Once Again, Sackadmus Takes a Stab at HR Predictions for 2012

Back when I first started blogging in 2009, I wrote my first Sackadamus 2010 Predictions over at Fistful Of Talent (check it out – I was right on!).

So, for 2012 I thought it was time to give you some new predictions for the upcoming year. Don’t be frightened, I’m not sure why I have this gift but I do. I promise to only use it for good and HR!

My Top Predictions for 2012:

1. HR blogging reaches it’s pinnacle as the last HR person finally starts the final HR blog called: TheLastSeatAtTheTable.com. It will be by a GenXer who will talk to much about their philosophy on performance management, why their GenY co-workers suck and how they no longer want to talk about having a seat at the table (very original like most of the content us HR pros put out…).

(It’s scary right!? You get an uneasy feeling, like you can almost feel these predictions coming true as you read them!)

2. Organizations will discover that all this time and money they’ve been putting into Employee Engagement is getting what they hoped for – better performance and higher results. With one last ditch unfocused effort they’ll work towards the “new” engagement model of just making people happy at any cost. This to will fail, but what the heck – we’ll have a subjective rating scale that will ensure it wasn’t our fault that it failed – the rating we measured said people felt more happy!

3. Work-Life balance will jump the shark. It’s taken us almost 10 years, but HR will finally discover that work-life balance doesn’t mean you can come and go whenever you want and put work as the 4th, 5th or 13th priority in your life. The next generation of “work-life balance” will be “work to have a job” – it will sweep the country like a tsunami of actual productivity.

4. SAP and Oracle will merge to create on giant super dinosaur of an HRIS system that all HR people will be forced to use worldwide, and this new system will still generate reports that our leadership teams won’t believe.

5. LinkedIn will (has) become the 2010-ish version of the 2000-ish job boards. (Quick question off subject: How do the HR Pros who taught their workforces to put up profiles on LinkedIn about 3-5 years ago feel about themselves now? Thank you, and by the way, I love easy ways to recruit your employees!) LinkedIn will now become the world’s largest recruiting site of recruiters – which make up 63 percent of the actual users of LinkedIn. Hello Facebook! Whoever figures out how to effectively recruit on Facebook wins and wins big! – I’m guessing on Branchout right now – but Facebook really has an opportunity that no one has figured out. It’s a billion dollar plus opportunity just sitting there.

6. HR/Talent Pros will finally get the power of video. “But Tim, if we can have video resumes, interviews, etc., our hiring managers will discriminate!” Yes, they will. Deal with that issue, don’t stop the technology, and you will have one of the best productivity tools that you’ve been given in years! The hiring managers who will discriminate using video are the same ones who are discriminating now – the difference being they just wait for the live, face-to-face interview to do it now. Measure, determine the issue, take action – it’s not difficult to determine discrimination – but it takes a lot of courage to call someone out on it. Don’t blame the tools being used.

Have a great 2012 HR/Talent Pros – and thanks for all the support you’ve given me in 2011!

Come see Tim Sackett speak on What Your CEO Wished HR Would Do at the TLNT Transform conference in Austin, TX Feb. 26-28, 2012. Click here for more information on attending this event.

This was originally published on Tim Sackett’s blog, The Tim Sackett Project.