Human resources have changed a lot over the years, especially since the onset of the pandemic. We’ve outlined 3 of the latest top HR trends for 2022 and 2023 to help you stay on top of your game and ensure that you attract and retain top talent easily and effectively.
HR best practices are always evolving, especially as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The competitive forces that managers face today and will continue to confront in the future demand organizational excellence. The efforts to achieve such excellence—through a focus on learning, quality, teamwork, and reengineering—are driven by the way organizations get things done and how they treat their people. Those are fundamental HR issues and achieving organizational excellence takes work and requires consistent and constant attention.
Technology.
From videoconferencing to the Internet, technology has made our world smaller and faster. Ideas and massive amounts of information are in constant movement. The challenge for managers is to make sense and good use of what technology offers. Not all technology adds value. But technology can and will affect how and where work gets done. In the coming years, managers will need to figure out how to make technology a viable, productive part of the work setting. Otherwise, they risk being swallowed by a tidal wave of data—not ideas.
While it became a necessity during the pandemic, offering employees hybrid and remote working options is a trend that’s here to stay. In light of this new reality, employers who include a remote working option attract seven times more applicants than those who don’t. As a result, more and more employers will continue to offer workers better flexibility and remote working options, as opposed to the classic 9-5 full-time in-office schedule.
HR departments have to adapt to working with a staff that isn’t physically present most of the time. Screening, interviewing, and onboarding new employees are also being done remotely, adding to the challenges.
Culture & Compliance for a New Generation
Slowly but surely, companies in all industries, as well as HR professionals, will need to start adjusting to a new generation joining the workforce. Millennials have been entering the workforce for several years and will continue to make up a larger percentage of the staff at most companies. At the same time, members of Generation Z are graduating from high school or college and entering the workforce.
As laws and guidelines change, HR departments will grapple with new compliance requirements. HR managers will rewrite employee handbooks and reevaluate rules pertaining to workplace harassment measures, leave benefits and drug testing. HR departments will soon discover that these younger workers have a different set of ideas and priorities for their professional careers. For example, younger workers expect to have flexible schedules, even if they’re not working 100% remotely.
The majority of employees in the two younger generations in the workforce also prefer to be in contact with their supervisors and managers regularly. They want feedback on their job performance, and they want to collaborate on projects.
Human resource workers will have to adapt to these preferences and adjust policies to give young employees the flexibility and collaboration they crave.
HR departments will also have to navigate the pay transparency laws that are rapidly becoming more common across states. Illinois and California have laws requiring businesses of a specific size to report aggregate pay data to their labor departments.
Perhaps most notable, however, is the preponderance of laws mandating salary range disclosures on job listings. California, Colorado, Maryland, Connecticut, Washington state, Rhode Island, Nevada, New York City, Cincinnati, and Toledo, Ohio, have laws requiring employers to provide salary data upfront. In 2022, as this requirement becomes more commonplace, more HR departments will move toward increased transparency around compensation.
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Employees’ well being
Health and wellness have also become hot-button topics. Employers are more aware than ever of the importance of employee well-being and its impact on business success. However, employees’ well-being and mental health will undoubtedly fluctuate during stressful and uncertain times.
Most of the time, HR departments will be front and center in implementing new policies concerning wellness. However, the HR trends aren’t just concerning physical illness and stopping the spread of germs and disease.
The pandemic has resulted in high levels of stress, with people worrying about their health, family, and whether the pandemic could put their job at risk. This means HR departments need to create wellness programs and employee assistance programs that focus equally on physical and mental health.
Human resource professionals need to find methods of detecting mental health distress among employees and making sure they have the resources to deal with those issues. At the same time, encouraging employees to engage in fitness, regular exercise, and other good health practices will continue to be important for HR professionals.
Company leaders can help improve their employees’ health and wellness by maintaining transparency and clear communication within their organization. Employers will also continue expanding employee-assistance programs to provide a broader range of tools, including mental health days, more access to counseling, health and wellness plans, and updated services that can help employees take a holistic approach to their health.
Many HR teams aim to resolve issues by developing new policies and procedures. Unfortunately, once created, those same policies are rarely revisited, ultimately leading to additional problems — especially now, when the landscape is changing so fast. At the same time, a “one-size-fits-all” approach won’t allow for the kind of individual thinking and creativity that result in the most innovative solutions.
Flexibility is the thread connecting 2022’s HR trends. The past few years have proved that companies must adapt to survive the constantly changing public health circumstances brought about by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Furthermore, businesses have had to adapt their policies in response to growing social justice efforts and the dynamic needs of the labor force. Moving forward, HR departments should prepare to offer employees a wide range of options that accommodate their changing circumstances so they can focus on working toward the company’s goals.