Top 5 HR Trends 2022 | Interview with Júlia Nunes Silva

The last two years have changed work practices around the world as companies have been forced to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances. While the first two years of the pandemic were about ensuring economic stability, 2022 offers the opportunity to transfer the knowledge gained to the development of successful processes.

The HR department is playing an important role in this change. She is at the forefront when it comes to helping companies have a positive impact on economic success and create added value not only with their products or services, but also with their employees. Increasing employee engagement and a sense of belonging is critical to retaining talent, and data can make a significant contribution to building successful strategies and successful teams.

This article presents a selection of the five most important trends in human resources in 2022 and contains the insights that Júlia Nunes Silva, former Head of People and Culture at cofenster, has collected over the last three years.

1. Upskilling teams.

Upskilling means giving employees the skills they need to take on new tasks in their current role or prepare them for a new role. An employee who is constantly evolving is more efficient and is more likely to stay with a company in the long term. Fluctuation is expensive. On average, the departure of an employee costs the company 33% of their annual salary. Therefore, continuing education or retraining of teams has a positive effect on the economic growth of a company. The challenge for the HR department is to assess the abilities of employees and thus provide them with the right approaches and the right tools. Every company needs an individual strategy to identify qualification requirements. Here's some advice from Júlia to get you started easily.

📢Júlia: I am firmly convinced that people should take their careers into their own hands. As Head of People & Culture, it is my job to work with team leaders to determine which skills are required to achieve our overall corporate goals, but in general, one-fits-it-all training solutions must finally be a thing of the past. Personalization plays an important role. What exactly that should look like depends on the goals, phase, structure and budget of the company. A fairly simple solution is to provide each team member with a learning budget that they can freely dispose of, and another stage of that could be to link that budget to a catalog of opportunities based on the skills that the P&C team deems relevant. Job rotation, job shadowing, and job sharing are also interesting ways to do this.

2. Hybrid and remote work solutions.

People want the freedom to choose their work environment and prefer hybrid or fully remote-controlled systems. 74% of workers say they would be less likely to leave a company if they had the option to work remotely. The HR department must create a safe space for the workforce, regardless of where they work. It's not just about employees getting the equipment they need for their work. The real challenge is creating the conditions and tools that make it possible for all team members to feel connected and included, regardless of where they are. Online events, virtual coffee meetings or the joint creation of team videos are some of the activities that Cofenster promotes to involve employees. Here, Júlia shows how Cofenster developed the hybrid model.

📢 Júlia: I'd say our first challenge was finding what worked for us, at least for the near future. There is a lot of talk and writing about hybrid models, how often employees should be in the office, etc., but as far as I can see, this is mostly discussed by managers and senior management. At cofenster, we brought our entire company together digitally for an afternoon to find out what the disadvantages and advantages of working at home and in the office are. Together, we've found a solution that works for us right now, and that alone leads to a much higher level of commitment! Otherwise, we try to find a balance between company-wide meetings or video conferences, where employees can exchange ideas and concentrate, and give employees enough freedom to arrange their schedule according to their energy level. We also have very funny moments, whether it's via random Slack messages, during our Allhands every Monday, or on our Culture Days every few months.

3. Belonging is a mix of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

It is not enough to have written guidelines about inclusion and diversity in the workplace. There must be a tangible reality that employees experience every day. When people recognize that the values of diversity, equality, and inclusion are part of the corporate culture, they feel safe and supported and develop a sense of belonging. The feeling of being part of a community leads to more productive, innovative, and reliable employees. HR should focus on helping the company develop people-oriented leadership strategies that can be practiced every day and promote supportive and secure workplaces. That's why we talk about empathy. According to our Head of People & Culture, breaking up old structures is the first step towards building a diverse, inclusive workplace.

📢 Júlia: The way I see it, the hybrid working world is a multiplier for diversity. Most companies have found that working from home is just as effective as working in an office. This situation offers new opportunities for people who are struggling to get to work and do their best, such as people with physical disabilities, health issues, or social anxiety—issues that are often ignored when we talk about diversity, equality, and inclusion. If we give these employees space and a voice, we can break down barriers and old structures, and empathy becomes more important than ever.

4. The use of people analytics:

People analytics is the data-driven method for analyzing all HR processes, tasks, and opportunities to make data-based strategic decisions. The use of people analytics has tremendous potential to enable more effective business decisions. HR should combine the analysis of their employee data with the company's data and goals to improve their processes and contribute to success. One of the challenges HR faces is improving their data literacy, choosing the right tools for analysis, and using technology responsibly. Last year, cofenster began introducing tools to use data to improve workplace experiences. These are the P&C goals for this year:

📢 Júlia: That is something we are still at the very beginning of. Last year, we launched an HR tool that allows us to track the presence and absence of our employees, salary trends, and the growth of our teams. When it comes to recruiting, we're currently working on an automated solution to collect data-driven feedback from candidates who have applied to us. We also regularly conduct employee surveys to explore issues that need to be addressed by the P&C team. There's a lot we can — and probably should — do here, and that's something I'd like to develop with our data science team.

5. Improving employee experience: ‍

The employee's experiences are just as important as the customer's experiences. A strong employee experience leads to a wider talent pool, better employee retention, and higher company revenue. According to Qualtrics, there are three key points for improving the employee experience that companies should focus on: 1) empowering employees through corporate culture, 2) the technological environment to maximize trust and efficiency, 3) providing optimal conditions for the workplace, either in the office or at home. The topic isn't new, but the challenge for HR in 2022 is finding new approaches and using data to improve employee engagement in every life cycle: from hiring to retirement. According to Júlia, a strategy for employee experience should include creating spaces for honest feedback that will lead to future improvements. What is Cofenster's strategy for this year?

📢 Júlia: Sticking with the customer experience example: The best way to find out which topics are most important to our customers is to really listen to them. The same goes for employee experience. Surveys are a good start, but I also always recommend that HR managers schedule random conversations with teams from time to time without an agenda. The employees will provide a lot of information about it, you just have to listen. Last year, for example, we realized that there was a huge need for a structured feedback process, and we quickly rolled out our first version of that process. Career development is at the top of the agenda this year: Like last year, we are planning strong growth for 2022, and it is absolutely essential that we not only focus on new employees, but also on the needs of the people who already work for us.