Key Takeaways: World of Work Trends Report 2023 Launch Session

In 2023 successful organisations will be making changes in their people practices that prioritise a human commitment to employees and the organisation.

Top Employers Institute’s World of Work Trends Report 2023, available for download now, analyses the latest trends in people strategies and practices from leading organisations globally. It examines data from 2 053 Certified Top Employers to give a broader insight into how global developments will impact workforces in the year ahead. The report was launched on the 9^th of March 2023 to the public with two expert-led sessions going through the three major trends affecting workplaces and HR departments across the globe.

We were honoured to get a deeper insight into the trends with Top Employers Institute’s expert panel featuring Irene Martinez, HR Auditor, Chloe Lawrence, HR Auditor, Karen Muller, Client Success Adviser, and Lisa Wang, HR Auditor. They gave real-life examples and offered their knowledge about each of the trends.

Read ahead to get a snapshot at some of the highlights from the webinar and fill in the form (on the right-hand side of the page) to get the recording to watch whenever you have a moment.

The Employee Experience will become “super-personalised”.

In 2023 the employee experience will become super-personalised with companies beginning to give their employees unprecedented levels of autonomy and control over several everyday decisions at work. Employee experience is not a new priority for those interested in improving their people practices and we have previously explored how organisations can improve this for their employees.

Chloe Lawrence, an HR Auditor at Top Employers Institute, explained during the session that organisations are now offering their employees the opportunity to personalise more not only their digital experience, but also across other aspects of their experience at work including their benefits and their work/life balance. Personalisation is moving away from a one size fits all approach to an individualised system that allows for choice and flexibility.

Irene Martinez went into detail about how the digital experience and the essential role it plays in modern workplaces.

• Super personalisation doesn’t just mean a custom background on your work computer, it’s more than that. It’s about allowing employees to build a personalised learning environment that has been designed to meet the individual needs of employees.
• In 2023 successful organisations will be using artificial intelligence to help them learn and create super personalisation throughout their organisation. While it may seem like this may mean that it will be a quick solution it is important to realise that this journey will require a long-term view, with continuous overview of its implementation.

Throughout the discussion of this trend, the panel of experts dived deeper into how these technologies show up across different practices including wellbeing, remote work and learning. Watching the recording of the session will give you deeper insight into their conversation.

Leaders will actively listen for the “heartbeat” in their organisation.

In the upcoming year, organisations wanting to engage with their employees will be prompting their leaders to begin listening for the “heartbeat” of the organisation. This will happen with leaders developing new strategic skills that will allow them to “double screen” their working world. This double screening is necessary as the trends show that leaders will need to simultaneously think about long term horizons, while acting decisively in the short term to survive, not to mention to thrive.

There is significant data showing that the current and future leaders of organisations need to commit to a listening strategy if they are to not only prepare for a world of challenges but also to win an emotional commitment from their employees. These listening strategies will not only cover formalised listening, but it will also look over informal listening strategies that will create a culture of heartfelt listening throughout the company.

In the session Irene Martinez dived deeper into why organisations are encouraging their leaders to request feedback from their team members:

• It improves leader’s performance at work as they will be able to see where they might be able to make changes or learn from others.
• It helps to create a culture of trust by encouraging vulnerability on all sides, but this relies on leaders not only hearing what an employee is saying but truly listening to what that employee has to say.
• It improves employee experience and performance as it creates room for discussion that allows employees to share their preferences that will affect their employee experience.

This discussion of benefits was followed by Irene Martinez giving real world examples from the top companies across the globe. That was followed by Karen Muller giving concrete insight into how leaders can learn to truly listen to their employees allowing them to eventually listen to the heartbeat of their organisation. You can hear more about those examples by watching the recording of the session.

Positive Impact - the new “North Star” for better decisions.

Organisations wanting to get the most out of their people in 2023 will be making a clear commitment to “positive impact” as the North Star guiding their people practices throughout 2023. In the World of Work Trends Report 2023 we identified that this impact could be achieved in three ways:

• Organisations will need to make sure that their “lived” purpose comes straight from the heart of all of their employees, from executives to more junior employees. It will come from everyone within the organisation, no matter how long they’ve been in the business. This purpose must also be constant throughout their everyday decisions at work.
• Organisations will need to be listening to every voice in their organisation to become enlightened. They will need to prioritise their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts to improve their ability to listen to each and every voice.
• Organisations in 2023 will realise that sustainability is key, not only for organisations wanting to be seen as being a good employer but also for them to create a positive wider impact in the environment.

91% of Certified Top Employers have a defined purpose model, but why have organisations prioritised defining their purpose? Irene Martinez noted that many of these organisations want to be an inspiration to their employees and others, creating a positive employer brand for those within and outside the scope of the internal business.

There has been a push in recent years for companies to not only have values and purpose but to live that purpose. People want to be part of an organisation that aligns with their own personal views and purpose. They want to be able to make an emotional connection with their daily work.

While purpose may feel like an abstract need that organisations are reaching for, there are already many organisations that are ahead of the game in living their purpose. In the recording of the webinar, we shared some exciting examples of how to integrate it into their people practices, by watching the recording of the session you can learn more.

The key message echoed throughout the session is that the future of work depends on organisations becoming more human. There will be a powerful human shift towards respecting individuality and valuing difference. It is vital that we attend to these needs because old management models are no longer useful. The best companies listen - truly listen - to their employees, invest in the individual experience, and create a shared purpose that gives meaning to the everyday employee experience. For organisations that achieve this, the future, despite the uncertainty we see all around us, will be very bright.

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