Incorporating Gartner’s 2023 Workplace Trends into Your Strategy

The workplace has been upended in the last few years. With immediate impacts from COVID-19 finally beginning to recede into the background, experts are watching closely to see which trends take center stage over the coming year.

All work environments – whether virtual or in-person, large or small, made up of office employees or frontline workers – have been hit hard by a number of factors. A looming recession, the ‘quiet quitting’ phenomenon, geopolitical tensions, continued advancements in data collection, and the use of technology such as artificial intelligence (AI), are just a few examples of ways that companies have been impacted.

In December 2022, Gartner released its nine future work trends for the year ahead. While the assumption may be that with companies laying off workers at a record pace, there is a glut of available and willing talent, the truth is far more nuanced. As Gartner highlighted throughout its trends report, there are a number of ways that employers need to better support their employees in order to create more productive, inclusive and efficient work environments and to keep turnover to a minimum.

Capitalizing on current trends and keeping employees happy requires strategic thought and planning. Below are three key areas highlighted in Gartner’s report where businesses can and should create a measurable, strategic approach to achieving results in the year ahead.

Better utilization of employee resources

Quiet Quitting headlines were all the rage in 2022, and while it’s true they have died down, the sentiment behind the trend is alive and well. In a post-COVID world, where employees were forced to take stock of their personal health, living situations and more, the idea of giving everything to a company that may not support you in return was deeply questioned. Follow that by a massive round of layoffs and—while desperation to keep a job may increase— loyalty, trust and security within the organization are bound to suffer.

To address these concerns, companies can focus on the trend identified by Gartner as “Quiet Hiring.” The idea behind it is to help employees acquire new skills and capabilities. Of course, it helps the organization that cannot afford to hire, but there is more value than that.

It benefits employees by ensuring they focus on priorities and allows them to grow and expand in their career path. It helps create dynamic resources to meet the ever-evolving organizational needs. And it creates flexibility – both for in-house employees and gig workers – leveraging talent when and where it is most needed.

The strategic play here is to recognize that you likely have a finite pool of talent to pull from in order to meet your company’s goals. Quiet hiring allows you to consider where best to utilize resources and shift priorities to ensure that everyone on the team is able to contribute.

Hiring outside-the-box candidates

As any HR department head will tell you, hiring is never easy. Trying to determine if an employee is right for the position based on a CV, education or previous experience is all but impossible. Gartner points out that we’ll see a trend toward performance-based evaluations this year, where hiring managers will focus more on skill sets rather than past experience or education.

Strategically speaking, this means companies should consider non-traditional candidates to fill roles, those candidates who previously may have been turned down or overlooked. It’s a shift in focus, to evaluate a candidate based on their potential rather than their past accomplishments.

DEI will require its own strategy, as companies push forward to create more diverse teams. Data shows that employees have been resistant to some of these efforts, but as Gartner highlights, companies need to continue. The strategic focus will be on educating employees and addressing concerns early on. Change is never easy, but it is necessary, and companies that find the right balance will be set up for long-term success.

Safeguarding employees

Within its nine trends report, Gartner highlighted several areas where employees will need to be protected. First and foremost is how companies use personal data. The ability to gather personal data—via everything from laptops to cell phones to wearables—makes it easier than ever for an employer to know a great deal of personal, private information about their employee. Without expert support and transparent policies, an organization can leave itself wide open to a privacy crisis that can have far-reaching implications.

Now is the time to be strategic about putting a clear privacy directive in place. Gartner suggests that savvy organizations will lead with an Employee Bill of Rights, setting the stage for healthy boundaries and demonstrating respect for employees’ personal lives. The use of AI will play a role in this as well, as companies determine how to best use it for recruiting and throughout the hiring process. Once again, employees will need to see transparency and accountability and should have the option to opt out.

Beyond just protecting employees from the use of emerging technologies and data collection, organizations need to also help to nurture overall health and wellness. Gartner points out a new trend in this category: socialization. GenZ is particularly vulnerable to this. A majority say their education did not prepare them for the workforce, while the pandemic (and subsequent lockdowns) set them back from developing social skills and etiquette ‘norms’ in the workplace.

Socialization is a problem for all workers, however, according to Gartner. “Burnout, exhaustion and career insecurity — all heightened during the pandemic — negatively impact performance.” Now is the time for companies to strategically redefine what professionalism means within the organization and take steps to improve morale and performance.

Gartner is optimistic that there exists an exciting opportunity for employers to differentiate themselves and attract the best candidates, and so are we. It simply takes defining your goals as an organization and building out a strategy designed to meet those goals. We’re happy to help – contact us today for a free trial and let us help you put your strategic plans into action.