Where should HR focus in 2023?

To guide HR planning in 2023, our experts have predicted the biggest workplace trends and challenges for the year ahead.

5 workplace trends for 2023:

1. Supporting employees through a cost-of-living crisis
2. Expanding your wellbeing programme
3. Creating better connected hybrid workers
4. More targeted support for women in the workplace
5. Building a culture of accountability

Read our full trends report here: Ultimate guide to employee listening in 2023

What can we learn from how the workplace changed in 2022?

Below, we explore 5 workplace trends for 2023 and how HR can respond.

1. Supporting employees through a cost-of-living crisis

The cost-of-living crisis, and related money worries, show no signs of easing up in 2023. New data paints a shocking picture of how people are feeling:

• One in seven Brits are struggling to make ends meet
• One-third of the UK workforce say cost-of-living related worries negatively impact their productivity
• Financially stressed employees are three times as likely to suffer poor mental health

According to Wagestream, just 30% of employees believe their employer cares about their financial health. Although financial wellbeing has been on employers’ radar for a while, action must accelerate in 2023 to get people through tough times ahead.

While extravagant bonuses and pay rises aren’t possible right now, you can support employee financial wellbeing by providing non-monetary rewards. You can also give people access to financial advice, or update employee rewards to better suit people’s needs.

Importantly, financial wellness must be tailored to employee needs. These will differ between employee groups. For example, parents might appreciate flexible working hours so they can reduce childcare costs. However, younger employees might prefer help to save for their first home.

2023 financial wellbeing examples:

• Free or subsidised meals. John Lewis and Waitrose offer partners free meals, including packed lunches for delivery drivers.
• Salary sacrifice schemes that provide electric vehicles, childcare, or home insulation at a reduced cost
• Hybrid working or remote working policies to cut the cost of commuting Employee discount schemes help employees save on essentials like school uniforms and groceries, or treats like cinema tickets
• Financial literacy advice and coaching via platforms like Bippit and Neyber
• Targeted employee benefits such as lifetime ISAs, interest-free loans for travel, or private health insurance.

Learn more about how to improve employees’ financial wellbeing in our conversation with Sian Evans, Director of People and Culture at StepChange. Watch the live discussion.

2. Expanding employee wellbeing

70% of HR leaders named employee wellbeing a top priority for 2023. As it stands, only 24% of employees believe their employer cares about them. There is clearly work to be done.

To meet the needs of employees, your 2023 employee wellbeing programme must reflect the full range of wellbeing including:

1. Mental wellbeing. This includes initiatives that support employees’ psychological, emotional, and social wellbeing. For example, offering access to counselling, introducing meeting-free days, or holding workplace meditation sessions.
2. Physical wellbeing. By this we mean helping employees make healthy lifestyle choices, avoid preventable conditions, and maintain high energy levels. You could provide healthy meals/snacks, subsidise gym memberships, or encourage walking meetings.
3. Financial wellbeing. As discussed above, financial wellbeing is about feeling in control of your finances, able to pay your bills, deal with unexpected costs, and save for the future. Initiatives could include financial education support, perks and benefits that help employees save money, or a company pension scheme that provides long-term financial security.
4. Community wellbeing. Community wellbeing includes the social, economic, environmental, cultural, and political factors that help communities flourish. For organisations it’s about how they protect and support the communities around them, and how they care for their employees outside of work.

Help your workforce become healthier and more resilient in 2023.

Speak to us about running an employee wellbeing survey to assess organisation wellbeing. Not ready to talk yet? Why not read our article, 10 ways to combat workplace stress, shared with us by Bupa.

3. Better connected hybrid workers

For successful hybrid working in 2023, organisations must focus on keeping hybrid and remote workers engaged, motivated, and connected to their company culture.  

Your 2023 hybrid working policy must include:   

• Upskilling and growth opportunities – Despite the uncertain financial climate, employees will prioritise growth and progression in 2023. To retain their workforce and attract new talent, organisations must step up their Learning & Development plans.  Innovative organisations are adopting Virtual Reality to offer immersive training experiences. Others are using AI to gamify learning and personalise content.   
• Tech to connect hybrid colleagues  One in three hybrid workers reports feeling lonely, and most feel like their colleagues don’t care about them. Organisations must act fast to help hybrid employees feel more connected. From VR office spaces, to 360-degree cameras, to collaborative tools like Miro, 2023 will see an uptake in tools that help employees reconnect with one another.  
• The choice to work from anywhere Work from anywhere (WFA) is a type of flexible working that entitles employees to work from any location. WFA policies typically permit employees to work abroad for up to a year, and are already offered by employers like Ocado Group, Spotify, and Salesforce. With the trend set to expand in the next 12 months, 2023 is the perfect time to develop a robust WFA policy. 

With all this to consider, perhaps you’ll need to bring in a Chief Remote Officer.  

Job search engine Adzuna reports a 50% increase in CRO vacancies since 2019, as more organisations require a role to sustain high levels of productivity, wellbeing and engagement among their remote workers. 

4. More targeted support for women in the workplace

New data from McKinsey predicts “The Great Breakup” in 2023 as women leave roles in unprecedented numbers due to burnout, poor progression, and a lack of flexibility.

While the flexibility of hybrid working brings many benefits, it also risks limiting women’s opportunities to grow and develop. Hybrid arrangements make it harder for women to take up mentoring and networking opportunities, to be heard during meetings, and to access promotions and recognition.

How to create a more gender-equal hybrid working culture in 2023:

1. Consult your employees about what’s working and what could be improved. Filter your survey results by demographic data to see how experiences differ between men and women, and how best to support different employee groups. A smart employee survey platform like People Insight’s makes it easy to dig into the data.
2. Offer mentorship and sponsorship opportunities, wherever women work from. This could mean offering virtual programmes, building Employee Resource Groups, or embedding mentoring into your virtual onboarding processes like law firm Cooley.
3. Help your managers create a more supportive environment for women. The move to hybrid work has brought new pressures and challenges for managers. They may need help to navigate these. In 2023, invest in training for managers around specific issues such as preventing burnout, addressing proximity bias, and managing dispersed teams.

5. Building a culture of accountability

Conversations about accountability will ramp up in 2023 as organisations recognise the value of embedding accountability into their culture.

An organisational culture of accountability is one where leaders, line managers, and employees take ownership for delivering results, work together to find solutions, talk openly about issues, and hold themselves and one another to account. Instead of finishing your part of a task and celebrating it moving off your desk, this approach focuses on outcomes for the organisation and encourages collaboration.

When done right, it leads to high productivity, high growth, and high engagement. People feel clear about what they are working on, and how their work affects the company’s goals.

How to create a culture of accountability in 2023:

• Role-model from the top. This includes clearly defining the organisation’s purpose, taking ownership of what’s happening across the organisation, and investing in the wellbeing and engagement of their people.
• Communicate goals very clearly. Accountability relies on everyone being on the same page about where the organisation is heading, and the part they have to play. So, clarity from leaders and line managers about the organisation’s goals and how these translate to individual roles is key.
• Build psychological safety into the workplace. For accountability to thrive, employees must feel confident to talk honestly about issues, call out poor behaviour, and own up to mistakes. This comes down to feeling psychologically safe. Learn more about how managers can build psychological safety in our article.

Ready to spark change in 2023?

There’s a lot for leaders, HR, and line managers to balance. People Insight’s platform, support, and expertise will help you tackle these priorities with confidence and create lasting change across your organisation.

Speak to us about how we can support your 2023 employee engagement programme, or ask to see a demo of the People Insight Platform.