As 2022 draws to an end, we’re looking ahead to the issues businesses may face in the year ahead. Here are some of the key challenges we’ve identified, and suggestions on what you as an employer can do to overcome them.
New pressures taking a toll on wellbeing
Wellbeing became a top priority in lockdown as employers realised their responsibilities to employees who were balancing working from home with the stresses of the pandemic.
Now it’s important not to lose focus, as there are new pressures to cope with such as the financial impact of the cost of living crisis, increased workloads due to redundancies or problems with recruiting. This will all take a toll on mental health.
One in four employees say money worries affect their ability to do their job. Employers who support financial wellbeing can make a much-valued difference to their workforce, helping to ease stress and anxiety, and it doesn’t matter if you have a limited budget.
One way to help is introduce financial wellbeing workshops which give employees the chance to speak to someone for independent financial advice. This might cover cost of living, understanding tax relief, child benefit rules, benefits available, debt management and more.
You could also encourage the use of Employee Assistance Programmes so that employees can use this to access support if they need it – whether that’s financial advice or counselling around work-related stress.
People will want more than salary
It’s an incredibly difficult time to recruit – the landscape is described as a “candidate’s market” and there’s much talk of the “great resignation” as people seek an improved work/life balance and want to feel valued following their experiences in the pandemic.
We expect that to remain the case in 2022, so when it comes to retaining existing employees and recruiting new people, a competitive salary won’t be enough on its own.
Candidates will ask questions about work/life balance, perks and benefits – and crucially, they will want to know about that all-important company culture and how it will work for them.
Responding to pay rises
Average pay rises are failing to keep up with the cost of living. And as an employer, you may wish to increase your employees’ earnings to match price rises, but that’s not viable for every business.
In this case you need to think about what will recruit, retain and engage staff instead of salary.
Company culture, a focus on wellbeing and opportunity for career progression all go towards retaining and engaging employees. You can read about this in detail in our blog here.
It’s also good to note that some employees may not be thinking about their ‘salary’ at all and want a one-off payment. Consider everyone on your team as an individual, some people may be struggling financially because of the rise in living costs, which is why they have come to you to ask for a pay rise.
Be kind and show compassion, especially when the answer is no. You do not want to appear dismissive or uncaring.
A rise in flexible working requests
The debate around whether people work best from home, or the office will rage on, but you should be prepared for the number of informal and formal requests for flexible working to continue to rise.
This may present a challenge – not just in ensuring requests are treated consistently and fairly, but also when it comes to managing hybrid teams. You will need to work hard to ensure your people work well together, and that company culture can be maintained, as people work in varied ways and from different locations.
You may want to introduce an employee engagement survey, to understand how well hybrid arrangements are working.
Addressing a skills shortage
Where recruitment is currently a challenge as businesses are restructuring and cutting costs, this has led to a general skills shortage. As a result, we expect training to become a top priority for 2023. If ready-made candidates are hard to find, then apprenticeships, training schemes and retraining have an even more important role. Bite-sized training courses can help to fill skills gaps. Read more about employee training and upskilling in our blog.
We are also seeing an uptick in grievances, informal complaints, and disciplinary issues, and believe this can be linked to the inexperience of some line managers and their lack of skills in dealing with issues well, and early, before they escalate. Line managers are pivotal in delivering to a business’s ambitions and reinforcing its culture – so it’s vital to give them the training and support they need.
2022 has certainly been a difficult year for many organisations and many of these challenges look set to continue into next year. Look out for guidance in the new year on some of the topics we have discussed above.
If you have any questions or require HR support, contact our team at info@realityhr.co.uk.