As we enter the third year since COVID-19 came into existence, the virus has proven to have a lasting impact on the future of work. In 2023, organizations face historic challenges: a competitive talent landscape, an exhausted workforce, and pressure to control costs. In this environment, itโs imperative to tackle the following nine trends as your organization sets strategic workforce and talent goals.
| 1. | โQuiet hiringโ offers new ways to snag in-demand talent |
| 2. | Hybrid flexibility reaches the front lines |
| 3. | Squeezed by competing leader and employee expectations, managers need support |
| 4. | Pursuit of nontraditional candidates expands talent pipelines |
| 5. | Healing pandemic trauma opens path to sustainable performance |
| 6. | Organizations push DEI forward amid growing pushback |
| 7. | Getting personal with employee support creates new data risks |
| 8. | Algorithmic bias concerns lead to more transparency in recruiting tech |
| 9. | Gen Z skills gaps reveal workforce-wide erosion of social skills |
Trend 1) “Quiet hiring” offers new ways to snag in-demand talent
Anyone on LinkedIn remembers the viral wave of โquiet quittingโ headlines from the second half of 2022: the idea of employees refusing to go โabove and beyondโ and doing the minimum required in their jobs. When employees โquiet quit,โ organizations keep people but lose skills and capabilities. In 2023, savvy HR leaders will turn this practice on its head with โquiet hiringโ in order to acquire new skills and capabilities without adding new full-time employees.
Trend 2) Hybrid flexibility reaches the front lines
As we enter a more permanent era of hybrid work for desk-based employees, itโs time to find equitable flexibility for frontline workers, like those in manufacturing and healthcare. According to the 2022 Gartner Frontline Worker Experience Reinvented Survey, 58% of organizations that employ frontline workers have invested in improving their employee experience in the past year. About a third of those who havenโt intend to do so in the next 12 months.
Trend 3) Squeezed by competing leader and employee expectations, managers need support
The demands of todayโs working environment have left managers completely out of their depth. They feel pressure from above and below: they must implement corporate strategy with regard to hybrid work while also providing a sense of purpose, flexibility and career opportunities.
Low- and midlevel managers are now the colleagues with whom their direct reports most regularly interact, and 60% of hybrid employees say their direct manager is their most direct connection to company culture.
Trend 4) Pursuit of nontraditional candidates expands talent pipelines
For years, organizations have talked about the strategic value of expanding and diversifying their talent pipelines. Now itโs time to back up those words with actions. Two key trends have emerged:
Employees are charting nonlinear career paths: 56% of candidates report applying for jobs outside their current area of expertise, and we expect this figure to climb further in the coming years.
Organizations can no longer meet their talent needs through traditional sourcing methods and candidate pools. Plus, hiring managers are less concerned with industry experience and technical skills than they once were.
Trend 5) Healing pandemic trauma opens path to sustainable performance
Most humans, and that includes current and incoming employees, are still experiencing pervasive mental health challenges as a result of the societal, economic and political turbulence of recent times. This may decrease productivity and performance, as well as increase angry outbursts, no-notice quitting, workplace conflict and sudden underperformance.
Trend 6) Organizations push DEI forward amid growing pushback
As organizations bolster diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, some employees are showing signs of resistance. Forty-two percent of employees believe their organizationโs DEI efforts are divisive. And two out of five agree that a growing number of employees feel alienated by or even resent their organizationโs DEI efforts.
While many organizations ignore employee pushback because they fear validating it as legitimate, left unchecked, it may decrease engagement and inclusion, and ultimately result in attrition. In 2023, savvy leaders will address the opposition early, before it evolves into more disruptive forms of resistance.
Trend 7) Getting personal with employee support creates new data risks
In 2023, employers must prioritize transparency around how they collect, use and store employee data, as well as allow employees to opt out of practices they find objectionable.
Start building an employee data bill of rights to support your employeesโ need for healthy boundaries in addition to overall well-being.
Trend 8) Algorithmic bias concerns lead to more transparency in recruiting tech
Organizations that use AI and machine learning in their hiring processes โ as well as the vendors they rely on for these services โ will face pressure to get out ahead of new government regulations on privacy. They must be more transparent about how they are using AI, publicize their data audit, and give employees and candidates the choice to opt out from AI-led processes.
As more organizations begin using AI in recruiting, the ethical implications of these practices for fairness, diversity, inclusion and data privacy become increasingly salient.
Trend 9) Gen Z skills gaps reveal workforce-wide erosion of social skills
The social isolation brought about by the pandemic has hit young people hard: 46% of Gen Z employees we recently surveyed say that the pandemic made pursuing their educational or career goals more difficult, and 51% say that their education has not prepared them to enter the workforce. Gen Z has missed out on developing soft skills, such as negotiating, networking, speaking confidently in front of crowds, and developing the social stamina and attentiveness required to work long hours, in an in-person environment.
Resources : https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/9-future-of-work-trends-for-2023
