• 2. More Selective Hiring and Promotion.  Once (and sometimes twice and three times) burned, more employers are using Strategic Success Hiring.  What's Strategic Success Hiring?  It's a process to hire (and promote) employees who have the skills, abilities and potential to be innovative at a faster pace in a more complex and competitive business marketplace.  Better selection means more organizations will improve their screening, interviewing and selection. In addition to improving behavioral interview techniques, more organizations will be using screening and selection assessments for every position from the low-wage hourly employee to CEO.  A trend that began in 2007 with no end in sight in 2008 is that more managers are recognizing that tools like DISC are just not predictive enough with so much at stake to hire key people.  Managers are demanding more accurate new-hire evaluations and competency-focused assessments.  Powerful tools like ASSESS and Prevue are becoming commonplace in a manager's hiring toolbox.

• 3. More Aggressive Recruitment.  Raising the bar in a scarce job market means traditional recruitment strategies are dead.  Finding skilled employees who can do the job plus collaborate with multiple teams and fit in your culture will require aggressive and innovative recruitment solutions.  A few of the solutions gaining acceptance (especially for small business) include online applicant processing systems and recruiting through social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and Linkedin.  Employers in 2008 will also experience more "poaching" of their employees from the competition - inside and outside their industry.

• 4. Performance Management Will Become The Competitive Edge.  Employers are finally getting it - performance management is not just a buzz-word for annual performance review.  Rewriting and re-formatting the dreaded annual review form is not improving performance management. Performance management is a strategic solution, driven  by senior management (not HR), that helps ensure every employee is measured for his/her contributions toward achieving business goals and objectives.  Several recent studies have demonstrated strong links between measuring managing employee performance and increased profitability, top-line growth, and reduced turnover.  More businesses will begin to take performance management seriously in 2008.  It's easier said than done and will take much of the year to implement.  But watch out for these businesses in 2009 and beyond - they will dominate.

• 5. Leadership Gaps Will Grow.  Like the problems I mentioned earlier with hiring for key management and sales positions, many executives and owners have learned the hard way that many of their successors have not lived up to their billing.  And when they looked down their bench, they found their depth charts very weak.  Like performance management, leadership development and executive coaching will finally be given credence as a strategic investment, not just an optional HR training exercise or remedial development for under-performing managers.

• 6. HR Will Be Measured Closely. Up until now, HR for many businesses is held no more accountable than a college kid living on Daddy's allowance and credit card advances.   2008 will see a change in how the efficacy and efficiency of HR is measured.  Metrics such as recruiting efficiency and profit per employee and hiring satisfaction will replace ineffective measures such as turnover rates and cost to hire. 

• 7. Gen Y Training a Wise Move.  While many managers are still hung up on how to manage the independence and mobility of Gen X,  here comes Generation Y. For the first time in history, four generations are working side-by-side and the recipe has all the makings of a firecracker with a short fuse.  Recognizing that combining the knowledge of their older workers with the innovation and vibrancy of younger workers is a key competitive advantage, more and more organizations are attempting to capture the energy of such a diverse workforce and channel it into productive behavior.  I expect to see a rising demand for generational training.

• 8. Salaries - Up, Up and Away.  The scarce pool of talented workers has made this a seller's market.  Skilled workers are demanding more pay and benefits and getting it.  Like any situation where demand outstrips supply, higher salaries are only to be expected.  But as the saying goes, "you get what you pay for."  To ensure managers are actually getting what who the candidate says he is, pre-employment testing and background/reference checks are becoming the norm, not the exception. 

There you have it - 8 trends for 2008.  Will I be right?  Can you afford to be wrong?  Only time will tell but you can stay ahead of your competition by resolving to read updates in The Total View every week in 2008.