The pandemic has changed lives, shifted mind-sets especially in the corporate environment where an employee is concerned. It has disrupted the workflows, work culture and the corporate lifestyle completely where many companies adapted to remote working no matter where they were located. Employee mental health and work-life balance were given priority as many suffered from anxiety and balancing families while working from home was not easy. Corporate infrastructure, rules and regulations have altered accordingly, however what could not be altered was how HR managed employee engagement.
Employee engagement has a clear impact and a correlation to productivity, where employees who are engaged are happier and such companies have shown lower turnover rates over the years. Taking past year’s experiences into play, here are a few major employee engagement trends that we can look out for in 2022.
1. Flexibility at work
According to many research reports, remote work is here to stay and many companies have allowed employees to work remotely by choice or part-time. Some companies were looking at remote work full time for employees as when managed correctly, it is more convenient especially for companies who are considering global expansion. Employee priorities have changed in terms of flexibility and work-life balance, many engagement styles have changed to suit remote working where frequent video conference calls to check up on teams and employees, online engagement, and games will take priority. Employee recognition will play a major role next year as many companies are looking at valuing and rewarding employees who actually give their best despite many obstacles that may arise while working remotely.
2. Utilizing technology
Cloud technology has taken over by storm even before the pandemic, many products and platforms have evolved during the pandemic period supporting corporates in multiple ways. Human Resources Systems and platforms for Learning Management, Employee Experience, and engagement have increased. Manual work in HR has been greatly eliminated where much needed support from technology has taken over the mundane tasks of HR, which frees up time and space for HR to connect with individual employees and maintain the human touch as much as possible. Machine learning and AI have supported HR systems to take a leap ahead where it gives companies the ability to predict and direct employees towards their career progression.
3. Employee health and wellbeing
Employee health and wellness has always been prominent however the emphasis on this has increased and will increase during the coming years. Employee health and wellness is also interconnected to employee engagement, during the pandemic many companies introduced mental health facilities and introduced sports activities online. Companies will get more creative within the next year to link these with employee engagement where many activities and stress-releasing engagements will happen.
ExroAsia is an International HR Services Company based in Sri Lanka with a strong presence in the Asia Region. ExroAsia specialise in providing Umbrella Employment/Employer of Record (EOR) services including recruitment, payroll, and other core HR activities.