Flexibility, Mental Health, Artificial Intelligence… What Comes into Focus in Business Trends?

The past year was yet another in a series of years marked by uncertainties, novelties, and numerous trends. From the return to offices, simultaneous struggles to maintain hybrid business models, turbulence in the labor market, employee burnout… all of this characterized the past year, raising the question of how much will change this year?

After just under a month into 2023, it seems that companies can still expect numerous challenges. The search for talented employees, an exhausted workforce, and the pressure to save costs are just some of them, and companies will need to find answers to how to cope with these issues.

Based on research from the consulting firm Gartner, Harvard Business Review highlights trends that should be focused on this year and what should be considered a priority in the next 12 months.

1. After employees ‘quietly quit’, employers will ‘quietly hire’

Quiet quitting is among the trends that attracted a lot of attention last year. The phenomenon that we could translate as ‘quiet resignation’ actually has nothing to do with quitting a job, but refers to employees doing only what they must and nothing more, essentially giving the minimum required in their jobs. The trend dominated headlines, TikTok videos, and Instagram reels, sparking numerous discussions about how much and how one should work.

However, this year, it seems a new trend is quietly taking the lead. Namely, this time from employers comes the trend of ‘quiet hiring’. ‘Quiet hiring’ is a trend in which companies develop new roles and new skills without actually hiring new employees. Sometimes this is achieved by engaging external collaborators, but more often it refers to reorganizing work, assigning new tasks to current employees, and reallocating them to different areas. This sometimes means moving to other positions or taking on various internal projects.

Companies thus fill the roles they need, without the cost of hiring a new person, under the ‘pretext’ of promoting internal mobility.

2. Greater flexibility in non-flexible jobs

As we have now dangerously entered the era of hybrid work and many people, whose nature of work allows flexibility, do not want to work without that option, and the regulation of this form of work increasingly enters labor laws, it is time to introduce flexibility for ‘frontline workers’ as well. All those whose jobs are not tied to working on a laptop, i.e., those who work in manufacturing, healthcare, or similar jobs that cannot be taken home and done from their bedroom or kitchen, also want a form of flexibility in their work. They seek flexibility regarding what they work on, who they work with, and the amount of work, with a special emphasis on control and stability in their work schedule.

According to Gartner’s research, 58 percent of organizations employing ‘frontline workers’ invested in improving their employee experience last year, and about one-third of those said they intend to do so in the next 12 months.

3. Reducing the gap between manager and employee expectations

Human resource management experts are increasingly struggling to align employee expectations regarding finding purpose in work, flexibility, and opportunities for advancement, with the pressure from employers and managers for a desire for greater performance with fewer employees.

Sixty percent of employees say that their immediate supervisor is their most direct link to the company culture. For this reason, in 2023, HR professionals will need to work more on training, communication skills, and ‘redesigning’ manager roles to bridge the gap between their desires and priorities compared to those of employees.

4. Formal education takes a back seat

As employees, especially young ones, increasingly have a non-traditional vision of their career development and without much hesitation move from company to company, organizations are struggling to meet their needs for new talent.

Previously known, one could say traditional, conditions and methods of hiring are slowly taking a back seat, and companies are forced to change their approach to attract suitable employees. To fill vulnerable roles in 2023, companies will need to start evaluating candidates solely based on the skills required to perform a specific job, rather than on formal certifications, education levels, or previous experience.

The removal of formal education or experience requirements from job postings is the first step that companies are increasingly taking to reach potential candidates.

5. Providing opportunities for rest and caring for mental health

Although we are leaving the pandemic behind, many employees still struggle with the long-term physical and psychological consequences it has left on them. Employee stress and anxiety last year surpassed levels from 2020, with nearly 60 percent of employees in surveys in 2022 highlighting that they are under exceptional stress due to work on a daily basis.

As unpredictable times continue, social, economic, and political turbulence increasingly manifests itself in the form of reduced productivity and performance, burnout, sudden resignations, and conflicts in the workplace.

For this reason, companies in 2023 will need to provide more for their employees. It is generally important to place greater emphasis on mental health and rest. Employees increasingly need to feel understood and cared for by their superiors, and to prove this, companies must provide employees with more paid days off, allow them a day a week to work at a lighter pace and without many meetings, team workshops, and offices that provide space for rest… In all of this, managers have the difficult task of learning to understand employee needs, recognizing the importance of mental health for productivity, and learning how to communicate with employees.

6. Promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion

A Harvard Business Review study found that 42 percent of employees believe that the efforts companies make regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion create divisions, while resistance to such practices can negatively impact engagement and trust at work.

At the same time, to implement these important items in the work environment, HR professionals will need to advise managers on how to balance the need to implement important principles without causing irritation among some employees.

7. Risk of compromising employee privacy

Organizations often collect private data about their employees through various forms of communication and for different reasons. Besides conversations with human resources personnel or psychologists, companies often use new technologies to gather data about employee health, family situations, living conditions, or mental states. In all of this, it is necessary to know well where the line should not be crossed. People today are generally more sensitive to sharing personal information, so companies often risk crossing the desired boundary of their employees’ privacy and thus create problems for themselves.

Therefore, this year it is important for organizations to work on rules related to employee data to ensure they do not infringe on healthy and employee-friendly boundaries. Human resource leaders should be very transparent about how and for what purpose the organization collects, uses, and stores employee data and allow them not to share data they do not wish to.

8. Using artificial intelligence under limitations

As interesting and practical as it may be, the use of artificial intelligence in some parts of business will not be as free as many would like. For example, as more organizations use AI tools in hiring, the question arises as to how good and ethically correct they are, so this year more emphasis will be placed on regulating this issue. Regulators in some states have begun to examine the use of artificial intelligence in hiring. For example, in New York, a new law came into effect at the beginning of the year that limits employers in using AI tools for hiring and requires companies to conduct annual audits and publicly disclose hiring criteria.

Organizations that use AI in hiring processes will need to work on transparency and how they use artificial intelligence, publish data, and give candidates the option to opt out of AI-driven processes.

9. Working on social skills and employee relationships

Many employees, especially those belonging to Generation Z, consider themselves unprepared to work in unfamiliar circumstances and environments. The pandemic has exacerbated this issue as people have interacted less, and new and young employees have not been able to see exactly how communication and work function in organizations. An analysis by Harvard Business Review showed that the social skills of most people have weakened since the beginning of the pandemic, and feelings of exhaustion and insecurity further exacerbate this problem.

Most still struggle with how to behave, socialize, and communicate in a new, increasingly hybrid environment. For this reason, organizations will need to redefine what professionalism and social dynamics mean for each of them. However, instead of forcing all employees to return to the old standards that existed before the pandemic, companies must find ways to connect employees – and this can be achieved by giving employees autonomy, having a clear structure and purpose, and providing opportunities for fun. A 2022 Gartner study conducted on nearly 3,500 employees showed that when organizations help employees connect, there is a five times greater likelihood that they will be effective and a twelve times greater likelihood that they will feel connected to their colleagues.