Each week I’m going to provide a round up of what I consider to be important and interesting articles on the future of work (not authored by me). These will include a variety of sources and topics ranging from workplace practices to robots and automation to leadership and everything in between. There’s a lot of information out there so I’m hoping that these weekly round ups will help make life a bit easier for you by giving you just the good stuff. Let’s get into it!
Disrupting HR: 9 Ways Tech is Reinventing How People Work
There’s no question about it, our advances in technology are impacting the HR department in a huge way. Companies are more focused on employee experience than ever before and HR is having to evolve to keep up with this shift in the workplace.
This article discusses a report done by Josh Bersin, principal of Bersin by Deloitte, and nine “of the most influential trends for HR” that Bersin highlights in his report. The trends include subjects such as people analytics, talent acquisition, HR tools, and AI/Automation. As Bersin says, “it goes without saying that no organization of any size can operate without some type of HR function…”. HR is a crucial part of companies and therefore they cannot overlook the evolution that is taking place in the department, they must learn how to adapt.
How Google Humanizes Technology in the Workplace and You Can, Too
In this article by Mark Crowley brings up the issue of technology and how it can make it easy for us to become disconnected from our “human values”. Crowley spoke with Google’s Human Resources Director, Dr. Todd Carlisle, to find out how we can humanize technology.
Carlisle suggests that people don’t just focus on one type of communication, such as emailing or texting, but rather you should communicate with people in a variety of ways, including in person. Carlisle, and Google, believe that technology should support employees in their personal lives. They realize that meetings are not always going to take place in the office. Technology should help people have a work-life balance, not distract from it.
Carlisle also believes technology should help employees have a say in company decisions, leaders should be able to go low tech and be available to their employees in person rather than just through email or video chat, and employers should encourage their employees to disconnect occasionally.
Workplace Perks: What to Look For and Why They Matter
Employee experience is a very important factor in today’s workplace, and one of the trends in employee experience is workplace perks. Some companies include perks such as free food, cafes, ping pong tables and napping areas. Research shows that 70% of workers feel that their experience in the workplace is more important than having a higher salary.
This article (and infographic) lay out the 10 best workplace incentives and they list out employers who offer those perks. According to the article the top 10 incentives are flexibility, paid time off, corporate outings, food, gifts/services, health programs, mental health care, remote work, childcare, and entertainment.
Here is What Your Workday Will Look Like in 10 Years
We have seen a lot of changes in the workplace in recent years, such as a move towards working remotely and more flexible working hours. How do you think the workplace will look 10 years from now? Adam Siegel takes a look into the future and discusses the major areas he thinks will be different.
Siegel believes the corporate hierarchy will look different and collaboration will happen in different ways, automation will have a huge impact on the workplace and could take over millions of jobs and the freelance economy will continue to grow and will save companies a lot of money. He also mentioned that employers will have several new ways of monitoring employees’ health, work, and emotions and there will be a decrease in retirement.
Snacks Make All the Difference: Why Free Food is a Great Workplace Perk
Everyone loves free food and many companies are using food as a workplace perk. Companies have added cafes and coffee shops, started programs where employees can eat free on a certain day of the week and some have even hired chefs to cook meals for employees.
This article by Meghan Biro explores the reasons why food is such a powerful motivator for employees. Biro says snacks make people happy, more productive and implementing healthy food can improve the mood and energy level of your staff. With all of these positive effects, why wouldn’t you want to use food as a workplace perk?
My new book, The Employee Experience Advantage (Wiley, March 2017) analyzes over 250 global organizations to understand how to create a place where people genuinely want to show up to work. Subscribe to the newsletter here
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