The HR Dive Outlook on 2021

As recruiting leaders embark on a new year, it would be easy to overlook all of the ways the workplace and employment changed over the last nine months. While the calendar may have flipped to 2021, the pace of change is expected to remain about the same, according to multiple experts who spoke with HR Dive. For those in recruiting, it means another year of adjusting to a constantly-evolving environment.

"I think it's not necessarily a complete rewrite of the recruiting process for everybody but I think it's time to look and revise and improve and think about the process of improvement over time," Corey Berkey, vice president of human resources at JazzHR, told HR Dive. "I think there's going to be a lot of iteration going on here in the next 12 months."

New standards for inclusion, social responsibility and authenticity

The widespread social and economic impact of the pandemic, followed by a summer of protests against structural inequality, has changed the values of job seekers and employers. This has led to employers doing more in this space, and employees and prospective employees are demanding more as well.

One of the greatest drivers of structural inequity in the country is the workplace, where wages and representation in leadership are lower for those in underrepresented groups based on gender, race and other characteristics. Addressing this requires more attention to diversity and internal retrospection. 

If your company is hiring in 2021, focus on bringing in diverse candidates, but also make sure to put the effort in after they're hired so they feel welcome and empowered to be their true selves at work, and actively solicit their feedback on how to improve in these areas.

"You've got to drive awareness for what these biases mean," Berkey said. "You've got to really help people expose their own weaknesses there, and you've got to really make sure that the people who are in your hiring teams understand it, appreciate it, are on the lookout for it, and are not afraid to call out if they see it."

The job market will be watching to see how companies take action on the promises they made this summer.

"You can't just check the box [and say] 'Oh, hey, we hired a few people from underrepresented backgrounds. We put pictures of them on our website. We did it.' No, people want more," Jon Stross, co-founder of Greenhouse Software, a popular ATS provider, told HR Dive.

"If we're talking about mitigating bias in your recruiting process, you have to structure your process," he continued. Recruiters should "interrogate" their processes, Stross said, collecting demographic data and identifying potential roadblocks. "There's not one answer, different companies are gonna have issues at different places."

A wider labor pool, but not infinite

With employers increasingly comfortable having remote workers, and many expecting to keep the practice in place after the pandemic, many believe it will widen the available talent pool.

While this may be the case, it will not be so easy for employers to open up to the entire world, or even the entire U.S. Each state has different employment laws, registration requirements and other standards that add complications for a company that is just starting to have remote employees working out of more different states.

"You got to know what you're getting into," Berkey said. "You've got to uncover those compliance risks, and you've got to make sure that you're prepared to comply in those areas, and that's a challenge in and of itself."

Increased transparency in the recruiting process

In addition to the rise of sites like Glassdoor, social media has created another channel for employees to share the reality of their work experiences. While it may be the social app du jour for its viral dance routines, TikTok also includes numerous workers posting video and photo evidence of their real-life experiences. For those doing the hiring, it means honesty and openness are key.

"Recruiters and hiring managers must be prepared to have authentic conversations with candidates and answer their questions about all aspects of the job and employee experience," Lauren Smith, vice president in the Gartner HR practice, told HR Dive via email. "Those that fail to have transparent, honest conversations will create challenges when candidates join the organization and realize that there is a mismatch between what they were told and what they experience on the job."

On top of that, the pandemic has shined a light on the responsibilities employers have to their employees. While the job market may have stagnated, employers' actions were under significant public scrutiny. 

"As organizations make the critical shift from supporting employees as workers to improving their life overall, recruiting functions must ensure that the labor market understands the value the organization provides through employment," Smith said. "Specifically, this requires an intentional shift in employment branding strategy from talking about not just how the organization supports the employee experience but also helps people optimize their life experience."

During the recruiting process, while employers cannot directly approach subjects like families, spouses or workplace accommodations, they can make it clear that their company is willing to be flexible with people based on their needs.

"I think it's going to be much more about proactively sharing the tolerances of flexibility for your business," Berkey said. Recruiters can share a business' approach to workplace management and capture a new set of expectations.

Another way to be more transparent, for both parties in interviews, is encouraging natural behavior rather than the formalized conversations that often take place in these situations.

"I think that there is this still air of formality, that people feel like it's not an interview if it's not that, and that sucks," Berkey explained. Berkey would nix interview etiquette in favor of a more relaxed conversation. "I'm not hiring who you are when you're formal," he said. "I'm hiring who you are whenever you're under pressure, I'm hiring whoever you are whenever you are a real live human being."

The labor-market effects of the vaccine and economic recovery

In addition to potentially ramping up headcount on the recruiting team, the labor market may open up after the vaccine reaches a majority of the public. In addition to business activity picking up and employers — particularly those in hospitality, transportation and other industries affected by COVID-19 — posting more openings, workers are also more likely to be looking for new jobs. 

"There was this prediction [that our] cup will overflow with candidates and it hasn't been the case," Berkey said. "It is not as as challenging to get candidates as it was in 2019, but I would say it is equally if not more challenging to get qualified candidates." Berkey said he's identified a surge in available talent in the market. "But a surge in candidates does not always correlate to a surge in candidate quality."

Berkey and his industry peers said many passive candidates and those who might be interested in looking elsewhere are holding off in large part because of the pandemic. "Those high quality candidates that we used to be able to pry loose from their current employers, their employers are saying 'I've got to keep these people!' So they're working twice as hard on retention of their top skilled talent."

If people are waiting, employers may see a sharp spike in voluntary departures as well.

"All the people with jobs stopped applying," Stross shared. "I'm convinced there's a giant pool of people who naturally would have moved companies. [...] The moment that all ends, everyone's going to [look to] quit."

The COVID-19 conversation

When it comes to the coronavirus, every recruiting conversation needs to include what the company is doing for employees right now, how it's organizing work spaces and what the timeline is for a return to the office for those who haven't been in, experts say.

"Recruiters should proactively share return-to-the-workplace plans, how they may vary by location and talent segment, and how it will impact their particular role," Smith said. "Recruiters should be equipped to share the upcoming decision points, who will be making these decisions, and how they will be communicated to employees." Additionally, recruiters and hiring managers may want to share details about virtual onboarding processes and the remote employee experience, Smith said.

The COVID-19 response and continued effort is also an opportunity to demonstrate more transparency, including about any negative events which occurred. 

"Be honest about where you are as a company," Stross advised. "If you did layoffs, you gotta be honest about it. If you say, 'Hey, our company is on a D&I journey. We maybe aren't where we want to be.' It's okay to be honest candidates and tell them 'here's where we're actually at.'"
 

Virtual recruiting sticks around, but in-person should return

During the pandemic, recruiting technology took a leap forward in its adoption and presence throughout the recruitment process. This has been a boon for inclusion by decreasing the time investment required to engage in an interview process and making the process more accessible for people with disabilities or those who don't live close to urban centers where job opportunities are concentrated. 

That employers and job seekers are much more familiar with the methods of virtual hiring processes will also help keep it alive in the future of work.

"All the things that we've learned over these nine months over how to do [virtual recruiting], people will continue to keep doing. We see huge volumes of people doing that," Stross said. "I think now people have gotten comfortable with it on both sides, candidates and companies."

However, many people believe in-person conversations are irreplaceable, and so many employers are likely eager to resume in-person recruiting and interviews when possible.

"I think that most companies, unless they were an entirely virtual company to begin with, still found a lot of value in bringing people into the office," Berkey said. "A lot of businesses I know can use that to sell the value of joining that team," he later added. He noted the value of nice office spaces equipped with technology and other perks such as snacks or recreation spaces.

Stross agreed. "I think that there's a great urge from lots of people to go back in-person and see each other, and so there will still be in-person interviews one day," Stross said.

Employment branding and onboarding, mostly online

With the expected proliferation of remote work, employers are going to need to get much better at onboarding virtually. 

"I think what we're seeing is companies who used to think of onboarding was this finance and IT thing, get them on payroll and get them a computer," Stross said. It's now a "hardcore, managerial responsibility" of making the employee feel like part of the company, being intentional about making relationships within the organization, and getting them set up on communication and collaboration platforms, including "the right Slack channels." 

"I think onboarding is sort of being reinvented more profoundly during this than even recruiting," Stross added.

In addition to navigating increased transparency and job-seeker demands, employers are also less able to demonstrate their culture to prospective employees through visits to the office for in-person interviews, tours of the building and other recruiting events such as open houses and career fairs. With more of the recruiting process occurring online, recruiting will need to get creative.

"It's really tempting to think that the main thing you have is the job description and your careers page," Stross shared. "So people spend a lot of time there, and they build videos. That's not good. And I heard that. But the truth is, you have like a dozen or two dozen touchpoints that happen with a person from the moment they apply through their first day."

With workforce strategists focused on employment branding, and more of the process moving online, employers need to get better at sharing their culture through virtual channels. 

Top companies face the need to retool the candidate experience to attract job seekers, Stross said. "We still want to treat our candidates as if they're the prized commodity."

The business case for inclusion and diversity remains "robust," and the relationship between diverse executive teams and the "likelihood of financial outperformance has strengthened over time," a May McKinsey & Company report found. But along with many companies taking a nod from research and prioritizing inclusion in the workplace in 2020, societal events forced employers to take a second look at their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Many employers committed unprecedented levels of support for racial equality and investment in communities as national calls for racial justice rose during the summer. Employers evaluated internal DEI, and some took action. The same momentum for corporate response carried into 2021, in the wake of insurrection in the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6. As a result of the insurrection, some company leaders took swift action to terminate employees involved. The quickness of the response was "unprecedented," as employers have traditionally attempted to stay out of external matters, Maurice Schweitzer, a professor of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, told HR Dive in a recent interview. 

Employees now expect companies to make direct, positive impacts in the workforce and in the communities they serve, industry experts at IBM and Randstad North America told HR Dive, and DEI plans in 2021 will directly reflect this broadened interest. 

A stronger connection between DEI and CSR

Looking forward, the internal work of DEI professionals may include increased coordination with corporate social responsibility (CSR) teams, which oversee an organization's external social and environmental concerns in their business operations and interactions with stakeholders. "There's reason to believe so given steps that have taken place recently," Grace Suh, vice president of education, IBM corporate social responsibility told HR Dive in an interview. 

In August 2019, The Business Roundtable updated its statement of purpose, signed by more than 180 CEOs. "They were committing to not only lead their companies on behalf of shareholders, but also consider employees, suppliers, customers and communities," Suh said. At IBM, the CSR co-creation model is a partner strategy requiring collaboration with three stakeholder groups — IBM business teams, employees and external partners, according to a white paper published by the tech giant in January 2020.

IBM has a set of shared values across the company, Suh said. "What we do internally is what we reflect externally," she said. "What we do externally is reflected in what we do internally, and there's a commitment to diversity inclusion. Certainly we can and should always do more and improve and evolve, and I think we've always been moving in that direction," Suh said.

Among companies, there's a "growing understanding that we must invest in communities that have been historically and consistently denied access to equitable social and economic opportunity," she said. For example, last year, OneTen, a coalition of executives, committed to hiring 1 million Black employees in the next 10 years, Suh said. The coalition connects employers with talent partners and community nonprofits that support development of diverse talent, according to its website. Such collaborative partnerships with the community in mind reflect the acknowledgement that "systemic change, real social and economic change that's truly equitable, is going to take the private sector working in concert together," Suh said.

Millennials and members of Generation Z desire to work for organizations that align with their values and beliefs, Audra Jenkins, chief diversity and inclusion officer at Randstad North America told HR Dive in an email; "Diversity and inclusion is more than lofty platitudes on a company's website. It is embedded in the pulse of the organization, deeply rooted in the collective voice of its employees, clients and partners." Research on the behaviors and preferences of more than 150,000 U.S. millennials found they are dedicated to social and political causes, according to a 2019 Case Foundation report. 

In 2021, Randstad North America launched Transcend, a diversity reskilling program aimed at addressing systemic issues for diverse and untapped communities through education and employment, Jenkins said. The initiative followed a task force created in 2020 and is led by CEO Karen Fichuk as a subset of its executive diversity council.

In the year ahead, there will be a "laser focus on the companies who are perceived as inclusive and those who are silent when major events occur impacting their diverse employee base," Jenkins said.

Early talent programs may improve pipelines, community

In the U.S., K-12 and postsecondary education systems are "deeply stratified by race and class, and do not live up to the essential American goal of providing equal opportunity," according to a November report by The Brooking Institution. However, researchers noted that work-based learning can advance equity. 

Suh manages IBM's education portfolio with a mission that's focused on education, equity and workforce inclusion, she said. Part of the mission to apply IBM's best expertise, technology, a commitment to public private partnership and change at scale is Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools or P-TECH, Suh said. Established in 2011, P-TECH is IBM's public-education model which seeks to provide an opportunity, at no cost, for students from underserved backgrounds to earn both their high school diploma and a two–year associate degree linked to STEM fields. It is designed to serve students who may be the first in their families to graduate with a college degree, Suh said. 

"The game-changer here is industry involvement in many ways because industry is at the table as a full partner," Suh said. "We are providing a range of workplace experiences. As soon as students enter into a P-TECH school, they have a mentor, and they go on worksite visits when they turn 16, and have some college credit under their belt," she said. The students participate in skills-based paid internships, and at the end of their internship, they present to executives. "Upon graduation, they're first in line for jobs with their industry partner," she said. 

IBM has hired about 60 students alone; and "we know that other companies are hiring as well," Suh said. "We're working on getting the robust data across the board that will share the story of the people who are benefiting from the model." IBM is committed to "stewarding it forward," understanding the importance of bringing other industries onboard to "foster systemic change," she said. 

"There are endless approaches to cultivating an inclusive working environment, and early talent programs for high school students should certainly be prioritized," Jenkins said. "Leaders can work directly with high schools, recruit for internships through social media, or work with standing programs in their communities to reach these students."

For 2021, these programs may be virtual due to the coronavirus pandemic, she said. Employers will need to also consider internet inequality as not all students in diverse and underserved communities have home internet access. But companies also will need to work with partners that have the infrastructure and mission to reach diverse youth en mass, Jenkins said.

Transparency, data driven strategies impact culture

DEI and belonging require commitment combined with intentional efforts and transparency, Jenkins said. "We have been enthralled in a triple pandemic from 2020 to 2021," she said. The coronavirus pandemic "sped up digital transformation to accommodate the reimagined workforce; social justice reform protests heightened with the back to back deaths of Amaud Abery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and countless others before them; and the outcomes of a contentious and highly divisive election" has left many "wondering how we will achieve unity on a positive path forward," Jenkins said. Transparency includes sharing internally how DEI and belonging are measured, she said.

Companies should "identify underrepresentation opportunities" and use metrics to report on the amount of diverse candidates hired, Jenkins said. It's also important to measure the number of executive sponsors who advocate for the development of and advancement of diverse employees, she said. A key metric to follow is the number of high-potential diverse employees who received promotions as a result of mentorship and sponsorship, she added.

Randstad leverages technology in recruiting using "a wide variety of tools from AI," and also "talent targeted marketing" to "attract and prompt the desired demographic to apply to jobs," Jenkins said. The company uses an artificial intelligence matching platform to mitigate unconscious bias in the process. Recruiter bots are also used to "ensure candidates are matched based on skill sets to minimize bias in the selection process," Jenkins said. In addition, Pymetrics, a tool that "blends behavioral science insights and gamification to determine candidate suitability" adds another layer of job matching and skill assessment, she said. 

To invest in appropriate efforts to improve DEI, a company needs a complete understanding of how diversity is represented within its workforce and recruitment efforts, Jenkins said. 

Prior to 2020, HR industry observers speculated about the end of a U.S. talent market that had experienced 10 years of increased job gains. In addition to competitive pay, some employers experimented with new and innovative benefits covering areas such as student loan forgiveness, fertility and same-day pay.

The past year's turbulence is likely to disrupt compensation and benefits in several ways. A Gallagher survey published in November, for example, showed that the pandemic disrupted planned 2021 salary increases at 45% of employers surveyed, with 51% saying they expected to reduce salary increases.

The pandemic has not entirely changed pay practices for all organizations, Josh Bersin, global HR analyst and dean of the Josh Bersin Academy, said in an email. Some have increased salaries and benefits along with expanding leave policies, and others are focused on helping employees deal with the financial fallout of 2020. But financial support, Bersin noted, does not drive employee engagement and loyalty by itself.

"Today, workers want to work for a company that they believe in, be part of a team with a leader they admire, and do work they enjoy," he said. "If all these pieces are in place and allied with clear opportunities for learning and growth, compensation actually doesn't need to be particularly above average."

Sources who spoke to HR Dive said benefits professionals will need to pay particular attention to their health plans this year, perhaps a given due to the ongoing global health crisis. From care costs to vaccine coverage to caring for workers' mental and emotional well-being, there's a lot employers and their insurers can prepare to do in spite of the uncertainty ahead.

Benefits teams prepare for vaccination rollouts

Vaccination against COVID-19 looms as potentially the most important storyline for HR in 2021, and benefits professionals will need to pay attention to how vaccination programs take shape at the state and local level, said Mark Hope, senior consultant in Willis Towers Watson's health and benefits practice.

The firm is encouraging clients to cover costs associated with receiving a vaccine, whether employees do so through a doctor's office or pharmacy, Hope added, but "access to vaccines seems to be the biggest question."

Some states have already shifted plans for vaccine distribution with the goal of accelerating vaccinations. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Jan. 8 that the state would begin moving to its "1B" vaccination phase in which it will allow certain categories of essential workers and individuals over the age 75 to get vaccinated.

On Jan. 12, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced that the federal government would release its entire vaccine supply to states rather than hold second doses. Additionally, Azar said the agency would release guidance recommending that state governments open vaccinations those age 65 and over as well as those under age 65 with preexisting conditions.

Still, each state has its own pathway to distributing vaccines, according to Hope, meaning that the processes by which employees get in line to be vaccinated will also differ, often determined by state health departments. "My hope is that there becomes a consistent federal response with better guidelines," he said. "It's not clear if and when it's going to happen."

Members of the Northeast Business Group on Health (NEBGH), a regional coalition of employers and healthcare stakeholders, have asked questions about vaccine rollouts and about whether particular types of workers qualify as essential workers, NEBGH CEO Candice Sherman said. But with guidance changing on a day-to-day basis, there is still a "good deal of uncertainty," she added.

Sources who previously spoke to HR Dive described incentivizing vaccination as one potential avenue for employers worried about the impact of other policies, such as a vaccine mandate. While Sherman said NEBGH has not heard much from members with respect to incentives, "I frankly am in favor of incentivizing." She added that employers may want to work with health plans and pharmacy partners to ensure employees and their families have access to good information about vaccine availability.

Employers, in connection with their health plans, may be able to look into concepts such as drive-thru vaccination clinics once vaccines become more broadly available, Sherman said. Some states are already beginning to experiment with this specific idea. Florida announced plans this week to open a golf cart drive-thru vaccination clinic for seniors at one retirement community, reported ABC affiliate WFTV.

Deferred healthcare costs, treatment are 'top of mind'

The public health crisis posed by the pandemic also had a downstream effect on healthcare across the board, with workers deferring care at an "alarming" rate, particularly during the months of March and April 2020, according to recent study by Castlight Health. The company said patients significantly reduced the use of preventative and elective care during this time.

Insurers also observed the trend of deferred care. Aon, in its Mid-Year Carrier Trend Report from last year, said medical claims for 2020 were projected to increase by 5% less than initially projected for the year, on average. The firm observed a similar impact on dental and vision benefit claims, but did not expect the pandemic to have a material impact on prescription costs.

Deferred care "is very much top of mind for the clients we work with," Hope said, with concerns that employees have put off receiving preventative care or managing chronic health conditions in ways that they otherwise would not. Some, for example, have not gone for blood tests or preventative screenings.

At the same time, employees and their family members may still feel nervous about receiving non-essential care, particularly if they live in areas impacted by COVID-19 surges. That has been the case for some employer members of NEBGH, Sherman said. Employers may need to determine what portion of deferred care within their health plans was low-value care, she added, though employers may not know exactly what the impact of deferred care will be at this point.

Others are noticing a drop in different categories of care. Steven Nelson, president of Contigo Health, an organization that focuses on partnerships between employers and health systems, told HR Dive that elective surgeries and non-COVID vaccinations have been impacted. Elective procedures have been "the bulk of things keeping employers up right now," Nelson said, and health systems have been in various stages of ramping up their operations on this front.

Employers, Nelson said, should begin to prepare for those ramp ups. Hope said employers may want to start examining claims data with their carriers to determine where employees are from a screening and preventative care standpoint. From there, employers can nudge those who have gaps to seek out appropriate care. Provider networks and patient advocacy solutions may also be of help in this regard.

Virtual care is 'here to stay'

Virtual care technologies including telehealth and telemedicine have also played a role in addressing patients' care needs even as physical, on-site care locations faced closures due to public health measures. The pandemic led to "a pretty fast acceleration" of virtual care, Sherman said, even kickstarting creative approaches for specialties that do not typically lend themselves easily to virtual care, such as dentistry and dermatology.

Hope estimates that the pandemic pushed virtual care adoption further than it might otherwise have in 2020; "we took a leap forward by about five years," he said. Virtual care solutions have the benefit of taking away some of the stigma and discomfort associated with in-person visits, such as dealing with travel to and from the provider.

Observers had positively evaluated telehealth during the early months of 2020 for its role in helping to ease pressure on the healthcare system. The relaxation of certain regulatory guardrails also helped the technology flourish in the past year. For example, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act allowed high-deductible health plans with health savings accounts to cover a patient's telehealth services prior to the patient reaching their deductible.

The trend is also playing out in the carrier space, with a number of insurers piloting digital health primary care provider networks. Examples include Premera Blue Cross, which announced the launch of its network in May, Healthcare Finance News reported. Humana has created a similar partnership with Doctor On Demand, and Kaiser Permanente is also piloting the concept, Hope said.

However, virtual care has mainly expanded within the specialties in which it had already been used, according to Nelson. Plenty of specialties do not lend themselves easily to the format, and certain procedures cannot be performed virtually. And while some services have adapted to accommodate increased demand for virtual care, not all services have done so, Nelson said.

While some analysts who previously spoke to HR Dive said they anticipate that virtual care will continue to see success post-pandemic, Hope and Nelson both identified hurdles to the format moving forward. State and local regulations on virtual care continue to challenge the solutions' growth, Hope said, and insurers are still working through questions such as whether virtual care visits deserve parity with in-person visits for cost purposes.

The most important development for virtual care may be that the past year has laid the groundwork for services to grow, Nelson said. 2020 saw a number of positive developments: more infrastructure placed around virtual visits, more reciprocity for telehealth licenses between states and more carrier activity. Essentially, healthcare stakeholders have been busy "laying the train tracks" for virtual care, Nelson said.

Virtual care is also noted for its role in addressing the mental and emotional well-being challenges associated with the pandemic. Formats such as virtual support groups have become a lot more common for employers, said Carolina Valencia, research director at Gartner for HR Leaders. Well-being apps such as Calm and Headspace have partnered with employers to offer workers free trials, and some employers have built out virtual support groups that include "mental health champions."

Large employers in particular were already largely using virtual care as part of their mental health benefits strategies, or were considering doing so, according to 2020 data from the Business Group on Health. But the past year has sparked a different type of conversation in the realm of mental health support: namely, ensuring that employees have access to counselors who understand their particular backgrounds, Hope said.

Employers can address the diverse mental health needs of employees by working with carriers to allow employees to choose from an equally diverse pool of providers, Hope said, though some carriers are ahead of others in terms of providing a greater demographic mix of providers.

Expect a 2021 'reset' for voluntary benefits

On the voluntary side of things, employers may see "a bit of a reset" in 2021, said Lydia Jilek, senior consultant at Willis Towers Watson. Employers have noticed interest in benefits covering areas such as identity theft due to the increased number of employees working from home, and supplemental medical products have also experienced rising demand.

Additionally, the CARES Act included provisions that allowed employers to contribute tax-free to workers' student loan repayments.

While employer-funded options have trended in the past year, employers are also looking for low-cost options, or options that do not carry any additional cost to employers, but that also preserve choice for employees, Jilek said.

Family and childcare support have also emerged as key areas for investment, Valencia said. Some employers are "going above and beyond," she noted, providing paid time off or giving workers a stipend to hire help. Organizations that cannot afford the same level of benefits might seek to incorporate more flexible scheduling models.

Generally, employee well-being and support for the "whole person" have grown to become "central to the company's entire strategy," said Bersin. But employers also need to go beyond providing a suite of well-being benefits by building work environments that are productive, supportive and inclusive, he added.

Any hopes HR leaders had for thoughtful tech transformation at the beginning of 2020 may have been dashed as soon as the first lockdown orders went out. Many leaders had to figure out how to operate a digital workspace in just a few days' time, Ron Hanscome, vice president, research in the Gartner HR practice, told HR Dive.

After a potentially slapdash transformation, questions proliferated. How are employees feeling? How does HR make sure a disparate workforce feels heard? How does HR ensure people are working?

Coming face to face with technology limitations last year starkly clarified priorities for 2021 and beyond, experts said; employers are now focused on performance management and solid employee experience even while remote. But a tumultuous 2020 has also highlighted where HR still struggles, particularly data management and in the IT relationship.

Do systems support these pivots made in the wake of 2020's many changes? "I think from a performance management perspective, it's more complicated," Katy Tynan, principal analyst at Forrester, told HR Dive. "And more anxiety-inducing."

Adapting to the hybrid workplace

As companies take stock after 2020, they can largely be sorted into three buckets, Tynan said.

First are the industries in survival mode, like airlines and travel; coronavirus "changed fundamentally how they do business," Tynan said. Some are in massive growth mode, like delivery service companies. The bulk, however, are in "adapting" mode — the companies that had to do something differently, but generally feel fairly stable.

"And that's not to say none of those are stressful," Tynan said. "People universally feel they are working harder, struggling to balance home and family and struggling to understand what's expected of them."

In response, employers realized they need "a much more continuous approach to gathering employee feedback and goals management," Hanscome said. That approach extends to reward and recognition through giving kudos and supporting those who are doing well, as well as learning, which can be consumed when needed for certain tasks.

The biggest shift for employers, however, may be the actual structure of the workplace itself — one a tech shift is enabling. "There will always be a need to travel and co-locate for certain situations, but the effectiveness of tele-commuting and video conferencing is making most organizations challenge their prior travel norms," Gary Cole, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP, HR transformation and digital employee experience, said in an email. Some organizations are even reevaluating their real-estate strategies thanks to the proliferation of remote work, he added. 

"I think it is fair to say that organizations are going to need to plan for hybrid work environments," Hanscome said. The implications, he noted, are wide: How do you handle workspace management, like cubicle hoteling — booking space in the office, especially during times of social distancing — while also managing a disparate workforce? Finding the answers to those questions has not typically been under the HR umbrella, Hanscome said, which speaks to the rising place of tools management in the HR function.

Adjusting to this change has required employers to supplement their usual annual engagement survey with pulse surveys, Hanscome said, including surveys that take place after events like onboarding. But that leads to another problem for HR: a deluge of data.

Managing the data deluge

"I think HR recognizes data is a powerful asset," Tynan said, "and they know they are not using it well."

HR is used to maintaining databases of names, addresses and other sensitive information thanks to the requirements of payroll, but "that ecosystem has just exploded," Tynan said. Employers can now gather data about learning, engagement, wellness, benefits, how employees are working and beyond, but they "don't know how to secure or use it," Tynan said, especially because those insights tend to be spread across different tools or platforms.

"When you listen to the vendors, they sing you a beautiful song about how they have all this integrated data about how your talent is feeling at any given moment," Tynan said, "but most organizations are not able to have that level of visibility."

This problem isn't new, but employers have gotten better about their approach, Hanscome said. "More and more people are coming into the [HR] function with the ability to handle and deal with data," he said, but there is "still a long way to go."

Tech providers have recognized the problem, both Hanscome and Tynan said, including that vendors can't operate in a vacuum. "What I have heard from HCM vendors is that no one gets to be the single source of truth," Tynan said. "No one has the luxury of saying 'just buy our stuff'. Because of that, those vendors are increasingly trying to help clients navigate this data downpour."

HR and IT expertise

Thanks to all of the above, HR and IT have had to improve their relationship in 2020 — though there is still work to be done, Tynan said.

"HR and IT in most organizations are not as good friends as they need to be," she said. "Both of them think of each other as the 'party of no.'" And while both are working on a more service-oriented approach, "I still don't see enough relationship building between HR and IT," Tynan said.

While HR may have once thought it could "escape IT," Hanscome said, the proliferation of cloud solutions for the workplace has further pushed these branches together. HR's increased reliance on platforms that are based in the cloud — which are thus updated "several times a year" — only highlights the importance of an HR and IT function that oversees information management more generally.

"Part of what you're buying with the cloud is an ongoing stream of updates, but if you don't have the resources or rigor to monitor those updates and their value, you aren't getting what you paid for," Hanscome said. 

To fully take advantage of the newest and shiniest HR tech, a new mindset may be needed, he added. The past year showcased the need for various workplace events, such as onboarding, to easily be performed across several functions. And employers have work to do.

"Holistic [workforce experience], when truly embraced by an organization, forces a new level of coordination, collaboration, cooperation and communication the likes of what few companies will have seen to date," Cole said.

2021: The year of cleaning up the digital experience

For the HR tech space, 2021 may be marked by attempts to "clean up" the reactive strategies put in place during 2020 and turn strategies that worked into long-term plans and processes, Tynan said. 2021 may not be the year IT and HR become best friends — both will be "busy rectifying all of what happened" in 2020 — but tides could turn in 2022, she added.

The challenge of 2021, Tynan said, is that the HR tech ecosystem is rapidly evolving and doing so in increasingly complex ways. "On the plus side, you are going to have a lot more choices and tools to do really nuanced things related to engagement, D&I, learning," she said. The bad part? "Integrating all of these is going to be hard."

But employers may have little choice in the matter. The digital experience, for remote employees, is the only experience they may receive at their companies, Cole said. "And so organizations with a larger and/or growing remote workforce need to design, deliver and evolve their digital workplace and experience that infuses well-being and organizational elements such as culture, values, connection, purpose, and even belonging."

Above all, 2021 may be about making clear that employers hear their employees, wherever they are. "Everybody talks about the future of work," Hanscome said, and for some time it has been somewhat philosophical. But this year? "The future of work gets more pragmatic in 2021," he added; supporting employees in the aftermath of one of the toughest years in recent memory will be the top priority for many.

After a tumultuous 2020, what can compliance professionals expect in the new year?

President-elect Joe Biden and his employee-friendly administration will drive an uptick in enforcement, Fisher Phillips Partner Rick Grimaldi told HR Dive. Meanwhile, new legislators at the state and federal level may tackle issues such as paid family leave and minimum wage.

As the year unfolds, the coronavirus will continue to drive new or changing laws and regulations, Venable Partner Nicholas Reiter said in an interview. Additionally, the virus will keep employers busy as they attempt to remain within existing legal boundaries while dealing with the evolving pandemic.

More legislation and regulations

A change in administration prompts action on Capitol Hill, Reiter said. "Any time you have a change and there's an incumbent voted out, lawyers are watching on the legislative and executive branch front. There's no surprise that democrats issue laws and regulations that tend to be more friendly to employees." 

Grimaldi echoed Reiter, predicting that the presumably pro-labor Biden administration will heighten compliance concerns for employers. Increased activity at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and other agencies may cause a sea change in enforcement and compliance. While OSHA "has been relatively active" under the pro-business Trump administration, the EEOC may take on a more active role, increasing enforcement on issues ranging from leave and accommodation to race and gender discrimination.

"If that pendulum swings too far, that could dampen productivity and slow the economic engine down and that concerns me," Grimaldi said.

The National Labor Relations Board may lean more in employees' favor as well — a prediction Grimaldi and Reiter shared. If so, employers may see a rise in unionization.

Legislators in a Democrat-controlled Congress will likely focus on longstanding issues such as paid family and medical leave and minimum wage, issues federal leadership has largely ignored in years past, Grimaldi said. "States have stepped in and so have many municipalities to fill that vacuum," he said. Such an approach has resulted in a patchwork of legislation, creating confusion for employers that operate in multiple jurisdictions.

"I think we're starting to see some traction in Congress," Grimaldi said. "There's a recognition that this stuff has to be corrected at the federal level to avoid the patchwork you see around the country."

Stricter safety measures

Workplace safety will take center stage as the Biden administration tightens regulations, Grimaldi said. Even outside of legislatively imposed boundaries, employers will need to focus on safety compliance — a continuing theme from 2020. Workplace safety was a frequent topic in labor negotiations Grimaldi conducted this year, he said. And the nature of the pandemic has forced employers to adapt quickly as they take up measures such as social distancing and temperature checks.

"The ability to adapt and create a safe working environment in the context of the pandemic is something that absolutely blew me away," Grimaldi said.

A new element of employers' safety strategies is the COVID-19 vaccine. The arrival of approved vaccinations creates a question that should be top-of-mind for all employers, according to Reiter: "Should we require everyone to get a vaccine?"

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued guidance last month that gave employers some clarity as to how the agency will view vaccine mandates. But the information wasn't completely clear, Haynes and Boone Partner Jason Habinsky told HR Dive at the time. The guidance allows employers to require the vaccine in certain circumstances but handed down a few boundaries, as well.

A transition from telecommuting

In 2021, employers may begin to discover the lasting effects of widespread telecommuting born in 2020. "A lot of my clients are saying, 'well, what happens when it's safe to come back to work and employees don't want to?'" Reiter said. "'What can we do? What can we say?'"

Employees don't have a right to remote work when it's safe to be in the workplace, though there are a few exceptions to that rule, Reiter noted. An employee may need access to remote work as an accommodation for a disability, for instance.

Some jobs lend themselves to telecommuting better than others, creating a fact issue for courts to navigate when litigation emerges. "It's going to be a lot harder for employers to win that issue if during the last nine to 12 months of the pandemic that employee has been performing his or her job at a reasonable level from home," Reiter said.

Employers can anticipate this tension by creating agreements with workers that "establish the fact that this is a temporary, once-in-a-century situation," Reiter said.

Reiter also said he predicts an uptick in wage and hour claims related to remote work. The pandemic has forced even hourly workers to work from home — a rare phenomenon in normal times, he said. Hourly workers generally have fixed schedules that facilitate overtime pay calculations easily. But with many of them at home, employers may not be tracking hours worked as diligently as possible, Reiter said. "That could be a real risk."

A year ago, leaders weighed in on what learning and development trends they thought would be most prevalent in 2020. The prediction? Just-in-time learning, cross-skilling, and upskilling — trends that had long been on the radar — would be critical. 

But no one knew the immediacy these learning trends would take when the world of work transformed because of the pandemic. Retail and restaurant businesses closed or retooled to focus on online capabilities and pickup services. Office employees were sent to work from home. Frontline employees took on multiple functions to keep essential businesses open. 

Interestingly, many of the learning trends predicted for 2020 held true. But they came into play urgently. Growing trends eyed by leaders accelerated from end-of-year aspirations to end-of-month imperatives. 

Now, venturing into 2021, the learning trends that became so vital last year are likely to continue; but they'll develop faster and require a focused approach, experts told HR Dive.

Continuous reskilling, upskilling for technical skills

The world is entering the fourth industrial revolution, Coding Dojo CEO Richard Wang said. This is an era of technology-led disruption and innovation as organizations develop a digital presence — a need accelerated by COVID-19. "If you don't have a digital footprint, you're done," Wang said.

But companies cannot find enough tech workers to fuel this revolution, he said. "We are seeing an imbalance of supply and demand of qualified workers on the labor market."

Upskilling and reskilling current employees can help, he added. The most needed skills are for coding, web development, and data analytics, but a basic understanding of computational logic, such as that used in email tools, is helpful, he said.

Such learning initiatives may sharpen businesses overall. "Reskilling and upskilling the workforce is a competitive advantage," LinkedIn Learning Solutions Senior Director Amy Borsetti said. COVID-19 has accelerated the need for the workforce to be more agile, so employees can be deployed to do different things, she said. 

Long-term learning focus remains key

Cross-skilling and upskilling may focus on skills for immediate use, but that doesn't mean employers should lose sight of long-term learning, said Borsetti. "It's and, not or. You need to think about long term, but the rate of change in organizations and the workforce and the needs of business makes the shelf life of skills shift way faster," she said. 

Some of today's jobs didn't exist three years ago, so people need to adjust their skill development to keep up with the pace of business, she explained. Still, there will always be some skills that are harder to master, such as creativity, innovation and inclusive leadership, that will require a long-term approach, she said. 

Remote work requires new learning

With the sustained need for remote work, companies will face new challenges related to learning and development, Hibob Chief Marketing Officer Rhiannon Staples told HR Dive in an email. 

Many businesses and managers are still learning how to operate effectively in a remote world, from onboarding to day-to-day management, she said. "Employees will need to learn how to do their jobs remotely from the outset," Staples said. "This was not a prerequisite across all organizations before the COVID-19 pandemic, but will now become especially critical to business growth and success."

Companies must find new HR tech tools that facilitate L&D cross-functionality, and HR teams should take the lead to ensure leaders and managers have proper training, Staples said. 

Credentials gain ground

The requirement of four-year degrees is fading, according to Wang. Tech giants such as Google, Apple and Netflix don't require them. A graduate of a traditional college may lack the specific skills needed for a job, Wang said. 

Institutions granting micro credentials may offer candidates the opportunity to gain the skills they need outside of a typical university experience, Wang said.

Finessing better L&D

Companies are tasked with modernizing L&D, Borsetti said. E-learning can be very passive and courses can be too long. Companies are looking at ways to change that with microlearning and social learning to connect people to experts and create a more involved experience, she said.

Onboarding is another area for improvement. Staples said that companies no longer see onboarding as a one-size-fits-all experience. "The days of an in-person, classroom-style onboarding session are gone, or at least limited, for the time being. That's why organizations need to find ways to facilitate personalized, informative, and timely remote onboarding."

The turmoil in the workplace in 2020 have erased all doubts about the necessity of L&D, said Borsetti. "Businesses need to invest in employees because businesses depend on them, not just because it's the right thing to do," she said. Additionally, L&D teams added value by partnering closely with businesses, breaking down silos, strategizing and co-building. As the spotlight shone on employee concerns about wellness, diversity, and equity, the need to invest in employees became obvious, Borsetti said. 

As business needs accelerate and evolve, ensuring employees have the skills they need is a trend that will undoubtedly continue. "The seat L&D has at the table isn't going anywhere," Borsetti said.