7 ways HR will look different in 2022

As we move into 2022, the companies that successfully navigate this new work landscape will be much more intentional about re-engineering their HR operating systems and structures to be more cloud-based. We’ll get better at moving away from synchronous work and be more intentional in re-orienting to asynchronous as a default operating model. We’ll use tools like Loom to send video messages that describe in 5 minutes what usually takes a 30-minute meeting. When we have meetings they’ll be thoughtfully structured, with agendas, pre-read materials sent in advance.

HR used to follow a one-size-fits-all approach. Not anymore. Over the last two years, we’ve done a lot of listening to our employees to better understand how they’re doing, what they need, and more. This awareness has refocused the field of HR toward employee experience and is allowing us to co-create programs with employees—not just for them. 

The past decade has seen our approach broaden beyond “diversity” to include equity, inclusion, belonging, and access. Following George Floyd’s murder, Tech giants committed $3.8 billion dollars toward racial equity initiatives. But has this had a meaningful impact on driving change?

The field of HR still has a lot of work to do in uprooting the systems of inequity that permeate our companies—from pay equity to board representation.

The shift to remote and hybrid work is also impacting our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Removing geographic constraints opens the talent pool and creates more access to talent and that’s having a positive impact on hiring. As more companies embrace remote constructs, HR teams must be more mindful and intentional about maintaining equity within these new distributed teams. 

We’ve spilled plenty of ink covering the Great Resignation and have felt the pain of the spiking attrition within our companies. Underneath the tumult what’s really happening is a “great migration” as industry analyst and writer Josh Bersin effectively frames it.

The current job market is white-hot. Recruiter jobs postings are outpacing software engineers, as companies battle for an edge in this hyper-competitive hiring market. 

Today, 45% of full-time U.S. employees are working partly or fully remotely. While that number may drop as more companies implement return to workplace plans in 2022, it will remain a significant portion of our workforce. The percentage of employers offering remote or hybrid work significantly reduces the hiring friction. The ease of virtual interviews and hiring will continue to fuel talent migration in 2022. To offset this, companies must prioritize career growth, flexibility, learning & development, and total rewards programs that attract and retain talent. 

Facebook made waves earlier this year when they changed their name to Meta, a nod to their plans to invest in expanding into the metaverse. While virtual reality isn’t new, the barriers of access (mostly hardware) continue to lower, opening up more use cases for HR and people operations.

As companies who’ve migrated to remote and hybrid struggle to fill the void of watercooler moments and live meetings, the metaverse will help bridge that analog-digital divide. 

The metaverse is often bundled with the nascent world of web3. While we won’t see widespread implications for HR yet, we should be paying attention as this develops. Collectively, web3 includes a mix of technology, open standards, cryptocurrency, blockchain, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), Decentralized Finance (DeFi) communities, and a new creator economy. 

In terms of HR implications, the shared ownership and transparency of DAOs(Data Access Objects) could have broader implications including narrowing the pay gap. 

Crypto is already in play for some companies including Airbnb, Uber, Facebook, and others who offer employees cryptocurrencies as an option for wages or bonuses. HR needs to navigate the legal and tax complexities when offering crypto as wages, including a mix of state and federal guidelines.

The pandemic has upended many of the long-held industrial era constructs of work itself. The when, where, and how work happens has evolved beyond those limited legacy views of 9-5’s in the office. Sure, there will always be traditionalists who want to return to a pre-pandemic era of work that no longer exists. They will be at the companies struggling to attract and retain talent in 2022 and beyond. 

The great reset requires HR to examine our practices, shed the ones that no longer serve our companies and employees, and build anew for some of the new constructs of work detailed above. It requires a shift away from prescribed playbooks of HR programs and a willingness to pilot and adopt new practices. It will be centered on employee experience and co-created with our employees. 

The days of HR being a back-office function are over. Our generational opportunity to redefine work itself is directly in front of us.