Anyone reading this article will know the answer to this question: In departments, organizations and industries around the world, what is the one thing that has remained constant throughout the past three years?
You’re right! The answer is change.
As we all continue to navigate this new hybrid world, researchers from The Ken Blanchard Companies® wanted to learn how leaders have been dealing with the continuous changes happening in their work environments. So we asked them! We surveyed more than 700 HR and L&D professionals from organizations of all sizes. An emphasis was placed on hiring and retention, with a special focus on employee engagement. What are organizational leaders doing to improve the employee experience from an HR and L&D perspective? What are their top challenges?
I found the results very interesting. Here’s what we learned from the “Blanchard 2023 HR/L&D Trends Survey.”
Top challenges
From an HR perspective, survey respondents reported that the biggest challenges they expect as HR and L&D leaders in 2023, in ranked order, are:
- Capacity and resources
The specific issues cited here were time, senior level buy-in, budgeting concerns and remote training/skill development. Participants said it was difficult to ask their people to work on skill building when they were already struggling to keep up with work priorities. Others suggested that senior leaders need to place a higher priority on leadership development if they want to achieve their goals for the organization.
- Turnover and attrition
Respondents also cited the ongoing difficulties of attracting and retaining the most qualified candidates while striving to stay in step with market-driven wage increases. A whopping 75 percent of people surveyed believe hiring will be more challenging in 2023, and 79 percent believe it will be even harder to retain their best people. Besides pay, reasons people gave for leaving organizations ranged from a lack of opportunity for growth to feeling disconnected from work, the people or the mission of the company.
- Improving engagement and experience
Participants saw a clear connection between leadership capability and employee experience. Our company president Scott Blanchard agrees, stating: “Strong day-to-day operational leadership practices are the linchpin that holds together the overall employee experience.”
- Adapting to a hybrid culture
Some 67 percent of survey respondents said it’s more difficult to create engaging employee experiences in a hybrid/remote work environment. They called out the challenge of persuading remote team members to transition to hybrid status or spend more time collaborating face to face. The other side of that coin is encouraging managers to trust that hybrid workers can be just as productive, if not more, than their full-time-in-the-office counterparts. The bottom line is that hybrid work is here to stay and we all need to get comfortable with it in our own time.
There’s not a one-size-fits-all fix for today’s leaders, but there are some fundamentals I’d like you to remember as you move into 2023 with all its opportunities and challenges. Bear in mind that any one of these suggestions might make the difference in someone’s decision whether to stay or leave your organization. In other words — and I can’t say this enough lately — your leadership matters.
- Take the time to schedule one-on-ones with each of your people every two or three weeks. Let them talk about whatever they want. Put aside all distractions and listen to them. It will improve your relationship and make them see that you are interested in them as a person and what they have to say.
- Be sure your people know what their goals and objectives are. Show them what a good job would look like. If they aren’t performing well and it’s because they didn’t know what was expected of them, it’s not on them — it’s on you.
- Catch people doing something right, or approximately right, and praise them on the spot. If someone told me they were going to take away everything I have ever taught except one thing, this is the one thing I would choose.
- Be a servant leader. This doesn’t mean everyone gets to walk all over you. It means once your people understand your organization’s vision and direction (where you are going), it’s your job as their leader to develop them and help them achieve their goals. You are there to work with them on determining their development level on each task or goal and to give them the right amount of direction or support to move them forward in their development. Hire the right people, let them know you care about them, train them properly, then get out of their way so they can be magnificent.
- Keep learning and growing as a leader. Never stop learning!
According to our survey, organizations plan to spend 10 to 30 percent more on leadership development in 2023. That’s great news for leaders and organizations everywhere! Leadership skills that engage and develop people create a sense of inclusion and belonging. There’s no safer place for an organization to invest than its people — especially during times of constant change.
