HR Trend 2023: 7 trends to watch out for
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HR Trend 2023: 7 trends to watch out for

What will happen in 2023? How much of the changes we experienced in 2022 will we take with us, and what will be the new trends? Among many, we have selected 7 that HR needs to consider.

SUMMARY

What will be the HR Trends 2023? Those involved in HR and recruiting, what trends should they pay attention to? Like every year, predictions are made about what may mark the world of work and recruiting.

But 2023 is a different year than usual, or so it promises to be. Why? Because many of the restrictions given by the pandemic have been lifted, people have returned to attending events, and many companies have requested a greater presence of people in the office. There are also those who have turned completely to remote working as well as those who have opted for hybrid work.
In 2022 there was talk of Great Resignation, even more diversity & inclusion, and many issues we already know about. But which ones will still be prominent in 2023?

Hybrid work, smart working and remote working

The first trend of 2023 could only be about the way of working. There is no denying it: before 2020 to talk about smart working and to implement it, despite the fact that the law on agile work was from 2017, very few people were putting it into practice. 

The pandemic has turned the tables, and now working smart seems almost the norm (although the Budget Committee extended protection to March 31 only for frail workers, leaving out parents of under-14s), but HR will face numerous challenges.

Among them may be the “proximity bias,” which, according to the Harvard Business Review, is that mental distortion whereby managers and team leaders tend to treat more favorably the people they get to see every day precisely because … they see them. While those who work remotely or in smart is not very “controllable” even though as we know it is not. On the contrary, according to what Suresh Kumar, CTO of Walmart, a U.S. multinational corporation, asserts and echoed by Forbes:

With remote work, we have not only addressed the situation, we have even improved. We are more focused on the things that have the greatest impact for our customers, our employees, and the company. We make decisions and act more quickly.

Despite this, proximity bias is something HR needs to pay close attention to precisely so that those working out of the office do not feel neglected and miss out on valuable opportunities. That’s why once you have defined hybrid work arrangements, perhaps deciding on “fixed” days in the office and remote days, you must also provide that both are best evaluated with ad hoc performance systems as well as define career paths that are clear and transparent. And above all, do not provide for “differences” between those who work remotely and those who work onsite.

People return to the office because of their “friendships”

Let’s not forget a point made by the World Economics Forum: many people return to the office because they have friends in the workplace.

Which, of course, helps create a cohesive and amalgamated work environment that is a great strength for HR. But not only that, managers themselves need to design teamwork around this.

What does this mean in a nutshell? That the design of workplaces in 2023 will be even more crucial: fewer and fewer closed rooms where people are isolated, but more and more open spaces and places where people can take a coffee break in peace, chat in relaxation, exchange ideas, and take pleasure in meeting each other. Which makes the office a place to which there is a desire to go (or return, depending on one’s point of view) because one can find what is not there remotely: the possibility of socializing, exchanging opinions, feeling less lonely.

HR will have to particularly insist on this aspect, making it an element of attraction for new talent but also a way to try to retain people who want to look elsewhere.

A workplace that is enjoyable and conducive to bringing together people in different roles must also become a cornerstone of corporate culture.

If this is well communicated and valued, it can, in fact, be a way to manage people better: even those who have little desire to come to the office once they do will find that it is worth it. 

Focus on competitive compensation and benefits

Recruiters, in this 2023, will have to be more proactive which, according to Forbes, will translate into offering increasingly attractive benefits and compensation packages so as to make the company more competitive and attractive.

The Aid Quater Decree, as we know, raised the tax-free threshold for fringe benefits to 3,000 euros through 2022. Although it is not known whether this direction will be maintained in 2023 as well, on the HR side it is important to ensure that people are fully satisfied, which comes through salary certainly, but must take into also consider benefits that can help in everyday life: health and wellness packages, education for children, and more. 

4-day week and more flexibility

Recently there has been talk about the news involving Intesa Sanpaolo, which has increased the work week from 5 to 4 days (but lengthening the day to 9 hours) and provided for flexible working up to 120 days per year. But not only Intesa, other companies have also begun to consider this possibility, although at the moment there are very few of them.
Perhaps the decision of one of Italy’s most important banks will give the impetus for Italy to experiment with what has happened for example in the United Kingdom where many companies have tried the 4-day week, but what we need to reflect deeply on is that the 40-hour week is a concept that fits poorly with the cultural change that we are all, more or less, experiencing.
That is why we need to endorse flexible work wherever possible and ensure that strong desire for autonomy that is affecting more and more workers. And this must be done both by managers who must think in terms of truly attainable goals by facilitating work through cloud-based tools, but also by HR people who must envisage initiatives to ensure that flexibility demanded by the workers themselves.

Creating “diverse” and inclusive environments

diversity inclusion

There will also be more and more talk in 2023 about DEIB, which stands for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, all words that indicate how increasingly important it is to create environments that are diverse and inclusive. 

According to some data, two out of three job seekers essentially evaluate companies that have a “diverse” workforce. Deloitte goes on to say that inclusion is key for 83 % of Millennials looking for work.

But there is more to thinking about than just Talent Acquisition. Providing environments in which all people can express themselves is valuable for companies: it is important to welcome people from nations with different cultures, sexual orientations and ages, and this is tantamount to ensuring an open view of the world.

For recruiters, the challenge is no small one of both recruitment strategies and stripping away cognitive biases that might lead to some people being overlooked and others perhaps overvalued.

diversity inclusion

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Diversity and inclusion in the workplace

Choosing the best recruiting software

Precisely to avoid cognitive bias and ensure that recruitment is as fair as possible, and because the recruiting world is changing so much, among the HR trends of 2023 are recruiting software such as Inrecruiting’s ATS. 

True: the use of software is not exactly new, but having one that can help HR people with the most tedious, repetitive, or time-consuming tasks, such as screening candidates, is essential if we are to focus on all the things we mentioned earlier.

The recruiter, in 2023, will increasingly turn into a “business partner.” His or her active participation in strategies, in defining company goals, and in working arrangements will require that he or she be able to use digital tools to improve and make the recruitment process more efficient so that he or she can also engage in other activities besides recruiting itself.

More data analytics and Artificial Intelligence

Not to forget, then, that recruiting will be increasingly data-driven and that precisely data analytics will help make the best decisions.
Understanding what the hiring timelines are, how well job ads “perform” on certain channels, how the candidate experience is progressing is key to knowing what the team’s efforts really are and how much each action affects the business. 

Each analysis then will allow a strategy to be brought forward that can be gradually refined. Those working in HR will be able to use data collection to understand key metrics, and with the support of AI, more informed decisions can be made, but not only that.

In the always DEBI perspective, AI can help with blind recruiting to ward off some of the biases that one may have unknowingly as well as manage a not inconsiderable amount of data. What’s more, with AI, one can improve the match between job ads and candidates through analytics and semantic search and job matching tools. As well as generally managing the relationship with those who decide to send their CVs: a chatbot can do a lot in this regard.

Of course, these are just a few of the capabilities of Artificial Intelligence, which remains a trend of 2023 along with the others we have chosen that we think are worth keeping an eye on.