s not just the regional HR head, team leader, or business unit manager who will oversee employees and their performance. You can expect a more collaborative network of stakeholders, where every opinion will contribute to key tasks like performance management, scheduling, payroll, and so on.
“Heading into 2020, it’s time for single voice management to change,†says Childress. “Most companies don’t have a workforce that matches what it was 50 years ago.â€
Here are six ways you can let go of legacy workforce management models and prepare for 2020.
1. Equip your managers for the requirements of “New Workâ€
2020 is poised to be the year of New WorkOpens a new window . According to this philosophy, the 9-to-5 in-office model will be replaced by more flexible employee experiences. Several trends have brought this on, including the scattering of corporate workforces across multiple locations.
“Companies were mostly local and centralized,†explains Childress. “Now the blended workforce of remote, mobile and gig employees has caused a shift. Yet in most instances, still only one manager is responsible for an employee’s growth and development. These managers don’t typically have full visibility into what employees are doing every day.â€
To equip your managers for New Work, explore cutting-edge solutions and technologies. Consider, for instance, AI-enabled performance feedback mechanismsOpens a new window that can make managers better at their jobs. Yva.aiOpens a new window is a useful tool that uses AI to give managers predictive insights for effective workforce management.
2. Say goodbye to linear performance management models
Increasingly, performance management has become more regularOpens a new window , taking the place of annual, appraisal-led models. In 2020, you can look forward to non-linear performance management, where continuous feedback from multiple sources goes into the evaluation of an employee’s performance.
“Managers need to be able to see an employee’s entire impact, and that must come from stakeholders outside of the direct line of management. An employee’s performance, successes, and constructive criticism will need to be multidirectional, and good managers will take the time to gather this feedback from all sides,†says Childress.
Invest in a cutting-edge, collaborative performance managementOpens a new window tool like LatticeOpens a new window in 2020. Its review feature can incorporate feedback from 360-degree stakeholders, including reviews from managers, peers, and self-reviews.
3. Prepare to go from remote work to hybrid work
The term “remote work†probably conjures up an image of an employee sitting with a laptop working in isolation. This is poised to change in 2020 – remote workforce management will take on a hybrid dimension with employees regularly dropping into the physical office for a quick check-in.
“It’s critical for managers to create specific times for remote employees to come to them. Leaders should allow the employee to create the meeting agenda to focus on their needs and priorities,†mentions Childress.
In situations where physical meetups aren’t possible, platforms like MeetinVR Opens a new window could make a difference. Still, in its early stages of development, the platform allows employees and managers to meet in a virtual environment, share a 3-D simulation of their files, and interact face-to-face (virtually).
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4. Test if employees can get more done in less time
Workforce management 2020 will be all about shrinking workweeks and workdays. Unnecessary meetings, prolonged breaks, and other factors that hinder productivity will be on their way out. Instead, employees will have more room for work-life balance, improving their satisfaction with the job.
To make this happen, you need a powerful time and productivity measurement tool like TimeneyeOpens a new window that tests if employees can get the same amount of work done in less time. For example, Microsoft Japan boosted productivity by 39.9% after switching a four-day workweekOpens a new window .
Finally, review the impact of such policies on the employee experience via feedback. Childress tells us, “Another area of impact in 2020 is the continued improvement of work/life balance and employee experience. Without a process to gather employee feedback, managers won’t have any indication of true employee experience.â€
5. Make employee experiences as delightful as customer experiences
Companies carefully consider every element of the customer experience, right from customer interactions and support services to content and communication. Workforce management 2020 will see the same principles being applied to employees as well. The days of multi-page surveys, requiring employees to respond mandatorily, are now over. Instead, pulse surveys and feedback tools embedded in workflows will help to gather data on employee sentiment.
Childress affirms the need to put employee experience on the same pedestal as the customer experience. “Many companies are laser-focused on customer relationships, but if they don’t start to prioritize employee relationships, performance will suffer. New platforms that enable open feedback across all roles, departments, and seniority levels can be much better at indicating the nature of employee relationships.â€
Once you have a clear understanding of employee relationships, you can start designing experiences geared for specific employee personasOpens a new window . Try out SmaplyOpens a new window , a journey-mapping platform designed for stakeholder experiences. You can apply it for workforce management in 2020 and proactively work on enriching experiences across every touchpoint on the employee journey.
6. Plot a detailed organizational chart, and take it from there
This will be a staple for workforce management in 2020. Dynamic organizational chartsOpens a new window can help to plot multiple relationships and dependencies across your workforce. This gives visibility into future needs.
Do you need to hire? Are there cross-disciplinary competencies that could be utilized better? Is everyone communicating with each other?
“HR leaders should implement tech that provides them with a deeper knowledge of employee relationships across the workforce,†mentions Childress. “With increases in remote and mobile workforces, if employee relationships aren’t managed, those employees can feel isolated and disconnected from the team.â€
A platform like Pingboard Opens a new window can help to maintain a sense of interconnectedness as you scale your workforce in 2020. Pingboard creates an interactive organizational chart that’s ready for collaboration as well as integration with multiple other HR services.
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Keeping Up With a Changing Employment Landscape
Here’s the crux of it: the definition of employment and the employee is changing rapidly, and HR must keep up. Apart from primary benefits and job security, your employees want a sense of fulfillment, belonging, and purpose when they come to work every day. In 2020, workforce management will be shaped around these themes. With the right set of tools (and a future-ready mindset), you’re ready to take the bull by the horns and enhance workforce experience like never before.
Which one tactic would you recommend for workforce management professionals in 2020? Share your views with us on FacebookOpens a new window , LinkedInOpens a new window , or TwitterOpens a new window . We’d love to hear from you!