Human Resources and transformations: Top 10 HR trends to follow in 2022

Every year a lot of companies are able to introduce new systems in practice and that’s soon followed by other companies too and takes the shape of a trend. This article is a compilation of a list of nice trends that have to do with Human Resources professionals. In the last year, a lot of companies have shown a great deal of new adaptations in the HR arena.

The first notable trend in HR for the past year is ‘embracing complexity’. Everyone loves simplicity, but sometimes we could go the other direction too. Several HR training courses and modules are reliant on projecting them on the basis of ‘models’, leadership models. ‘See this one, adapt his methods, follow the footsteps of this model.’ Why? To succeed. But there are hundreds of models out there to follow, mostly more or less the same. Although they are helpful, they may or may not be a fit to every other person willing to make his/her mark in HR business. A better advice is, let's think of our own accord.

Number two, HR as activists. We have seen many things happen in organizations in the last years, and there are a lot many things we don't like. There is abuse, but there are also other things that we should not accept. For example, salary differences between different genders. That is not justified. Moreover, differences in pay also exist between other different age groups. So, HR should not be bystanders. Instead, they must take a standpoint and take action.

Trend three, HR for the ecosystem, or a wider scope. You often see that HR and HR teams are working for people on the payroll of the organizations. That is a very limited view. There are many other important stakeholders. Of course, there are candidates and also the clients of the organization, the end clients, about which HR barely ever has to do anything.

You need to widen your scope, and could also look at your immediate environment. What are you doing for your villages, for your cities and what are you doing for the wider society? Organizations are more and more part of a network and part of bigger ecosystems, so we could say, hey, HR, make sure you are relevant in and for the ecosystem.

Number four, The end of the employee.

What we have seen during the COVID 19 crisis, that employees have shown they could very well act on their own while working remotely. This is going to be a long term trend, in fact a permanent one. We must make sure that they are given some space, let them work a little independently, consistently talk, collaborate and stay in the loop.

The end of the employee means that people become more independent and more equal to the organization.

Trend number five, Utilizing the Metaverse.

The Metaverse is going to be very important in creating real, fantastic experiences for people. Sometimes it's called something like the 3D internet. Tt's connecting real experiences, virtual experiences and making life for people a lot more fun and real experience. Big implications for people at work. So start thinking, how can you use the metaverse to increase the experiences for people connected to your organization.

Number six, Forgiving technologies.

HR tech has boosted in the last years, and we have seen many applications that are very useful. Still, if you look at the technology, it is forcing people to use a certain workflow. It does not take into account how advanced or how digital savvy the user is. What you see starting is technology that is able to adapt to the people that use the technology, so don't force people in workflows.

But let's see how technology can be so flexible that it really becomes a fantastic experience to use the technology. Lots of work to do, but luckily we see early signs of this trend.

Number seven, recruiting for diversity.

The war for talent is in trend like always, we cannot find ‘the people’. There’s great attrition, people are leaving. If you look at the recruitment efforts of organizations, they generally are still looking very narrowly. If you have people with specific skill sets you start using the skills as a building block. Are you really willing and able to attract people? From a wider, diverse pool? I don't believe there's a war for talent as there is an abundance of talent around us. Let's use it.

Number eight, it's time for some real empathy.

We all see organizations say their people are very important and are really listening to their people… Often it doesn't come across as really serious. It's still organization first, people second. Now it's time for some real empathy, really dive into and try to understand what drives people and how can we, let's say, make sure that the wishes, needs and capabilities of people are used in our organization. Let's show some real empathy as HR in organizations.

Ninth Trend, Life coaching.

There were times, when organizations said we are just about work and can't deal with such aspects of our employees that relate to family, friends, finance, etc as they are not of our concern. That's changing. We see organizations taking a broader interest and saying we want to help people to, yeah, to become better not only at work but also in their life. How to grow outside work. So life coaching, of course, has a lot to do with well-being, not only well-being at work, but well-being as a total person.

Trend number ten, Split of HR.

We have seen it happening in the last years and that will evolve further. HR will be split basically in three areas. The biggest chunk is HR operations where most people in HR are, running, in a way, the HR machine. Making sure the employee experience is fantastic, fast and it's about a high level of services is about automation; also HR operations.

The second area ,smaller, is about HR strategy or the HR architects. People who are looking at the organization and say, how can we with our HR interventions help to realize our strategy and deal with our issues.

The third area, for the moment, is called people success, helping people to become better. Remember, the more able professionals work for any organization, and the more the organizations take care of their employees, more there are chances of overall growth.

I hope these 10 trends can inspire you to look at your organization, to look at your HR practices and say, hey, how can we use these trends?

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In the end, it's not about the trends, of course. I'm not advocating that you should use everything. As always, first look at your big organizational issues and then try to be creative and say, Hey, how can we use the trends to tackle the issues and to increase the impact of HR.