A new study has revealed that employee engagement looks set to be a top priority for human resources professionals in 2019.

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The HR Landscape Report states that employee engagement is the top priority for the second year in a row as 40 per cent of over 400 respondents said that it would be the biggest challenge they face in the next year.

Recruitment and retention came second and third with 37 per cent of the vote and 36 per cent respectively. This was followed by the management of absences, which was cited by 29 per cent of the 423 human resources professionals surveyed, and well-being, which will be a priority for 22 per cent of respondents.

2018’s challenges

Many HR professionals working in-house and for HR outsourcing services have also faced similar challenges this year. The annual Landscape Report for 2019 found that HR executives, managers and executives had found recruitment a major challenge during 2018, with 45 per cent reflecting that this was the toughest area of their job this year.

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Absence management came in second when HR professionals looked back at the toughest encounters of 2018, followed by GDPR compliance and staff retention coming in joint third. These challenges give a clear indication why many companies are choosing to outsource HR tasks to outside companies such as www.mushroombiz.co.uk/homepage/services/hr/.

The HR specialists questioned for the HR Landscape survey did believe they had successes in some areas during 2018 with 35 per cent saying that they had excelled in retention and 32 per cent claiming a successful year in relation to well-being. Also, 32 per cent of the respondents claimed to have had a good 12 months in the area of L&D, whilst 30 per cent claimed that diversity matters had proven to be a major success.

Data protection problems

The respondents were also asked about GDPR and 66 per cent said that the legislative overhaul experienced had caused problems but had been manageable. A Guide to the General Data Protection Regulation can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation.

Fairly unsurprisingly, Brexit featured in the study, with 52 per cent of human resources executives and managers admitting to having some worries about the impact and ambiguity of Britain’s exit from the EU. Only 19 per cent said that they were extremely concerned, however.