New Year, New Challenges

The challenges HR professionals face are constantly evolving. 2022 brought unexpected and unprecedented recruiting and workforce challenges as employers faced high turnover rates, staffing and supply chain shortages, and cultural shifts around wages and employee experiences.

With predictions of both recession and economic booms, we now look toward 2023 and the challenges so many unknowns may bring.  

We won’t pretend to know much about what’s going to happen or how to withstand the upcoming challenges, but we can help you put yourself in the best position to face the new year head on.

Updating Employee Handbooks

An essential tool for managing your workforce and promoting fairness and consistency is an up-to-date employee handbook. Although often overlooked, an employee handbook is a critical piece of documentation that could either expose you to or protect you from potential risks.

With the largest ever percentage of the US workforce now working hybrid schedules, consider adding policies to address the new working norms. These may include the use of company technology outside the office, new timekeeping and schedule standards, and new safety protocols.

Understanding Workforce Planning

Workforce planning is a key challenge for HR professionals as they work to maintain staffing requirements. Whether it’s navigating standard fluctuations or new production demands, taking a strategic, proactive approach to your workforce planning will have a positive impact on your bottom line.

Workforce management activities include more than just your recruiting and staffing needs, they also include employee training, compensation, and retention and engagement evaluations. Prepare different solutions you can implement in response to different challenges as they arise. For example, you may want to allocate extra effort into an employee engagement program, especially after the previous challenging year that may have included high turnover.

Discovering What Employees Really Want

A comprehensive, attractive benefit package is a huge part of attracting and retaining talent. Creating packages based on what employees actually want is the best way to make your company difficult to walk away from. With all the cultural and workforce shifts, it’s time to check in and see what’s most important to your employees and adapt your benefit packages to match.

As an HR professional, the challenges you face day-to-day and year-to-year are constantly evolving. With each post-pandemic year that passes, those challenges are even more unique than ever before. It’s impossible to plan for every issue that may pop up, but knowing the top challenges most are facing this year will help you to better prepare potential workforce solutions.