For businesses across all industries. 2022 will likely act as the litmus test for the new working structure for businesses who are looking to embed the lessons learned over the past year and place a greater focus on driving forward their post-pandemic recovery.
In our latest guide, we’ve compiled the top 10 HR trends that business leaders and people teams need to be aware of to drive forward their strategy in 2022 and beyond. We have reached out to the wider HCM market and our customers and have identified some of the key challenges businesses can expect to face as we move into the new year.
Don’t have time to read the whole guide today? Don’t worry, as we’ve decided to put together some of the highlights and to help you understand some of the key factors organisations need to be aware of moving forward.
Attracting the best talent
Despite widespread disruption to the overall workforce over the past couple of years, the recruitment cycle and hunt for talent is set to be more fierce than ever over the coming year.
The past couple of years has seen the traditional shape of the workforce undergo a dramatic transformation, with the switch to wider hybrid models presenting no small amount of challenges for HR teams when it comes to recruiting and onboarding talent.
2022 doesn’t look set to buck this trend, with a survey by Willis Towers Watson finding that 70% of employers are expecting to face challenges around attracting talent into the new year. With their future success hinging on bringing onboard the right people to fill key positions, it is understandable that businesses are wary about any potential roadblocks to their talent acquisition strategies.
Retaining talent
Equally as important as an organisation’s ability to acquire new talent will be how effectively they are able to retain the services of the experienced workforce who are already a part of their business. High retention rates naturally supplement the process of talent acquisition as new recruits join an organisation alongside a well embedded team of experienced colleagues who will be able to offer invaluable knowledge and insight into the working processes of a company.
Strong employee retention levels have a fundamentally positive impact on businesses. Organisations who are able to foster a happy and positive working environment populated by satisfied, long time employees, will find they have an easier time communicating the ethos and culture of their company to new hires.
Communication is key in retaining the services of your people. Already, businesses are pivoting the way in which they engage with employees, using pulse surveys or one on one discussions to get the measure of the mood of employees. A continued commitment to flexible working will also be one of the key ways to retain the services of new hires and businesses will need to ensure that they have the proper frameworks in place in order to support this.
Skill centric talent development
Employee training ensures that you encourage the growth and development of your people, making sure that they have the tools and knowledge to empower them to achieve the most in their roles.
For 2022 and beyond, the importance of upskilling and fostering employee’s desires for learning and development will be a driving factor in helping to attract and retain talent. The younger generation in particular, appears to be shying away from traditional financial inducements or the cushy perks which used to be held in high regard. Recent incidences of high turnover across all sectors points towards a workforce who is looking to be rewarded in more ways than just financial and suggests an increased hunger for learning and development.
For HR teams, this means a focus on tools to help capture skills and qualifications as well as driving conversations around certification and upskilling. This may be an area where the current systems and processes utilised by businesses aren’t sophisticated enough to move in lockstep with their wider requirements.
When looking at the broader issue of talent acquisition and retention for 2022 and beyond, organisations will need to consider how well embedded their programmes of learning and development are and if they are able to offer clearly defined pathways for advancement and growth for new hires.
The role of workforce management in driving productivity
For businesses across all sectors, productivity is going be the driving force behind any future business strategies. After the stresses of the past couple of years, all organisations will be firmly focused on casting aside that period of disruption and upheaval and driving forward their profitability.
A key element in achieving this success will be how effectively businesses can leverage the technology and systems they use In order to remain connected with their employees and craft a working environment which is able to nurture and drive a sense of productivity and engagement. The wider shift to flexible working has also demanded that organisations re evaluate their internal structure, requiring HR teams and management to rethink some of the ways that productivity and engagement can be measured.
The Advanced trends survey found that 44% of HR professionals felt that ensuring that employees have access to the right tools in order to be productive is one of the major qualities which business leaders must strive for. A further 56% cited the ability to stay connected with their hybrid workforce to be another key element.
From the HR perspective, the ability to leverage this information and effectively craft and promote policy around productivity will largely be dependant on their capacity and workload. For this reason, businesses will need to explore ways of their businesses can achieve the power of doing less- maximising their impact and influence whilst also reducing the amount of time sacrificed to manual processes and admin heavy tasks.
Flexible working and the employee experience
The past year has served to demonstrate that hybrid working is more than just a trend and has in many instances made the leap from emergency expedience to a fully embedded part of working culture.
As we move into 2022 and beyond, the broader subject of flexible working poses two major questions for organisations. Firstly, how do you continue to remain connected and engaged with a workforce which is becoming increasingly widespread and secondly, how can you ensure a universal employee experience for staff who are split between home and the office?
With the modern workforce looking to become more disparate than ever, it is crucial that organisations have the frameworks in place in order to support the demand for hybrid working. Appraisals, feedback sessions and even your everyday team meetings take on an added layer of complexity when accounting for a hybrid workforce. Organisations need to also be mindful of the asynchronous nature of hybrid working and to ensure that meeting scheduling is left flexible to account for varied work schedules.
The adoption of new platforms such as self service workforce management systems will be an asset for organisations looking to bridge the gap between their employees and provide a way to stay in touch with their people easily and effectively, wherever they are working from.
Want to learn more?
The HR function has a huge role to play in ensuring the future success of organisations as we move into the new year and beyond. HR is an are ripe for digital transformation across all sectors and as HR professionals continue to be folded into the wider world of business strategy planning, it’s only good sense that the systems and processes they use are working in lockstep to free them from the drudgery of admin tasks and allowing their talents to be leveraged elsewhere.
Fundamentally, the challenges facing HR next year will continue to be ensuring that the organisations they work for remain aware of and agile to shifts within the wider working world. From the competitive nature of the jobs market to broader demands for greater societal and cultural awareness, it is clear that the most successful and resilient brands will be those who are able to embrace the ever changing nature of the modern working world.
Curious to discover more about how your organisation can best prepare for the challenges facing the management of the workforce in 2022? Download our new guide today to find out more about the trends and challenges expected in the new year and how our cloud HR software solution can help.
For anything else, or to let us know what you think the new year may bring, get in touch with one of our friendly team members today.
