Companies have to manage both the difficulties linked to the crisis and the changes brought about by digital transformation. We are therefore witnessing an increase in the complexity of the missions of HR managers, who have to review their HR strategy. Indeed, human resources managers must manage human investments as well as investments in technology to allow their company to develop in a balanced and above all sustainable way. 

Today, organizations are constantly changing. And this is perhaps even more true since the covid (search for meaning at work, telecommuting, hybrid working…) and since the digital transformation. The phenomena of talent shortage, the great resignation and the silent resignation are all subjects that worry the professionals of the HR function. 

How can you anticipate tomorrow’s changes and approach the evolution of your human resources with peace of mind? Discover the major HR trends that are emerging for 2023.

Capitalize on your corporate culture

Before, we only looked at the economic performance of the company… Today, the place given to societal causes has taken on a predominant importance in the success of an organization, or a company.

The notion of belonging and the company’s causes/values are key issues for HR professionals (CSR, inclusion, cultural diversity, etc.) If an organization is not able to truly embody these values, employees will disengage. Their role in society must be meaningful to them.

As we explained in our article on Gen Z, people under 30 have a particular need to have a job that is meaningful. This is one of the most important criteria for the youngest generation to enter the working world.

In addition, fostering a sense of belonging and corporate culture allows human resources to have a better capacity to retain talent. Capitalizing on an existing team that works also makes people want to stay.

Structural Development & Change Management

A poor knowledge of the company’s culture is the primary cause of failure in transformations. Embedding your project in the collective habits is the most effective way to make it acceptable to the teams and to make it successful.

Change management is organized around a process that must be mastered and that requires knowledge of the existing situation, management of the process, action and acceptance of the risks. Organizing change requires that managers ask themselves the following questions: How to best carry out the change with the lowest possible cost, both financial and human? How to make it accepted? How to change while keeping what is effective and ensuring that the company’s image remains good?

As we have seen in our article on change management, the risks of not anticipating this type of upheaval within a company is that a negative impact on your organization in the broadest sense will be felt and that its shockwave will spread to all spheres of your company. It is important to address each of these aspects so that the change does not impact a group of people, or an individual within your organization.

So before any actions that would require restructuring your organization thinks: change management and methodology.

Take into account the experience of employees

In the wake of the economic crisis, one of the key challenges facing companies is to retain talent. Offering ever more fluid and enriching experiences, providing technologies that increase productivity and guaranteeing a motivating and inclusive work environment are all new challenges to retain and engage employees.

The employee experience is defined as all the interactions and experiences lived by an employee within the company, in the key moments of his or her career as well as in his or her daily professional life, from recruitment to departure.

From now on, it is no longer a question of finding the right expert profiles or the best graduates, but of attracting, recruiting, retaining and developing the profiles that have the most potential to develop the key skills of tomorrow.

For HR, this means, on the one hand, anticipating what these essential skills will be. On the other hand, it means setting up a strategy to secure them within the company with several actions to be taken:

• Map the skills that the company can already rely on
• Identify where the need for skills lies, and who, within the company, has the most potential to acquire them
• Think about the best way to develop them, notably through internal training

Support and develop hybrid work

“Hybrid management”: this is a term that was barely heard until 2020 and, in the context of the health crisis, has skyrocketed in search engines and sources of interest.

In the future, standardized work arrangements certainly won’t work for everyone. “It’s no longer a matter of expecting the workforce to spend days on site,” says Patrick Hull, vice president of the Future of Work initiative at Unilever.

The key is flexibility.” The workforce wants to choose where and when they work, and how. In fact, they are willing to leave the company if they don’t get their way.

According to LinkedIn’s 2022 Global Recruiting Trends Guide, employees are twice as happy (2.6 times as happy to be precise) with hybrid and flexible working conditions. Also under these conditions, happy employees are twice as likely to recommend their company as a place to work.

Rely on new technologies?

The use of new technologies in the service of human resources is one of the issues regularly mentioned in the major trends to follow. Is there a reason for this? Yes, the framework evolves every year with its share of novelties and innovations.

Of course, the digitalization and the rejuvenation of your employees tend to multiply the tools for automating repetitive tasks. But what are the innovative ways to take advantage of technology in your recruitment and employee advocacy process?

In addition to the diversification of recruitment practices, the optimal candidate experience is an essential HR innovation. Some innovative methods have made it possible to deregulate the usual recruitment processes and have the merit of making your company speak positively (employee advocacy for example).

Let’s take as an example initiatives related to the gamification of recruitment to bring out talent and create an upstream relationship between human resources and future employees. This gamification (anglicism for the use of game mechanisms in other fields, in particular websites, learning situations, work situations or social networks) consists of introducing playful steps in the recruitment process, technological or not. Here are some ideas:

• Participation in an escape game to evaluate the candidates’ soft skills, their observation skills and their resistance to stress.
• Invitation to take up challenges with other employees. This brings out the team spirit and pre-integrates in some cases.
• Serious games: these games improve knowledge on company subjects. We can compare the serious game to a playful training and a preparation of the candidates to the work requirements.

Do these trends surprise you? Share your impressions with us!