Top 7 HR Challenges to Overcome in 2022

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The HR team has to balance many factors, including recruitment, onboarding, employee performance & engagement, and so much more! With employee mindsets and attitudes toward workplace culture changing frequently, HR professionals have been pushed to remain on top of all the different trends while keeping up with all of their internal projects.

As companies place a greater emphasis on overall employee happiness and establishing a better employee experience, much of the burden falls on HR.

So, here we are going to talk about top HR challenges to address on today’s date and how to overcome them.

Let’s dive in!

1. Attracting Top Talent

Hiring top talent is one of the first thoughts that come to mind when considering human resources. Though not the only one, it is undeniably an important component of the job. The success of a firm is heavily reliant on its staff.

So, to employ the best, the organisation must have good hiring strategies in place.

An HR must consider factors such as competency, cultural fit, employee demeanour, career aspirations, skills, past experience, and more.

2. Retaining Employees

Employee retention is a significant challenge, since retaining them is as difficult as hiring them.

Employees now have a wide range of employment alternatives available to them. It indicates that if you don't treat them nicely, they have plenty of other possibilities. This is why employee churn is becoming such a serious problem for businesses all around the world. This turnover not only degrades the working atmosphere and productivity but also raises costs.

Thus, to promote employee retention, firms must increase employee engagement. Often, the top factors to do so are providing learning and growth opportunities, building a clear link between employees' work and the company's strategic objectives, and recognition for outstanding performance.

3. Engaging Employees

The ultimate goal of the organisation is the productivity of its employees.

However, it is difficult to keep employees interested especially if they are working remotely. Internal communication is hampered, making it difficult to keep everyone engaged and on the same page.

Engaging employees requires the buy-in of your entire leadership team, and a successful engagement strategy requires thoughtful planning. So, take time to acknowledge your employees and allow them to do the same for their peers. Take feedback from your employees to understand what they want, encourage a positive and open work environment, and implement incentive programs.

4. Managing Workload

Proper management in HR is key to an organisation's success as they have to perform a myriad of essential functions and have a lot on their plate to manage.

If processes are not streamlined, it can lead to burnout of your recruiting team.

Thus, it's critical to use different project management platforms to organise and streamline the work of your recruiting team. These types of tools help you keep track of your recruiting projects as well as manage the workload of your team.

Moreover, the procedures and workflows are streamlined, resulting in a robust process that everyone on the team can understand and implement.

5. Change Management

According to Gartner, less than one in five HR managers believe their workforce can change direction owing to evolving demands or objectives.

One prevalent cause is an out-of-date work design. To overcome this, tasks must be created to fit the way work occurs. To adapt to a company's current needs, cumbersome approval processes must also be streamlined. Technology is important here because it can make your staff's jobs considerably easier.

HR may develop a culture that encourages employees to embrace change by collaborating with other departments. This includes, among other things, involving staff in decision-making and articulating the rationale for changes.

6. Employee Training & Development

Employee training and development programs play an important role in workforce development. Training is essential since it reduces the expense of hiring new professionals for each new opportunity that may develop. It also aids in increasing employee motivation.

The most common typical issue with this is the lack of resources for training team members. As a result, finding the right course and individual to teach a workforce is critical. Failure to do so will simply result in additional costs and no results.

Human resources can collaborate with other departments in their firm to identify skill gaps and assist employees in developing the skills required for current and future roles.

Upskilling, or strengthening current employees' skill sets so they may take on new jobs, is one trend. Upskilling allows firms to meet changing needs while also retaining present staff.

Furthermore, the proliferation of high-quality online courses and mentorship allows for cost-effective training.

7. Employee Well-Being & Health

Employee well-being will continue to be one of the top HR concerns even in 2022. Post the 2020 pandemic, organisations began to notice the necessity for personalised benefit plans to meet the most pressing needs of individual employees. Companies are providing better, more diverse benefits, such as child and eldercare benefits, as well as expanding coverage to include mental health services.

However, perks alone will not increase employee health and well-being: you must also promote employee health and wellbeing in their daily work lives. This could include providing greater hours of flexibility, more paid time off, or better managing schedules and workloads to keep employees from feeling overwhelmed.

Survey employees to learn how you may better support them on their wellness journey, and then take action based on their responses. Make it clear that their health is a priority for your business, as they are the backbone of your success.

Conclusion

For an organisation to gain a competitive edge, Human Resource Management must create a unique workplace culture and eliminate employee uncertainty.

Therefore, organisations need to focus on the above challenges, correlate them to specific causes or effects within their own work cultures, and devise strategies and plans to address them quickly.

Employees are an organisation's strongest ambassadors, and HR should ensure employee experience and satisfaction, as well as professional alignment and advancement. It is thus vital for organisations to recognize their power is in human resources and to take proactive actions in the right manner.

Author Bio

Shyamal Parikh is the Founder of SmartTask, an online work management/automation software that helps teams streamline their processes, whether sales, hiring, customer success, or projects. He actively shares strategies and techniques that improve a team’s productivity.