Not long ago I was asked to speak to our sales & service teams about the key HR trends in 2009 that would be impacting HR executives and, in particular, our clients. Armed with my own opinions, I then began looking at other sources. From recent and upcoming HR conferences, analyst’s predictions and several “What’s coming in 2009” webcasts, I saw several common areas surfacing. Interestingly, many of these common themes have a direct relationship with HR/Payroll service delivery:

1. The definition of “the workforce” will continue to evolve
2. New HR initiatives must show business value and help support key organizational goals
3. Enthusiastic employee engagement
4. Web 2.0 and the next generation of Internet for business

Paul D. Hamerman and Zach Thomas’ Forrester report, Trends 2009: Human Resource Management (November 21, 2008), identified the evolution of the workforce as one of the key trends. This is not to be confused with the generational workforce issues, but rather the types of workers that will make up the workforce. This includes more people who are not fulltime employees. However, the job of managing these workers from an HR perspective will need to be accommodated within the HRMS/HCM system structure.

I believe that this changing workforce dynamic means we must pay careful attention as to how we deliver HR/Payroll services and any resulting employee communication complications. Will these workers have access to the employee portal? Should they see all of the information available to all employees? Maybe not, since they are not traditional fulltime employees. Going forward, having a firm handle on the target audience, and their specific communication needs and challenges, will be essential to successfully adapting HR/Payroll service delivery channels.

Mike Smith