The workplace in 2023: 15 trends redefining work, the workforce, and HR Leaders need to get serious and pragmatic about skills: skills clusters will need 'owners', and these will not be people in HR. Meanwhile, CHROs will look beyond EX towards "people sustainability" - derived from DEI, benefits, health, and more.

The year 2023 will be a year of transition as we redefine work, the workforce, and HR, global HR leader Josh Bersin writes in his HR Predictions for 2023 report.

"We have come through three years of the pandemic while dealing with supply chain issues, inflation, hybrid work, and continued economic growth. At this turning point, we have ended 14 years of near-zero interest rates and now face a slowdown in both the economy and in consumer spending. And peopleour workers and employeesremain overworked, tired, and ready for change.

"CEOs and CFOs are going to push to maintain and grow profits, focus on cash and financial sustainability, and search for new postures for growth. This means carefully placing bets on the new, green-energy, sustainable economy and reallocating resources and skills to this area," he shares. CHROs and employee-facing teams, at the same time, must consider the pressures that will take place in a workforce that is "quite tapped out". out.

With the above in mind, the report showcases 15 trends for HR leaders and their teams to keep in mind as we go further into 2023. HRO has pulled out excerpts below:

#1 A new, multifaceted workforce diverse, aging, and scarcewill emerge

According to the report, three big workforce trends will shape companies this year: diversity, longevity, and scarcity.

First, comes the fact that diversity is expanding. Whether it's different genders, races, age groups, or other demographics defining 'diversity', it is time for companies to leverage the multifaceted workforce this presents. And to do so, leaders will need to understand the business need for diversity.

With diversity spanning so many groups, CEOs and CHROs now face an ever-growing need to build organisations that are as diverse as customers and the workforce as a whole, Bersin points out. "The process is held back by education inequalities, racism, and all sorts of old ideas, but the bottom line is simple: the workforce is diversifying rapidly, and we, as companies, must continue to do the same."

Another thing on leaders' minds is the workforce is getting older, and there are two reasons for this: increasing longevity coupled with a very low fertility rate. People are living longer, and our energy and vitality last well into our eighties and nineties. This means our entire definition of career, work, and jobs must change.

Bersin highlights: "Young employees in their twenties are looking for new relationships, career guidance, constant communication, and excitement. Early families need flexibility for childcare and child activities. Middle-aged workers strive for growth and promotion and want to improve their standards of living. And older workers want purpose, meaning, and work that fits their older eyes, hands, and bodies.

"We also cant forget elder care benefits: this is one of the fastest-growing add-ons to your complete benefits programme."

So, what does this mean for leaders? It's time to get serious about reverse mentoring, part-time careers for older workers, job-sharing, and accommodations for aging eyes, backs, and hands. "These are not just nice things to do: theyre essential if you want your company to grow."

The third point is worker scarcity is increasing. As noted in the report, the size of the workforce is shrinking. In tandem, the working population in every developed economy is starting to peak. According to World Bank data cited in the report, the total population in highly developed countries will peak around 2045, after which only countries in Africa, Indonesia, and India will continue to grow. This means that immigration, a topic many countries find politically difficult, will be the only way for economies to expand.

"This tells us workers are in charge. And that leads us to our biggest trend for the year ahead: redefining how you attract, retain, develop, and employ your people. And to do all of that, you need to think about jobs and careers in a different way."

#2 Jobs and careers will be redefined by the convergence of industries

As uncovered in Bersin's Global Workforce Intelligence Project (GWI), virtually every industry has moved beyond "digital transformation" to adjacent industries and business models. And this creates a massive need for new skills, new job titles, and new organisations all of which means we have "entered an even more brutal war for talent."

It also points out that no company can "hire their way" to growth anymore. Not only are there fewer workers to choose from, but also the high-demand skills are in short supply. To address this, companies must recruit, retain, reskill, and redesign simultaneously, creating a new HR operating model called "systemic people solutions."

Additionally, as a result of the pandemic and hybrid work, companies have moved from "recruit based on experience" to "recruit based on skills." This requires employers to understand both the skills they have and the skills they need, so they can create "career pathways" to fill these critical positions.

Bersin notes: "We believe this trend will continue, regardless of the state of the economy. Our GWI research shows that every industry is morphing into something new, creating the need for new job roles, skills, careers, and employment models."

#13 People analytics will evolve into talent intelligence

The agenda for people analytics teams keeps growing. This is a good thing, but we must focus on a new problem. "Now that the economy is slowing, how can we use data to better help the company grow?" "Can you predict how many people you can hire, reskill, grow through retention, and enhance through redesign?"

In 2023, the people analytics teams should work with the sourcing intelligence and workforce planning teams to be even more relevant than ever. Doing an analysis of burnout and turnover will continue, but the big ROI will come from a strong look at strategic skills gaps, sourcing strategies, strategic retention, reskilling, redeployment of people, and how leaders address job redesign. In other words, forward-thinking companies will expand their people analytics teams and add labour economics, workforce planning, sourcing intelligence, and skills intelligence.

#14 A new HR tech landscape will arrive

2023 will see the emergence of a new integrated 'skills-powered talent platform'. Companies will have multiple intelligence systems that create, infer, or store skills, and would want this to come together into an integrated place. There will also be higher availability of employee experience tools, with the continued expansion of learning systems, recruiting, offerings in pay equity, wellbeing, DEI, and more.

#15 HR organisations will move to a new operating model: systemic HR

The final, and probably most interesting, trend is what Bersin calls the new operating system for HR. Most companies call this the "operating model," but the substantial change is not simply better service delivery, improved access to data, and more HR business partner skills. Its also a new framework for integrating HR into a total operating system, so information and insights captured in one part of the company can be leveraged and addressed elsewhere. A few fundamental principles highlighted are: Every HR team should understand what other teams are doing. The overall top priority talent strategies should be shared and agreed on by everyone. Every HR professional should strive to have "full stack" skills. HR teams should share their roadmaps with each other regularly. HR professionals should rotate around HR and into and out of the business. HR technology roadmaps should match the HR talent strategies and be shared regularly. Local or embedded HR teams should have a voice in all strategic programmes. An integrated analytics and talent intelligence function should inform all major decisions

1.1. Consider #1, #2, #13, #14 and #15. Critically discuss the implications of these trends on the function of human capital. (30)

1.2. In 2023, we will need to learn to balance the new world of empathetic, flexible leadership with the need for ever-increasing levels of productivity. Recommend strategies leaders may utilise in order to create this balance. (20)