Looking back at 2017 it was a tumultuous year with political upheaval from Trump, Kim Jong Un, Robert Mugabe and closer to home the Brexit negotiations. We have witnessed tragedy with Grenfell Tower and the horror of terror attacks at home in the UK and across the globe.
Large compliance projects for data protection and gender pay gap reporting dominated the HR agenda in 2017. Looking ahead to 2018, we look at some of the workplace trends that we think will dominate this year.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance
With the EU GDPR coming into force in May this year, the scope of the changes under new regulation means that preparing for it will be a high priority for employers. It will overhaul how businesses process and handle data. Employers should be carrying out audits of employee personal data that they collect and process, to ensure that it meets GDPR conditions for employee consent.
New governance and record keeping requirements, mean that employers will have to create or amend policies and processes on privacy notices, data breach responses and subject access requests.
Organisations that aren’t compliant by May 2018 risk fines of up to 20 million euros, or 4% of annual worldwide turnover, whichever is higher.
Brexit
Preparing for Brexit and keeping abreast of the negotiations will continue to dominate in 2018. For organisations this will mean preparing for customs, redrawing contracts, developing contingency plans, examining supply chains and being clear on the employment status of your employees, for example ensuring immigration work permits are in place.
Diversity
Another big issue that will continue to dominate from last year is diversity in the workplace. Gender pay gap reached elevated levels of scrutiny in 2017. All sectors with 250 or more employees will be required to publish gender pay gap information. Employers will be obliged to release information relating to employee pay and bonus pay, as well as information on the number of men and women in each quartile of the organisation’s pay distribution.
Regulations for the private and voluntary sector are still in draft form, the deadline for the first report is expected to be at the beginning of April 2018. Reporting requirements in the public sector are expected to mirror the private sector requirements.
With growing multigenerational workforces, organisations need to prepare for the impact this will have on the workplace. For example with an aging workforce, people are now living longer and retiring later, making it harder for younger generations to reach leadership positions as older generations remain in these roles for longer.
Many organisations are actively looking to create employee resource groups to support all types of diversity, which promote positive aspects of a varied employee workforce.
Flexible and connected working
Remote working and flexibility will continue to be important to today’s workforce, and organisations that offer this will attract and retain the best talent. Whilst offering flexible working is essential, we believe forward thinking companies will also be encouraging workers back to the workplace for more human interaction, helping people to feel connected to work. Getting the balance right between remote working and feeling connected, is important in creating a good work-life balance and promoting workers wellbeing.
Artificial intelligence (AI)
We will increasingly see AI in the workplace, impacting on our current processes and the way we work. In our personal lives many of us will have already interacted with chatbots, (these are automated, personalised conversations between software and human users, for example when we are booking travel online or using other online service websites). There are concerns that AI will replace people, HR leaders see it as a way of supporting rather than replacing HR. It can be used to streamline and automate tasks, for example in recruitment, helping in the screening process and onboarding new recruits.
Politics looks to continue to dominate the world stage this year, and UK organisations are going to have to keep abreast of all the upcoming changes as a result of Brexit and GDPR compliance. Embracing both technological advances and a diverse workforce, as well as offering flexible working will be key to an organisations success.
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