Key Trends That Will Affect Employee Experience in 2022

2020 and 2021 have shown us a paradigm shift in the way we work. It also made us understand how to deal with changes in our work lives. Now. 2022 will most certainly be the year where HR will also see the transformation in the form of waves that have rippled across the beginning of the pandemic.

2021 was the year where HR and its roles were reinvented and solidified. 2022 wil be much more than that. It will emphasize how HR can add value to a business. During the past 2 years, we have noticed a shift in the work settings and environment that also included health concerns, lockdown, the emergence of new businesses, and innovation. We have also seen economic disruptions, talent shortages, and more in several companies that were continuous instead of episodic.

Hence, it’s crucial to understand the HR trends in 2022 that may impact employee experiences. It’s also crucial to understand how the HR department can address these trends to build a better workplace environment for the employees.

Top 5 Key HR Trends and Strategies in 2022

Trend #1: Employee Retention

One of the top priorities in 2022 for HR will be employee retention. Yes, a competitive salary along with excellent benefits would attract employees. However, it won’t be enough. The new trends are more than just high-paying salaries. They won’t be enough to keep top talents in a company.

The main reason is that employees want their ideas to be used. Along with that, they also want their hard work to be seen and recognized. Hence, we can say that some aspects like growth, purpose, progress, and connection are crucial for employee retention.

How to address it?

Some strategies that may allow HR to follow this trend include:

  • Enhance transparency and show long-term career goals to the employees. Setting goals for success and being transparent at a leadership level.
  • Have enhanced mission, visions, and values in your business. Also, celebrate the employees who live up to these values and missions.
  • Invest more in employees to assist them in growing – professionally and personally. Identify what’s important for them and help them through creating pathways.
  •  Show employee appreciation and bring on some employee recognition programs to support your retention goals.

Trend #2 New work manifestation

The new normal in work will manifest in new ways. There will be an enhanced focus on well-being, purpose, fulfillment, and labor compensation. However, companies are yet to follow this approach. There isn’t any proper connection between the three when it comes to leadership strategies, HR policies, and employee sentiment. Hence, the new HR trends show new work needs, aspirations, and impulses within the workforce.

How to address it?

HR in 2022 can focus on the following areas:

  • Conduct lifecycle and pulse surveys of employees to deploy continuous listening for the employees.
  • Develop a proper communication strategy by listening to the VoE (voice of the employee). It will allow a better follow-up action, which will get you a closed feedback loop.
  • Address problem areas in the company more efficiently by enabling more check-ins among managers and employees.

Trend #3 Employee’s Mental Health

2022 will see an enhanced focus on employees’ mental health. In the present scenario, HR is already focusing on the physical health of the employees. However, mental health remains left out. Companies will need to invest more in the upliftment of their employees’ well-being. It will allow the employees to stay confident and strong enough to face new challenges and opportunities.

How to address it?

HR can address this trend by:

  • Crafting valuable policies for mitigating employee stress such as flexible work schedules, employee assistance programs, etc. It will foster the well-being and resilience of the employees.
  • Ensuring a culture that’s psychologically peaceful and stable for the employees. You can have a company environment where people can feel safe when stating their opinions in certain matters and having career-related conversations without any pressure.

Trend #4 DEI Challenges

The pandemic has shown tough times. People lost their jobs, and employment recovery rates had become slower. Hence, HR requires to follow new DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) trends in 2022. Although diversity recruiting, bias training, and employee resource groups are good, there needs to be something more. There should be more equity and inclusivity in companies.

How to address it?

HR should solve DEI challenges:

  • Create safe spaces and talk about how you can solve the DEI challenges and get employee feedback on them.
  • Let the HR team lead the DEI initiatives and empower them. Ask the leaders to invest in resources and training for the HR employees in these matters.
  • Include DEI in the entire business strategy, including pricing, product/services offering, etc., of physical and digital workspaces.

#Trend 5 HR Decentralization with new management skills

Although HR has been a centralized function of companies, that will change too in 2022. HR functions must allow themselves to outsource the connectivity with all the employees thorugh managers. Whether it’s forming strategy, events, policy-making, engagement, it will apply to all. Even the process of manager evaluation and promotion will change. Before, managers were selected based on “task orchestrators.” However, the new trend will lead to selection based on coaching/mentoring and leadership skills. 

How to address it?

Here’s how you can focus on this trend:

  • HR shouldn’t focus on one area that managers should know all the answers to anything. If HR has this mindset, then it will be easier to select a reliable leader.
  • You shouldn’t focus only on aptitude for the manager selection. Instead, emphasize talent and skill development.
  • Choose the right technological tools for the training of managers, which allows them to cooperate better with employees.

Conclusion:

The latest HR trends in 2022 are entirely new; one wouldn’t even have thought about it. Moreover, we don’t really know if these trends are all or we are yet to see more. The last two years have been hectic. Yet, we have learned a lot as well. The workspaces are changing, and so are the HR functions. Businesses will emerge stronger from the pandemic, from return-to-work planning to new variants. Hopefully, HR can live up to the trends and expectations. Addressing the new trends isn’t that tough if done the right way. Let’s see where 2022 takes us!

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