There are only a few days to the end of this year and if you have not done so before now it is time to start looking at the trends for next year or should I say the future as predicted by HRM trend watchers and trend setters. Understanding the annual shifts is crucial to keep pace with the rapid developments.
There is a present day quote that says “This is an exciting time to be in HR and if challenge, innovation, change and personal growth are of interest to you, then stick around.”
The hybrid work model will come into force more visibly. This is an employee-centred flexible work model that includes a mix of in-office and remote work.
In our environment some will opt for this option and many may not. However, it is important to have conversations, try and understand the experience of people and the needs of people, and do that in an environment that is psychologically safe, where people feel like they can be honest and open.
With our infrastructure challenges and fuel scarcity to mention a few things I believe that more companies should explore this moving forward.
Moving forward there must be leaders and not just managers. CEOs need to manage, not just lead and middle managers need the skills of leadership, too. The current work scenarios demand empathetic, adaptive, and authentic.
This is being termed “human” leadership. This includes improving company communications, prioritising teamwork, collaboration, investing in people, encouraging feedback and giving recognition, rewards and compliments.
Leaders need to reflect what leadership means and to actively develop the mindset, skills and tools that support great leadership.
There is now emerging the metaverse workplace due to all the technological advances. The metaverse workplace offers virtual reality environments that let you work in a customized immersive space from anywhere in the world.
Imagine a world where you could have a beachside conversation with your colleagues, take meeting notes while floating around a space station, or teleport from your office in London to New York, all without taking a step outside your front door.
Within the metaverse, we can create digital workstations so employees can do their work independently. It also allows interactions and real-life experiences via digital avatars. This speaks to the environment where work gets done. We all know how important environment is. While this may not be operational in many organisations in this environment, it is important for us to find out how this can work here.
The past three years has taught us the importance of change management. This systematically deals with changes in an organization’s goals, processes, or technologies. It aims to implement efficient strategy to execute changes, controlling them and helping people to adapt to them with minimal hindrances.
So, while you’re strategizing for change management in your organization, consider digital adoption platforms to implement change. Ensure managers as change agents. Begin to inculcate change as a part of company culture. Have a data-driven approach to change management and humanise change.
Organisations must get representatives from across the organization involved at every stage of a change process be it identifying challenges, planning improvements, implementing and reflecting.
When employees are involved in identifying challenges and recommending improvements, they will understand the reasoning behind changed processes, new initiatives and will be invested.
Read also: Human resource information systems
Change success requires employees to be inspired by what the change will mean for their day-to-day work and the organization’s ability to fulfil its mission. Organisations need both the technical skills to manage projects and the emotional skills to communicate a vision, inspire action and empathise with concerns.
People analytics is data collection concerning human capital and performance within an organization. This practice turns information into actionable and meaningful insights that HR specialists use to enhance business performance and employee experience. This will be more in use going forward.
This can be used to assess diversity and inclusion for actionable insights on employee sentiment and to test improvements in employee experience, psychological safety, belonging and fairness.
Also to gather employee experience in order to get a better sense of what they are feeling. Also for purposes of retention analytics will give information about the labour market, key competitor trends, risk factors with predictive models. Analytics will also help with workforce planning and talent acquisition.
Another trend will be from employee well-being to healthy Organization, The past couple of years finally witnessed employee mental health and well-being getting their due focus. Many employees are reporting symptoms of burnout. To counter this, there has to be a holistic and more inclusive organisation-wide approach to well-being. This concept goes beyond the physical health and safety of the employees only and aims at providing more flexibility and opportunities for their training and empowerment.
The Healthy Organization framework includes the following elements, physical health, mental well-being, financial fitness, social health and community services, a safe workplace and a healthy Culture.
I believe we can all agree that a healthy organization would be a welcome trend for better productivity and greater employee satisfaction, leading to employee retention.
This has been a big mouthful to chew on. Begin to align your organisation, so you will not be left behind.
Have a restful weekend. I say this tongue in cheek because I know “dirty December is kicking off and that involves a lot of frenzied activity.
