Source: www.forbes.com
As we enter 2023, the future of work has become the now of work. Many of the changes which started during the pandemic were accelerated and have become permanent aspects of our working lives.
Just as I have done in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022, here is my countdown of what you should include on your HR roadmap for 2023.
#1 Employee Well-Being Is A Human Imperative
Workplace stress is on the rise and companies are creating workplaces to be engines of well-being. Experiencing stress at work impacts the individual worker and the worker’s relationships with friends, family, and co-workers. The recent Surgeon General report on Mental Health and Well-being reports 81% of workers say they will be looking for workplaces that support mental health in the future.
Delta Air Lines is one example of how a company is pursuing a well-being people strategy that focuses on the whole person, not just the individual worker. Delta Air Lines CEO, Ed Bastian, started by creating a new position with the appointment of Dr. Henry Ting, as the first Chief Health and Well-being Officer.
As part of this strategy, Dr. Ting, along with Dr. Nilay Shah and Dr. Shaheen Kurani in partnership with FLORENS, launched the Flourishing Index Survey in 2022. Nearly 24,000 Delta employees from across the globe answered the survey dedicated to understanding their health and well-being. In addition, more than 250 qualitative interviews with Delta Employees were conducted to identify immediate opportunities for well-being interventions.
Some of these include:
- Expanding the focus on mental health treatment by offering Delta employees and their household members twelve free counseling sessions per year (an increase from seven).
- Piloting a healthier food footprint by incorporating healthier and more affordable food options in Delta cafeterias and breakrooms.
- Offering new financial education programs that incentivize Delta employees to work with coaches to improve their personal finance skills such as budgeting, credit management and savings.
Dr. Shah believes that embedding well-being into the culture of Delta is the first step along a journey for employees to flourish at work, at home, and in their communities.
#2 Skills-Based Hiring Is On The Rise As Companies Recruit For Potential Rather Than Degrees
Recent research by Remote shows skills-based hiring is up 63% in the past year as more employers value experience over academic qualifications.
In addition to broadening the talent pool for employers, skills-based hiring helps to remove career and salary barriers for over two-thirds of adults in the United States who do not have a bachelor’s degree. For employers, skills-based hiring broadens the talent pool, increases the speed to hire, and adds greater diversity of thought in the workforce.
This shift is accelerating as a growing number of professions, such as those in computer support and software engineering, do not need a degree to perform their robs. The Burning Glass Institute analyzed millions of online job listings and found that the number of jobs requiring a college degree dropped from 51% in 2017 to 44% in 2021.
The shift toward skills-based hiring will accelerate in 2023 as skills emerge as the currency of the labor market.