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Exploring Tom Haaks HR Trends for 2022 (with Natal Dank) - read the full article about Tech HR trends, Human Resources and Recruitment, Staffing, Payroll from Tom Haak on Qualified.One
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From adaptation to transformation, this is the key message in Tom Haaks Top 10 HR Trends for 2022 Report.
Lets delve deeper into the report now and explore the trends that are set to impact your role in HR and the workplace for 2022.
Welcome to Talking HR Trends with Natal & Tom.
Im Natal Dank.
And Im Tom Haak.
And we explore the latest hot topics and business challenges impacting the people side of organisations.
Stick around to the end for our practical top tip, and if you find this discussion valuable, please subscribe.
(upbeat music) Natal, whats your key message in this episode? Well, my key message is that I just love the term that youve introduced, which is HR as the activist.
Thats going to be me this year.
(chuckles) Whats your key message in this episode? My key message is look at the labour market, and there are numerous groups in the labour market you can use in your organisation.
Be creative! So Tom, another year and another trend report.
However, this feels a little bit different because theres a kind of a call to arms or a call to action at the start of this report.
And in particular, youre encouraging the HR profession to move beyond adaptation into transformation.
Whats this about? Why is this important for you to emphasise at the start of the report, and why you see this as a key theme going through the report this year? What we have seen in the last year is that organisations are trying to transform, but they have difficulty doing that because we are stuck in our old organisational models.
We are used to those things, so its very difficult to really force a breakthrough and say, "We want some real transformation." The last year we have shown as HR, but also as people in organisations, that we were able to do better.
Employees and people working for organisations have shown that they could work a lot better on their own, independent, than in the past.
So we have seen a glimpse of elements of the transformation, and now I think, and I think it will happen, we have to push through, and HR can play an important role.
So yes, time for transformation.
Maybe you could also say a revolution, but lets not.
Lets talk about transformation.
It has a lot to do with the empowerment of people, the real empowerment of people.
Thats one element.
The other element, and I think that also requires transformation, that is the contribution organisations make to society.
We have seen the environmental issues.
We have seen other, big societal issues, and there organisations can contribute, but that also requires some kind of transformation.
Not, were in it for the money or its not our responsibility or the governments should do things.
No, organisations, businesses should also take responsibility there.
Thats another element.
So being sustainable about it, authentic about it, and really, I suppose, seeing it through as well, isnt it? We start a lot of transformations, but its about seeing it through.
So I very much agree with that, and I think its a great focus for this years trend report.
So lets get into the reports themselves.
But first of all, of course, what about 2021? Youve made some predictions in your 2021 report.
If we just look back, how did you go, Tom? Did they come true? Did these trends meet the impact that you thought that they would? Of course, Im not the person to judge, I will say.
(both laugh) One element is there are the mega trends, and they are not changing so fast.
They are the mega trends.
And every year I kind of talk about specific trends, but they are always related to the mega trends.
If you look at my list of 2021 for 2021, and I wont go through it all, but for example, I talked about the increasing risk of detachment, which I think definitely happened.
And then it was rephrased.
That was not my term, but rephrased into the big (great) resignation.
I already sensed that.
Bigger risks and that we have seen more and more of that.
Definitely.
I think its interesting now looking back, because I remember talking about that topic with you.
And to then see that play out throughout the year.
So no, you definitely got that one right.
The second one was the quest for the anti-fragile personality.
One.
Well, I saw that people liked it so there were a lot of people saying, "Oh, well, what is it? And can we learn more about that?" So that was positive.
And I think that also play out, in a sense.
How can we find the people for the future and how can we make sure we are better ready for future a crisis? I think its also become a bit of a business mantra now, how do you find opportunity in times of immense change and crisis as well? I think thats quite an interesting outcome.
And the last one I would like to mention is skill mapping, looking for adjacent skills.
I think that quickly, already probably already last year, that is now a kind of mainstream.
Thats not a trend anymore.
Thats mainstream.
As skills as the kind of the basic building block of HR.
Theres a huge growing HR industry.
So, thats there to stay.
Definitely.
Okay, great.
So how do you research these trends? How do you compile the reports? Do you use a certain criteria? Are they trends as such, or is it your ultimate wishlist? What you want people to go after? Does your trend report influence what happens in the end? So tell us a bit more, Tom.
Im not a scientist in this.
My research consists of reading, talking to people, and trying to sense whats going on.
Im looking for, you could say, expressions, as I said, of the mega trends, because otherwise Id publish the same list every year.
Thats not going to be very interesting.
Im doing this now eight years.
Its also got a little bit competitive.
Now more and more people are publishing the list of 10 trends, the 11 trends, and they do it one week before I do it.
Its no problem.
Most of those lists, to be honest, are more middle of the road.
So thats one criteria for me.
Im trying not to come with middle of the road things.
You still see lists with digital HR.
Well, thank you for that trend.
Or diversity, inclusion and equity.
Of course thats important.
But what about that trend that we should be focusing on? Exactly.
So one criteria is can I come up with something a little bit more, sharp.
Thought provoking.
Thought provoking.
So thats probably the third criteria.
Can I present people with something that starts them thinking? So those are more or less the criteria.
So not scientific research, and a combination always of what I sense and maybe sometimes wishful thinking as well.
Its okay, well lets hope that this happens.
Okay, so lets delve into the 2022 report now.
Can you talk me through the top three in the report, and in particular, can you let us know, why did you choose these in particular? So what was so important about these ones? So whats the top three? As I said, the overriding theme from adaptation to transformation.
And we see some elements there.
One is a trend I call the end of the employee.
And of course thats long-term.
The long-term trend is the changing shape of organisations.
The changing shape of the, you could say the mix of the workforce.
So thats a long-term trend.
But I think as we discussed, this is something we have to take into account.
We talk too much about, still, the employee as if we own them as organisations.
Thats in all kinds of wording.
How do we motivate our people? How do we keep the employees? Lets think beyond that.
You could also say its from employees to co-creators.
Yes.
I like that.
Its not happening everywhere, but we see more and more signs of that.
But this is a trend everybody can think about and should think about.
It has also to do with looking wider.
So another trend, Ive listed this separately, is the scope of HR.
Not only the people on the payroll, but take a wider interest.
The ecosystem around you.
Definitely.
The ecosystem is also the clients.
Its society, the flexible workforce.
So take a wider view.
And what can you do for those people? And you can do something for those people.
You can do something for society.
The third one I would like to mention here, I call that recruiting for diversity.
And that has to do with the skills.
The movement, long-term trends, from jobs to roles, skills, capabilities, skills.
Now economy was growing again in 2021.
Immediately you saw companies coming, "Oh, the war for talent is back and we cannot find the people." Youve seen that.
At the same time, if you look, there are groups of people who have difficulty in finding jobs.
Thats people with certain disabilities, its people who are older than 50, its refugees who have certain skills but dont speak the language fluently.
So there are those groups, often with excellent skills in certain areas.
And why can we not find opportunities for those people? Lets use the movement to skills to see, how we can carve out skills and then look for specific people that have those skills.
And they might be in all kinds of different groups, and then we can utilise them.
This is maybe more wishful thinking that I see it happening, because its an opportunity, but Im also a little bit angry that its not happening.
No, I agree.
I agree.
(both laugh) So those were my top 3.
Theres more but people can read the report.
Okay, so the end of the employee, being part of the ecosystem, and recruit for diversity.
Also HR as activists.
Were talking about, this is typically also the recruiting for diversity.
Thats something where HR should take a point of view.
Instead theyre saying, "The war for talent.
And we cannot find." No, no.
There is an abundance still of talented people we could use if we organise it differently.
If were willing to look at the specific capabilities and skills people have.
So HR as activists.
Yep, yep.
I like it.
Thats a nice message to have.
So lets take that message, and lets talk a bit in the practical tip, Tom, about how people can use your trends to look at their 2022 strategy and also their burning organisational issues.
So what we do is we recommend that you go and watch Toms video on the 10 trends, and its on YouTube and also on the HRtrendinstitute.com website.
Watch the video and then consider what are your top burning organisational issues.
And then for each issue, create an HR trend matrix.
Its really easy to do it.
You can just draw one up yourself.
Across the top, put your HR practises.
So what are the topics that you do in your organisation? So it might be recruitment, learning and development, organisational design, et cetera.
And then along the vertical, put Toms top 10 trends.
And then start to map out which cells, which areas are going to make a significant impact and difference on that organisational issue.
And quite quickly, youll have worked through not only a great discussion and some great insights, but youll be developing your 2022 strategy.
So its a great way to really use Toms report in a very practical and activist way.
So have fun with that.
Thanks again for joining us.
This is Talking HR Trends with Natal & Tom.
If you found this discussion valuable, please subscribe.
See you again next time.
Tom Haak: Exploring Tom Haaks HR Trends for 2022 (with Natal Dank) - Human Resources