The work world has been a tumultuous place in 2022. As we slowly recovered from the pandemic, businesses struggled to keep their heads above water with increasing inflation and fears of a recession. Mental health issues and job burnout continued to escalate at a rapid rate. As a result of the Great Resignation, phrases like “quiet quitting,” “productivity paranoia” and “quiet firing” became workplace trends. Every year brings its own challenges and 10 top experts predict 2023’s share of them.
Paul Rubenstein, Chief People Officer Of Visier:
“There are two critical things the HR industry needs to acknowledge for 2023. First, companies need to become people-centric and approach future actions with empathy in mind; and second, they need to up the ante on what good looks like for listening to and communicating with employees and communities. When Visier conducted a survey to find the top reasons why employees don’t trust their employers, nearly half said ‘they allow toxic behavior from employees/leadership to go unchecked,’ ‘they don’t tell the truth’ and ‘they’re not transparent about company policies/practices.’ It comes as no surprise that employees want their company to care about their well-being in an honest way. By implementing organizational empathy as a core foundation of company policy, HR leaders can determine which employees need help and how to best support them. Shifting the view of employees and seeing them as more than the work they can produce will help companies establish a more equal and inclusive workplace.”
Debbie Connelly, Chief People Officer At Hyland:
“Successfully recruiting and retaining skilled tech workers will be a top priority for companies in 2023. I also expect demand for onboarding and talent analytics technologies to continue to increase over the next year. I anticipate there will be a renewed focus on employee engagement initiatives specifically in regards to remote work. Purposeful, virtual connections will be key in 2023. Companies will look to accomplish this by emphasizing employee recognition and appreciation. There will also be more investments made in cloud-based technologies which will be powerful catalysts for collaboration among teams. This will allow dispersed teams to work together and achieve their goals without needing to be in the same location.”
Geoff Webb, VP Of Solution Strategy At Isolved:
“We’re in the decade of the talent-led business. In 2023, the pressure will be greater than ever for businesses to sharpen their focus on delivering an exceptional employee experience. Businesses that invest in recruiting, developing and retaining the best employees will be able to draw from a deep well of expertise and energy that will enable them to respond faster and more effectively to market conditions. As a result, HR teams are under pressure to transform how they focus their efforts, to move from important but essentially operational functions, to instead helping transform the experience of employees.”
Jenny Herald, VP Of Product Evangelism At Quantive:
“I think we’ll start to see the employee market we’ve been accustomed to over the past few years shift to management having more power. For instance, one of the first things to go will be incentives used to attract talent in highly competitive markets. During a recession, seasoned employees may delay their retirement until the economy steadies making it difficult for other employees to advance. Also, return-to-office decisions may be revisited with senior leadership taking a stronger stance on remote work policies. With this in mind, people-centric leadership will be a management imperative.”
Anna Richardson, VP Of HR At Aiven:
“Since the pandemic, conversations around HR issues have been based on meeting employee needs and empowering them due to the competition for talent. With the worsening economic situation, HR objectives will change to better support their employees through cost of living issues and stress caused by the economic situation. Remote companies especially will need to re-evaluate their support processes to meet this need. As companies across the globe continue to implement different return-to-work styles, I’m predicting we’ll begin to see greater discussions about the productivity gap and how it’s viewed by both employers and employees. Plus, a greater emphasis on reskilling and upskilling as an incoming recession will halt many hirings. The focus on attracting and retaining strong talent will be higher—causing companies to rethink not only their benefits but also how they give their employees a strong sense of purpose.”
Tom O’Regan, CEO At Madison Logic:
“With slower growth and increased economic uncertainty, we are seeing a shift in how companies research and purchase software solutions. Buying committees are being asked to scrutinize and validate vendor options more and leaning on digital resources to make purchase decisions. As a result, sales and marketing teams need to work together to understand the evolving purchase decision patterns and reevaluate their strategies accordingly. Heading into next year, we expect to see increased collaboration between these teams to deploy highly personalized account-based approaches and omnichannel performance-based strategies that leverage technology to demonstrate pipeline growth and validate the impact of digital investment on ROI.”
Carthey Van Dyke, VP, Client Services At Gryphon.ai:
“2022 demonstrated that remote work is here to stay. Over the next year, I expect that companies will be working towards updating and improving the tools to help workers be successful while at home. As the amount of data and intelligence steadily increases, organizations will have to be conscious of how they are collecting and extracting value from their employee data. I anticipate that businesses will also prioritize eliminating data silos as well as integrating AI and data-driven technologies into their existing platforms to support remote work capabilities.”
Monique McDonough, Chief Operating Officer At WorkTango:
“Organizations that help professionals build critical skills for ‘the next job’ are going to win today’s fight for talent. Employees are looking for employers that will support their ongoing career growth and development and have shown they will leave companies that don’t have an ‘immediate’ next role for them. Therefore, companies that offer robust learning and development programs and can provide multiple career paths or growth options for employees, will retain top talent more successfully. Through the recruitment process, companies that prove they have a strong plan for individual employee growth will often win out over those who don’t when it comes to signing on new hires.”
Sona Khosla, Chief Impact Officer At Benevity:
How a company acts as a force for good, especially in times of crisis, is going to be at the top of the HR agenda in 2023. Since 2020, employees have made it clear that they want their companies to support their values and provide them with the opportunity to have a positive impact at work–and in the world. Eighty-five percent of employees agree that the more a business engages consumers and employees in its charitable giving, the more trust they have in that business. Companies who engage their newer employees in doing good see 52% lower turnover. The triple-win is there–creating a purpose-driven employer brand and experience is good for business, good for people and good for the world.
Joe Du Bey, Co-founder And CEO Of Eden:
“I think the employee concern moves to keeping one’s job and company focus switches to reducing cost. I think the office return conversation will boil down to preferences, both the employee’s and the company’s. As cost cutting intensifies, I suspect the narrative will change quite a bit in 2023. We will probably see employees want to come into the office more to build internal rapport and be more visible, while we see companies reduce their office footprint to cut costs. I think we should expect to see the pendulum swing back to the employer in terms of determining the office attendance policy. That said, I do not see a reversion back to pre-Covid working styles—flexibility is here to stay.”