The Modern Workforce: Top Workforce Management Trends Poised To Dominate 2022 And Beyond

"Managing your workforce determines how well your organization will do in your industry."  

Enhancing the workforce is an ultimate goal for almost every organization. Undoubtedly, the quality of your workforce directly influences your ROI; when employees feel that their company is prioritizing their needs, they are more likely to perform their job efficiently, boosting workplace productivity and business profitability. And that’s why most businesses are focusing more on managing their workforces. Workforce management allows you to determine the goals to achieve, assign specific tasks to your employees, and chart out ideal performance management strategies for your team. Over time, workforce management has gone through a significant shift. Modern workforce management has experienced tremendous growth over the past few years, and experts foresees that it will continue to do so over the coming years. Increasing digitization has made organizations rethink their management strategies to stay in tune with the current trends and technological advancements.

In this article, we have compiled a list of the top workforce management trends for 2022 and beyond so your organizations can stay ahead of these trends. These trends are likely to emerge over the coming years.

Before we deep dive into it, let’s understand about workforce management.

What Is Workforce management?

A workforce management program can be defined as an integrated set of processes used by employers to manage their workforces. Employers can manage their employees by implementing internal policies, outsourcing, or a combination of both. It also involves successfully forecasting employee requirements and managing employees’ work schedules to achieve tasks on hourly or daily basis.  

Basically, the goal of workforce management is to place the right number of individuals and employees at the right place at the right time, performing the right tasks.

Now that you have a better understanding about workforce management, let’s look at some of the significant workforce management trends that will dominate 2022 and beyond. 

Top Seven Workforce Management Trends  

1. Increasing Relevance Of Hybrid Workplaces
   
   Needless to say, organizations around the world switched to hybrid workplaces over the last two years. As companies started limping back to normalcy, some employees preferred to continue working remotely. This gave rise to workplaces having a mix of in-site and remote employees. This provided greater work flexibility to the employees and successfully catered to their preferences. Global leaders and CIOs are calling for hybrid workplaces to become the norm in all major industries worldwide.
   
   Most of the organizations had to fall back on their return-to-work plans due to the possibility of Omicron and Deltacron variants bringing uncertainties in the beginning on 2022. On the other hand, employees tired of working remotely are willing to return to on-site work, even if they can do so on selective days. Looking at this, we can say that hybrid workplaces will be more prominent in 2022 and beyond.
   
   
2. The Need To Tackle Two-tier Workforce
   
   While hybrid workplaces have their share of benefits, there are a few drawbacks to the same. As a few employees shift from working remotely to working on-premise, the ones still functioning remotely may start feeling left out. This is likely to create a two-tier workforce in organizations around the world. The emergence of a two-tier workforce can lead to friction between employees working remotely and the ones working on-site. Always make sure that you are prepared to deal with friction within your organization and handle both groups of employees with efficiency.
   
   
3. Dealing With The Great Resignation
   
   Organizations around the world witnessed a trend of employees quitting their jobs. Although it is difficult to zero in on a single major cause behind the same, multiple reasons are likely to have caused the Great Resignation – the reluctance to leave working remotely, better work opportunities, burnout and exhaustion, etc. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that more than 4.53 million employees left their jobs in March 2022, and around 73% of working people say they are planning to resign from their current jobs. Thus, we cannot deny the fact that Great Resignation is likely to continue in 2022 and beyond.
   
   This will require organizations belonging to all scales and industries to implement ideal measures for dealing with the unfavorable phenomenon. From implementing a flexible approach to work to providing better opportunities to employees, workplace management is bound to change in the wake of employees quitting their jobs.
   
   
4. Complete Automation Of Employee Support
   
   With hybrid workplaces thriving across the world, organizations have started implementing modern employee service desks to leverage the support provided to employees. The quality of support provided to your employees plays a vital role in managing their performance, engagement, and productivity.
   
   Modern service desks are equipped with AI and machine learning technologies to provide personalized support to employees. These platforms are centralized IT service desks and HR helpdesks for employees working across all departments. Instead of bringing in support agents for every case, modern service desks make your employees interact with AI chatbots to resolve their issues within a few seconds.
   
   The AI-driven employee service desks also automate the ticketing process, relieving non-technical employees from getting confused while creating and tracking support tickets. Through seamless knowledge management, the modern service desks are set to dominate 2022 by providing quick, efficient, and tailor-made support to your employees.
   
   
5. Increased Focus On Employee Retention
   
   Looking at issues like Great Resignation and the two-tier workforce, organizations around the world would need to focus more on retaining valuable talent. As we venture into the second half of 2022, employees have multiple job opportunities that cater to their needs and preferences. If you fail to understand their requirements and provide them with a conducive workspace, they will likely switch companies.
   
   While struggling with a global pandemic and other crisis, it is never advisable for an organization to hire new talent and train them from scratch. This would further increase the importance and relevance of employee retention in 2022. If you are willing to make existing employees stay associated with your organization, make sure you have a robust employee retention plan.
   
   Read More: What makes employee retention so important in 2022?
   
   
6. More Importance On Mental Health
   
   The COVID-19 crisis has taken a toll on professionals' mental health around the world. Over the last two years, many employees lost their jobs and their loved ones to pandemic. Moreover, as organizations started letting go of their employees to survive the crisis, the responsibilities of existing employees increased substantially.
   
   All these factors have led to organizations paying more attention to the mental health of their employees. Make sure that your workplace management strategy for 2022 and beyond includes prioritizing the mental health of your employees. With Omicron already wreaking havoc across the world, it is better to ensure that the mental well-being of your employees is not affected. Especially in the case of remote employees, always ensure that they do not stretch their work hours and persuade them to ignore work-related calls/emails beyond their dedicated work hours.
   
   
7. Teaching New Skills Your Workforce
   
   As the COVID-19 crisis altered how organizations function globally, it forced businesses to implement advanced tools and platforms to survive in the post-pandemic world. It is crucial to train your employees with up-to-date skills with the current trends to ensure the smooth functioning of your organization. From using collaborating platforms like MS Teams, Zoom, Slack to encouraging process automation, your employees need to be well-versed with the modern tools and technologies to survive in a market brimming with competition. 
   
   

Conclusion

These were some of the most crucial workplace management trends to watch out for in 2022 and beyond. In this ever-changing workplace, it is important to make sure you start taking preventative measures and prioritizing the needs of your workforce before the situation gets worse. After all, prevention is certainly better than cure!