What you need to think about for your Human Talent Strategy in 2022

What are the industry opportunities and challenges you need to be aware of? How can you generate more value for the organization? What will be non-negotiable for employees and the organizational strategy? Many Human Talent strategists put out these questions daily to us to get their 2022 strategy ready. As customary, at the beginning of the year, I love to share the trends we should have on our radar for taking on the complex, chaotic environment in which we live, where nothing is set in stone.

Something has changed radically for 2022 in pandemic management. Unlike what has been happening in Europe with the circulating Omicron strain, in Latin America isolation is experienced differently. Governments are thinking carefully about whether it is time to go into lockdowns and quarantine again or whether to continue with the economic reactivation they have embarked on, and priority has been given to the latter.

So, let’s review what is happening to the economy. Chile and Colombia appear as economies with good prognoses for recovery by 2022 thanks to their vaccination efforts, according to the deputy director of the Latin America Program at the Wilson Center in Washington. However, the tensions due to the electoral calendar may turn these views upside down.

The great economic challenge lies in inflation management which has risen substantially in all countries, in debt control with high interest rates and in the foreign investment risk generally seen in Latin America, largely due to the electoral uncertainty in countries such as Brazil and Colombia and in the policies of the incoming governments in Chile and Peru, which are left wing.

Against this regional scenario, organizations are still relentlessly controlling their cash flow and remain moderate in their investment risks. Obviously, this varies in each company’s economic sector, but we have found common patterns that organizations are embracing:

1. Digital Transformation of Human Talent: We are still on the wave of Digital Transformation and unlike in 2020, today there are already more organizations that are in a process of digital consolidation rather than technological incursion. Processes not in the core of the business and not yet automated, like Human Talent among others, will be automated shortly. The concern over machines replacing talent has diminished and today there is faith in technology.
2. Increased employee trust in their company: According to Edelman’s Trust Barometer 2021, employees now trust their employers more than other organizations such as NGOs, the government and the media. This result is the outcome of what organizations have invested in engagement and Employee Experience; this trend will continue for 2022. It is also interesting to see in this study that employees have become the most important stakeholder, on a par with consumers / customers with 40% in the Trustworthiness Index.
3. The nomadic economy: The Future 100-2022 study by the English agency, Wunderman Thompson, brings this new concept to the table. Thanks to the possibilities of working remotely, a new economy is emerging for digital nomads, people who broke traditional work habits and who today are not keen to return to a work office or at least not permanently. These nomads require new global social security and compensation schemes that do not depend on where they are.
4. Gen Z workforce: The attraction and recruitment strategy will change considerably to attract Generation Z, seeking to keep them for a long tenure. Actions as diverse as using “Tik Tok”, the multiverse concept and the influence of “gamers” have made inroads into the world of talent attraction for this new generation.
5. The power of beliefs: some 61% of employees choose the organization where they want to be, depending on their values and beliefs by identifying themselves with the culture and consistent with the way they act. Some 50% agree that they are the driver of change, influencing the reality and transformation of the organization. The main issues affecting an employee’s connection with the organization depend on how human rights, economic inequality, gender equality, climate change and COVID management issues are resolved.

With these 5 trends I hope you can refine your 2022 Human Talent strategy and put on the management agenda, top-level conversations that steer towards thinking about how to respond to the social and economic challenges we are experiencing.

Incidentally, remember that mental health will still be a link that we cannot ignore when it comes to attraction and retention, so that’s why, if you want to reduce the attrition level, you should not rule out becoming an industry benchmark in mental health and wellness.

REFERENCES

1. BBC News, Los países de América Latina cuyas economías están mejor preparadas para enfrentar el 2022.
2. The Future 100, Trends and change to watch in 2022. Wunderman Thompson Intelligence
3. Edelman Trust Barometer 2021, Special Report: The Belief-driven Employee