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six workforce
trends
that will
dominate 2018.
human forward.as we close the
books on 2017,
it’s time to
prepare for 2018.
As a trusted staffing partner in the post-digital world, Randstad’s executives
from across a broad range of disciplines weighed in on six key trends that will
impact the workplace in 2018 — and beyond.
Randstad experts identified several age-old challenges in addition to
emerging trends among digital, artificial intelligence (AI) and all things data.
2money still talks — and employers
will finally start listening.
Wage stagnation has been rearing its ugly head
since the end of the Great Recession, leaving many
economists and business leaders wondering when
wage pressure will drive increases in compensation.
Nearly all Randstad executives agree that 2018 will
likely be the year that businesses will start paying up.
“Wage growth, while still rather anemic, will gain
momentum in 2018 due to the intense hunt for
talent,” said Jim Link, Randstad’s chief human
resources officer. “Those wishing to hire will need to
offer strong pay packages to attract the best talent.”
This is a greater reality for sectors that are having the
most difficulty securing hard-to-find talent, like IT.
“Many companies may not understand the impact
or the degree to which talent may cost them in
2018,” said Graig Paglieri, president of Randstad
Technologies and Engineering. “The war for talent has
driven up salaries and hiring managers need to weigh
the importance of the quality of a candidate versus
the cost to attain them.”
The slower pace of wage increases plaguing the
country’s labor market has allowed companies
to contain costs and regain capital — but the
honeymoon appears to be over. The increasing
turnover rates and recruiting difficulties for
companies can be directly attributed to the absence
of wage growth.
As Greg Dyer, president of Randstad’s Commercial
Staffing business, noted: “Some organizations have
yet to gain movement on wage inflation in order to
meet the continued pressure of finding the right
candidate for open positions. Companies that
continue to keep wages below market will struggle
with employee attraction and retention. It’s time to
realize that wages may win the people wars.”
3growing importance of Flexibility in an organization’s workforce
model will also remain critical to achieving
flexibility in the attraction business objectives in 2018. “There’s a
misconception that, in order to attract the
and selection process. best candidate, you must limit your search
Offering flexible work options will continue to hiring a full-time, permanent employee,”
to be table stakes for organizations seeking Paglieri said. “However, as we know from
a leg up on their competition in attracting our Workplace 2025 study, more companies
talent. Abundant research continues to are expanding their use of agile talent to
show today’s candidates want and expect fill one-time temporary resources, seasonal
the option to work from home, work part- staffing needs, or bringing in highly-
time or have access to flexible scheduling. specialized consultants to tackle critical
enterprise initiatives. The fact is, many
“If 2017 is any indicator of what’s to workers are seeking project or consultant-
come, we’ll see a more flexible work day/ based work, with as much as 61 percent
week coupled with a more relaxed work of the workforce choosing agile careers
environment,” Jodi Chavez, president of by 2019.”
Randstad Professionals.
And, as Greg Dyer pointed out, flexible work
For additional insight into building an agile workforce,
arrangements will also be on the top of read Randstad’s 5 Ways to Adapt Your HR Processes to the
many companies’ lists given the upside in Growing Agile Workforce and Demystifying the
engagement and the potential to lower real Future Workforce.
estate costs.
However, as we enter a new year, flexibility
will also be key in how hiring managers
and decision-makers approach the hiring
of talent. As talent pools become even
smaller in 2018 and the shortage of skilled
talent grows bigger, companies will need to
consider hiring for soft skills and culture fit
then upskilling for hard skills, or vice versa.
“Employers will need to become more
focused on training their existing or future
hires. The talent that exists doesn’t have
the depth of skills needed in many cases.
So, when they find the culture fit they are
looking for, it will be key to train those
candidates,” Chavez noted.
4upskilling will help solve “When you broaden the scope of STEM
to look at specific skills, and not jobs, the
the STEM skills gap. true scale of the skills gap becomes even
more evident,” Link said. “Upskilling your
The World Economic Forum report states
existing employees to address STEM skill
that by 2020, two million new jobs will be
deficiencies is beneficial on many levels.
added in STEM disciplines. Already facing
Tapping into your existing team means they
a shortage of these skills, companies will
already have knowledge and insight in to
need to upskill educated people to help
your organization, and have proven their
shore up these gaps.
value to the company.”
“High demand roles in STEM fields
Link suggested that upskilling effectively
will continue to be a primary focus for
means foregoing traditional, time-
employers in 2018,” Link noted. “Despite
consuming workshops or training sessions.
much of the conversation around STEM
Today’s workers prefer to learn any time,
focusing on high-level jobs that require
anywhere and on any device. Online
advanced degrees, mid-level STEM jobs
learning and gamification are two ways
like computer support specialists, web
companies can deliver valuable training in
developers and engineering technicians
the formats workers find most engaging.
are in highest demand. These are
vacancies that present a real opportunity
for employers to upskill workers in need of
For more resources for upskilling your workforce, consider
gainful employment.” Randstad’s 6 Questions to Start Positioning Your Skills
Development Culture to Compete. To learn more about
A common theme among both Randstad’s solving STEM challenges, download Randstad’s STEM
STEM research and our experts’ insight is research, Overcoming the Barriers to STEM.
the growing need to increase workers’ STEM
skills, regardless of a specific profession
or industry. In the U.S., 80 percent of the
fastest-growing jobs depend on a mastery
of mathematics and scientific knowledge
and skills.
5automation will help there’s room for these tools to evolve
with the end game being little distinction
humans — not replace them. between talking to a robot versus a human.
It’s also important to remember that, while
According to Randstad Sourceright’s 2017
bots may work to screen candidates, it
Talent Trends survey, a majority (84 percent)
would be very hard for a bot to assess
of C-suite executives and human capital
the cultural or non-technical traits a
leaders believe AI and robotics will have an
person brings to a company. Having said
impact on the workplace in the next three
that, the speed of innovation in AI and
to five years. And research firm IDC projects
machine learning is lightning fast, so more
the overall market for AI is expected to
sophisticated chatbots and machines will
cross $46 billion by the end of 2020.
keep you wondering if you are interacting
But despite fears that automation will take with a machine or a human.”
away jobs, the need for skilled humans to
Randstad experts also agree that increased
operate, use and advance technologies
use of AI and machine learning will create
will remain unequivocally necessary for
opportunities for workers, not take them
the foreseeable future. A recent report by
away, and we’ll soon see humans working
Forrester Research estimates that close to
alongside machines to improve operations
15 million new jobs will be created in the
and processes across the organization.
U.S. alone over the next decade as a result
of automation and smart machines. Overall, “Automation should be viewed as an
Randstad experts believe automation will enabler, not a detractor, for employees
impact the 2018 workplace in several ways and organizations,” Link said. “In fact,
and has the potential to unleash significant automation will create opportunities
benefits to efficiency and productivity as it for employees to be more effective and
continues to evolve. efficient in their current roles. If anything,
automation will highlight the need for
“From an automation and AI perspective,
stronger STEM knowledge within the
we’re still at the infancy stage,” said Alan
global workforce.”
Stukalsky, Randstad’s chief digital officer.
“There’s a lot of hype surrounding the
use of chatbots to deliver personalized For more insights into how employers and employees view
experiences online and to streamline parts automation, download Randstad Sourceright’s 2017 Talent
of the hiring cycle. However, I believe Trends Report or 5 Reasons Why Robots Will Not Take Over
Your HR and Recruiting Job.
6advancements in Within the technology and digital sectors,
soft skills play a slightly different role.
technology will drive According to Paglieri, “Many of our clients
are still largely focused on technical skills,
demand for soft skills. and in most cases, hard skills still trump soft
In 2018, HR leaders and hiring decision- skills. However, candidates who have both
makers will place greater emphasis on a the technical capabilities and effective soft
new range of soft skills that stand to be in skills go from being a B+ candidate to an A+
greater demand in an increasingly robotic candidate.”
world. However, several industries will rely
Stukalsky also noted that innovations
even more on finding hires with the right
in technology are freeing up workers to
blend of technical and soft skills.
take on more value-added and strategic
“Hard skill sets are critical for healthcare initiatives, which require advanced soft
jobs, but the soft skills are playing a skills and emotional intelligence (EQ).
bigger role as the industry adopts a value-
“When I look at our digital team, many
based care system,” said Abigail Tremble,
tasks that used to take a month now take
president of Randstad Healthcare. “The
days, so team members are freed up to
healthcare industry is becoming more of
build projects that have the most value. The
a service industry, particularly given the
EQ and relationship side of jobs is going
increase in patient access and choice.
to become more important as everyone
Given that, every job in the industry is
experiences gains in productivity through
a service job that requires a high level
technology.”
of interpersonal skills that make all the
difference in the patient experience.” Similarly, within the engineering sector,
technical expertise is a must, but soft skills
are becoming equally important.
“Communication skills, adaptability and
curiosity are essential in a highly innovative
field like engineering,” Paglieri said. “Given
that many engineers work on projects as
part of a team or with the end user, the
ability to understand and communicate
with others is critical. It’s also imperative
that engineers have the ability to adapt
and make adjustments quickly, which can
impact the launch date of a new project or
managing a major construction project.”
For more on building soft skills among your workforce,
read Randstad’s advice on 4 Ways to Upskill Your Soft Skills
in an Automated Workplace.
7people and predictive like wellness and corporate social
responsibility,” Stukalsky continued. “As
analytics will move Millennials seek out organizations aligned
to their desire to improve the world, social
beyond HR-specific data. platforms are facilitating the engagement
Fueled by the widespread adoption of of workers in philanthropic and community
cloud-based HR platforms, people analytics involvement opportunities.”
is in the midst of a makeover. Once
Although Randstad experts foresee HR
reserved for finding and flagging interesting
technologies expanding beyond the
information about talent engagement and
traditional roles of HR, they all agreed that
retention, people analytics is now being
continued advancements will change the
used for daily decision-making and applied
way organizations source and hire talent.
to nearly every part of business operations.
Randstad’s experts predict that as we move “You can’t replace recruiters, but you
into 2018, HR leaders will need to adopt a can use technology and analytics to help
more comprehensive view of data that streamline the process,” Paglieri said. “The
goes beyond the internal HR function and ability for analytics and machine learning to
uses people data for a wider range match candidates with the right recruiters
of business challenges. or to do an initial screening will make the
hiring process faster and more streamlined.
“Historically, HR has been at the tail end
We know that long, drawn-out recruiting
of digital innovation. But as talent becomes
processes are a top reason why good
a hot button issue for the C-suite and
candidates may no longer be available
unemployment levels drop to record
when a company is ready to make a
lows, HR leaders are now exploring where
decision. The ability for us to automate part
to invest in emerging technologies,”
of the search function to speed up a match
Stukalsky noted. “These investments are
is exciting.”
moving beyond the traditional scope of
reporting, engagement and retention. However, as Chavez pointed out, the human
Now it’s more about how to build better side of talent processes will
teams, make more processes agile and remain vital.
using data to truly predict the output of
cross-functional teams.” “While technologies have the ability to
reach a wider audience and help screen and
According to Stukalsky, more companies identify talent, the need to have a personal,
will look to people analytics and HR human touch during the interview and
technologies to analyze utilization of hiring process will remain at the forefront of
resources across the company, identifying important hiring practices,” she said.
areas of overtaxed resources that may
trigger the need to bring on additional
contract, temporary or part-time resources
in real time.
We’re also seeing people analytics and
HR technologies moving into areasroles we’ll Abigail Tremble, Alan Stukalsky, Graig Paglieri, Jodi Chavez,
President, Randstad Chief Digital Officer, President, Randstad President, Randstad
see more Healthcare Randstad North Technologies & Professionals
of in 2018 America Engineering
• Pharmacists • Business Analyst
• Data Scientists • Cybersecurity
• Travel Registered • Financial Analyst
Roles
Nurses • Robotics Architects
• Automation
• Case Review • AR/VR Engineers
Engineers
Nurses
• Agile Coaches
• Robotics Engineers
top non- • Wellness perks • Corporate social • Competitive leave • Feedback and
responsibility time for maternity input programs
traditional • Student debt
programs and paternity
reduction
benefits
• On-site fitness • Free commute
for 2018 • Free food
centers options (Uber, Lyft)
putting it all
together.
Even amid sweeping and dynamic changes within the U.S. labor
market, this is undoubtedly an exciting time for anyone in talent
management. The spread of technology and digital platforms
is fundamentally changing the way companies and their
contributors work. In 2018, business leaders will need to adapt
and evolve alongside these changes, applying new tools and
strategies to every phase of the employment lifecycle.
It’s imperative to identify, study and apply the digital trends that
stand to have the biggest impact and ROI for the organization.
But no matter what changes come in 2018 and beyond, one
thing will remain constant: HR is the link between talent and
corporate profitability. The competitive business landscape will
be dominated by organizations making investments for talent
attraction, upskilling and training, team-building, engagement
and those who embrace an agile workforce model.
9human
forward.
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