With record low unemployment and competition for top talent at its peak, the 2019 workplace will experience its biggest shift yet as companies implement changes to attract and retain a younger workforce. Millennials now represent the largest generation of the U.S. labor force and are projected to make up 75 percent of the global workforce in 2025.¹ Humanity, a leading provider of cloud-based scheduling solutions for the enterprise, today identified the five key trends facing enterprise organizations in 2019 and the changes that should be considered as organizations plan for the year ahead.

“Managing a new demographic of younger employees and talent has never been more challenging than it is today,” said Chris Amani, CEO, Humanity. “Businesses now operate in an era where real-time is the de facto standard, information is expected to be a finger-swipe away, and both skilled and unskilled talent are incredibly difficult to find and retain. This human capital management sea-change across industries is driving the development and implementation of cloud-centric technologies that allow enterprises and SMBs to dramatically improve operations, expand employee communications and adapt to a younger workforce.”

Today’s workplace is set for dramatic transformation as human resource executives and HCM leaders seek to leverage analytics and adopt technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), cloud-centric solutions and chat bot tools to improve operations, communications and engagement with their employees. Humanity examined the current state of the human capital management market as it pertains to cloud-based employee scheduling software, services, and workforce analytics and has identified the top trends and challenges for 2019:

1. AI, BIG DATA AND THE FUTURE OF PREDICTIVE SCHEDULING – The progression of AI/machine learning and predictive capabilities is paving the way for a new era of automatic scheduling and staffing personalized for employee and organizational needs. For example, the future capability to predict staffing and scheduling needs based on sales analytics, employee skill sets, team productivity, and seasonal demand will have a profound impact on business efficiency and operations. And, looking ahead to the future, the ability to integrate personal schedules into workplace scheduling capabilities where employees could benefit from proactive notifications for PTO or warn managers of scheduling conflicts if a vacation, class, or doctor’s appointment was on the calendar. In addition, the integration of third-party applications like Waze Navigation could warn employees of commute time delays and provide push notifications to help team members get to scheduled shifts on time.
2. MOBILE, MOBILE, MOBILE – Younger people are mobile-first – bringing an expectation to the workplace that they will be able to work how, where and when they want and using the device they prefer. To successfully manage, engage with and retain today’s younger workforce, organizations need fully integrated mobile solutions that empower both managers and employees to manage their schedules, and provide and receive feedback from their mobile device.  Whether an hourly, project or shift-based workforce, and across industries – retail, healthcare, hospitality, education, and more – Humanity’s integrated mobile scheduling solution directly impacts organizational operations. Employees can check schedules, pick up shifts, communicate regarding sick time and family needs from their mobile device, and conversely managers can more effectively engage with teams, apply real-time changes and streamline overall operations.
3. MULTIPLE LAYERS OF COMPLIANCE – As state and local governments continue to add scheduling compliance guidelines, including Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requirements, organizations will seek and invest in technology solutions that assist in maintaining compliance. The Humanity platform features an advanced employee management engine, enabling managers and schedule professionals the ability to track and protect against potential compliance issues, including overtime limitations and staffing based on certification or skill set. This advanced layer of monitoring and control simultaneously empowers employees, managers and organizations to go beyond checking the box and work collaboratively to ensure the safety and readiness of the organization.
4. EASE OF INTEGRATION – Connecting disparate functions in human resources and business divisions can directly address the needs, capabilities, and flexibility employees expect from today’s real-time culture. Humanity syncs seamlessly with a range of business applications and core human capital management platforms to ensure a cohesive ecosystem for managers and employees. From hiring and adding employees, to augmenting job functions and locations, to tracking employee leave, Humanity directly connects to core HR functions and enables the direct flow of key business data to and from the platform eliminating the need for extensive development, duplicative data entry needs and IT support.
5. CHATBOTS AND HCM MANAGEMENT – In today’s real-time workplace culture, the ability to streamline communications and the dissemination of information to employees wherever they are is critical. From addressing common HR questions to policy changes and company-wide information distribution, chatbots enable organizations to ensure information is consistently and readily available to employees. When implemented correctly, Chatbots are a viable alternative for interaction with employees compared to complex enterprise tools and processes. In addition, they can be a helpful source of data for HCM leaders to track questions, needs and concerns of employees in an effort to enhance communications and ensure an organization is providing the resources and training needed.

To learn more about scheduling efficiencies and Humanity’s top trends in more detail, click here to download the full whitepaper.