Five HR trends you should know for 2020

HRCode list five ways COVID-19 has changed the way employees work and how businesses can deal with the HR outcome from these.

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only brought significant challenges to people and businesses around the UK, but it is likely to have a lasting impact on how we work. It’s important for business owners/leaders to respond, recover and thrive to keep the workforce engaged, productive and resilient. You need to recruit and retain good employees, keep up with the latest innovations to work efficiently and, and as this technology advances, so will the HR agenda.

In this article we’ll explore five of this year’s HR trends that will help you bounce back and plan for these uncertain times.

1. Improving your application experience

When recruiting for your organisation, it can be a very costly and lengthy process. It is definitely worth revisiting the candidate journey to streamline it. If you were applying for a role, you would expect a professional appearance. But with an approach that creates a friendly and inclusive atmosphere. Does your candidate journey promote this?

Your brand reputation plays a big part in attracting competitive candidates. This includes the recruitment process. Ensure that the questions you are asking are relevant to the job role. And that you are quizzing applicants on competency-based scenarios to establish whether there is sufficient evidence to show they’d be a great fit for your team. Check to make sure your questions are legal – there are some absolute no-goes (we can help you with this)!

2. Upcoming technology

Technology is changing faster than ever before, which means your organisation could change overnight. This potentially frees up your employees’ time to drive a bigger customer base. Technology can improve the efficiency of your administration, compliance or HR files by having all of your documents on a secure online database. How many times have you lost an employee record from their paper-based personnel file? It’s common, it happens!

HR systems can help keep track and stay on top of schedules (such as appraisals and recruitment). This will help free up staff and get more done, instead of drowning in paperwork. These systems capture a lot of employee data, which can help with company insights as well as actionable strategies (we can help you with this, too).

3. Employee wellbeing

Focusing on your employees’ wellbeing can help build a strong business. If you don’t make this your priority it can negatively impact you and your business in the long term. Your company is not working in the best interest of your employees.

Employee wellbeing is linked with employee engagement, employee happiness and productivity. Specifically, it’s about how the job, the duties, expectations, stress levels and the environment in which they work affects the overall health and happiness of each individual. Wellbeing isn’t just about physical health. It also includes a sense of purpose and taking into account their overall quality of life.

4. The three Ps

Policies, processes and procedures. It is more important than ever to have robust policies, processes and procedures for your business and to ensure you and your team follow them. More so to protect yourself from employment claims and tribunals.

Having the three Ps in place can determine the most efficient way to complete a task. It provides your employees with guidance and helps ensure quality control on your compliance, products and services. As your business grows or becomes more popular, you’ll need to streamline the workflow by creating policies, distributing them to your team members and then receiving employee acknowledgement that they’ve read and understood the terms and conditions (we can help implement this, also).

5. Flexible working

Every business in the UK has been impacted in some way throughout COVID-19. It has forced many employers to rapidly adapt to new, flexible ways of working. Many employees who have had a taste of working flexibly have found that it has transformed their lives for the better. It has allowed us to look at how we can work more efficiently and effectively. But also appreciate our work-life balance.

Whether this means working from home, decreasing or increasing the hours, remember that employees with at least 26 weeks of continuous service are able to make a statutory request, in writing, for flexible working, for any reason.

Employers must understand that flexible working could work for them as much as it does for the employee. Not only will your team members have more drive, motivation and contribute fully to the business because they feel they now have a better work-life balance, but it also provides you with the opportunity to bring fresh talent into the company.

Making gains

Many businesses in the UK have embraced these trends and are flourishing as a result. Adapting to the environment is the key to benefitting from whatever may be thrown at you and your business. Dentistry can make gains, even during adverse times. Making conscious and educated decisions (specifically when it comes to employment law) is in the best interest of both your business and your employees. It helps create a solid foundation, and possibly a very profitable one.


At Code we are here for you right now and are working hard to continue to support you. Our support lines have been extremely busy recently. And our teams are providing daily news and external updates, which you can read on our website at www.codeuk.com.

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