Ready for 2022? Sizing up priorities and trends for HR in the new year

The coming of a new year can spark reflections on lessons learned over the last year as well as looks ahead to the future. Those who study the workforce have been looking at what HR professionals are thinking about and acting on as they continue to navigate a changing workforce. So, what issues are on HR’s mind? Just to name a few: the labor shortage, skills develop¬ment, and workforce diversity.

Tackling the labor shortage In a recent company blog post, asset management firm Mercer released a list of priorities for HR in 2022 and included an item called the “great reckoning.” Mercer notes that its research conducted in the summer of 2021 shows that millions of workers planned to leave their jobs, and many did just that.

But breaking the statistics down, the researchers con¬cluded that the percentage of workers who were con-sidering leaving varied across different demographics. Minority and low-wage workers and those in front-line industries were found to be much more likely to consider leaving than white-collar workers with higher incomes. The researchers found that hourly workers want more than just a pay increase. Many are reevaluating what’s important to them in the wake of the pandemic and are no longer eager to return to working in the same way.

“Ensuring pay is competitive is the minimum action that employers must take in 2022,” Mercer’s post says. “To successfully attract and retain an adequate workforce, an em¬ployer needs to provide to their entire workforce the benefits and perks previously reserved for the salaried employee.”