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In 2020, the pandemic hit. Companies around the world have had to adapt to drastic organisational changes and remote working. The future was unprecedented.
In 2021, organisations learned to shape, strengthen, and change the workplace culture in co-existing with the pandemic.
This enters 2022, the top HR priorities for HR leaders are shifting to adapt to the new world of work, and many are here to stay. What are the HR priorities in 2022 will you be focusing on?
1. Hybrid working model
While remote working was necessary during the pandemic, it is here to stay. We know that it works. Most employers will allow their employees to stay remote or choose their version of hybrid working.
Rather than being office-bound, HR leaders will need to adapt to the online workforce by offering support to employees preparing to work remotely.
Online communication channels such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, or Zoom are tools to hold regular online meetings or virtual events to keep your team connected no matter where they work from.
Most importantly, make sure your employees know you are there and available when they need support.
Employees and business leaders want to continue reaping the benefits of this work model, which will require HR to take the lead in managing human capital to maintain productivity and efficiency.
2. Focus on skills, not roles
Ask yourself: Would you invest big bucks today to attract the talent you need tomorrow? Or, risk competing with an under-skilled workforce?
Traditionally, companies have defined talent strategies using job titles and descriptions as the basis for talent management decisions.
However, a Gartner survey found that 47% among 339 HR leaders reported not knowing what skills gaps their current employees have, while 40% said they can’t develop skill development solutions fast enough to meet evolving skill needs.
Job roles no longer matter, employees’ skills are instead. Leaders are becoming more agile and honing their skills to identify, train, retain and engage talent by emphasising skills and competencies.
The more skills your employees have, the better they can fill skill gaps. As an HR leader, you need to take a proactive approach to reskilling talent that helps organisations meet evolving skill needs.
Another possible alternative is workforce analytics. You can improve the chances of organisational success by acting on the factors that you can control with a flexible solution such as Cornerstone Xplor — a platform where skills and AI meet to personalise development plans for employees.
Pay close attention to analysing data about changing skills requirements across the organisation. Learn how to enable a data-driven strategy for understanding the workforce’s skills level as they evolve to keep up with the new normal and improve operational excellence.
3. Positive change management
How much has it changed since the pandemic began?
From office-bound to working from home, face-to-face meetings to hosting virtual meetings, employees have become fatigued from all the changes in the work environment.
54% of HR leaders say their employees are feeling fatigued from all the rapid changes, according to a report by Gartner.
Not only does it affect employees’ intent to work, but also their confidence in leadership and their job performance. Ultimately, their motivation goes down the drain.
As a result, HR leaders must effectively implement organisational design to help employees perform better at work.
Focus on what works and what doesn’t. Find out what a positive, exciting vision of the future could look like. Picture what’s possible that the organisation can do to thrive better.
Change is not easy. So, establish trust among employees, managers, teammates, and leaders to make the change happen. They are likely to have 2.6 times the capacity to absorb change once they trust you.
4. Training managers to lead with empathy
Empathy goes a long way in employee engagement and enabling workforce resilience for the future.
However, many leaders are neither trained in empathic skills nor do they have the appropriate mindset to do so. In today’s corporate environment, empathy is becoming critical to developing the best leaders.
While some leaders may lack empathy, HR leaders see this as a failure to build trust with employees.
If a leader puts people above the processes, adopts a growth mindset, creates transparency, fosters an open culture, employees will trust the leader more and are more motivated at work.
This is why empathetic leadership is essential to empower leaders in that direction, regardless of team cohesion, crisis management, or building trust.
Be open to communication. Take the time to understand your employees’ needs and goals, assign them suitable projects for optimal satisfaction and performance. Look out for signs of burnout and help manage low-priority work.
5. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEI & B)
Another Gartner survey shows the progression of underrepresented talent stalls in mid-level and senior-level positions. Among the 200 HR leaders, 36% said they have difficulty holding management accountable to DEI goals.
Employees experience slower rates of promotion and are not perceived to have potential in leadership — it’s the lack of diversity in the pipeline that negatively impacts employees’ trust in their leaders.
Redefine the criteria leaders use to assess talent potential without bias before making any talent decisions.
Take a look at your hiring, promotion, and development metrics to see if you can spot potential biases in your processes.
Consider integrating objective data into talent processes, such as evaluating candidates for promotions or tracking leaders’ progress to lead inclusively.
The goal here is to ensure that all of your employees feel a sense of belonging within the organisation, regardless of gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and mental and physical abilities.
Cultivate a workplace environment where they can speak up, challenge ideas, bring new thinking to a project, contribute from a different point of view to make their value known in the organisation.
Accomplish your HR priorities in 2022 with us
Once you have planned your HR strategies for the year, you need the right tools to get where you want to be.
Ask questions along the way, whether big or small. Investigate their track record. One of the most effective tools is to achieve organisational goals is a comprehensive human capital management system. Not only can it enhance your business functions and productivity, but it can also make your HR processes run more smoothly in the long run.
Even better, by streamlining and automating all processes, you can spend more time on strategic planning to help meet your objectives for the year.
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