30 Mar 2019 Global Mobility Trends Call for More Flexibility, Inclusion, Intelligent AI

In a recent Korn Ferry survey of professionals, 96 percent of respondents said real-time feedback and ongoing performance discussions with their bosses are more effective than an annual review. As such, even if the employee does not have a long tenure, ongoing feedback will help them learn, stay engaged, and create an employer value proposition to help attract future employees and talents from around the world.

It’s important to point this out, as it’s more common to see tenure now lasts only about four years and less for younger professionals. With such short tenure, annual reviews are no longer the primary way to help employees develop professionally.

This is one of the 10 talent trends that emerged from conversations with 30 of the talent acquisition, development and compensation experts interviewed by Korn Ferry, a global organizational consulting firm that synchronizes strategy and talent to drive superior performance for its clients as they appeared in Human Resources.

No more stigma for in-between jobs

The stigma of being in-between jobs appears to be fading. Professionals who have been sidelined also get some help these days so they can return back to the workforce. These include targeted proactive sourcing, community assistance, workshops, alumni networks, and buddy systems for effective onboarding.

Making artificial intelligence more “intelligent”

Resume screening now has a more “blind screening” process. This means personal information, such as name, date of birth, the college the candidate went to or the city they were born in are not revealed until later in the hiring process. Artificial intelligence (AI) need not undermine efforts to boost diversity. In an ideal AI world, job descriptions should be drafted to ensure that they are gender, race and age neutral.

One way to help alleviate that is to feed the AI with non-partial data that highlights success factors. This way, AI can be trained to look more for the skills needed, such as the ability to work on the level of the best software engineers in Silicon Valley, instead of focusing on subjective modifiers that may have gender bias.

Tailored pay

There are different expectations when it comes to pay and rewards packages but organizations are reportedly beginning to listen to what matters to employees through social listening, focus groups and surveys.

With information from these efforts, they are able to tailor rewards packages, offering different mixes of pay, flex time, paid time-off, international assignments and student loan repayment. In many cases, even foreign assignees are allowed to get student loans if this helps them in their current job assignment.

Ongoing diversity and inclusion pipeline

Organizations are more readily seeing that there has to be an increased focus across all levels to create an ongoing pipeline of diverse talent, including women, people of color, disabled persons and LGBTQ employees.

To measure their progress, many have begun using applicant tracking systems (ATS) to find out what percentage of minority applicants were hired.

But beyond just filling up the need for diversity, more companies acknowledge that America has become more diverse than ever and are setting the stage for a more level-playing field in terms of job opportunities.

Get real-time feedback

In the recruiting cycle, global mobility professionals are getting real-time feedback from candidates about their experiences. This gives recruiters and hiring managers data-driven insights and intelligence.

With the data, they can amend recruiting practices, including specific job requirements and interactions with candidates, to successfully hire the best talents from all over the world.

New titles are emerging

New roles and titles are emerging across many industries, particularly in the tech startup world. From an executive perspective, many industries, including healthcare, finance and retail, are creating chief experience officer roles, driven by a stronger need than ever for customers to have positive experiences at every touchpoint.

Another emerging C-suite title is Chief Transformation Officer, who is usually tasked with change management initiatives, often during times of mergers and acquisitions.

Organizations are also placing greater emphasis on the well-being of their employees with titles such as Chief Happiness Officer becoming more prevalent. This trend may just encourage staffers of California Corporate Housing to take the title of Chief Accommodation Officers for providing corporate housing assistance.

Talent analytics becoming just as important as business analytics

Traditionally, business leaders set their strategy by analyzing business analytics to determine cost and operational effectiveness. For example, they may determine where to open an office based on cost and proximity to raw materials. However, they may fail because they don’t have access to the right type of employees – especially as digital disruption puts a premium on people who can learn new skills.

Increasingly, analytics that look at the talent landscape in specific markets, including competition for and the availability of qualified talent in one city or country, as well as compensation norms, are coming into play in tandem with business analytics to create the most effective, sustainable approach.

Talking to talent wholistically, from hire to retire

There is a trend toward a more foundational, data-centric approach, which is informed by data across functions, which allows for a calibrated approach to talent that is tightly linked to business outcomes.

A key benefit of this process is that assessment data garnered during the recruitment process that provides insight into the candidate’s strengths and development areas can be used to help create a customized development program once the candidate is hired.

Managing short-term hiring needs with long-term business goals

In the same survey of talent acquisition professionals, 77 percent say they are hiring for roles today that didn’t even exist a year ago.

Industry leaders are taking a holistic approach to talent acquisition. In the short term they can increase speed to hire by understanding the right mix of short-term contractors, gig workers and full-time employees, who bring the right skills and experiences to meet current and future needs.

At the same time, it’s imperative to have a longer-term approach by analyzing business imperatives to create a total strategic plan that has clearly defined goals, but one that can be amended as needs change.