These five trends are taking over the HR world in 2017. Keep your eye on these emerging ideologies and decide if they fit your company culture.
Ongoing Performance Reviews
Traditionally, companies have done employee reviews once or twice a year. During these reviews, performance is reviewed, goals are set, and often a ranking is assigned. If the employee is a top performer, they are often given a bonus or raise. If they are a middle performer, they get to keep their jobs and are asked to push themselves a little harder for the next 6-12 months. If they are in the bottom ranking, they are put on a performance plan, or worse, they are terminated. This cycle of intense attention, followed by a whole year of being essentially ignored, is not proving to be as effective as more frequent monitoring of employee performance.
“Organizations that have employees revise or review their goals quarterly or more frequently are 45% more likely to have above-average financial performance and 64% more likely to be effective at holding costs at or below level of competitors.”
Online Enrichment
Gone are the days of taking time off to go to school. Now, just about everything you would want to know is online. Classes are presented by experts in their field in elegant and digestible formats. While the best online learning requires a paid subscription, many companies are offering free access to their employees on sites like lynda.com or treehouse.com.
Many employers are noticing that their people are becoming more well-rounded, better informed, and better at problem-solving. Also, millennials value self-improvement and look for employers who value this as well.
No More “Ping Pong Perks”
Nearly every employer bought a ping-pong table in 2016. These little perks, free snacks and volleyball tournaments, don’t appeal to millennials like everyone thought they would.
The core values of millennials are based in appreciation, trust, and recognition. “Millennials want effective mentoring from senior management and effective collaboration throughout their workplace.”
Recording Interviews
While the traditional pipeline of evaluating and interviewing employees is still in place in a major way, hiring managers are adopting modern techniques to streamline and improve the process.
One method is to video record the interview. This gives everyone the opportunity to see the interview, even those who were not in the room. If you have a large hiring team and many others who want a say in the hiring process (ahem, CEO’s and shareholders) this is an easy way of showing the personality and presence of a candidate without overwhelming him or her with twenty people in the interview room.
Development Versus Performance Ranking
While we are on the topic of performance reviews, the idea of bringing down reward or punishment after a review is becoming less popular. This is often called “ranking” and it creates a culture of fear and competition, which isn’t always healthy.
Setting up a system of teaching, increased responsibility, and team exercises that encourage collaboration and growth, are all new methods of making employees want to perform at a higher level. In the end, not everyone will perform at the same intensity. But, with this new methodology, getting the most out of each individual employee is the real goal.
These five trends are taking over the HR world in 2017. Keep your eye on these emerging ideologies and decide if they fit your 
