Welcome to our HR trends for 2018. The tide is well and truly turning on employee data. A few years ago we were trying to collect any information about employees to inform CPD, wellbeing and future planning. The answer to a successful business was really getting to know your staff and their needs. Suddenly it seemed to all become a bit Big Brother and data privacy is now the overriding trend. With the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, we can all expect employees to be extra cautious of what might be viewed as unnecessary intrusion.
GDPR
Across Europe the General Data Protection Regulations are coming into force on 25th May 2018. The principle behind GDPR is giving control of personal data back to the individual. Tick box consent is out, corporate accountability is in. Every piece of personal data held needs to have legitimate grounds for collection, have a traceable source and be securely stored. Special categories of data, those often collected during equal opportunities monitoring, must have additional safeguards. It all fits in with a minimalist approach to data collection and will likely be setting the benchmark for international data protection.
Blind Hiring
We’ve heard about blind hiring for quite a while now but it’s application in major corporations seems to be finally taking off. Designed to remove bias based on gender and ethnicity, blind hiring involves the removal of any clues from CVs. Blind hiring good practice also includes writing job descriptions likely to appeal to male and female candidates equally. For example using words that emphasize the competitive nature of the person required – ambitious, driven, high-achiever – are more likely to attract male applicants. SuccessFactors have developed tools to alert users to the potential bias within a process and where SAP leads……
AI
It appears every year in HR trends but it remains one of the key topics in the sector. Again opinions are taking a more ‘human’ approach to what could be the biggest shake up human lifestyles. The corporate fat cats, desperate to increase productivity and lower the wage bill, have realised, along with the rest of us, that we need people in work so they can consume products. A high tech factory producing products the destitute population can’t afford is not really a sustainable future. So what is the future? That’s what we’re all trying to work out but identifying the essential ‘human’ resources is key. Tech consultants may well have to diversify their skills but replacement by robots is only part of the story.