140+ New HR Trends & Stats For 2019

The field of human resources is going through a transformation.

In the past, it used to be all about making sure paperwork is filled out, hiring new employees and resolving office conflicts.

But you may have noticed a major shift in the industry, with HR professionals handling a lot more responsibilities than just recruiting–including increasing employees engagement, scheduling team activities and making sure everyone has a healthy and happy company culture.

HR professionals in companies big and small now automate most of their processes such as managing time off, running performance reviews and employee onboarding. The HR professional is now more of a “people role”. Running exit interviews to ensure the company as a whole learns and grows continuously, or setting up a plan for career progression to improve retention and employee performance is now the type of work that HR professionals focus on.

Many trendy companies now have People & Culture Managers or Chief Happiness Officers instead of a traditional HR manager. With companies battling it out for top talent, they want to make sure their employees enjoy coming to work every day.

In this post, we’ve gathered 140+ stats that show how the biggest human resources trends of 2019, the biggest problems faced by HR professionals currently, and the direction the HR landscape is moving towards.

Let’s get into it!

General HR Trends & Stats

Below you will find a few HR trends and stats that are interesting but don’t necessarily fit into some of the other categories. As we stated above, the world of human resources is changing very quickly, and I think the following stats illustrate that well!

1. 69% of employers say that all jobs are technically tech jobs – Source

2. 89% of candidates say that their phone is an important tool for job searching – Source

3. By 2020 37% of brands will hire more contractors, 23% more freelancers, and 13% more gig workers – Source

4. 67% of executives think that there will be more “work-based social media skills needed in the future” – Source

5. 84% of recruiters and hiring managers feel appreciated by their company – Source

6. The current job market is 90% candidate driven – Source

HR Automation Trends & Stats

Automation is impacting all sectors of the job market, and HR is not immune. However, unlike other industries, this automation trend will probably make the lives of HR professionals a lot easier.

Especially if they can automate a bunch of their repetitive tasks that take up a lot of time like talent sourcing, reviewing resumes and communicating with candidates. As you can see below, a majority of companies are already using some sort of simple automation but there are a ton of other ways it can be used!

7. 61% of companies are modifying jobs to better work with AI & automation – Source

8. Only 26% of companies think that they use HR data and analytics effectively – Source

9. 65% of companies think that the HR tech they used doesn’t help them reach their goals – Source

10. 62% of companies are using automation to eliminate simple and repetitive tasks – Source

11. 45% of recruiters think automation will make their job a lot better in the future – Source

12. 48% of HR managers will use automation and AI to help them do their job in the next 5 years – Source

13. Companies will spend around 33% of an employee’s salary replacing them – Source

14. 58% of hiring managers & recruiters say AI is most helpful in sourcing – Source

15. HR managers spend about 14 hours each week on tasks that could probably be automated – Source

16. Recruiters think that 100% of initial sourcing, screening, and matching can be automated – Source

17. 13% of HR professionals see AI already becoming part of their job – Source

18. Only 7% of HR managers think that AI or a bot could completely do their job – Source

Candidate Experience Trends & Stats

Recently, the job market has become very candidate-driven and there’s no evidence that it’s going to change anytime soon. Basically, this means that job seekers have more power in the employment market and choose from a myriad of open positions.

Instead of taking the first job they see, candidates can take the time to find the right position. In turn, this makes finding candidates for your open job postings is going to be more difficult than in the past. Or you will just see fewer people apply to your company this year.

Dealing with fewer candidates is never great but by improving your candidate experience you can make sure the right ones want to work for your company. And only your company!

19. 95% of job seekers would apply to a company again if they had a positive experience the first time – Source

20. 69% of potential employees would like the response time from companies to decrease – Source

21. 60% of companies are using video interviews in their hiring process – Source

22. 58% of recent hires say that their job search process lasted less than 2 months – Source

23. 55% of recent hires at startups say they received an offer less than 2 weeks after applying – Source

24. 89% of job seekers say that if their potential manager reaches out to them they will accept the job faster – Source

25. If a hiring manager gives feedback to applicants, they are 4x more likely to apply for another position in the future – Source

26. Candidates get most of their info about a company on their career page – Source

27. 72% of candidates post on Glassdoor or other review sites if they had a poor candidate experience with a brand – Source

28. 80% of job seekers wouldn’t apply to a company again if they didn’t receive any communication about their application status – Source

29. Talented job seekers are 4x more likely to apply to other positions in your company if you give them good feedback – Source

30. Only 27% of brands ask for feedback from a candidate after they are hired – Source

31. 85% of candidates that didn’t get the job believed that a real person at the company never looked at their application or resume – Source

32. 15% of employees will put more effort & time into their job if they had a good candidate experience – Source

33. 80% of job seekers would take a job over another one if they formed a good relationship with the recruiters or company as a whole – Source

34. 74% of candidates want to see a salary estimation in job descriptions – Source

Employee Engagement Trends & Stats

Engaged employees stick around longer and help your company succeed. It sounds simple. However, actually making sure they are engaged and happy is a challenge that HR professionals know well.

The mentality of a lot of companies used to be that many employees should just be grateful to have a job, period. But now that they could fill an open job somewhere very easily, companies are going to have to do more to encourage employee engagement.

35. Highly engaged workers will boost revenue growth by up to 2.3x – Source

36. Only 22% of managers think that they have created a unique employee engagement experience – Source

37. Companies with a strong mission/culture see 40% higher employee engagement – Source

38. 84% of companies think they need to rethink their work experience to increase productivity – Source

39. 85% of workers around the world are not engaged at their job at all – Source

40. 53% of employees think that their companies were effective at creating meaningful work – Source

41. 59% of employees think that their companies were effective at creating a positive work environment – Source

42. Employees that get feedback from their superiors each week are 43% more engaged – Source

43. 78% of HR professionals focus on increasing diversity to improve culture – Source

44. 43% of job seekers left their previous position to find one that paid better – Source

45. Burnout costs around 190 Billion in healthcare expenses and lost productivity. Ask yourself: Is your job putting your health at risk? – Source

46. 26% of all work is done during non-working hours – Source

47. On average, workers really only get a little under 3 hours of work done each day – Source

48. 40% of workers continue using their work devices after 10 PM – Source

49. 66% of employees don’t think they have a healthy work/life balance – Source

50. The US ranks 30th out of 38th for work/life balance – Source

51. 65% of employees look at other open jobs within 3 months of starting a new position – Source

52. 58% of employees look at other job postings at least once a month – Source

53. 20% of all employee turnover happens in the first 45 days – Source

54. 63% of former employees rate their past companies as very good or excellent to work at – Source: Capterra

Employer Branding Trends & Stats

Your employer brand is what your employees think about your company and the values you stand for.

Having a strong employer brand is one of the best things you can do to help your company stand out to candidates. If you have a strong enough employer brand, consumers will start to take notice and it will impact your overall brand.

55. 75% of employees research a brand on before they apply – Source

56. 50% of employees think employer branding is an important part of their HR approach – Source

57. 50% of candidates wouldn’t work for a company with a negative brand, even for more money –

58. Negative reviews are the top thing that damages an employer branding –

59. Facebook was the most used social media to research employer branding – Source

60. 68% of millennials visit the company’s social media sites to research employer branding – Source

61. 70% of job seekers changed their mind about a negative review if the brand respond to the criticism – Source

62. 64% of consumers have stopped buying from a company if they treat their employees poorly – Source

63. 66% of job seekers think that if they interact with current employees they can get some solid insight about the company – Source

64. A strong employer brand decreases turnover by 28% – Source

65. A strong employer brand can decrease the cost of hiring someone by 50% as well – Source

66. The biggest struggle for potential candidates is knowing what the company is like on a day to day basis – Source

67. 72% of recruiting leaders think that employer branding has a big impact on hiring – Source

68. A poor employer brand or reputation increases the cost per hire by 10% – Source

69. 92% of candidates would leave their current position to join a company with an excellent employer brand or reputation – Source

70. 91% of candidates think that a bad website or online presence damages an employer brand – Source

71. 67% of candidates would accept a reduced salary at a company with a great employer brand – Source

72. 82% of employees say that company culture is a strong competitive advantage – Source

Employee Onboarding Trends & Stats

One of the easiest ways for you to make sure you have a long-term engaged employee is to onboard them correctly. As you can see below, it will also decrease your overall turnover by a large margin.

Now if you want to make sure everyone in your company has a consistent onboarding experience, I would recommend creating a collection of visually engaging graphics. Because no one wants to read a book on their first day but they will gladly read something that uses visuals and graphics to summarize complex info.

73. 39% of companies spend between 1-3 days onboarding all of their new hires – Source

74. 88% of brands don’t onboard new employees well – Source

75. 81% of companies think that onboarding employees for a new role is just as important as onboarding new hires – Source

76. 33% of employees say their onboarding process is too inconsistent or informal – Source

77. Only 37% of companies use an onboarding process that lasts longer than a month – Source

78. 40% of new employees say that responses from HR take too long – Source

79. 72% of employes say that interacting with their manager 1-on-1 is the most important onboarding activity – Source

80. Brands with a strong onboarding process increase new employee retention by 82% – Source

81. 54% of brands with a great onboarding process saw higher than average employee engagement – Source

82. 29% of HR managers and professionals say onboarding is their biggest employee engagement challenge – Source

Employee Perks Trends & Stats

Not everyone can offer a state of the art gym, in-house laundry service or a full-time chef in their office like Google can.

Those perks may create some buzz and flashy headlines but most of the time they are just ploys to get employees to never leave the office.

Simple things like the ability to work from home or from another country can not only delight your current employees but also attract new ones. Or just making sure your culture and perks are aligned.

For example, if you say that you want your employees to have a healthy body, mind, and soul, maybe offer an allowance for gym memberships or other self-care options.

83. Turnover decreases by 25% at companies that let their employees work remotely – Source

84. 77% of potential employees say that they will accept a job offer if they can work from home at some point – Source

85.37% of employees say that better perks will help them stay more engaged at the office – Source

86. 31% of employees say that more challenging work will help them stay more engaged at the office – Source

87. 31% of employees say that less bureaucracy will help them stay more engaged at the office – Source

88. Only 11% of workers said that their perks are actually aligned with their company culture – Source

89. 23% of managers and leaders don’t know what perks their employees actually value – Source

90. There has been a 115% increase in remote work over the past 15 years – Source

91. Remote work is actually more common for workers over 35 – Source

92. 80% of millennials want the opportunity to work abroad – Source

Talent Sourcing, Recruiting & Hiring Trends

The recruiting part of the HR playbook has transformed over the past few years, and it seems people are still trying to figure out what the best practices are. However, one of the biggest HR trends taking over recruitment is social recruiting. (Our friends at BambooHR recently wrote a detailed guide to an effective recruitment process.)

Some of the best candidates out there aren’t even looking for a job at the moment. But they would be open to a new opportunity if it was presented to them, like on social media.

Just take a look at some of the data about social recruiting below and see if it’s worth adding to your recruiting playbook this year. I think it will be.

93. Only 41% of companies have an established structure for promoting internal hires – Source

94. 94% of hiring managers use social media to find the best candidates – Source

95. 78% of HR professionals say that diversity is very important in their hiring – Source

96. 27% of recruiters say that a long hiring process is hurting their attempts at hiring new candidates – Source

97. Referred employees take on average 26 fewer days to hire – Source

98. 46% of referred employees stay at their job more than a year, with only 22% for employees coming from a job site – Source

99. 90% of employers say that they need to be more strategic with their hiring practices – Source

100. Managers review around 40 resumes per position – Source

101. Hiring managers interview 7 people on average per open position – Source

102. 49% of hiring managers say that lack of soft skills keep them from hiring potential candidates – Source

103. 44% of employers say a bad hire will drag down overall team morale – Source

104. 79% of companies want to promote from within instead of hiring someone new – Source

105. HR managers make 3x more offers when they use a talent resource management platform – Source

106. 45% of employers are struggling to find the right talent for open positions – Source

107. 75% of HR managers are open to hiring alternative workers like freelance or contract workers –Source

108. 45% of companies say that their employees lack info about open job inside the company – Source

109. 56% of employees said that they could find a job at a different company easier than their own – Source

110. 38% of companies struggle to find diverse candidates to interview for their positions – Source

111. 63% of hiring managers struggle judging their candidate’s soft skills in the hiring process – Source

112. If your resum

e has a single error, 20% of hiring managers would not consider it at all – Source

113. 60% of applicants will quit an application if it’s too long & tedious – Source

114. It takes about 27 days on average to hire a new employee – Source

115. 46% of HR & recruiters see recruitment becoming more like marketing in the near future – Source

116. Employers spend between 6 and 11 seconds per resume before making a decision – Source

117. 82% of companies use social media to find and recruit passive job seekers – Source

118. 73% of employers are having a hard time finding the right talent this year – Source

119. 80% of hiring managers and recruiters actually contact references on a resume – Source

120. 77% of recruiters hire someone that they didn’t think would fit the role at first – Source

121. 60% of recruiters say that culture fit is the most important factor when making a hiring decision – Source

122. 50% of candidates apply to 5 jobs or fewer during their job search – Source

123. 44% of hiring managers say reviewing resumes slows down the hiring process the most – Source

124. 70% of recruiters say they have used social media to successfully hire a candidate – Source

125. 83% of potential candidates are active on Facebook – Source

126. 40% of potential candidates are active on Twitter – Source

127. 36% of potential candidates are active on LinkedIn – Source

128. Only 63% of recruiters actively use Facebook to find talent – Source

129. Brands can expand their talent pool by 10x just by asking their employees to share the postings – Source

130. Over 70% of brands are investing in recruitment marketing this year – Source

131. It takes only 10 days for top talent to get hired or offered a position – Source

132. 47% of all companies are finding a few or no qualified candidates for their positions this year – Source

133. Only 36% of the workforce is actively looking for a new job but almost 3x more are open to new positions – Source

134. 67% of large companies are having trouble filling their open roles – Source

135. 41% of hiring managers won’t interview a candidate if they can’t find them online – Source

136. 44% of full-time employees subscribe to a job email list, even though they already have a position – Source

137. 90% of recruiters would rather hire someone who is actively looking for a new job – Source

138. 250 people apply to every job opening on average – Source

139. 63% of job openings are for newly created positions – Source

140. 74% of employees were willing to move to a new location for a job – Source

Congratulations, you made it to the end of this massive HR trends post! Hopefully, you learned something about where the HR industry is headed in the near future.

I think one of the biggest takeaways from these stats was that it’s hard to hire the perfect candidate for your company. So you really need to make sure that everything leading up to them seeing a job post or accepting a job offer is in order.

That means your social media sites and posts should reflect your brand values or culture. Because that’s where a lot of these candidates are going to interact with your company for the first time.

I would recommend investing more time and effort in employer branding this year as well. That will help your company stand out as a great place to work.

And finally, make sure that your onboarding and candidate experience process is professional but shows off a little bit of your company culture.

Effective onboarding is essential in the workplace now. Just take a look at the stats about how effective onboarding can help your company in the long run.

Now, if all of those things running effectively, you will be in a great position to find and hire new employees this year.

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