The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted how organizations function, prompting new HR service delivery trends for coordinating and interacting with employees. More specifically, businesses must reinvent their workforce and workplace strategies, including how HR directors facilitate remote work and keep employees happy and productive.
What Happened?
Health officials worldwide declared COVID-19 a pandemic in March 2020. At the time, a large chunk of society assumed everyday life would return to the status quo in a matter of months, if not weeks.
Fast-forward two years, and the pandemic continues, prompting organizations to implement prolonged – if not permanent – remote and hybrid working arrangements. HR departments must rethink how they prioritize their workers’ health and safety while promoting employee satisfaction during a period of tremendous job turnover.
Five 2022 HR Service Delivery Trends to Watch
Simulating an on-site workplace can be challenging. Some open communication channels to keep workers engaged and on schedule; others run personal one-on-one meetings that help them feel valued.
Here are five current HR service delivery trends to help address the challenges of meeting employee expectations in a virtual environment:
1. Promoting the Hybrid Office Model
Entirely or partially remote work is likely a permanent fixture. While not all companies can go fully remote, most can provide a hybrid office, offering a flexible approach to the workplace. “Partially remote” means that some workforces work remotely while others work on location. It is common for businesses that cannot shift some of their processes, particularly manual ones, to the cloud.
Two common features of a hybrid work model are as follows:
- Employees can control their workflows and work outside the office with flexible remote hours or days.
- A flexible office setup where employees do not have a designated desk or workspace when they opt to work on-site. Instead, they reserve workplaces ahead of time.
2. Automation Technologies
Current HR service delivery trends rely heavily on innovative technologies. Remote work is evolving rapidly, and businesses must keep pace by removing unnecessary bottlenecks created by inefficient manual processes and redundant tasks. Automation, such as self-service tools, helps eliminate time-sinks and allows HR staff to focus on its employees.
3. Emphasizing E-Learning and Other Remote Training Activities
However, implementing these automation tools requires educating the workforce on using them.
This need for further training prompted organizations to design remote e-learning courses for learning these technologies and broadening employee knowledge on a wide array of other job-related topics. While e-learning courses existed well before the pandemic, many employees chose in-person workshops and seminars over virtual learning.
Now, the workforce is accustomed to online training, and E-learning will continue to be an essential part of staff development moving forward. As employees remain at home, it is gradually becoming a more significant component of the learning curriculum than in-person training. As digital education evolves, e-learning and other virtual training methods have grown more effective, accessible, and cost-friendly for firms looking to organize company-wide seminars.
4. Focusing on Data-Driven HR
As information becomes available faster, HR executives base their hiring decisions on data and metrics. The primary drivers of these “people analytics” include the following:
- Data-driven strategies to assess existing and future labor needs, skill shortages, and workplace diversity ensure the company hires the right people to stay competitive.
- Screening tools, AI-powered chatbots, and recruiting automation solutions to remove unqualified candidates from the hiring process without human intervention.
- Forecasting models to develop long-term personnel plans, allowing HR executives to predict future expertise demand. These forecasts help management create a budget for IT and HR costs related to necessary workforce training.
5. Prioritizing Mental Health and Wellness
The pandemic has highlighted the importance of promoting mental health and wellness, especially for long periods without seeing family and friends. Businesses recognize the struggles of long-term isolation and continue to explore solutions that help employees cope with the resulting stress, anxiety, and related mental health challenges.
These solutions might include paid mental health days as part of a revised benefits package, flexible work hours that allow employees to take breaks when they need them, and free access to counseling.
You Need the Right Solutions to Enhance HR Service Delivery
Organizations must remain flexible as a dynamic “new normal” requires companies and their employees to constantly adjust to new business methods. However, adapting to an ever-changing working landscape requires adopting innovative technologies that enable HR managers to identify, hire, and retain talent in a remote setting as effectively as can be accomplished face-to-face.
Request a quote today and learn how Cask and ServiceNow can help you keep up with current HR service delivery trends to create a positive remote work culture, promote employee happiness and productivity, and generate more business.
