2020 HR Tech trends [Part 3]

Hi there! My name is , I’m a Product Manager. In this essay of the series I will share with you 2020 HR Tech trends research. Previous parts of the series you can find here: Part 1, Part 2.

What you will find in the essay:

• HR Tech trends
• Hypothesis about future of distributed work after COVID-19
• A collection of handpicked links I used in the research
  

HR Tech trends

1. Specialization 

For example, Job boards (marketplaces) - despite the existence of “whales” like LinkedIn, Indeed, Careerbuilder, and Monster, there is a growing industry of niche Job boards that focus on job types, geos, skills, and industries.

2. Distributed work

• The number of employees who work remotely in the USA (remotely = work from home more than 2 days a week) is 4.7 million people or 3.6% of the total number of employees
  (Source: )
  
• The hypothesis is that after COVID-19, the number of distributed workforces will grow. The longer employees work remotely, the more a habit is developed, the more of them will remain to work remotely after quarantine. Figures confirming hypotheses: 42% of remote workers plan to work remotely more often than they currently do over the next 5 years. 80% of employees want to work from home at least part of the time
  (Source: )
  
• The growth forecast for employees working more than 2 days a week outside the office after the end of the information noise around Coronovirus is 25-30% of the total number of working people in the USA (39-46 million people) in the next 2 years
  (source: )
  
• 56% of the workforce in the United States has work that is compatible (at least partially) with remote work
  
• Gallup data show that the percentage of workers who worked remotely for some time in 2016 was 43% (4% more than in 2012)
  
• Reduced fear among supervisors of remote employees. One reason is that managers themselves work remotely.
  
• Research data says that 56% of companies already allow remote work (16% completely remotely, 40% hybrid;
  (source: )
  
• Unemployment continues to reach generational lows with every Jobs Report from the U.S. Department of Labor, and from every international reporting agency. So offering employees hybrid or completely remote job could help employers to attract talents
  
• The ability of enterprises to reduce costs by reducing the cost of offices and the transfer of employees to remote work. The survey data say that more than a third of workers are ready to reduce wages by up to 5% in exchange for the opportunity to work remotely for at least some time; a quarter is ready to cut wages by 10%; 20% ready for even greater reduction in return for schedule flexibility
  (Source: )

3. Conversational HR technology

• Technologies like chatbots and messaging interfaces have led to rudimentary process improvements like automating repetitive and administrative tasks. The result is a creep in the number of applications used to interface with employees.
  
• These technologies will tie into core HR platforms, reducing the burden of repetitive employee relations transactions and streamlining data collection and analytics

4. Running into skills-based everything

• With global unemployment continuously setting new record-lows, the cost of replacing existing talent is far greater than "re-skilling" them. 
  
• Retention has always been an action-driver for HR, but when a visible employer like Amazon commits to retrain a third of its workforce with an investment of approximately USD $700 Million, CEOs everywhere take note.
  
• Taking inventory of a company’s existing skills, mapping that to the jobs internally, then matching based on an algorithm, sprinkling in some machine learning or AI… factoring in data from a workforce planning initiative – using the same data to then look at candidates externally.
  
• Integration: demonstrable integrations to the internal systems that feed the matching engines AND the talent management processes and systems in place that guide the employee on their newly defined path.
  
• Learning: Matching without learning is a direction without a GPS. If we're going to point the employee in a direction based on their interest, skills, cognitive abilities, and more we need to connect the employee into the learning path to reach the destination. In this case we mean the "royal" learning - skills and compliance certification, casual learning, micro-learning, mentor-based learning, self-learning, external learning. All of whatever is available, via integration or natively.

5. Job boards and marketplaces which add bigger value

• Temp/Contract to Hire Model: as work is becoming more distributed and more contingent, job board marketplaces have the ability to offer projects that lead to full time employment. There's an emerging opportunity  for employers to offer project work to universities, community colleges, skills certification programs, veteran-focused jobs initiatives, state government run job training programs, second chance career organizations, and more.
  
• Certified Talent:  Skills can be tested and cognitive abilities can be assessed with validity.  Backgrounds can be checked. Certifications can be validated. Initial screening can be completed. All before the candidate is presented to the employer, or at any point along the way. Marketplaces with the right resources and  tech can begin to look like automated recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) firms in the near future, delivering a better candidate experience with potentially one process for multiple employers, and a more turnkey solution for employers.

A collection of handpicked links I used in the research

Below is the link to handpicked resources I have used in Google Sheet format. 

• What’s inside:
• Articles
• Industry reports
• List of top HR tech influencers and many more.

To use filters you can easily make a copy of the file and save it to your Google Drive.

Summing it up

• Specialization - even though there are alot of wales in each subcategory there are still a lot of room for niche players
• COVID19 may boost the total number of working people in the USA remotely to (39-46 million people) in the next 2 years
• Skill based solutions requires integration and learning
• Job boards-marketplaces can begin to look like automated recruitment process outsourcing firms in the nearest future

P.S. This essay was previously published at . If you have any questions about the research or are in love with creating products - please feel free to ping me on or .