Top “People” Challenges Leaders Will Face in 2022

ARE YOU READY FOR SUCCESS IN THE POST-PANDEMIC BUSINESS CLIMATE?

The businesses that will continue to grow and thrive in this post-pandemic landscape will be resilient, agile and prepared to aggressively address the challenges that have arisen over the past two years. Now is the time for forward thinking and implementing action plans based on industry knowledge and lessons learned.

On-going daily business operations are not going to stop while leaders try to figure it out. Developing solutions to minimize disruption in areas of people, processes, inventory, technology and production has to run concurrent with meeting today’s business needs and also has to reflect their culture, values and industry norms. Being laser focused on the company’s most valuable asset, their employees, with the emphasis of understanding and addressing challenges they have and continue to face in both their work and personal lives, will be one of the most solid investments an organization can make toward future sustainability.

LURING TOP TALENT IN A COMPETITIVE MARKET

In the first quarter of 2022, the business world breathed in a collective sigh of relief feeling optimistic that things would slowly return to normal and employees will happily return to work as if COVID-19 was a blip on the radar. Now with the “Great Resignation” (which refers to the current trend of working Americans voluntarily changing jobs, in full force), employers are facing the challenge of how to keep operations, productivity and systems running smoothly. US businesses are facing the realty of a competitive market.  This comes on top of losing approximately three million US workers who decided to retire during the pandemic.  On top of that, younger workers who were displaced when COVID-19 hit received attractive financial payments from the government that allowed them to delay their return to the workforce and caused them to rethink their future and to be more selective in what jobs they would take. Since financial incentives have ended, people are now returning to the workforce, but many are evaluating what perks competing employers are willing to offer to entice them to join. The competition is fierce and forward-thinking leaders know that to lure top talent they must reassess and enhance their benefits packages to include flexible work schedules, remote and hybrid work environments, a culture of better work/life balance and wellness programs that focus on the whole person and their families, not just the working person.  And what about retaining the top talent you already have? In addition to the perks already mentioned, it’s time to first look to within to fill the positions created by retirements and resignations. Focus on understanding your employees’ career goals and tailoring training initiatives, including mentoring, on-the-job and providing incentives for employees to obtain certifications and to pursue other development opportunities to allow them to qualify for promotions or transfers.

 

ADJUSTING COMMUNICATIONS FOR REMOTE/HYBRID ENVIRONMENTS

Another area of significant importance is to find new ways to communicate and connect with your company’s internal community. Communication has always been one of the more critical challenges for most organizations, and this has been highlighted and underlined over the past couple of years.  In the pre-pandemic age, many relied on the daily connections that come from working in the same brick and mortar space – in-person meetings, 1:1 discussions, and collaborative teams sitting around a table to develop plans and create solutions. Managers, colleagues and team members were just an office or workspace away whereby you could just drop in for an informal brainstorming session. It should be apparent by this point that the days of full time work in the office will no longer be the norm, replaced by mostly remote or hybrid structures. Therefore, the ways we communicate with each other must adjust as well. Leader must decide how to best connect, engage and motivate employees, keeping them in the loop and making them feel like they’re part of a team. Emphasizing what they do matters will be a huge communication challenge.  

ENGAGING A REMOTE WORKFORCE

Closely connected to communication is the challenge of engaging a mostly remote workforce who are missing their previously collaborative and supportive environments. Engagement refers to how employees feel about their culture and their jobs and how committed and invested they are to their work.  When a company’s culture is strong and is communicated, not only in words, but through leadership modeling company values through their actions and interactions with others, employees have role models to emulate. They also better understand what is expected of them and what they are working towards. Organizations who provide employees with more opportunities to contribute, learn and grow will be rewarded with engaged, motivated, and by extension, productive employees. Trust, support and respect are also paramount to inspiring engaged employees. The challenge for companies today is how to model values and instill trust when most employee interactions and communications are via zoom, calls and emails. Employers who already have a strong culture of engagement and recognition must learn to transition their in-person experiences into those that will continue to engage and motivate in these new environments. 

SUCCEEDING WITH A DIVERSE WORKFORCE

One of the lessons learned over the past two years with most of the world in lockdown is that many businesses can operate effectively with a remote workforce. And, as many now realize, remote connectivity opens the door for creating a more diverse workforce. Increasing diversity can help companies see things differently and allows in new ideas and perspectives that don’t exist when teams are comprised of colleagues from similar backgrounds, who share comparable traits, have worked together for a while and who reside geographically close. Increasing diversity does bring challenges to the table since its more likely that people will not always agree which can delay decision making and create tension within groups. On the other hand, the lack of diversity within companies leads to a narrow view and single-minded perspective that may create a disadvantage in an ever changing world, resulting in continuing the status quo and a result in a stale culture. Successful leaders must first define what diversity means in their culture and decide how to encourage differing ideas and vantage points and create a unified and safe environment where participation from all is invited and decisions evaluated based on merits raised through healthy discussions. 

GETTING HELP FROM THE EXPERTS

Most will agree that prioritizing the employee experience is a top priority for 2022.  Leaders must realize that no matter how much knowledge and proficiency they have and how in tune they are to the evolving landscape of this post-pandemic climate, they can’t be an expert in everything. While this was always true, it has never been highlighted more strongly than it is now. And there are other, equally important non-people issues to address – supply chain impacts, customer and vendor relationships, technology updates and upgrades. Astute management teams recognize they can’t do it all, and now, more than ever, it’s time to reach out to a team of qualified of consultants, with backgrounds and expertise to focus on evaluating the top people challenges impacting your business and industry and providing people solutions that will keep your business operating smoothly today and be positioned to grow tomorrow and beyond. Our team has the background and know-how to address people concerns and provide up-to-date solutions that will create an empowered, engaged and productive workforce in this post-pandemic workplace environment. 

For more information on any of the above topics or for support with your specific “people” strategies, please tap into our team of experts and see how we can help.