From a shortage of talent to a constant evolution of skills necessary for complex positions, HR professionals face ongoing challenges. Simply managing day-to-day obligations can be complicated, even without considering the fresh challenges waiting just ahead.
How can you and the rest of your HR team meet—and crush—these challenges head-on? By preparing!
We’re here to help you understand three top HR challenges on the horizon in 2022 and explore solutions for them:
- Burned-out employees
Your employees are working through significant world events and facing tough challenges every day. Many have had to pivot to remote work and remain productive as a pandemic, social movements, and economic uncertainty spread around the world.
It’s easy to understand how anyone could feel disengaged at a time like this, when both their personal and professional lives feel unstable. The rippling aftershocks of so much tumult continue to cause employees to feel burned out and weary of change. And it’s manifesting as employee turnover.
According to Gartner, only 15 percent of employees experiencing burnout expect to stay at their current job—34 percent of employees who aren’t burned out said the same (full content available to Gartner clients). And while you can’t protect your employees from external stress, you can show empathy. You can be understanding and flexible.
Solution: Ask questions and support your staff
Check in with your staff regularly to see how they feel. There may be signs of burnout you’re not seeing. You could try a survey asking employees to express their level of burnout or questions about change fatigue, as well as what might help them become more engaged again.
Ask employees to be part of initiatives. When things are really at their worst, most companies often turn to top-down approaches, which aren’t always as effective as other methods. There are better ways to mitigate change fatigue by asking employees to help provide solutions for reengagement.
- Upskilling is necessary and pressing
The typical arsenal of skills needed for positions within the modern workplace is evolving at a rapid pace, and 40 percent of HR professionals say they can’t build skills development solutions fast enough (full content available to Gartner clients).
According to Gartner, only 16 percent of incoming hires already have all the skills necessary for their new role, and something must be done to bridge this gap. And while organizations are predicted to internally develop half of all skills necessary for evolving roles by 2025, currently the typical employee training approaches aren’t filling skill gaps fast enough.
Today’s HR professionals need to be on top of the skills necessary for success in every position and develop ways for employees to acquire these skills.
Solution: Identify your organization’s skill gaps and use technology to close them
Perform a skills gap analysis to identify the skills your employees currently have and the ones they need to develop. Rank each skill in order of importance, then rate how adept each employee is at each of those skills. Analyze the results and you’ll discover what—and who—needs a little work. From there, you can develop effective, efficient training that closes identified gaps.
Find a learning management system (LMS) to help you create and store training materials for your employees. Some platforms come with preloaded training materials to help you get started. Your courses should be quick and assigned in bite-size chunks that employees can quickly finish. Employees will feel accomplished after each lesson, and you’ll have imparted the knowledge they need for future success.
- Ongoing employee turnover
Americans quit their jobs in record numbers in 2021. One of the greatest HR challenges facing businesses in 2022 isn’t just finding talent—it’s retaining talent.
According to Gartner, 48 percent of HR leaders are significantly concerned about employee turnover in the next few months (full content available to Gartner clients). Many companies are experiencing more openings than normal and are finding filling those positions in the usual timeframe much more difficult.
Solution: Support your recruiters
Encourage workforce planning. Planning your workforce takes into account your current employee levels, how many positions are unfilled, and how many positions you expect to become vacant in the future.
Invest in recruiting software. If your recruiters don’t have the tools they need to succeed, great talent could be slipping through the cracks. Talent management solutions and applicant tracking systems can source from multiple sites to help you find qualified employees from a larger talent pool.
