The most recent State of HR report proves that 2023 is the Year of the Employee. Anyone who reads the report will see two word clouds with the term "employee" coming up most often. The reason is that when asked open-ended questions, more people typed in "employee" as the answer than anything else.
To understand why this term appeared, one must consider the two questions. What readers will notice is that employees still have leverage and are pushing employers toward a different kind of workplace regardless of whether they like it.
Pushback on Return to Office (RTO) Policies
First, HR Exchange Network asked about the biggest challenge to HR professinals convincing people to return to the office. "Employees" was the most popular response. Other common words that were not quite as widely mentioned included "office" and "remote."
Clearly, employees feel they have earned trust in the years since lockdowns forced remote work on everyone who had jobs that allowed for it. Frankly, many employees have expressed shock and disappointment that suddenly the same employers who demanded they work from home and encouraged them are now insisting they were somehow unproductive and unsuccessful.
So, there is pushback on remote work and the response is pushback on the pushback. HR professionals are recognizing that employees, in this climate, will seek flexibility and leave if they are being forced back into old work habits.
The Future Is in the Hand of Employees
In the second word cloud, the question was about what would define HR in 2023. The overwhelming response was, "employee." Agility, change, and innovation are among the other popular terms respondents wrote. However, the employee remains at the center of the future of work.
Lately, more people are recognizing that the demographic shifts causing a labor shortage and the shifting mindset about the relationship people are having with their work demands change. In other words, HR professionals - and the employers who hire them - know they need talent to fulfill their organization's mission.
Employers, however, are seeking to regain leverage. They have some hope with the possibility of a recession and the large number of layoffs in the technology and media sectors. Eventually, people will not be able to easily leave jobs - or pay their bills - if they cannot find something better around the corner. Therefore, they may be forced to take jobs with stringent RTO policies. They may have to take less money.
Employee Engagement Is the Big Winner
Of course, the majority of respondents to the survey also said that employee engagement is their top priority. The fact is that without engagement, attrition is the threat. Also, a lack of engagement means a lack of productivity, which translates into poor results. Employers - and certainly HR professionals - are all too aware that employee engagement is everything in business today. It's the secret sauce, and they cannot possibly make their recipe without it.
For now, employees still have the edge in the hiring process. They have some power to drive workplace transformation and encourage flexibility. In addition, HR and employers are laser-focused on employee engagement to ensure the grander visions can be carried out successfully. However, both are feeling the challenges of transformation because change is hard. Period.
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