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From the a flexible hours framework to a holistic approach to employee well-being, 2022 will be the year in which HR will make a significant contribution to the evolution it has witnessed in recent years. What is there to look forward to in the HR industry? What bends should you keep an eye out for? This article will provide insight into what HR trends to expect from the industry and how they can impact work, workers, and workplaces.
What is HR technology?
HR technology is a collective term for all of the technology used by human resources teams to improve organizational functions.
As you would perhaps anticipate, human resources overlaps with many different groups within a company. As a result, there is a wide range of software available to assist with various functions.
The primary objective of all HR technology, however, is the same: to enhance employee experience and ensure a compliant workforce. Furthermore, if it can help businesses save money, that’s always a plus.
Top 9 HR Technology trends in 2022
While 2020 pushed businesses to despair and obligated them to evolve, 2021 was the year of rebalancing with insightful strategies in the aftermath of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Organizations were busy learning, unlearning, and strategizing for the future, from supporting employees during difficult times and adhering to vaccination protocols to making preparations for ever-evolving virus variants.
Understanding these annual shifts is critical for any industry to keep up with the rapid changes that are occurring, especially in light of the pandemic. Here, we have compiled a list to learn about the top HR trends so you can make informed decisions for your company.
HR Trends #1 – Supporting Hybrid and Remote Work
Many organisations that thought effective functionality with workforce or talents working remotely would be inconceivable were thrilled to learn that such implementations could operate after the global shutdown.
In 2020, HR performed quite well with talents working from home or in safety, and the global excellence of such implementation improved the process in 2021. However, by 2022, remote work functionality is expected to be broader and more comprehensive.
HR Trends #2 – Emphasis on Employee wellness
Programs focusing on employee wellness and work/life balance are common, with new momentum building to fulfil the physical and emotional needs of increasing numbers of remote employees. The strain of changing behaviors at work and at home can also contribute to the need for increased mental health services. Businesses nowadays are opting to offer benefits by allocating funds to the employee assistance program (EAP).
Once implemented, managers across the organization can direct employees to make the most of this crucial benefit. Video applications such as Skype, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams are proving to be highly successful resources for promoting wellness-focused webinars and stay fit presentations to off-site personnel.
This will enable employees to be updated via social media feeds in new in-house healthcare programs and associated efforts. It is a useful way to empower and motivate the employees to take part in team challenges, leaderboards and other virtual interactions.
HR Trends #3 – Diversity in Hiring
The need for HR professionals to hire talent through inclusive and diversity approaches is one trend that will be on the rise in 2022. According to experts, this strategy will help organisations grow on multiple fronts.
Companies will augment their recruitment of employees with varied orientations, ethnicities, beliefs, and perceptions as a result of diversity and inclusion. Employing diverse talents is bound to enhance and expand companies’ overall skills and capabilities, as each recruit will bring unique methods and attain goals. Organizations can use these differences to gain a competitive advantage.
HR Trends #4 – People Analytics and Data Driven HR
HR departments deal extensively with data, and it’s high time to make effective use of all that meaningful insights by HR analytics. With HR analytics, experts will obtain a clear insight into the data they gather so that they can make better decisions and projections about the workforce. This data-driven insights can also prove to be beneficial for business leaders.
With HR analytics technology, HR experts will not only be capable of providing figures with these metrics, but will also be able to determine the triggers behind these numbers. Advanced predictive analytics will also allow HR practitioners to make predictions about these metrics that will enable them to come up with actionable solutions. For example, HR practitioners may use HR analytics to identify connections with metrics such as voluntary turnover rates, salary hikes, and promotion wait times. This could offer information on the causes for employee resignation and help HR teams build employee retention strategies that are more likely to work.
HR Trends #5 – The Job Crafting Buzz
The transition we’ve seen this year in the way that all of us work, eventually drives employees to create their own ideal work environment. They organize their work space at home as they choose fit, they can work beyond the standard working hours if it suits them best, and though some people may feel the need to check in with their coworkers for a Zoom coffee every day, others may choose to do so once a week.
When it comes to the regular tasks of employees, it seems normal that they want to make any (small) changes there, too. This is where the idea of job crafting comes in. Job crafting is focused at optimizing people’s work for the betterment of both the employees and the organization.
It is a method that enables employees to develop their jobs in five separate ways; in terms of assignments, expertise, intent, connections and well-being. We think that giving employees space to take ownership on their role would be key to workplace satisfaction and productivity in 2021 and beyond, improving both the performance of employees and the success of their company.
HR Trends #6 – Perennials: Emergence of a New Generation
For the last decade, we’ve been reflecting a lot on what differentiates generations. Millennials and generations such as baby boomers, X, and Z have all been extensively researched, interpreted, nudged, and hypothesized, even on HR trends lists – but the scientific evidence of intergenerational discrepancies remains thin.
In fact, research is progressively revealing that generational disparities in people’s opinions on work and life are not as broad as we initially assumed. What people expect from their working lives—purpose, successful leaders, and career growth—doesn’t vary that much from generation to generation.
Instead, we expect to see a rise in the number of Perennials, first described by Gina Pell. Perennials are “a group of people of all ages, stripes, and types who go beyond stereotyping and make connections with each other and the world around them.”
In order to consider our workforce and improve our workforce management strategies, we need to look past group discrepancies to gather insights into the desires, beliefs and inclinations of individual employees. It also helps us to personalize how we manage people as HR practitioners. This is something that we’re going to get back to in a later trend.
HR Trends #7 – Next Gen Performance Management
In the past five years, companies have fundamentally transformed the way they assess, analyze and evaluate employee performance. Today, with several preliminary tests, continuous performance monitoring practices are being implemented on a larger scale. The modern methods are already simpler and more structured.
Agile goal setting, check-in and ongoing reviews are now more prevalent, and new forms of assessment and incentives are being implemented. The benefit of continuous, real-time performance management system is that it looks ahead rather than backward.
The technique is centered on what you’re doing now, what areas of growth will make you better tomorrow based on what you’re seeking to accomplish. The simple interface solution with 360 degree evaluations would greatly increase the adoption of a culture of real-time feedback in the coming years.
HR Trends #8 – Continuous Learning and Development Space
Continuing our HR trends with one in the field of learning and development. While there was already a consistent need to upskill a substantial part of the global workforce before COVID-19, this need has only become more evident in the months since then. Unfortunately, there are slim picks in the market for HR experts with future-oriented expertise. Instead of constantly looking for new talent, the most effective approach is to upsurge the HR team to ensure that they have the expertise to spur growth in an evolving digital world.
We’ve identified three major capabilities:
Business vision
HR needs to understand the business, its strategies, clients and its scope. Only if they have deep knowledge and understanding of the business, they will be capable of contributing to business acceleration.
Data-driven
In order to be a successful business partner, HR practitioners need the ability to make data-driven and evidence-based decisions.
Digital HR
Digital HR creates an opportunity to drive HR effectiveness, deliver HR solutions and drive economic impact through technology.
Upskilling in these fields will continue to make the HR department fit for the future. As such, we agree that this is one of the important trends in HR for 2022 and beyond.
Final Thoughts!
One certitude of predicted HR trends for 2022 is that the current framework will be significantly improved. Businesses and organizations will strive to streamline their employed talent and ensure that no ancillary load has an impact on the workplace and efficiency. HR trends in the future will be more constructive and optimistic. This trend will help to ensure that the workplace is dominated by only evolving and growing employed talent. The most successful will be instructive and self-developing talents, as well as recruiting firms.
