The Post-Covid world has emphasized the need for the talent market to be extremely creative. Quintessential HR functions operate as a ‘new normal’ in many ways – HR teams are looking through the kaleidoscope of employee and business demands to achieve long term, sustainable, career and organizational growth under challenging market trends. Following are some top themes that will get most of HR attention and evangelization of trends in 2023.
Customized Employee Experience for Employee Engagement and Retention
The job-insecurity phase of 2020 and the talent surge of 2021 had increased productivity and ROI for the employers but it also eroded employee loyalty. Remote work, employer-behavior towards low performers and layoffs have created a foggy sense of ‘disassociation’ among employees and today also sees a dip in productivity as globally reported. HRs across the world are looking at ways to bring back the sense of community and belongingness that keep employees engaged and inspired.
Companies tailor benefits to different employees’ needs- with a focus on up-skilling and wellness programs that appeal to their employees and makes them feel cared for. Organizations are taking a creative approach to regain employee connect and engagement by creating custom employee experiences ranging from awards and events to opening up growth opportunities through internal job moves. HRs have put the spotlight on positive reinforcements through frequent, multi-channel feedback and relevant touch points to help employees identify and work on areas that can help them land better opportunities within the organization.
A combination of employee retention and engagement, intelligent adoption of the hybrid work culture, bots/AI analytics-based insights and engagement, diversity and inclusion, standardized HR practices in the face of mergers/demergers and employer branding (including social media branding) are some of the key trends to watch out for in the year 2023.
Usage of Bots, AI based analytics to give insights into employee performance, attrition triggers, pulse and parity of designation-wise salaries are sought after by employers looking to grow and take employees along their journey. By embracing chatbots and surveys that generate continuous real-time reports and trends, companies have started customizing experiences based on what matters to which segment of employees to score high in the ‘preferred employer’ space. These experience-touch points create a ‘happy mindset’ at work, increase learnability and a positive-association with the company – that in turn has a direct bearing on the retention of top talent. 2023 will see many programs directed towards customized loyalty initiatives and employee-experience touch-points to virtually retain the ‘bond’ with the employee.
Workplace 2.0 – the Phygital way forward.
The definition of ‘workplace’ underwent a 360 degree turn in recent times . The successful large-scale adoption of ‘remote work’ demonstrated that productivity and talent are location agnostic. The place where the employee is most comfortable bringing out the best in him/her while continuing to hone his/her talents is now the ‘workplace’ – it could be physically being present in the office or in the comfort of one’s home. There are proven merits of being in office and getting things done, especially initiatives that require a combination of close collaboration and creativity. Employees have shown that they want both – remote and in-person at their choice not the company’s and there’s no fixed formula for a hybrid work culture to succeed.
2023 will see a combination of physical and digital presence of employees, the trends of improving virtual connects, providing work-spaces for mind share, ensuring that the presence or absence in office doesn’t effect or impact the day-to-day needs of the organization or the career growth of employees.
Also read: Amazon summoned by Labour Ministry over complaint alleging labour law violations in layoffs
Diversity and inclusion – Extends over new paradigms
For any company, the entire world is the new talent marketplace – that’s the tremendous shift brought in by virtual-remote-working options. Hiring has entered an entirely new paradigm and talent hunt has broken the barriers of location owing to relaxation of ‘in-office’ work – this introduces a different segment of talent, some of these employees may have a different culture and outlook towards work and life. Employees from different nationalities, countries, segments of society come together virtually for work and companies should exercise an angle of sensitivity to make it easier for everyone to integrate. The ability to accept and understand different diversities, including talents from different thought-processes becomes key.
There are different generations of people working in a workplace today; from baby-boomers to GenZ’ers – HRs need to bring in innovative ways to fuel collaboration between these diverse cohorts. An intelligent referral program will also help existing employees to refer more of ‘their kind’ therefore making the workplace closer knit. Diversity, a healthy gender mix and inclusivity is going to continue being the most sought-after approach for HR in 2023. The need for a strong ‘all-binding’ work culture is most crucial.
Continued Agility and Change Management – Mergers and Demergers
Acquisitions, mergers, listings, de-listings and outright company purchases. Anything is possible in today’s business landscape. As companies scale up or down to identify and evaluate options of optimum size, there will continue to be a need for agility and change management that HRs must brace themselves for. This trend will continue in 2023 due to changing economic conditions, approach of companies and the sheer dynamics of the businesses.
The Reign of social media Continues
Active engagement and intelligent brand building on social media has helped companies attract the right talent and aid brand recall. Companies must be conscious of who they are and what they want to be – this messaging should reflect on social media platforms. 2023 will continue seeing the trend of creative high-engagement, social media brand positioning and recall strategies that companies will invest in. There is a clear ‘get-ahead’ advantage for these companies and the impact will make a strong difference.
Conclusion
In conclusion, a combination of employee retention and engagement, intelligent adoption of the hybrid work culture, bots/AI analytics-based insights and engagement, diversity and inclusion, standardized HR practices in the face of mergers/demergers and employer branding (including social media branding) are some of the key trends to watch out for in the year 2023. At Qualitest, we strive to achieve the highest levels of employee experience and engagement – our growth story and employee satisfaction scores are showing us in good light and our target is to be a leading organization in the new normal of work, the workplace and the workforce.
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