This year, 2022, marks the third year of our co-existence with the pandemic. A lot has changed since then - people's lives, organisations' functioning and the general attitude towards life. The shift in attitude has impacted everyone, including HR teams. Each organisation is peering into the crystal ball, striving to gauge the ever-changing employee sentiments. Pandemic has added layers of difficulty to the already challenging question - what do employees want? Here are a few answers that we found.
1. Employee well-being and care
As per a recent article by Forbes, well-being is a priority for today's workforce. With health, mental as well as physical, being so crucial in the current situation, it is not surprising. When it comes to well-being, organisations often resort to perks and pay packages. But one needs to understand that well-being is beyond that.
Organisations have ensured well-being in multiple ways. There are health benefits, on-site gymnasiums and yoga workshops, healthy food counters, and access to mental wellness programs. But the risk of physical contact is high in such places. And virtual programs show plummeting effectiveness. But if the organisation is determined, these challenges are no deterrent; we saw it when CBRE, a commercial real estate leader, curated a 'We care kit' for its employees. The kit consisted of Covid safety products, candles and a whole lot of things to ensure that employees feel taken care of. While this is one odd example, we are sure that it is just the beginning.
Certain processes, seemingly mundane, that have come into the picture after switching to remote working are still done manually For instance, delivering onboarding kits to new employees joining remotely. Now, with remote working and hybrid workplaces becoming the new normal, automation is transforming such processes as well.
2. Building a flexible workforce
Uncertain times have led to drastic changes in the workforce. Initially, people were happy with the work from home transition. But what was supposed to be a temporary adjustment, got extended to almost two years, resulting in more harm than good! As per a report published by Gartner, 54% of HR leaders say their employees are fatigued from all the change. And hence, we need a workforce that is equipped to transition between hybrid or remote workspaces.
While we have the required technology to facilitate easy on-site to work from home transition, the fatigue results mostly from the emotional drain. A few employee engagement programs like virtual bonding activities, branded merchandise stores that enable a tangible connection, allowing good work-life balance have been the key things adopted by companies today. Such initiatives have also helped in improving internal communication within the company.
As per a recent article by Forbes, well-being is a priority for today's workforce. With health, mental as well as physical, being so crucial in the current situation, it is not surprising. When it comes to well-being, organisations often resort to perks and pay packages. But one needs to understand that well-being is beyond that.
3. Automated processes for HR teams
It is believed that digitisation will reinvent the functioning of HR teams. The digital transformation is already making an impact. There have been tools to assist HR teams to manage the entire employee lifecycle, right from the interview and onboarding to exit. Not only does it enhance employee experience, but also adds transparency to the processes.
Still, certain processes, seemingly mundane, that have come into the picture after switching to remote working are done manually. For instance, delivering onboarding kits to new employees joining remotely. Now, with remote working and hybrid workplaces becoming the new normal, automation is transforming such processes as well. Randstad, one of our 150+ clients, is leading the change.
We can term these points as trends or a definitive transformative guide, but one thing is certain - the HR teams are in the middle of huge transformation. If you want to ride the wave, we'd be glad to help with our automation solution for HR teams - PRO HR.
