The HR predictions for 2023 are in and they point to widespread, sweeping changes that will impact HR teams across all industries.
Global HR leader Josh Bersin’s HR predictions 2023 report outlines the key trends on the horizon. The verdict? HR professionals will need to be agile, adaptable and analytics-driven to keep ahead of the rapidly changing HR landscape this coming year.
Here are the top predictions for 2023.
Click the links below to skip ahead to specific trends and predictions - plus our take on the top challenges and opportunities for HR teams in 2023:
Top 7 HR Predictions for 2023
1. Greater emphasis on people sustainability
Skilled and engaged employees are your most important asset in 2023. That means improving employee wellbeing will continue to be an essential strategy for HR teams.
According to Josh Bersin, a new HR concept is emerging - People Sustainability. People Sustainability encompasses a diverse range of employee experience solutions, including:
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Health and safety
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Employee wellbeing
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Benefits and rewards
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Diversity, equity and inclusion
People Sustainability takes a holistic approach to employee experience, focusing on long-term solutions to the most pressing challenges employees face in today’s workplaces. Rather than an episodic, piecemeal approach to health and wellbeing, People Sustainability puts employees front and center in your organization.
Josh Bersin’s report points out that 81% or more of the workforce is burned out. And frontline workers are most at risk. When you look at the statistics, it’s not surprising - as many as 6 out of 10 frontline employees say they have never had any formal training and that their skills are self-taught.
To tackle employee burnout, stress and mental health issues, organizations need to create a company-wide strategy that focuses on employee education, training and better communication. The route to better employee wellbeing starts with education.
2. HR faces the challenges of hybrid work
For HR professionals, the challenge in 2023 will be redefining what the workplace is. As more organizations embrace hybrid work, we can expect to see greater emphasis on comprehensive employee onboarding.
Employee onboarding is a critical tool to help cater to hybrid and frontline teams, enabling employees to hit the ground running and ensure efficient communication between multiple teams.
The results speak for themselves - organizations with a structured onboarding flow experienced a 60% year-over-year improvement in revenue and 63% improvement in customer satisfaction.
3. Performance Management will be reimagined
For organizations facing an uncertain economic landscape in 2023, performance management is set to be a key priority. The best HR teams will find ways to facilitate agile work, internal mobility, and job-sharing. And digital tools for performance management will come to the fore.
As Josh Bersin predicts: “Our research shows that high-performing companies hold people accountable, but they focus on “performance enablement” not just “year-end reviews.” And they build a process and system that is continuous, not just episodic.”
To achieve this shift, tools that allow for continuous feedback and performance management will come into their own. Look out for solutions that are embedded in the tools you already use to reduce digital friction and maximize ROI.
4. Productivity takes center stage
The best performing organizations in 2023 will be those that can cultivate a culture of productivity. Every new policy, process and tool should help to aid productivity, not hinder it. This will have an impact on performance - but also employee satisfaction and engagement.
As Josh Bersin, “Productivity creates employee engagement! When people feel productive, they love their jobs. When they feel they are wasting their time, they check out, quietly quit, or depart.”
The report also highlights the importance of collaborative learning solutions that let employees learn in the flow of work to increase productivity and engagement. Equip your employees with the tools they need to do their jobs to the best of their abilities.
5. The rise of growth in the flow of work
We’ve already seen the importance of reskilling in today’s workforce. But Josh Bersin also predicts the rise of growth in the flow of work.
Josh Bersin’s study found that organizations with a focus on growth are 29x more likely to let employees “unleash their potential,” 4x more likely to be innovation leaders, and over 7x more likely to be named the best places to work.
Dynamic digital solutions to employee training and development that focus on learning in the flow of work are set to become key areas of investment for organizations and HR teams. This will have wide-reaching consequences for employee retention, talent acquisition and workforce productivity.
6. HR teams will utilize People Analytics
There is also a growing trend towards the importance of data-driven insights in the workforce. In 2023, we can expect People Analytics to continue its rapid expansion across every industry, utilizing feedback, data and insights to make intelligent decisions when it comes to addressing common and complex HR problems.
According to research, People Analytics can have a significant business impact. Advanced analytics generates an 80% increase in recruiting efficiency, 25% rise in business productivity and as much as 50% reduction in attrition rates.
7. A new technologically-centred HR landscape emerges
Specialist HR technology is set to become even more important in 2023. Integrated platforms for monitoring, shaping and analyzing employee skills will be central to every HR team’s arsenal.
As Josh Bersin’s HR Predictions 2023 report explains: “We encourage companies to think about this as a family of “skills academies” or “skills communities” where business leaders maintain their taxonomies and we, in HR, collaborate with them to bring new skills into the architecture.”
Managing these skills academies will take a centralized, holistic employee learning solution, ideally embedded in the tools you’re already using.
What these HR trends mean for your business in 2023
The HR predictions for 2023 report by Josh Bersin outlines the far-reaching changes we can expect to see in the coming year. We’ve distilled these predictions into 3 essential trends: employee education, communication and analytics.
Employee development
To help employees respond to the challenges in today’s workplace - including converging industries, new skills requirements, and more diverse and fluid roles - effective employee training and development is more important than ever.
For HR teams, that means finding digital learning solutions that fit seamlessly into the flow of work. With frictionless access to training materials, employees can attain the essential skills they need to succeed in today’s dynamic and hybrid workplaces.
For organizations, employee training is key to improving productivity, engagement and performance. For employees, it’s the path to better workplace wellbeing and satisfaction.
Communication
In increasingly disconnected teams, communication continues to be a priority. This is especially essential for frontline workers in 2023.
To improve employee communication, you need to be reaching employees through the tools they’re already using. The route to better communication is providing effective digital solutions that enable employees to learn, collaborate and communicate all in one place, without interrupting their day-to-day responsibilities.
Analytics
In 2023, data will take center stage. Organizations who are able to utilize analytics and insights tools to make data-driven decisions will come out on top.
For already stretched HR teams, the best tools include integrated analytics platforms so you can monitor employee performance, training and development, and feedback all in one place. Intelligent, intuitive platforms that make analysis easy will be especially useful assets for HR teams this year and beyond.
Ready to transform your HR strategy in 2023?
Josh Bersin’s HR Predictions for 2023 point to a wide range of transformative trends that will have far-reaching consequences for HR teams. Your ability to capitalize on the opportunities and overcome the challenges that 2023 presents will depend on the strength of your digital tools and solutions.
As leaders in frontline training technology, eduMe delivers seamless, integrated solutions to businesses with dispersed workforces. Tailor-made for frontline teams, eduMe’s bite-sized microlearning lessons fit easily into the flow of work for easier communication, education, analytics and feedback. Take the easiest, most effective route to employee training in 2023.
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