HR Trends 2022

The Year 2021 was with challenges, drastic changes in the functioning of organizations – working from the office to working from home to work from anywhere. HR was at the front seat while transforming itself in various aspects.

In 2022, HR teams continue to transform further, re-invent themselves, partner with the leadership to achieve the business goals and prepare themselves to encounter future challenges.?

While 2020 was a year to adapt to working from home, 2021 was about transformation. 2022 will be all about learning from the previous year and further acing the game.

Here are a few of the HR trends to observe in the year 2022:

Hybrid model of working: In 2021, many organizations were in a hybrid model. The focus is and would be on the quality of the work, fitment into the ever-evolving culture rather than on work hours and workplace. Hybrid work is going to drive business. At least some of the employees will be working from anywhere post-pandemic also. HR will continue to support by adopting some of the best practices.?

Employee Experience: The need for providing a great experience is a trend that would continue. In today’s world of the candidate-driven market, employee experience will be the key driver to attract and retain talent. Programs will continue to shape up involving and including employees from various levels.?

Flexi working: Flexi working will be one of the top perks to attract and retain talent.?

Returning Professionals: While pandemic has given a lot of challenges, it also opened several opportunities for people who left jobs or took a break in their career for various reasons. Many professionals (with career breaks) are ready to return and take up jobs because of Flexi working and working from home. Organizations are readily accepting such professionals because of talent scarcity.?

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion?(DEI): With the ever-changing dynamics of attracting and retaining talent, DEI would remain at the forefront.?

Mental Health and well-being: The focus on mental health and well-being will continue. Organizations will spend more on promoting mental health, relieving stress, and preventing burnout. Several organizations provided extra leaves / Paid time off (PTO) to employees apart from the regular leaves. HR will be more attentive in ensuring the mental health of employees.??

Continuous Performance Management: Gone are the days of yearly performance reviews. The world is changing in today’s competitive talent market. Evaluating performance continuously and providing feedback at regular intervals will be the factors for higher productivity.?

Technology: Technology (in HR) was never taken seriously and restricted to only a few areas in HR before the pandemic. Pandemic gave lots of learning and technology has become a must. Leverage technology in every aspect of HR - attracting talent to retaining talent to enhance employee experience.?

People Analytics: This would be continuous, and HR will want to ace up the game. HR has a lot of data related to talent. HR will help businesses to thrive with the help of analytics.?

Personalization: With more and more diverse talent joining the workforce, there is a need for personalization in each aspect of the employee rather than a generic approach. We could expect personalization in many factors - learning & Development, employee well-being programs, employee experience, rewards, and recognition. Many programs will be tailored based on the information learned about an individual.

Finally, the focus would be on a Humane Approach. The focus is slowly transforming from process-centric to Human-Centric and now to a Humane approach.?