Michael Custers, CMO of SD Worx, a leading HR and payroll provider, discusses the changes and trends he expects to see in 2020.

In 2020, we will continue to see people wanting to control their work/life balance, so businesses are going to need to adapt their HR and payroll processes so that the boundaries and fixed agreements become more fluid to accommodate.

We will go into more detail on the different ways in which these processes will become fluid in 2020, including points on:

• No more set paydays; as more people want to be paid in different ways, 2020 will see demands on the HR and payroll departments to accomodate for flexi-pay. This could be anything from advance pay, to counter payday loans, through to paying people in other ways, not necessarily directly into their banks on a monthly basis.
• The change in reward mechanisms; we will see a move in 2020 towards a variety of rewards being introduced into the workplace, especially as employees look to be remunerated in different ways, not necessarily in monetary value, but rather other benefits such as flexi-working or insurance packages.
• Constant performance management; 2020 will see even more pressure for continuous feedback relating to performance management, as opposed to the traditional once or twice yearly reviews. The diversification of the workforce could see all kinds of mixes of employees within one business, from full time freelancers to part time permanents, and whilst in the past non-permanent employees have never been inclusive across the board when it comes to performance management or benefits, there will need to be a shift in HR and payroll to ensure that the variety of job roles are catered for and the fluid nature of the workforce is manageable and inclusive.
• Focus on an end-to-end workforce approach and who owns what 

Due to the fluidity of the workforce, as an employer in 2020, the default isn’t permanent employment for all roles. More employers will start to run through the multiple employment options such as temporary or seasonal staff through to long term freelancers and all that’s in between, and hire according to demand.The consequence of this fluidity for HR leaders, is that these different roles are currently worlds apart – permanent is the domain of HR, whereas temp is the domain of procurement/operations. In 2020, businesses will need to get visibility across both.

Mid-market is now actively adopting HR tech

For the last 10 years the focus of HR tech investment has been on the Fortune 1000 employers, however in 2020, the attention is now shifting to mid-sized companies, as evidenced in the rise of various startups and aggregators.

The consequence for HR leaders is that the mid-market has similar appetite for technology and similar high complexity as enterprise market, but does not have the HR organization and budgets. This means they will be looking for solutions which can give them enterprise-grade solutions at mid-market rates, with less internal employees in the HR and payroll positions to support this fluidity. Mid-market has been witnessing a surge in HR tech adoption for last 10 years – and in 2020 they want their fair share.