Stay vigilant when it comes to compliance

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), tax reform, pay equity and immigration are all recent issues that have been top-of-mind. According to the ADPRI study, the volume of government regulations, health care costs and health care reform legislation are midsized business owners' top concerns. Further, comparing the pre-election versus post-election outlook on ACA, the ADPRI study found that there has been a 13 percent shift among organizations from expecting to "move forward with business as usual" to "not sure" how they will proceed. Midsized business owners need to stay alert to ever-changing regulations because non-compliance can be costly. According to the same study, 40 percent of respondents indicated they've experienced unintended expenses related to noncompliance, and about half of them don't even know how many fines or penalties their organization received. 

Waiting to see how the regulatory landscape unfolds is fine, but businesses need to strategically and simultaneously develop plans that take into account the current compliance landscape while keeping an eye on the future. HR leaders should assess whether their team has the ability to quickly evaluate shifts in regulations that may impact their business and swiftly adapt internal processes to meet those changes. They should also consider whether the HR department is spending too much time focused on compliance at the expense of other areas. If so, they might want to consider a third-party expert who can monitor the regulatory landscape on their behalf. 

Don't lose focus on employee engagement

The economy is running at close to full employment, which means the battle for skilled talent is at its peak. Additionally, the new "gig economy" has thrown a wrench in the standard way of operating as more talent seeks part-time and freelance work. 

Despite these circumstances, midsized business owners' concerns about engaging their employees declined significantly in the ADPRI study, dropping from 41 to 34 percent from 2015 to 2016. It's unlikely that this is a sign of improved overall engagement.  Rather, it may indicate that engagement's become less of a focus for employers. 

Companies cannot lose sight of their biggest asset, their people, especially at a time when attracting, engaging and retaining top talent is more challenging than ever. Businesses now need to be flexible enough to keep employees engaged in an environment where talent is scarce yet contract workers are abundant. 

Providing a wide selection of attractive benefits offerings can be a good place to start. A study by Glassdoor® shows that four out of five employees would actually prefer better benefits over a pay raise. Further, according to the ADPRI study, Fixing the Talent Management Disconnect, benefits are among the top reasons employees choose to stay with a company. The top reason they choose to leave, however, is a poor relationship with their direct manager. Bad managers may not be intentionally malicious; they might simply need better tools and training to manage their employees. 

Ask yourself:  Is your company's management nurturing employees' passions and helping them achieve their potential? If you're not sure, maybe it's time to put a formal employee engagement plan in place. Survey your employees to find out how they are feeling and then invest in the tools to help them succeed. Next, establish a measurement system to benchmark engagement levels. By providing managers with data, you can help them identify where potential flight risks may exist, so that they can create plans to improve engagement with certain employees. 

Use technology to keep employees engaged.

While analytics, chatbots, and artificial intelligence are altering the way we work, they are not about to make your job obsolete. According to the McKinsey® 2017 A Future that Works report, only a very small number of occupations—less than 5 percent in the U.S.—have the potential to become fully automated. While a robot may not replace your job, robotics can help you better handle certain tasks. For example, if you process payroll, robotics can help eliminate a lot of the manual, administrative tasks so that you can focus more on strategic planning. Further, using artificial intelligence and chatbots can help employees lessen what they may consider menial tasks like benefits enrollment. A chatbot could push an automatic message out to employees reminding them that benefits enrollment is upcoming.  Analytics, then, could show what people "like them" have selected, helping them make more informed decisions. Not only does this type of communication keep employees engaged, it also allows them to quickly get back to the job they were hired to do. 

Remember:  Staying compliant and keeping employees engaged are two vital steps to staying in business. Don't let uncertainty today leave an open path for more prepared competitors to win over your clients and talent tomorrow.