11 Future HR trends you should know about in 2022
The pandemic has shaken up the world, leaving no single area of how we live, what we do, or who we are untouched. And especially in the workplace, we have witnessed the emergence of new ways of working, new policies, new rules for leadership, and collaboration. Our perception about "New Work" has shifted from yoga and mindfulness for some few towards a major priority for CHROs and CEOs around the world who rushed to experiment with online events, new digital tools, VR trainings, AI-driven processes, and so much more. A lot of those experiments failed, but even more succeeded.
At the end of the year, we studied 50+ reports, so you don't have to. We tapped into the experience and insights of top HR research and consultancies, like Fosway Group or Josh Bersin, universities like The Center for Leadership in the Future of Work, and the media. We examined the market development and employee requirements and found that there are 11 new work trends you should know about in 2022. And here they are:
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We discussed each of the future HR trends on our podcast with "Persoblogger" Stefan Scheller in detail. Stefan is an HR expert, manager at DATEV, and the founder of one of the largest HR websites in the German-speaking world. The podcast episode is respectively in German, but we will discuss the future HR trends briefly in this article.
1. The Human Workplace
A human-centered era begins shifting focus from process to people. While we expect it to take a while, this trend will be evident in most large organizations because of what matters to employees at work in 2022.
2. War for Talent
One of the reasons is the growing demand and shortage of skilled workers, especially in the growing industries. While the EU job market is still recovering from the pandemic, we have an all-time high of vacant positions in the USA. Companies notice "The Great Resignation" - a trend of millions of employees voluntarily leaving their jobs for seven months in a row since April 2021.
3. Talent Intelligence
Next to providing a human-centric environment, businesses will step up their recruitment strategies. As active sourcing is quite time-consuming and costly, they will expand their "talent intelligence" with advanced analytics of publicly available data, e.g. here in LinkedIn.
4. Individual Learning and Upskilling Paths
The war for talent will force companies "to work with what they have". This will prioritize the requirement for flexibility and individual learning, development, upskilling, and reskilling paths within the organization. Concepts like mentoring and digital onboarding will continue to gain importance.
5. Skills Taxonomy
Upskilling for the digital transformation and reskilling employees internally for jobs in demand will require an agile approach towards talent development. In 2022 organizations will put an emphasis on creating a skills taxonomy and installing internal talent marketplaces.
6. New Pay
Finding talent will require companies to tap into the potential of diversity in the broadest possible ways. They will need to offer not just flexible working contracts and conditions, but also rethink remuneration. In 2022 the trend to experiment with alternative pay models like daily or on-demand pay will continue to grow.
7. Over-coaching
With several hundred applications on average per organization and learning and development booming, employees will often find themselves in the pressure to have to complete several "offerings" at the same time. We only discovered this trend in December 2021 and are curious how it will develop over the year.
8. From Diversity to Belonging
The social divide is growing despite the recent wind for diversity in 2020 and 2021. While gender equality, the LGBTQIA+ movement, equity, and inclusion will continue to be important, this year great places to work will put the emphasis on fostering "belonging" and transforming a workplace into a community.
9. Employee Experience
While some top employers have made EX the center of their talent engagement strategy already, latest by 2022 employee experience will take over the entire employee journey in the entire organization. We will be studying good practices and sharing them here in this newsletter.
10. From Hybrid Work to Metaverse
Not only because Facebook changed its name to meta, the metaverse is here to stay. It refers to something as general as the "cyberspace" and something as futuristic as immersive digital experiences at the same time. At work, the metaverse describes examples like using VR/AR for training or providing employees with a full-fleshed digital identity, beyond a profile picture (e.g. avatars). This is only the beginning of one of the biggest future HR trends.
11. Sustainability as HR Priority
Lastly, sustainability seems to have finally arrived on top of the management agenda putting the pressure on HR to incorporate it into its talent strategies. The word is not just about "green IT" or sustainable canteens, but all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations, e.g. for social inclusion, too.
All in all, we expect a year at least as volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambivalent as the years before. But one thing is certain - we are not going back to normal.
To find out more about how Mentessa can foster a culture of connection and create a happier, more motivated and productive workforce:
This article was originally published here.
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