Emerging trends for HR in 2023

HR departments and human resource professionals and teams will have
to understand better how technology is changing to embrace the
changing industry standards. The future of HR will be driven by
automation and innovation, with little human involvement needed for
routine tasks.

Projected human resources trends for the near future and beyond
include a more significant shift towards the People Operation process, or
Process optimisation programs (POPS). Other trends include increased
automation and meaningful employee experiences. Hiring for power
skills, organisational flexibility, and change management will become
more critical than ever seen before.

The common threats in recent days to HR professionals include
increasingly stricter employment laws and litigious employees. Further,
HR departments may need to overcome stereotypical negative views of
the HR function, thereby making this activity of handling the new norms
and mindset of employees on top priority in the following years.

Employees will have more options for employment than they have had
before in decades, so every HR professional must take care to retain the
current workforce or risk losing them to an extremely competitive talent
market. The initial step to improving retention is finding out why
employees are leaving in the first place – would be a priority of every HR
professional across the globe.

HR activities pertaining to hybrid and remote work, employee skills
management, employee benefits, company culture, engagement,
technology, quiet quitting, and focus on retention may represent
significant challenges for HR professionals the way the world is rapidly
changing and would need their complete focus on setting the charts right
for any organization.

Emerging trends in HR –

Increased Focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Industry data shows that companies with a highly diverse workforce
have proven to be more productive, with up to 21% higher revenues than
less diverse companies. Several human resource trends related to
diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI) are expected to continue in 2023,
including redefining hiring strategies, education initiatives, and analytics
and accountability.

Motivating Employee Skills

When working remotely, communication can becomes a priority. Managers
and HR professionals will need to become more emotionally connected &
smart in order to stay in tune with their employees, and team to understand
their challenges and help them through difficulties. Employee upskilling or
providing existing staff with training and development to enhance their current
skillsets or learn new ones as a way to “future-proof” an organisation.

While upskilling, employees develop skills to help them grow in their current
position or take on a new job function within their organisation, thereby
advancing their careers while continuing to serve the organisation’s rapidly
changing needs.

Continuation of Hybrid and Remote Work

Remote work has become a part of the employee experience – and a
trending HR topic for 2023 since many employers continue to offer the
flexibility of on-site, hybrid and remote work patterns. Many employees
might find they are happier or more productive working at home rather
than in a traditional 9-5 in-office environment and may seek out roles
that best fit their schedules.

HR professionals realise that one-size-fits-all policies no longer work,
and that trusting employees to decide where, when and how the work
gets done could be the way forward in regard to increasing productivity,
fostering wellness, and employee retention.

Improvements in Company Culture and Engagement

An HR trend likely to be a part in 2023 is organizations moving toward a
people-first culture and making that culture a priority. In Spite of progress
in technology, HR professionals should remain aware of the human
element in what they do, continuing to be welcoming and empathetic,
and encouraging employees to come forward with their concerns, and
voicing their discomforts.

The HR department must also meet employees’ needs with
understanding and compassion, or risk losing them as they pursue
opportunities outside, leaving vacancies that could be hard to fill. As the
way work is carried on continues to change, methods of evaluating
employee performance will also have to evolve. When employees feel
valued, it helps create a strong culture of belonging within an

organisation. While working remotely, employees are likely to manage
workflows differently. Effective collaboration and culture development
can be a challenge for organisations of any size and type. The rise in
conferencing and cloud technology tools has enabled employees to get
their work done at any time, from anywhere, but HR professionals should
keep an eye out for “silos” to form in the work environment, resulting in
people not connecting as much as they should.

Embracing New Technology

New technologies have changed the way businesses manage human
resources in any organisation. A generation that has grown up with
internet access and mobile devices, millennials now make up a larger
percentage of employees in many organisations, thus emerging
technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning and RPA
(Robotic Process Automation) are also playing a role in HR practices.
Cloud-based HR technologies will also continue to enable an
increasingly remote, mobile and “gig economy” workforce distributed
across the globe. Considering the amount of sensitive employee
information they handle, HR departments will continue to play an
important role in cybersecurity in 2023. HR professionals can also
influence the behaviours of employees and, in collaboration with their IT
counterparts, should continue to influence good cyber-hygiene and
enforce effective cybersecurity policies to defend against threats like
phishing and ransomware. Employee management apps and automation
are gaining momentum as well.

Cloud-based HR has brought numerous benefits to the industry –
allowing HR to access employee data in real-time to make decisions
accordingly and empowering employees by giving them anytime access
to their information.

Combatting Quiet Quitting

“Quiet quitting” has been present for quite a while for now, and this may
move into 2023 as well. This HR trend is one where employees choose
not to go “above and beyond ” in the performance of their jobs. For
example – passing over assignments that fall outside their core duties.
This “quitting your job without actually quitting your job” is really about
people taking steps to improve their work-life balance by “quitting” the
parts of it they find to be overwhelming or unsatisfying.

HR professionals will have to be proactive, using the formulae of
people-first culture, to improve the employee experience in ways that will
curb this practice. Some measures for them to consider when
combating quiet quitting include improving their understanding of
employee opinions, boosting morale, assessing the company’s culture of
working outside “normal” work hours, and reducing unproductive
meetings.

It’s going to be a drastic year opening for HR professionals as the world
is progressing rapidly and new practices seem to be taking over as a
part of work culture which would demand quick action and immediate
resolving practices to keep employees in good health, thereby assisting
organizations to have progress.