2022 is a year for new togetherness and ‘humanness’
The events of the last couple of years have served to redefine the very definition of connection and collaboration at work.
When we’re not sitting together in an office eight hours per day, what does it mean to be a team at work? What does effective collaboration look like and how do you foster the social side of work when people aren’t all in the office at the same time?
This second HR trend for 2022 is about making work human again – bringing connection back to the center of work, focusing again on creating deep links and relationships at work, and going further through collaboration.
But why does ‘reconnection’ need to be a focus for HR in 2022? What’s the context driving this?
In short, because attracting top talent and keeping them has become more challenging. And a major key to doing that is improving people’s work experience. Employee experience in 2022 will not be focused on perks and benefits, but on practices and policies that reconnect and create a deeper sense of togetherness between employees in organizations.
We spoke with Rishita Jones of NRG HR on the importance of ‘reconnection’ in 2022 HR.
Watch the full interview and read on through this section for a summary of why this is a major HR trend for 2022.
It sounds too obvious to have to say, but the pandemic resulted in high levels of stress. Studies are already starting to emerge around the long-term mental health effects of the Covid-19 pandemics and the lockdowns and isolation associated with it.
One such study was from the Conference Board of Canada, which found that four out of ten respondents reported more mental health problems in their organizations since the coronavirus.
What this means for HR departments is that there will need to be a new concerted effort to create wellness programs and employee assistance programs that focus equally on mental health. Human resources professionals will need to find methods of detecting mental health distress among employees and making sure they have the resources to deal with those issues.
Prior to the pandemic, the news headlines about what makes a great employee experience were dominated by fads — think treadmill desks, nap pods, and “bring your dog to work day” for starters.
But the focus has now changed drastically to a valuing of deeper, more meaningful care within organizations.
An example of a company doing this well is Marriot. The global hotel brand has placed a major focus on employee wellbeing since about 2010. This focus has now grown into TakeCare, a global commitment to provide Marriott employees with holistic wellbeing at work.
TakeCare incorporates a range of services and support including mental and emotional health programs, career development, financial planning, team building, recognition, sustainability social impact, and access to meQuilibrium, a resilience training platform that helps Marriott associates deal with disruption and become more empathic.
Human resources professionals will need to find methods of detecting mental health distress among employees and making sure they have the resources to deal with those issues.
Other companies have taken different approaches. Software company Uipath has taken an approach that is becoming more common. They decided to fund a range of apps employees can use to enhance their wellbeing, including the mediation app, Headspace, the physical fitness app, Aaptiv, and the physical therapy app, Physera. Uipath even went further and has now committed to invest up to 1% of all employee salaries in employee wellbeing.
chnnl is a smartphone app that aims to create a sense of psychological safety for all employees dealing with burnout, suicidal thoughts, workplace bullying, or other similar matters.
Companies use chnnl’s anonymous surveys via the app to uncover early warning signs of stress and burnout, help boost productivity, retention, and create an overall positive work environment.
In a modern workplace where each person brings their own emotional baggage to work, chnnl’s vision is “to create a workplace that truly understands mental wellbeing”. This investment in humans keeps employees healthy and more productive, uplifting the organization as a whole.
Listen to our interview with Dr. Elizabeth Berryman on The Ins & Outs of Work podcast - audio and video versions embedded below.
We already mentioned this topic in the previous section, but it warrants a deep dive. The coronavirus has put a new focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion as the societal role of employers has grown.
Companies are speaking out against racism and creating opportunities for discussion and education to influence future change.
But DEI is no longer a nice-to-have. The business case for diversity and inclusion is stronger than ever, with McKinsey research showing that the most diverse companies are more likely to outperform less diverse peers on profitability.
For many organizations, perception is that DEI can exist as a ‘tick the box’ exercise where companies fall in line with the norms others have adopted. And that’s not all bad – it serves to change little by little the situation as a whole.
But some companies are doing more than developing DEI training programs. They are going further and creating a new pipeline of talent.
One example is the Visa Black Scholars and Jobs Program, for Black and African American students on the road towards tertiary education. Visa is investing $10 million over the next five years to fund Black and African American students enrolled in technology and business programs, providing them with a needs-based scholarship grant. The program includes mentoring, apprenticeships, and eligibility for a guaranteed full-time job at Visa after graduation if they maintain a certain level of academic results.
More companies need to follow the leadership of Visa to create holistic DEI programs. In the long-term, they’ll not only be good for people, but positive for business too as new creativity and perspectives are welcomed into the organization.
In the first section, we talked about the need to realign work to be more purposeful and meaningful. Here, we felt it important to touch on the need to bring your values to life in order to create (and recreate) a sense of connection in the workplace.
2022 is the year to reconnect your people to the company vision – to fuel and foster daily engagement from your employees by helping them feel part of something bigger.
After all, engagement and retention start at the very beginning of a person’s journey with your organization. Consider reviewing processes and embedding your values deeper:
When done right, employer branding can contribute strongly to business success. According to LinkedIn, an organization with a strong employer brand experience can benefit from:
Your employer brand boils down to what you communicate externally based on the promises you make internally to your employees. So, review the different elements of your employer brand and make a plan to build based on the unique and differentiated value that you can provide to your employees. Approaching your employer brand like this will ensure candidates can quickly identify the advantages of working for you and decide whether their personal values are aligned with your organizational ones.
Your employer brand boils down to what you communicate externally based on the promises you make internally to your employees.
So what does good employer branding look like? Surely there's more to it than painting a picture of corporate paradise that every applicant would love?
Listen to our podcast episode with James Ellis, 'The Employer Branding Nerd' and Head of Employer Brand at Roku Inc.
Listen or watch right below, and head over to Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other popular podcast app to subscribe to our weekly podcast!
The importance of employee onboarding cannot be overstated. It’s a crucial step in the employee lifecycle and one that can either make or break a new hire’s long-term success at your company.
As such, it’s the time when the foundation of the employee-employer relationship is being built, based on those feelings and impressions gained during the earlier employing branding and candidate experience stages.
The purpose of onboarding is two-fold: on the one hand, it is designed to ensure new hires become operational as soon as possible. On the other hand, and a more recent focus for the onboarding process, it aims to shape the critical first impressions of the new hire as they get their first true experience of day-to-day life at your company.
And the importance is clear:
A structured onboarding process is linked with a reduction in employee turnover, an increase in engagement rate, and higher productivity, as seen above.
Find out more about onboarding, and the steps to getting it right, in our article.
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