2022: Let's Start Betting on People.

2021. The Great Resignation hit us all hard. Like, really hard. We saw mass exodus from organizations with people executing on the realizations they came to, after asking themselves a series of questions through 2020.. Am I happy? Do I love what I do? Is my passion my purpose? People left companies for a multitude of reasons. I believe it should be coined, The Great Reassessment. We were all forced to stop, look in the mirror, and reassess our path-forward.?

Rounding the corner into the 2022 we are faced with a competitive labour market, inflation on the rise, supply chain disruption and a highly empowered workforce. It's a candidate-market - the tables have turned. These aren’t just HR issues anymore, these are business issues. HR operating models must be rooted in agility and aligned to business strategy, as the pace of change is not slowing down.

As an HR professional focused on the performance and development of talent, I believe that the focus going into 2022 must be given to; the internal talent marketplace, human-centered leadership and creating a simply irresistible organization. These focuses will help to drive the engagement and retention of talent, which has arguably never been more dire.

Internal Talent Marketplace. The biggest constraint to economic growth isn’t just manufacturing supply and computer chips right now, it’s people. Every company, if they are not already, will become talent-constrained. We must develop and mobilize internal talent by creating a power of marketplace dynamics. This means creating new job opportunities within, offering high-profile projects to top performers, granting stretch assignments to build talent capability and having mentors grow and nurture your future leaders. The internal talent marketplace requires upskilling people and building capability academies - these are end-to-end learning strategies led by the business through Capability Champions and functional leaders. Career pathways need to be well-articulated through robust skillstech architecture and training must be aligned to support an integrated supply chain of talent. Bottom line: we need to start investing in and developing our people, or someone else will.?

Human-centered Leadership.? PowerSkills over SoftSkills. Teaching people to lead, work in teams, communicate, collaborate, tell stories and think strategically is no longer a nice to have, it’s essential. Building programs and training to develop PowerSkills is essential to strong succession. Human-centered Leadership is about putting people first to ensure business success can follow. Leading the people so they can drive the business forward, not leading the business, so people can come along for the ride. Leadership competency models must now be revisited so organizations know which PowerSkills will ensure business success. In my opinion, every team member, no matter the function or focus, needs to understand systems and design thinking - these are core capabilities to operate with impact.

As the economy grows and companies transform, we see auto-makers becoming AI and electric vehicle companies, and oil companies moving into renewable energy and services - every industry has started to experience some degree of transformation. Companies must now look to conduct talent intelligence assessments and adopt a skills-centric mentality to distinguish what skills are needed to ensure our people are equipped for future business needs. As the pace of industry transformation accelerates, a skills taxonomy tied to core HR systems and processes will be paramount to realizing long-term business success.

Be an Irresistible Organization.? The Irresistible Organization is your Engagement Playbook. It's about retention over attraction right now. Robust Employee Experience (EX) starts with simply listening to your people and being a service-focused business partner. It's also about having a strong employment brand, reputation, purpose and mission. People need to feel connected to this and your Employee Value Proposition must be well-articulated. In fact, it should now be revisited. This is fundamental to your employment brand. Make sure you are firing on all cylinders of your EX Model. Create meaningful work, nurture and grow strong managers, foster a positive workplace, focus on the health and wellbeing of your people, build a culture of growth and learning and have great trust within the organization and your leaders to be the role models and ambassadors you need. Create an environment that enriches the lives of your people so they can do their best work.

Let's take some chances, or some calculated 'risks', and start betting on the people we have.

What are your most pressing people priorities going into 2022??How are you planning to navigate the challenges and great opportunities of our new talent landscape?

Hang on tight my HR friends, I think it’s going to be a wild, but really exciting ride!