By Don Weinstein – Spark by ADP

The happiness and satisfaction of employees plays a huge role in the overall success of a company, and 2019 has the potential to be a year of success in this space.

Reflecting on the state of the labor market in 2018, the U.S. workforce experienced historic gains, with unemployment rates falling to a 50-year low and more than 2 million jobs being added.

It’s clear that the world of work is evolving by the minute, and it is imperative that you take time to consider the business trends of the new year as you begin to prepare your organization for 2019. With one of the largest stores of data in the industry, ADP has access to key intel on some of the biggest movements that may affect the workplace in 2019.

The Personalization of Pay

These days, it seems like you can personalize — or even humanize — just about anything. With workers being able to customize many other aspects of their lives, it’s probable that the ability to customize one’s financial experience will be in high demand. Platforms are evolving, and ADP has seen the payroll cycle change as well, leading to the prediction that weekly, bi-weekly or monthly payroll cycles will evolve into schedules that meet the needs of each individual worker.

Another factor to consider is budgeting. Today, 86 percent of employees are interested in using non-traditional financial tools to manage their pay. Tools that enable workers to manage and budget take-home pay while automatically tracking spending and suggesting budgets will help workers meet their financial goals.

[Learn more from this blog article: The Future of Payments: Pay Me Now or Pay Me Later…Just Pay Me!]

Ensuring Workforce Agility

Based on data-driven findings, ADP expects that employers will continue to shift toward multiple classifications of workers to meet business needs, increase employment engagement and underscore the importance of the team. As organizations continue to shift toward more flexible work arrangements, they will rely more on freelancers and contractors to help bridge skill gaps and scale effectively. Many firms will need to balance the right mix of freelancers (1099), temps and traditional full-time workers (W-2) to reach increasingly on-demand business objectives.

[Read more in this blog article: The Future of Work: Employers and Workers Aligning]

Diversity and Inclusion

2018 was a year of emphasis on the push for diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and these movements will only continue to gain momentum in 2019. Due to the lack of women and minorities in leadership roles and the challenges workers faced in reporting issues, it was quite evident that change was needed. Despite the increased attention, there are still clear challenges in this regard, and organizations will need to continue addressing the gender gap effectively in the new year.

[Get the ADP Research Institute® report: Rethinking Gender Pay Inequity in a More Transparent World]

Democratization of Data

A lack of accessible data for employers and employees can often lead to a disconnect in the workplace. Employers and employees want to know more about their workforce and industry competitors. Providing business leaders with data that delivers meaningful and actionable insights will become the new norm, and human resource systems will tap into artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide this information to employers in real-time. And with data comes the critical need for data privacy, which will remain an industry focus in the 2019.

[Read this related blog article: From Data to Insight: Overview]

Digital Consumer-Grade Human Resources

Work environment and workplace culture are often significant factors in employment decisions, and many workplaces are becoming increasingly digital spaces. Meanwhile, employees and employers continue to demand that workplace technology be as user-friendly as the devices they use in their personal lives. The stress of working with complex technologies can lead to a decrease in worker happiness, and employers should take notice of this fact. New HR solutions should be accessible via mobile devices, largely cloud-based and designed with the user in mind.

Employee well-being is the main factor driving all of these predictions. The happiness and satisfaction of employees plays a huge role in the overall success of a company, and 2019 has the potential to be a winning year in this space.