Year end is often a time to reflect on what has been accomplished, and what is still left to be done upon entering the New Year. As we close out 2017, our team looks back with pride and excitement! Our Future Perfect events brought together over 200 People and Culture Leaders to discuss people challenges and the future of work. This was a year of opportunities for learning and growth, and we are so excited for what 2018 holds. We have compiled our top takeaways from 2017 with a focus on what we anticipate for 2018!
Employee Experience 
2017 was the year of the candidate experience, a topic we dove into at our second Future Perfect event, Humanizing the Candidate Experience. 2018 will be the year of the employee experience. Focus is shifting from the traditional lens of employee engagement to a more holistic approach of employee experience. The influence of millennials in the workplace continues to challenge employers to find new ways to keep employees happy and optimally productive.
Engagement starts even before an employee is hired. Finding new and innovative ways to develop an employee experience that resonates with your people will set you up for success. Develop a thoughtful candidate experience that progresses with intention into an employee experience program. Start by walking through your hiring process from the perspective of a job seeker – our free Candidate Experience Audit Tool can help to guide you through the process.
HR Technology
With the influence of cloud technology and SaaS, administrative HR processes are being automated and allowing us to dive deeper into employee analytics. These advancements in technology are also putting pressure on HR professionals to keep up with trends and overall tech literacy.
More than ever before HR professionals are wearing a Project Management hat as part of their role, helping to assess their organizations’ needs and identify the right technical solutions. Digitizing our processes act as a competitive advantage in talent pool management and are more attractive to the new coming generation of employees. Understanding and analyzing data to drive decision making will continue to be high-demand skills in 2018.
Flexible Work Environment
How people ‘consume’ work continues to change at a rapid rate. The influence of the tech industry and their progressive workplace practices has directly influenced the industries they interact with and serve.
Employees are looking for more flexibility than ever with hours, role, location and work-life integration. This is an opportunity for employers, especially those who can’t offer the same big flashy benefits as Apple and Google, to provide a future proof work environment that adds value to employees. At Envol, we have kept up with this trend by offering our employees benefits like flexible work hours and unlimited paid time off.
Employer Branding
British Columbia is currently experiencing our lowest unemployment rate since 2006 – great news for employees, but not so awesome for organizations looking to hire. With so many employment options available to job seekers, it is more important than ever for companies to set themselves apart through a strong, representative employee brand.
Find ways to uniquely identify yourself to your target market, and to connect with them through channels they regularly utilize. Understand what your ideal candidates value, and show how working for your company aligns with those values. We tackled Employer Brand head-on in 2017, hosting our first event Future Perfect: The Impact of Storytelling on the Future of Work and facilitating countless design thinking sessions on the topic. Start 2018 by assessing your organization’s employer brand with our free Employer Brand Audit Tool.
Continuous Feedback & Recognition 
Many companies are scrapping the old performance management system and moving towards a constant feedback model. Millennials who are entering the workforce value feedback and development opportunities.
They want to hear how they are doing on a regular basis, with real-time feedback. They value trust and transparency in both their personal and professional lives, and expect to be in the loop with their performance and organizational growth. Gone are the times of sitting down once a year to find out you are a 3/5. We recently implemented an employee recognition program called “The Golden Unicorn,” which promotes peer to peer and management recognition. Click here to learn more about our little golden friends.
2018 is going to be an exciting year for the world of HR, and we can’t wait to see what the future will bring for all of us. To celebrate the New Year, we are pleased to offer you a complementary Design Thinking Session! Dive deep into your organization to kick off 2018, focused on your Candidate Experience or your Employer Brand. Follow the link below and register by January 15th to be eligible for this free gift.
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