Trends in workforce management to expect next year

Technology and data will take on increasing importance in how companies manage their employees.

In the coming year, expect human capital management solutions to become more personalized to better serve users and improve their experiences. (Image: Shutterstock)

How will human capital management solutions change in 2020 to meet emerging workforce needs?

“The world of work has reached an inflection point, punctuated by a tight labor market and stabilizing wage growth,” says Don Weinstein, ADP’s corporate vice president, global product and technology.

“Amidst this landscape, we are seeing a business-critical convergence of technology and data in the workplace,” Weinstein says. “In 2020, companies will look to leverage customizable tech solutions that meet the needs of their organization, their teams and their workers to provide a more engaging and productive work environment.”

ADP predicts these five HCM trends will occur next year:

  1. As companies increasingly look to hire more highly specialized gig workers, returning workers and retirees to supplement in-house teams, HCM solutions will be re-architected to better support teamwork.
  2. HCM solutions will become more personalized to better serve users and improve their experiences. As such, more HCM functions will be placed on apps that have “consumer-grade” experiences far superior to “monolithic software” that is difficult to implement. To personalize the experience, apps will leverage emerging technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as natural language processing that allows for more conversational chatbots. Pay solutions will also become more personalized to enable workers to get paid “the way they want, anytime they want,” augmented by personalized, employer-driven financial wellness offerings will help workers manage their pay, savings and improve their financial well-being.
  3. Companies that have workers around the world logging into their HCM systems have to make sure they are compliant with all of the latest regulatory demands in each country where they operate. The increasing complexity of the regulatory landscape will require that HCM solutions localize compliance tools to better handle changing policies, regulations and laws at all levels.
  4. Predictive analytics within HCM solutions will become table stakes, providing more informed workforce insights such as overtime spikes, excessive turnover, labor costs and pay equity. Analytical tools will be further enhanced by AI, machine learning, serverless computing and 5G connectivity.
  5. More cloud-based HCM solutions will be introduced as more employers move their workloads to the cloud. ADP predicts that employers will prefer cloud-native platforms, as they eliminate maintenance windows, provide an open ecosystem approach and are easier to update and scale. Such platforms also require less technical fluency from users so they can tailor worker experiences and create their own workflows. The flexibility of cloud-native HCM platforms enables employers to create personalized solutions to fit their organization, and the adaptability of such solutions enables the platforms to effectively respond to the changing needs of each employer.

In addition to these five overarching trends, ADP has drilled down into several “vertical-specific” trends impacting the gig economy, accounting industry, franchise industry, benefits and brokers, among other trends.

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