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The top three priorities of our HR and Talent community in 2022 are...

  • Publish Date: Posted about 2 years ago
  • Author: Emma Richardson

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​​Perhaps you’re the kind of person who likes to dive head first into resolutions, or maybe you’re already sick of hearing about everyone’s dry, vegan Januaries. No matter your persuasion, I think we can all agree that a new year is a chance to take stock of the past one, and consider what we’d like to do to make this one better. 

2021 was an especially difficult year for People and Talent teams, with retention, attraction, engagement and wellbeing challenges on everyone’s agendas. Based on the conversations our People Experience team has been having with our network, we’ve put together the top 3 priorities for 2022. 

Empathetic leadership

‘Empathy is like a muscle that can be trained to get stronger and stronger as it’s practised’, says Patricia Pereira, Senior Business Partner, Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Kobalt Music. Now is the time to practice; a Catalyst report on empathy in work found that ‘67% of people with highly empathetic managers report often or always being engaged, compared to only 24% of people with less empathetic managers.’ 

‘There's great power in being seen and heard by leaders. It's important to have a seat at the table and have your message heard. Leaders' ability to acknowledge the potential, listen and support the passion and growth of an employee is so important,’ says Patricia. 2022 is the year to take time to evaluate the levels of empathy in leadership roles across your business, and work out the changes, both cultural and programmatic, that need to be brought in. 

DEI strategies that cover ALL bases

In December, we polled my community on under-discussed areas in DEI; 5% voted ethnicity, 15% age, 26% social class and 54% neurodiversity. This adds up - in November 2021 Bloomberg found neurodiversity to be the least tracked metric in DEI initiatives. 2022 is the time to take stock of the missing links in your DEI strategy: are you catering to a neurodiverse, economically diverse and multi-generational workforce?

Upskilling!

The talent challenges of 2021 are going nowhere, and upskilling your existing workforce is going to be crucial for employee morale and internal mobility. 

According to Paul McGrath, HR Director International at WE Communications, ‘Skills have always been important, but the talent shortage is putting greater pressure on companies to upskill existing teams.’ 

In the drive towards upskilling lies another big challenge - hybrid working. ‘New ways of working mean organisations have to think differently about how upskilling is achieved as face-to-face training is no longer guaranteed. The frequency of opportunities needs to be increased, with people needing a mixture of both tangible skills and organisational culture understanding to feel involved in, and get the most out of these upskilling opportunities.’

Do these match up to your top priorities for 2022? What more is on your agenda? We’d love to know!

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