Workforce management is a vital part of ensuring that your business has the capabilities to start the new year at full strength. It can be the difference between having a focused and engaged workforce that is able to adapt to whatever challenges may come their way, as opposed to a stressed and unproductive team that lacks motivation. In light of this, the team here at Volt has put together a short list of some of the core workforce trends that you should consider as we progress into 2022.
A renewed focus on remote working. With the successful integration of remote working across many industries over the last 18 months, many companies are looking to retain this approach into 2022.With the many benefits it can offer, as well as continued apprehension surrounding the pandemic, remote and hybrid working models remain popular due to their practicality and agile nature. However, in order to ensure that this system remains effective, it’s important to have employee management tools in place that can monitor performance and progress.
Employee engagement. One of the biggest challenges that many organizations faced over the last year has been a reduction in employee engagement. As a result, several issues have arisen, from lower productivity to higher attrition rates within many businesses. With this in mind, the focus for many companies in 2022 is going to be all about revitalizing employee engagement in order to get back on track with their goals and expansion plans while increasing performance levels back to their optimum level. There are many different ways to nurture employee engagement, from changing feedback structures and improving internal culture to ensure a better work-life balance and mindfulness of your workforce’s individual needs.
Health, safety and well-being. Employee health and safety quickly came to the forefront of many business’ agenda during the growth of the pandemic. Employers had to take immediate steps to ensure that workers felt safe and able to continue their work despite the challenges they faced. This is likely to continue as a trend going into the new year as uncertainty around public health remains. Perhaps more important is the impact of recent events on employee mental health, with many individuals feeling stressed and isolated. As a result, both the physical and mental well-being of workers will remain a core focus for 2022, meaning businesses will need to ensure they can facilitate the support services that their staff may require.
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Reflecting key values and beliefs. Employees today are much more likely to seek out workplaces that reflect their own personal values and beliefs, which means that ensuring the workplace positively performs for key values such as diversity and inclusion has become a priority. Diversity is the demographic of a workforce and inclusion is how well all the different perspectives that are represented within it are integrated. Values such as this are vital to attract and retain the next generation of talent in the workplace — and also to ensure that your business is primed to benefit from all the advantages that a more diverse and inclusive body of employees has to offer.
Better ways to work with contractors. The benefits of a contingent workforce have become very obvious over the past year or so — but so too have the issues that many organizations experience in accommodating these workers. As we move into a more agile and flexible workplace management style, next year we are going to see more businesses turning to contractor workforce solutions to help with attracting and managing key talent.
As workforce trends continue to pivot towards engagement, well-being and flexibility in 2022, ensuring that your company reflects and delivers on these values will be a key contributor to your success.