WORKFORCE TRENDS IN 2024

TREND #1:

Pay transparency is becoming the new normal – With the passing of pay transparency regulations in many states, there is increasing pressure to ensure that companies have considered their overall design and management of executive and employee pay. Currently, where required, regulations enforce the addition of pay ranges in job postings when looking for prospective candidates. Ultimately, pay transparency can affect an employer’s brand, reputation, and ability to attract and retain talent while ensuring some level of pay equity.

WHAT HR CAN DO:

Accurately represent pay ranges – When publishing job postings, it is important to look at the compensation strategy that currently exists within the organization. If none exists, now is the time to start the process. Start with well-written job descriptions. A job description is the driver for determining the worth of a particular role. Work in tandem with managers to update responsibilities, competencies, education, and job experience needed to perform the role. Using updated job descriptions, conduct a market study for each role. Compare your organization with others in your industry of similar size. Leveraging industry-leading compensation databases ensures the delivery of salary benchmarking, grades, and market pricing data that is directly relevant to your organization’s strategic compensation plan. Analyze current internal salaries against the market price for each role to determine how the current compensation for each individual employee compares and formulate a plan to address this. Determine the best way to communicate externally, for job posting purposes, but also internally for the benefit of employees.

Generally, the goal is to take steps to ensure a compensation strategy that meets the needs of the organization while being mindful of the regulations. Use this as an opportunity to build strong relationships, loyalty, and trust with your employees and future employees.

TREND #2

Hybrid workplace remains the mainstay – A couple of years post-pandemic, many organizations are still struggling to normalize the workplace. Recognizing what employees value from their employer is evolving and things like workplace flexibility, and remote working, remain a strong pressure. Many companies continue to struggle with the future of the physical workspace. There have been some big headlines recently on companies who have mandated their employees return to the office, but most companies have settled into a hybrid model.

WHAT HR CAN DO:

Offer development and team-building opportunities – Even though we have had a lot of practice working in a remote environment, collaboration, communication, and building relationships remain an obstacle for many. By offering development and team-building opportunities, individuals and teams are likely to work together more effectively.

TREND #3

Economic uncertainty and challenges attracting and retaining talent remain – “Changing Conditions Ahead” would be an appropriate caution sign for the talent market in 2024. The road ahead is shrouded in fog as traditional measures of economic health and the labor market have become more difficult to discern and have not been as responsive to levers pulled by governing agencies. The 2023 recession that was widely expected never materialized. The labor market demonstrated remarkable resilience throughout 2023, despite the Federal Reserve’s moves to increase interest rates and tap the breaks on growth; however, the inflationary pressures impacting business materialized. Employers were to be in the driver’s seat again, however, making changes to popular hybrid and remote working arrangements forged during the pandemic have resulted in employee discord and damage to the company’s reputation. Prognostications for 2023 did not play out as anticipated. Couple economic uncertainty with the ongoing challenge of attracting and retaining skilled talent, major demographic headwinds, and an election year on the horizon; uncertainty is the norm. It is tough out there for human resources professionals.

WHAT HR CAN DO:

Be prepared and mindful of changes to the labor market – The message to business leaders and HR professionals is to stay alert to shifts in the business and talent landscape and be prepared to act to mitigate risk to your organization. As the year has drawn to a close, there has been an uptick in layoff activity across a variety of industries, and unemployment data indicates that it is taking longer for displaced individuals to land their next position. If your business circumstances indicate a reduction in force may be necessary, a reorganization or merger has resulted in redundancies, or a single individual is being separated from the organization; being mindful of how your employees are treated in the offboarding process will make a significant difference in the preservation of your brand and your ability to attract talent in the future.
An important part of being prepared for changing business conditions is to proactively establish a relationship with a reputable Career Transition service provider before an emergent need occurs. Ensuring your departing employees are personally assisted in preparing for their next career opportunity will have an impact on their future success and perception of the organization. Harsh reviews on social media are a red flag to talent considering joining your team. Transparency, empathy, and direct support through Career Transition programs help minimize reputational risk to your business. It also allows remaining employees to stay engaged and productive by knowing their peers are supported in the exit process. In the ever-changing business world, the employees released today may be those you will need to return when the market shifts again.

TREND #4

Concern grows with effective hybrid leadership and the influence of AI technology – In 2024, the business landscape will undoubtedly continue to gain complexity. Given the increasing number of recent lay-offs and uncertainty in the market caused by geopolitical controversy and a precarious election, leaders will likely find themselves navigating the challenging terrain of the heightened anxiety and burnout of key members of their teams while also striving to maintain effective leadership in a hybrid model. In addition, leaders must keep their finger on the pulse of AI-influenced technological advances that they need to leverage to remain current and competitive.

WHAT HR CAN DO:

Leverage Executive Coaching services – In this environment, Executive Coaches will prove to be invaluable allies on the leadership journey, offering a unique blend of professional guidance and personalized support to leaders on the brink. This level of complexity can impede decision-making and compromise the overall well-being of leaders. Executive coaches specialize in helping these leaders regain balance by identifying stress triggers, clarifying priorities, and fostering a resilient mindset.

Executive coaches are the strategic partners that give leaders the edge they need to enhance their effectiveness and remain successful. From facilitating effective communication across dispersed teams to promoting inclusive leadership, executive coaches play a crucial role in helping leaders hone these capabilities. By offering a safe space for reflection and equipping leaders with tools to foster team cohesion, these coaches contribute significantly to the success of leaders in today’s dynamic work environment.

TREND #5

Top talent is reluctant to take on a new opportunity – Candidates, particularly passive ones, are becoming increasingly selective amid changing market environments. At the executive level, the quality of the opportunity from the standpoint of compensation, benefits packages, growth potential, company, and challenges are critical, as the costs associated with changing jobs are higher in today’s volatile market. Many companies are having difficulty “closing the deal” on their own. Even organizations with robust, experienced internal recruiting teams are facing a great deal of unexpected occurrences and surprises coming up during (and after) the offer process (e.g., extensive negotiations, counteroffers, etc.).

WHAT HR CAN DO:

Partner with a trusted executive recruiter – The intense competition for executive talent in today’s market has exploited another facet of the executive hiring process – the treacherous time between the offer and the start date. While losing a candidate to a last-minute competing offer was not previously unheard of, the frequency and aggressiveness of incidents happening in today’s market require CEOs, Boards, and hiring teams to respond strategically to compete.
To best mitigate risk, CEOs and hiring teams must change their mindset. Know the fight is still looming, understand how risks may manifest themselves within the hiring process, and deploy thoughtful, proactive tactics to meet the demands of today’s talent market. This is where a trusted executive recruiter can add a lot of value, shaping the perception of candidates and aligning a company’s value proposition with a candidate’s goals and requirements. A well-seasoned executive recruiter knows how to truly partner with organizations and candidates to ensure the best possible outcome for both, marrying together their mutual long-term success.

TREND #6

Defining your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) Statement – According to the Mercer 2024 Global Talent Trends© Survey, when asked “What are the top priorities for HR in 2024”, 61% of respondents said EVP. An EVP is a statement of the benefits, perks, and opportunities that an organization offers to its employees. The goal of an EVP is to attract, retain, and engage employees, and to help build your employer brand.

WHAT HR CAN DO:

Human Resources plays a huge role in defining an organization’s EVP. HR can take these three immediate steps to understand and drive your organization’s EVP. These include:

• Collect employee feedback. When employees feel like their voices are heard, they’re more likely to be engaged and invested in their work. Collect data through an engagement survey or focus groups to understand what is most important to your employees.
• Offer internal career development. It is estimated that 40% of employees in the US have changed jobs or roles since 2020. An internal mobility strategy will help your organization become more agile and efficient in moving and developing existing employees so that you can grow your business’s best asset: Your People!
• Offer development options. In addition to the search for better work-life balance, pay, and benefits, a big reason employee are quitting their jobs is a perceived lack of professional development and career growth opportunities. In a 2021 report by Monster, 45% of surveyed employees said they would be more likely to stay at their current jobs if they were offered more training. Employees respond with better performance and higher commitment when they know you care about their development.

The post Trends and Predictions HR Leaders Need to Know for 2024 appeared first on CCI Consulting.

First and foremost, it is essential to understand that executive onboarding is not just a matter of completing the requisite new hire paperwork and giving them a tour of the office. Instead, it involves a comprehensive process designed to help the new executive understand the company’s goals and objectives, the expectations of their role, and the challenges they may face.

One of the key benefits of executive onboarding is that it helps new executives get up to speed quickly. It can take months or even years for leaders to fully understand the dynamics of a company, but with a well-designed onboarding process, they can accelerate this learning curve.

In addition, effective onboarding also helps reduce turnover. Studies have shown that new hires who undergo a structured onboarding process are likelier to stay with their employer long-term. This is because they get connected faster, better understand how their role fits into the larger organization, and are better equipped to achieve early wins. Since the cost of executive turnover can range from 50% to 200% of their salary, minimizing the risk of turnover and maximizing the probability of success is a good business decision.

What to focus on:

• Recognize the difference between orientation and onboarding
  While both orientation and onboarding are important, they are fundamentally different. Orientation typically covers the logistics of joining a new organization (overview of the workplace, access to technology, payroll paperwork, etc.). While valuable, the orientation focuses on the transactional components of joining a new organization. Onboarding, on the other hand, is about setting the foundation for success and is focused on supporting both the personal and organizational transition, which is more complex and intensive. In addition, since it may take a new executive 6-12 months to acclimate fully, effective onboarding is a process that provides support and feedback throughout this critical period.

The post-acceptance, pre-employment phase is the best time to start the onboarding process by keeping the dialog flowing and continuing to communicate. Provide opportunities for new executives to connect with key stakeholders they did not meet during the interview process. And, as appropriate, invite them to internal or external company events. If anything has changed since they were recruited, make sure the new leader understands what changed, the reason for the change, and what effect this may have on their role. While the process starts before they begin their tenure, it continues as they work through the challenges of acclimating and integrating.

• Do not take things for granted
  When a new leader joins, expectations are high for both the leader and the organization. But transitions are unsettling and challenging. Studies indicate that when new executives fail or leave within the first two years on the job, it is usually not a matter of capability but rather a failure to establish key relationships or difficulty aligning with company culture. In other words, failure is generally related to an inability to get things done with and through other people in this new ecosystem. Therefore, onboarding should focus on helping the new leader understand the culture, gain insight into expectations, and build relationships with key stakeholders. Spending time getting to know their colleagues and team members can help foster a sense of trust and rapport, making it easier to navigate the onboarding process successfully.One of the most critical components of effective onboarding and acclimation is the need to quickly gain focus and alignment with three important constituent groups – the boss, direct reports, and key stakeholders. Early conversations with each group of constituents provide an efficient and effective mechanism for gaining insight into the unique and important nuances of situations and relationships. In addition, the exchange offers a foundation for clarifying and aligning the executive’s needs and expectations with those of the boss, team, and key stakeholders. For executives, this is also an opportunity to share their goals and vision for the company with their new colleagues. This can help foster relationships and build trust early in the process. It also helps ensure the alignment of goals and objectives. Listening to others’ perspectives will provide valuable insight that can help them understand any pain points that need to be addressed or opportunities to make a positive impact.
• Provide early and ongoing feedback
  Early and ongoing feedback helps ensure that things are headed in the right direction regarding building connections, understanding organizational norms and culture, and prioritizing areas of focus and action. If there is an issue or concern, early and ongoing feedback provides an opportunity to proactively address them rather than letting things fester.

Organizations are complex systems. Ongoing honest feedback helps the new leader understand the nuances of culture, team dynamics, and implicit expectations that impact individual and organizational success. Critical areas of feedback include:

• • Is she clear on how success will be measured? Is she on track?
  • Is his approach aligned with cultural norms and values?
  • Is she attending to interpersonal and team dynamics?
  • Are there any concerns about the leader’s approach that must be addressed?
  • What questions or concerns does the leader have?
  • Have the leader do a “stop, start, and continue” exercise to help identify any adjustments in focus or approach that will increase success.

A new leader brings a fresh perspective and new ideas, so this dialog also provides an important opportunity for them to share their insights, thoughts, and observations. This exchange offers the foundation for aligning and calibrating expectations, aligning efforts, and developing an action plan to secure quick wins and long-term success.

If your company does not utilize a structured onboarding process to ensure the success of your newly hired executives, consider implementing one. Investing in a comprehensive onboarding process ensures a smoother transition that helps new executives get up to speed quickly, reduce turnover, and improve overall performance. It is an investment that benefits the executive and the entire organization.

The post Ensuring the Success of your Newly Hired Executive appeared first on CCI Consulting.

Not exactly.

 “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

Peter Drucker’s famous quote illustrates that no matter how brilliant the strategy, company culture will influence virtually every element of business performance. Culture has widely been described as “how we do things around here,” a simple description of something as powerful and ubiquitous as organizational culture.  Organizational culture can be described as the routine experiences of employees, the behaviors of leaders, and others around them that (should be) in the alignment of goals, beliefs, and values held by the organization. Discord occurs when the company’s espoused culture is not reflected in the lived reality of employees.

If a healthy culture is so important, why is it difficult to define and build? Creating a desirable organizational culture is not a project to be completed or a destination. Creating a healthy culture is analogous to cultivating a garden. Culture is not static; it is living, evolving, and ever-present in the work environment. Culture exists, like gravity and oxygen, whether or not we pay attention to it. Therefore, culture must be consistently monitored, evaluated, and reinforced. At times, toxic individuals, structures, or processes may need to be rehabilitated or removed for the health of the overall ecosystem.

Small But Mighty EVP – Culture is Critical in Small Organizations.

The culture of your organization defines your Employer Value Proposition (EVP.)  Another way to think of EVP is, “why would someone want to work here?”  This is an important question, whether the company consists of 15, 500, or 100,000 employees

In a current highly competitive labor market, smaller organizations may be challenged to compete in the War for Talent. Elements of EVP relating to compensation, benefits, PTO, educational reimbursement, and flexibility may seem insurmountable. Smaller organizations that focus on a positive culture may offset other challenges in EVP.  They must deliver on their healthy culture promise to achieve market differentiation.1e

The Vault Consulting 50 annual ranking is a resource closely monitored by soon-to-graduate MBAs from top tier universities and those exploring career opportunities in various consulting practices, large & small. The recently published results found that 40% of consultants ranked culture as the most principal factor in choosing a firm, displacing firm prestige as the top consideration.

What Can a Company Do to Enhance Company Culture?

A resilient and vibrant company culture is both the aspiration of most leaders and a business imperative. The impact of company culture is far reaching, affecting all measures of business performance on and beyond the balance sheet. It is important to be aware that ESG Ratings (Environmental, Social, and Governance) are increasingly a factor in raising capital. Company culture is reflected in multiple scales of ESG, which may influence individual, institutional, and private equity investment decisions.

Consider recommendations to assess company culture and address any deficits revealed on these three fronts.

1. Attract New Talent and Retain Top Performers

Despite a cooling economy in specific sectors, job seekers are still in the driver’s seat with elevated expectations of employers. When experiencing a negative culture, employees will vote with their feet. An inclusive and respectful culture is now table stakes. Employers also need to monitor the external EVP. Company culture is visible in social media posts, surveys, and work-related technology platforms.

Internal culture monitoring can be conducted by:

• Leveraging feedback from employee engagement surveys, using focused analytics to highlight bright spots and areas for improvement that may vary across different work groups or demographics.
• Conducting stay interviews, who better to ask “why would someone work here” than current employees? Do not wait for the exit interview to discover what was not working well in the culture.
• Pulse checks to monitor progress and proactively identify culture shifts.
• Hold focus groups to solicit feedback and generate ideas. An external partner often facilitates these to ensure objectivity and anonymity.

External perception can be monitored by:

• Checking Glassdoor ratings and reviews of the company, culture, and leadership. If you see the theme “Run! Do not work here,” you have work to do.
• Establish a retiree and/or employee alumni community group on LinkedIn. These can become an excellent source of referrals and sometimes result in great employees returning to the organization.
• Partner with a market provider to conduct an external survey, gathering data and external perspective on the company culture.

2. Productivity & Performance

A healthy culture accounts for at least 20% of the variability of a firm’s productivity, as cited by a recent study.

• Regular open one-on-one discussions with employees, with a standing question around barriers they are experiencing, will uncover workplace cultural obstacles and identify individual behaviors that may be impeding personal or group productivity.
• Get specific. Understand the scenarios or recurring situations where the employee feels either overwhelmed or under-challenged. Common examples that emerge are frequent interruptions, lack of respect, and unrealistic deadlines.
• Stay alert for issues relating to personal time boundaries. There is no quicker way to damage a great culture than to have employees receiving texts, emails, or calls after hours or to be overloaded to the point of working excessive time after hours to keep up.

3. Cultural Aspects of Employee Health & Wellbeing

• Monitor leading indicators of individual health and well-being by leveraging one-on-one employee check-ins. Actively listen and address concerns in a timely manner.
• Engage HR and/or refer to the company Employee Assistance Program as needed.
• From a broader standpoint, monitor the cost of health and welfare benefits, absenteeism, and stress-related illness.

There is a saying that “few things worth doing well are easy.” Creating a positive, healthy, and resilient company culture may feel overwhelming. However, it is a journey worth taking for your employees’ well-being, engagement, and productivity and the organization’s long-term success.  Remember that culture is not static and, like a garden, requires ongoing care to thrive.

Karen DeLise
Vice President, Consulting

The post Strengthen Company Culture, Strengthen Performance appeared first on CCI Consulting.

To meet their talent challenges, many organizations follow a basic strategy: Ask people what they want and try to give it to them.  This straightforward approach is at the core of many employee engagement and retention initiatives.  Tempting as this may be, doing so can be a trap, as it tends to focus discussions and actions on the material aspects of jobs that are uppermost in employees’ minds at that moment.  In the past, a top issue was often pay, but the more recent trend has been flexibility, notably in remote or hybrid work.  And while material offerings are the easiest levers to pull and are immediately appreciated, they are also easier for competitors to imitate, and their impact on employee retention is the least enduring – in fact, an over-reliance on material offerings can result in a race to the bottom, as companies strive to outbid one another for talent.

So, what to do?  A more impactful approach is to design and implement a framework – commonly referred to as the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) – that shifts the focus of leaders and employees (and job candidates) from what they want at the moment to what they need to build a thriving future for themselves and the organization.  Sound too complicated?  It’s really not – it’s simply refining the “ask people what they want” strategy by incorporating four interrelated factors:

1. Material Offerings, which include salary & benefits, physical office space, work location, schedule flexibility, computer equipment, etc.
2. Opportunities to Develop and Grow, which comprise all the ways a company helps employees acquire new skills and become more valuable in the labor market. Common examples include training activities, job rotations, and career pathways.
3. Connection and Community represent the benefits that come from being part of a larger group. Examples include being appreciated and valued for who you are, social relationships, and mutual accountability, all of which serve as the foundation for an energizing culture.
4. Meaning and Purpose which are the organization’s aspirational reasons for existing and answer the core question of why employees do the work they do.

It’s important to note that these factors vary with respect to how – and when – an employee experiences them.  HR leaders will want to think about short- vs. longer-term impact, as well as individual vs. collective impact.  For example, Material Offerings and Connection & Community are typically experienced in the short-term, while Growth & Development and Meaning & Purpose are longer-term plays.  Paying a bonus will have a nice immediate, positive impact but the effect wears off quickly.  However, coupling a bonus payment (immediate impact) with investments in an employee’s career growth (longer-term impact) creates both near-term satisfaction and longer-term “stickiness.”  Similarly, Material Offerings and Growth & Development are experienced by an employee individually, while Connection & Community and Meaning & Purpose are experienced on a collective level.

At many companies, different organizational areas – HR leaders, Operational leaders, C-Suite leaders – are involved in how the four factors are managed, and the result is too often a lack of integration or synergy between the factors.   HR typically handles salary and benefits, while Operational leaders handle scheduling and work flexibility, and senior leaders focus on culture and purpose.  This approach ignores how changes in one factor can affect others.  An enduring Employee Value Proposition framework requires treating the four factors as interdependent parts of an integrated system.  A systematic approach to re-thinking your company’s EVP entails several steps:

• Assess what your company has and what your employees need (i.e., “ask people what they want”). Collect information on what your organization is currently providing with respect to each of the four factors, how employees experience them, and what employees want.  This information is often readily available from employee engagement survey data; if your company hasn’t surveyed employees, consider doing so.
• Identify “priority” actions for each factor. An analysis of the employee engagement data will likely reveal key gaps in each of the four factors, areas in which your organization is not offering the right programs for employees, or perhaps you will see evidence of how activities in one factor are actually undermining programs in another area.   With this data, identify the key priorities highlighting which programs you will start, stop, or change.
• Change the conversation – A crucial element is to ensure HR and Operational leaders are talking about the EVP in an integrated way. As new initiatives are started or changes are made to existing programs, all leaders should be prepared to explain the rationale (short-term vs. longer-term impact, and individual vs. collective dynamic).  This is particularly important in recruiting and onboarding activities, performance management, and decisions regarding employee development opportunities.
• Finally, remember that employees’ needs are dynamic and should be reassessed on a regular basis. Ongoing assessment is vital to evaluating how relationships among the four factors may need to shift in response to changes in the organization or external environment.

Approaching employee attraction, retention, and engagement as an integrated system helps avoid a race to the bottom and allows your company to move from reacting to the demands of the moment – whether for signing bonuses, more time off, or remote work – to creating an environment that enables people to reach their full potential.  And who doesn’t want to work in a company that helps them reach their full potential?  A true win-win.

Rob Croner
Senior Consulting Advisor
CCI Consulting

The post Worried About Employee Engagement? Then Re-think Your Employee Value Proposition appeared first on CCI Consulting.

But one thing we all know is that change is constant and the conditions that exist today will not be the same in 6 or 12 months.  And predicting what the future will bring can be a fool’s errand – would anyone have guessed, when the financial markets hit a peak in January 2022, that the S&P500 would fall over 20% by June, its worst first-half performance since 1970?  But several issues are becoming clearer as 2023 approaches:

• The Federal Reserve has made clear its intent to continue raising interest rates in the battle against inflation with the goal of slowing down the economy; this is very different from where the Fed was a year ago.
• It seems increasingly likely the economy will experience a recession or, at least, a sustained period of slower economic growth.
• And the Fed is actively trying to slow down job growth, hoping to soften the labor market which the Fed believes will ease the pressure on wage increases – and, perhaps, the pace at which people are changing jobs.

So, what might this mean for HR and business leaders?  There is an adage that leaders always fight the last war.  In the throes of a still-hot labor and talent market, HR leaders may be consumed by scenarios of tight job markets, rising salaries, and high employee churn and still using talent strategies focused on helping them compete in a tight and growing economy.  But what if the next “talent war” must be fought in the context of a tightening economy, slower job growth, and concerns about reducing labor and operating costs?  What impact would a slowing economy have on your business?  What talent strategies would make sense in these scenarios?  And how can HR leaders know when to pivot to a different approach?

We’ve said this in some of our previous CCI articles, but it bears repeating – the core career and talent management issues HR leaders have always focused on remain critical to an organization’s success: ensuring the right talent is in the right roles, creating opportunities for internal talent mobility and employee development, and designing a work environment that ensures “stickiness” and encourages retention.  Over the past 12-18 months, the focus and efforts of many HR teams were on talent acquisition: finding, hiring, and onboarding new employees.  With the prospects of a softening labor market in 2023, shifting the focus to retaining and leveraging your existing workforce will provide more positive returns.  Savvy HR leaders will want to pay attention to a few key areas:

• Job vacancies – In August, about 1.1 million job openings vanished, dropping to 10.1 million from a high of 11.2 million in July. This is evidence that some companies are responding to a slowing economy by canceling open positions rather than laying off workers, in an acknowledgment that existing employees represent an investment in training and culture acclimation.  This strategy allows a company to retain and leverage its investment in current employees while not spending on acquisition costs to fill vacant positions that may not be needed.
• Continue to leverage flex/hybrid work environments – The growing willingness to allow remote work means companies can compete for talent in expanded markets and can thoughtfully assess the need for physical office space (and the associated costs).
• Be aware of the “loyalty tax” – Recent data from the Pew Research Center shows a growing pay gap between employees who left to take a job with a new company compared to employees who remained with a company. The data shows that the median worker who changed jobs saw an increase of 9.7% in real earnings while the median employee who stayed experienced a loss of 1.7% in real earnings.  This is further evidence that HR leaders need to ensure that compensation programs are not only competitive with market rates but that they also have the flexibility to allow pay raises on accelerated cycles to ensure key talent is retained.
• Re-engage and re-recruit your employees. Employees have also experienced the turmoil of the past year or two.  Spending time to re-engage and re-recruit your current staff will acknowledge their value and strengthen their bond with your company.  Think of it as an opportunity to deepen your relationship with your workforce.

It’s been a wild ride for the past two years.  As HR and business leaders, you’ve moved from crisis to crisis, barely having time to catch your breath.  But don’t let the turmoil of the past two years, with trends like the “Great Resignation” and “Quiet Quitting” make you think the current trends will continue.  Give yourself permission to pause, take a breath, and really reflect on how you can best help your company prepare for some of the trends now looming on the horizon.

Rob Croner

Senior Consulting Advisor

CCI Consulting

The post Looking Ahead – How HR Leaders Can Prepare for 2023 appeared first on CCI Consulting.

Human resources professionals have contended with challenge after challenge over the past few years, and 2023 is shaping up to be a continuation of many of those issues – along with a few new ones rearing their heads.

Our team members have weighed in on the workforce trends impacting organizations as we head into 2023 and offer their insights, best practices, and recommended actions for HR & organizational leaders as the next year unfolds.

WORKFORCE TRENDS IN 2023

TREND #1:

Unemployment will remain low – Unemployment is historically low, and inflation is the highest it’s been in 40 years. The lower workforce participation rates and recent strong earnings from Fortune 500 companies mean that unemployment will continue to remain historically low in 2023, even if there is a recession. If unemployment were to rise slightly from 3.5%, it would still be far below normal levels.

WHAT HR CAN DO:

Be flexible with job requirements – To broaden their talent pool, companies must consider evaluating candidates based on behavioral competencies and technical skills rather than educational credentials. The U.S. government, for instance, requires agencies “to limit the use of educational requirements” in federal contracts, and calls on them “to increase the use of skills and competency-based hiring for employment.”

“Using assessments and competency-based interviewing will ensure that companies are identifying and investing in the talent they seek,” says Jeffrey Harvey, Vice President, Executive Search.

TREND #2

Rising wages are here to stay – Companies are setting aside an average 3.9% of total payroll for wage increases in 2022. Pay will continue to rise through 2023 and beyond, especially for blue-collar jobs and manual services due to the shrinking working-age population and low unemployment rates (Conference Board).

WHAT HR CAN DO:

Double-down on non-monetary aspects of the employee experience – Companies must be willing to be flexible with salary, benefits, and vacation/PTO to remain competitive. However, beyond compensation and benefits, companies need to create opportunities for meaning and development in the careers of their employees. “Several companies are developing internal talent and offering a path for each team member to seek their own career goals rather than climb the typical corporate ladder,” says Harvey. Many employees are attracted to developing their skills and competencies and seek opportunities where they have the freedom and choice to do so. This scenario benefits the employee and the company by maintaining engagement and upskilling employees.

TREND #3

Workers’ desire for a remote or hybrid arrangement will remain unchanged – Research by Ladders found that remote opportunities increased from under 4% of all high-paying jobs before the pandemic to about 9% at the end of 2020, and to more than 15% by 2021. According to their projections, 25% of professional workers will work remotely by the end of 2023.

WHAT HR CAN DO:

Offer remote and hybrid work arrangements – The trend of remote and hybrid work arrangements during the pandemic allowed workers to envision a work/life balance they had not seen before. “I recently conducted a senior-level HR search for a client that wanted the candidate to be onsite five days a week,” says Harvey. “Of the hundreds of prospects I reached out to, close to 75% of the potential candidates were only willing to consider opportunities that allowed for a hybrid work arrangement or a fully remote option. Companies must consider hybrid options to attract and retain talent if their business can accommodate them.”

TREND #4

The “quiet quitting” trend will continue – Quiet quitting represents a significant risk for every organization now and into 2023. While motivated and engaged employees drive results, dejected employees who simply go through the motions while they wait for a better opportunity kill productivity, morale, and organizational success.

WHAT HR CAN DO:

Commit to the three Cs: communication, celebration, and connection – Gallup research shows the rise in quiet quitters is tied to a lack of clarity about expectations, fewer opportunities to learn and grow, not feeling cared about, and feeling a disconnect with the organization’s mission and purpose.

“To alleviate quiet quitting, redouble your efforts to communicate in ways that paint a compelling vision of the future and provide clarity of expectations,” says Brian Clapp, President. “Although leaders cannot offer certainty amid uncertainty, they can provide focus by letting people know what’s expected, that their work matters, and how they are doing,” says Clapp.

This is also a time to review the way you celebrate employees. Do you only celebrate the big wins? Do recognize employees the way they prefer?  Employees like it when their efforts are acknowledged and appreciated. It can be as simple as mailing a card that says “Thank you! You were instrumental in the success and completion of this project.”  Take time to create a recognition program to show employees that you recognize their hard work and efforts, no matter how big or small.

Lastly, HR leaders need to identify ways to foster connection within the culture. Employees should not only feel connected to their supervisor and team members, but also to the organization. These connections need to be intentional and meaningful. While regular one-on-ones and team meetings are typical avenues of connection, consider alternatives such as involving employees in decision-making, forming committees to foster cross-department collaboration, and creating shared interest groups such as a book club or baseball league.

TREND #5

Constant change is the norm – Change is not going away; it is just going to accelerate. While we can do our best to plan for what might be ahead, the success of an organization will depend on its ability to swiftly adapt, monitor, and adjust. The more organizations and their leaders embrace change, the better equipped they’ll be to ensure their businesses and people are poised for growth.

WHAT HR CAN DO:

Invest in your leaders – It’s never been more difficult to lead.  In fact, 55 percent of HR leaders reported “leading change” as a critical skill most lacking in their organization in our 2022 HR Insights Survey. Being skilled at change management is something all organizations need to take seriously and prioritize. Through coaching, leaders can gain the skills they need not only to develop their own resiliency, capacity, and composure when change occurs but also to manage the people side of change, including clearly communicating the vision for the future, setting expectations, and engaging employees in the transformation process.

TREND #6

Talent turnover and scarcity will remain a risk for companies – Voluntary turnover is expected to reach 35% in 2023, according to research from Work Institute. Employees are in control of how, when, and where they work, and they will continue to flex this control to leave organizations that don’t align with their preferences. A significant driver of this trend is hybrid work, with 52% of employees saying flexible work policies will affect their decision to stay at their organization.

WHAT HR CAN DO:

Understand and Act On What Employees Need – Stay interviews and employee engagement surveys are a couple tools organizations can leverage to help combat turnover. “These can help you gain more insight into what keeps your employees working for the organization and what aspects may need to be improved before they become huge issues,” says Mark Saddic, Vice President of Talent Development.

A focus on development and job enrichment is also key, as studies continue to show workers are willing to switch jobs if offered career advancement and training opportunities.

“Providing opportunities for development is a win-win situation for everyone. It provides employees the opportunity to expand their skillset and grow their career, which often leads to higher engagement and improved retention for the company,” says Saddic.

In Conclusion

Every organization is facing a conflux of challenging dynamics that includes bracing for market uncertainty, cost increases, a competitive labor market, and the challenge of navigating the new and probably still evolving balance of in-person, remote, or hybrid work. At the same time, both leaders and employees are understandably exhausted. In this environment of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA), resist the temptation to hunker down. By implementing the action steps above, HR leaders can enable their people and organizations to compete, thrive, and grow in 2023.

Kimberlee Beck

Director of Marketing

CCI Consulting

The post Workforce Trends and Predictions for 2023: What HR Leaders Need to Know appeared first on CCI Consulting.

From the moment a candidate applies for your job application to the time they depart from your company, everything the employee has learned, performed, observed, and perceived all contribute to their employee experience.

To master the employee experience within your organization, management must lend an open ear to their employees to determine what is most important to them, whether it be through one-on-one meetings or employee engagement surveys. With the information gathered from your employees, your organization can create personalized and captivating experiences.

Employee experience sets the groundwork for excellent business performance. Let’s take a deeper look into what employees commonly seek from their workplace in terms of an excellent employee experience and how your organization can improve.

The four pillars of employee experience

Employees perform best when they have positive intrinsic motivators. When employees enjoy performing their work, doing the work is a reward. Let’s dive deeper into the four pillars that employees typically seek at their workplace in terms of successful employee experience.

1. Connection: The relationship between an employee and their manager, coworkers, and the organization’s values and missions.
2. Appreciation: Employees want to feel that their work and their role has value and are being recognized.
3. Performance: A clear and concise understanding from the employee of what they need to do to succeed at their job.
4. Growth: Receiving feedback, learning opportunities, or ongoing support for development.

How to create a strong employee experience

Company culture

While there is no precise definition of a company’s culture, having something that distinguishes your organization’s values, practices, missions, or attitude will ensure successful employee experiences. Allowing employees to know this information in the early stages of recruitment and onboarding will guarantee your organization has attracted the right employees.

Take a step into employees’ shoes

When trying to understand your organization’s level of employee experience, take a moment to be an employee. Step into their shoes to gain a deeper understanding of who they are, what they want, and their pain points. Determining answers to these questions will build trust between the organization and the employees and provide your organization with a new perspective.

Co-establish solutions

Rather than wait for employees’ responses or ideas from an employee engagement survey, set up a time to table ideas with employees to ensure a successful experience. Co-establishing solutions allows your employees to know they are being heard. Additionally,  your organization is going directly to the source and collaborating with the target audience which will result in optimal solutions.

Improve your organization’s employee experience

So, if employee experience is variable and ongoing, how can your organization deliver a great one? For starters, invest time into the four pillars: connection, performance, appreciation, and growth.

If your organization is ready to take your employee experience to new heights, CCI Consulting is prepped and ready to serve you. With extensive experience and knowledge in developing workplaces where the organization and people thrive, we are one of the leading full-service human resource firms specializing in solutions that support a wide variety of businesses and their employees. If your organization desires to improve its employee experience, contact us today at 1-800-214-753.

The post The Ultimate Guide to Employee Experience appeared first on CCI Consulting.

Yes, unusual times.  Uncommon. Over 70 million workers quit jobs in 2021, 33% of the total workforce.  The labor force participation rate declined to 61.8%, the lowest level in 40 years.  The statistics are staggering.  But is this situation truly unprecedented?  A closer look at data shows the Quit Rate is consistent with other post-recession periods; it was 28% after both the 2001 and 2008 recessions.  In fact, the Quit Rate increased each year from 2009 to 2019, and the unusually large turnover in 2021 reflected a continuation of underlying trends in the labor market that were accelerated by the COVID pandemic and economic disruptions.

So, what’s really going on?  There are fundamental changes in the nature of work. Three significant business trends that have occurred over the past two decades that were accelerated by the pandemic include:

1. The impact of digitization and technology-driven transformation
2. The reinvention of “office work”
3. The increased attention to social and environmental goals. 

These trends have shifted the source of value in business today.  In the 20^th century, the source of value was access to capital and physical infrastructure; it was a “physical” world.  In the 21^st century, the source of value is People.  Human capital is now the scarce resource and attracting and retaining the “best and brightest” talent is critical to success.

This should be good news to HR leaders.  While some new workforce challenges have emerged over the past two years – notably, the impact of remote & hybrid work and helping employees address work/life balance – the core career and talent management issues HR leaders have always focused on remain critical to an organization’s success: ensuring the right talent are in the right roles, creating opportunities for internal talent mobility and employee development, and designing a work environment that ensures “stickiness” and encourages retention.  Yes, we live in a “VUCA” world – volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous – but research shows there are constants to what employees desire: a sense of connectedness to a broader purpose, a work experience that provides growth and development opportunities, and respectful, collaborative relationships with their co-workers and leaders.

How then can HR and business leaders help employees and companies navigate the new world of work?  Creating an effective roadmap will require fresh thinking at the macro level – looking at the design of the HR function – as well as innovative and creative solutions in HR programs and solutions delivered at the operating level.  Let’s start with reshaping the HR function, which has a history as a support function.  Moving to a future as a Strategic Partner requires a more dynamic model, with three areas of focus:

1. Elevating HR through digitization and improving the capabilities of HR professionals, especially regarding agile processes and workflow.
2. Focusing on the design of the employee experience by treating employees as customers and identifying the “moments that matter,” similar to how retail stores interact with their customers.
3. Emphasizing a “friction-less” HR delivery model in which the core tenets of the classic Ulrich model – HR Business Partners, Centers of Excellence, and Shared Services – remain but cross-functional, cross-regional collaboration is heightened.

And at the HR program level, consider these areas:

• Think broadly about recruitment by re-evaluating job requirements to become more skill-focused, and resisting implicit bias against non-industry experience, career changers, or unemployed individuals.
• Think beyond compensation by emphasizing total rewards, flexibility, training opportunities, and family-friendly benefit offerings.
• Prioritize mental health.  The pandemic toll on mental well-being has been widely documented; show that this is understood by offering extensive resources.
• Think carefully about Work-from-Home policies, recognizing that a “one-size-fits-all” approach will likely not work for most organizations.  Seek employee feedback, understand the organization’s needs, and constantly communicate the rationale for any policy decision.
• Re-engage and re-recruit your employees.  Recognize that employees need to be re-oriented to the values, culture, and work environment.  Think of it as an opportunity to deepen your relationship with your workforce.
• Teach Leaders to lead with trust, support, and flexibility.  The remote work experiment forced on most companies by the pandemic required managers to interact differently with their teams, with less micro-management and more trust and support.  Don’t let a return to in-person work, including hybrid models, erode the trust and autonomy that employees seek.

A primary responsibility of the HR function is to enhance the “health” of the organization.  A healthy organization values its employees, provides growth and career development opportunities, and seeks ways to nurture, strengthen, and grow the relationship.  As an HR leader, don’t let the turmoil of the last two years take your focus off this path, and you will serve as an exceptional guide in helping your workforce navigate the new world of work.

Rob Croner
Senior Consulting Advisor
CCI Consulting

The post Navigating the New World of Work appeared first on CCI Consulting.

The post 5 Ways to Build Readiness for Change in Your Organization appeared first on CCI Consulting.

The post Recognizing Your Organization’s Most Valuable Asset: Employee Appreciation Day 2022 appeared first on CCI Consulting.