Employee Recognition and Engagement Trends for 2023
The COVID pandemic changed how we used to look at work, and in 2022 when we slowly started inching back to the office, we realized many things had changed. There are new priorities, and people want much more and different things from work and life. It led to lot many changes to all 3 W- Workplace, Workforce, and Work.
Workplace: at the beginning of 2022, the workplace could have been anywhere, but towards the end, we are witnessing lots of focus back to the office. This is also true for the IT sector. Many large IT organisations have made it at least hybrid, if not fully back to the office.
Workforce: the year was rattled by moonlighting and its implications. Corporate India is still broadly divided on this topic, and there are multiple voices. Some have created policies around it, while others fired people for indulging in moonlighting. The other workforce trends were employee monitoring and making sense of this data to understand employee behaviour, focus on holistic wellness, continued efforts on diversity and inclusion and taking it beyond the gender angle.
Work: this W witnessed maximum change post-COIVD. Many job roles started making no sense overnight, and some, never given much importance, became critical. A function like attendance monitoring was obsolete, but HR Teams enquiring with the employee and their families about their well-being became a very well-meaning and consuming task for HR teams. A very high-paced technological transformation also changed the way we worked. Another push towards change in this W came from employees where they started understanding their preferences, and purpose became very important.
Many of these trends started in 2022 are going to shape 2023 for us, and most of the HR practices like employee engagement recognition recruitment and selection, talent management learning and development, etc., that saw a massive shift in 2021-22 will continue to evolve in 2023. The year 2023 is going to be very interesting.
On one end, we are witnessing start-up winter and cost rationalisation measures in Tech companies. While on the other side of the spectrum, many industries will continue with their hiring plan.
According to Naukri’s job speak report, Nov’22, The Insurance sector witnessed a robust growth of 42 per cent, followed by the Banking and Real Estate sectors, which recorded 34 per cent and 31 per cent growth, respectively. The hiring activity in the Oil sector surged by 24 per cent.
Considering the above facts, the following will be some of the trends in employee recognition and engagement in 2023
Choose Your Award
This is going to be an important trend. We have started understanding the importance of personalisation and its positive impact; therefore, choosing your reward is a significant trend that will catch up in 2023.
Gone are the days when HR offered one option and people picked it up. Today people are vocal about their requirements, and it makes sense for organisations to provide flexibility in choosing their options. After all what good is an award if it does not make the receiver happy?
Digitisation
This will be another trend in engagement and recognition. While awards in kind offer personal touch, they lack the flexibility to choose. Besides, electronic awards are easier to administer as well.
There are multiple options in the market, and you can select a platform to offer various services under one umbrella. Digital platforms increase visibility and bring together a dispersed workforce.
They make it very quick and easy with not much administrative hassle. Also, the timely reward is essential and administrative delays make them less rewarding. A delayed award does not make the required impact. Award delayed is award denied.
Employee Growth and Development
This will be integral to the employee experience framework. People are awakening to the fact that we live in a constantly changing world, and yesterday’s skills will not help them tomorrow. Given this, employees are asking for upskilling, training coaching, etc.
They want organisations to provide them with opportunities to learn new skills and sponsor their learning. A lot of it is going to be self-initiative as well. Thanks to byte-size learning programs, YouTube videos, webinars, etc., it is easier to learn. These learnings are very effective as these efforts are driven by employees and not pushed by the organisation.
Holistic Well-being
Well-being has started finding a place in engagement and experience initiatives, and they will gain more prominence. Engagement and well-being go hand in hand.
It is not limited to only physical well-being but includes all physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, social, financial, and environmental dimensions. Organizations have already started including these in their engagement programs. In 2023, engagement and recognition programs will revolve around these.
I will conclude by mentioning that employee experience and engagement have started getting the desired importance, and people have understood that rangoli competition is not employee engagement.
War for talent has increased the importance of employee experience, EX. Overall, these will evolve and will be primarily driven by business requirements. HR and leaders must keep their eyes and ears open to know what’s best for the team.