HR Trends From SHRM17

Posted Tuesday, July 11th, 2017 by Debbie Lamb, Sterling Talent Solutions

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It’s hard to believe that SHRM17 was just a few weeks back. The Sterling Talent Solutions team was in full force championing the simplicity of our background screening and onboarding platform in “The Big Easy.” We would like to thank everyone for taking time out of their busy conference schedule to stop by our booth, share ideas and feedback with our team. Sterling’s goal is to help companies hire with confidence by offering a simpler, smarter, background screening and onboarding experience.

Highlights and Trends from SHRM17

There were over 15,000 attendees at SHRM17 in New Orleans. The conference offered over 200 concurrent sessions organized into six tracks with information ranging from Global HR to Personal and Leadership Development to Talent Acquisition and Retention. SHRM had HR bloggers reporting on seminars, vendors and other events throughout the conference. SHRM asked a variety of attendees to blog about their experiences at the conference. Bloggers, such as Samantha Worgull and Andrea Devers noted their key takeaways from the conference from changing employee engagement to technology trends shared by vendors at the expo.

  • Employee Appreciation Throughout the Year: Appreciation and recognition only given once a year during annual review time is not effective or productive. Employees are looking for continual real-time feedback on their work. With the competition for talent heating up, there are many vendors providing solutions, tools and updated systems to retain and engage current employees.
  • Millennials Want the Opportunity to Learn and Grow: A 2014 Gallup poll found that Millennials (28.9%) are the least engaged age group in the workplace. The findings could be because this age group may not be working in jobs that allow them to apply their strengths, causing disengagement. Accordingly, 45% of Millennials say that a job that accelerates their professional development is very important to them.
  • Global Workforce: Companies are broadening their horizons to find talent across the globe. Organizations are reaching out to talent in countries such as Brazil, India and China. Top companies are attracting talent via a variety of well-rounded employee benefits, such as flextime, working from home and unlimited vacation time. These benefits then tie into the first point about employee recognition and rewards.
  • Data is Big: Many vendors were sharing solutions about data collection, reporting and updated dashboards to enable HR functions and ultimately the productivity of an organization. Data is all around us, and if we know it or not, the right data can help drive insights and provide knowledge for continual improvement.

HR Trends Correlate to Background Screening Industry

Many of the HR trends that were discussed at sessions and the vendor expo during SHRM17 directly correlate to the background screening industry. The 2017 Background Screening Trends & Best Practices Report uncovers details how HR professionals think about components of the hiring process and how they relate to the background screening industry, how emerging technology is impacting the candidate experience and emerging trends in employment background screening.  Sterling Talent Solutions recently surveyed 500+ US-based employers in 33 industries about their use of background screening to gain key insights into emerging trends, technology and more.

To get a general idea about the hiring outlook of our survey participants, we asked if they would see an increase in hiring for 2017. The majority (60%) of those that replied said that they expect hiring to increase in 2017. Increased hiring will bring a larger need for transparent hiring processes from recruiting through background screening to onboarding and first-day activities. Our survey found that companies find immense value in background screening with 80% of those surveyed saying that background checks uncover issues/information that wouldn’t have been found otherwise.

The top priorities of survey participants paralleled with conversations our teams had with attendees at SHRM17. Companies want to get new hires in the door quickly and efficiently with quality information for informed hiring decisions. Nearly half of employers surveyed (45%) said their biggest challenge was reducing the time to hire while 41% said it was improving the background screening process efficiently and 36% said improving the quality of information they had received to make their hiring decisions.  In addition to finding technologies that will provide a quicker and efficient hiring procedure, attendees were also looking for more data and compliance information to help with their hiring processes.

Looking Ahead to SHRM18

Working with thousands of clients, Sterling’s big ideas leverage technology to define industry standards, streamline complex processes and provide clients with hiring peace of mind. We look forward to SHRM 2018 in Chicago next June 17-20 as we continue our mission to deliver a simpler, smarter background screening and onboarding experience for you and your candidates.

This publication is for informational purposes only and nothing contained in it should be construed as legal advice. We expressly disclaim any warranty or responsibility for damages arising out this information. We encourage you to consult with legal counsel regarding your specific needs. We do not undertake any duty to update previously posted materials.