Guest post by Alexey Kutsenko.
According to a recent survey, 37% of respondents do not feel secure in their workplace.
This is the stark truth that employers are facing, and it’s a challenge they must meet. But how? Keeping up with the latest workforce management trends seems to be the savvy way forward.
Workforce management is not a walk in the park. You need to know what your people strive for and what challenges they face on a daily basis. But that’s not all. Workforce management is even more challenging today when technology is advancing by leaps and bounds and remote working has become the new reality.
How can you meet today’s challenges while keeping your business running efficiently?
In this article, we’re going to share with you the key workforce management trends for 2023 and beyond so that you can see where you should be putting in the most effort.
So, let’s get down to business. To effectively address your current workforce management challenges, consider the following trends.
Mastering new skills and reskilling
As the world of work is enriched by new technologies, the need for new skills to master these technologies is expected to grow. Upskilling and reskilling the workforce will be an an urgent task in the coming years.
To make this happen, it is essential to track employees’ progress in mastering skills in real-time and provide them with personalised learning support.
This means you may need to create an LMS (Learning Management System) that covers both workforce analytics and personalised learning. With a comprehensive LMS at your fingertips, you can identify knowledge and skill gaps and decide how to bridge them.
Therefore, in order to keep up with the times, we need to embrace new technologies rather than avoid them, and this is one of the key challenges we face when it comes to effective workforce management.
Remote work is here to stay
Let’s face it: Remote and hybrid work is the new normal, and will be for years to come. According to recent studies, 98% of respondents said they would like to work out of the office for at least some time and would encourage others to do the same. We must increasingly adapt to this truth and manage our globally dispersed workforce accordingly.
The number one reason employees choose to work remotely is valuing personal freedom, followed by flexibility in how and where they work and live.
While employees now consider career growth and job satisfaction to be more valuable, flexibility in choosing where to work is still a priority for 48% of respondents.
Want to manage your workforce effectively? Then put your employees’ passion for freedom and flexibility first.
Workforce management becomes AI-driven
Artificial Intelligence is a real game-changer in the way we hire and manage our workforce. We’re already using chatbots, predicting employee turnover, and screening candidates using algorithms. Next year and beyond, the level of automation of workforce management-related tasks is only set to increase.
Therefore, to increase employee engagement and job satisfaction, HR professionals should bridge the technology gap and incorporate AI-based technologies, including generative AI, into their workflow. The latter is capable of making insightful decisions based on data, which significantly reduces employee effort and shortens tasks to solution time.
Food for thought: According to a Deloitte survey, 42% of CEOs believe that embracing Artificial Intelligence will be business-critical in the next two years.
Ensuring greater data security
Something that might prevent you from streamlining your workforce management is security issues. The need to reliably protect customer and employee data is becoming increasingly urgent.
As a result, the market is shifting from on-premises to cloud-based solutions. It is estimated that by 2025, 60% of the world’s enterprises will migrate to cloud-based workforce management solutions.
No more on-premises legacy systems vulnerable to cyber-attacks. As an already prevalent and widely embraced mode of software engagement, cloud solutions are expected to become even more of a trend in the years to come, eventuall replacing desktop solutions all together.
Flexible work schedules
Flexible work schedules are still a hot topic in workforce management. On one hand, flexibility allows you to synchronise the schedules of a large number of employees and avoid workflow disruptions. This can be done with advanced scheduling tools or industry-specific software.
On the other hand, flexible working is a way out of labour shortage issues. Now, instead of hiring additional employees or dealing with overstaffing, you can better engage with the staff you already have.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives
Embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace leads to increased productivity, employee engagement, lower turnover, and greater employee satisfaction. But there’s more to come. Having DEI practices in place improves a company’s efficiency, increases profits, and helps executives with decision making.
However, efficiency and profit are only one slice of the pie. Investing in DEI initiatives is no longer just a nice-to-have, but a sign of a conscious business. When you make DEI a key part of a healthy corporate culture, you show your employees that you care about their well-being.
By 2026, investments in diversity, equity, and inclusion are projected to reach $15.4 billion, marking a positive shift in the adoption of these initiatives in the workplace. Your business can contribute to this shift. But there is also a growing need for a collective discussion about how to make progress in this area.
Fostering the holistic well-being of employees
Employee wellbeing is not just about your staff’s daily mood. It’s about how your people truly live their lives. Poor health leads to more sick days, lower engagement, and increased burnout.
Have you considered the financial impact this is having on the business? Employee turnover due to burnout costs companies 15-20% of their payroll budget each year.
Moreover, employee turnover and low productivity due to burnout cost businesses around the world $322 billion.
Employee wellbeing shouldn’t be limited to online fitness or nutrition and sleep recommendations. What we need to do is to be more forward-thinking and take a holistic approach to employee wellbeing.
Now that you’re better acquainted with the workforce management trends for 2023 and beyond, all you have to do is make the most out of them.
Alexey Kutsenko
Alexey Kutsenko is the Head of Digital Marketing of DDI Development company. He is experienced in the development of the marketing strategy for companies in different industries. He knows how to do the right marketing and watches all current marketing and industry trends.
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