As the waters begin to settle following tumultuous years in the world of work, there are new challenges bubbling under the surface for 2023.

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As well as navigating what will likely be an economic recession, companies will be presented with a range of challenges this year, including shifting work models, changing recruitment strategies, and the need for more sustainable company productivity.

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Read on to find out what challenges you’re likely to encounter as we move through 2023 and beyond.

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1. Shifting Employee Expectations

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One of the most significant challenges companies will face in 2023 is dealing with shifting employee expectations.

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In 2023, it isn’t enough to have job security and a good salary; many employees these days are looking for work schedule flexibility, greater engagement with their work, and sustainable productivity.

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Work Schedule Flexibility

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If you can’t provide this flexibility and prove that you support sustainable practices that accommodate employee mental health, you may have a hard time finding suitable candidates and retaining the talent currently on your books.

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In 2022, 4 Day Week Global carried out a four-day work week experiment that yielded positive results. In it, an overwhelming majority of participating companies and employees noted an improvement in performance and thought it a success.

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Sticking with the rigid 9-5 work model in 2023 and beyond could start to present issues among your workforce as the evidence is starting to show the effectiveness of shorter workweeks and fewer hours.

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While you don’t have to make wholesale changes to the way you work overnight, you can introduce small accommodations such as a hybrid work week where employees work some days in the office and others at home. Support your hybrid work strategy with tools to help you better manage remote employees

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Employee Engagement

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With employee burnout and quiet quitting being hot-button issues over the past few years, it would also be naive to ignore the impact of disengagement at work. The moment employees are no longer engaged with their work, you have a problem on your hands.

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Addressing employee engagement isn’t easy, but here are a few actions that could make a difference:

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•  Outline and emphasize company values: Outlining strong company values and pushing a compelling mission statement can galvanize a workforce and drive engagement levels up.
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•  Create a culture of collaboration: Feeling isolated is a common byproduct of working remotely, so try to make employees feel more connected to their coworkers with virtual events, collaboration tools, and team projects.
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•  Check in regularly: One of the best ways to avoid issues like employee burnout and quiet quitting is to check in regularly with employees to see how they’re getting on. A work time app can also help you identify concerning trends.
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Sustainable Productivity
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With an increase in employee burnout and quiet quitting, it’s no surprise that many companies are trying to strike a balance between high levels of productivity and workloads that don’t lead employees to burnout.

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This balance can be referred to as sustainable productivity.

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By shifting your focus towards sustainable productivity, you can:

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• Lower the risks of employee burnout and quiet quitting
• Entice talent when hiring
• Boost numbers while supporting employee mental health

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2. The Changing Talent Landscape 

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2023 is set to bring a fresh perspective on the talent landscape - though not necessarily a positive one when it comes to hiring.

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There are several major factors that will affect how you hire from 2023 onwards:

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Quiet Hiring

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As a response to the quiet quitting phenomenon of recent years, many companies will start a process of quiet hiring.

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What is quiet hiring?

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It’s a way of hiring from within that relies on incentives such as bonuses or promotions to keep existing talent on board and redirect it to areas that need it most. By looking internally, companies can save the cost and time of hiring a full-time employee, and upskill employees to fill vacancies.

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There’ll also likely be a heavier reliance on contractors and agencies to plug skill gaps.

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As a result, you may have to consider restructuring your company to support quiet hiring if it makes sense to do so.

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Shift in Hiring Criteria

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A change that will likely influence your ability to land top talent is the shift in hiring criteria we’re likely to see in 2023.

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As we examine age-old work practices such as the 9-5 work week, it also makes sense to examine the way we hire. One of the biggest deviations from current hiring strategies will likely be a general disregard for qualifications and past experience.

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That’s not to say they will be ignored altogether, but rather that companies will focus more on the candidate’s current skill set and aptitude for the proposed job rather than what they’ve done in the past.

This could make the competition for top talent even fiercer, but may also drastically expand the talent pool to include candidates that previously may have been excluded.

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3. The Desocialization of Employees

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One of the most significant impacts the pandemic wrought on the workforce was a general decline in socialization. Once many companies were forced to go remote, many employees felt cut off from their coworkers and reported feeling isolated while working from home.

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The impact of this desocialization has a knock-on effect on hiring in 2023. If you still work on-site in any capacity, onboarding new employees requires considerable thought on how you’ll integrate them into the workforce.

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With the decline in socialization, social skills are at an all-time low, and other factors such as burnout and mental fatigue, may also play a part. As such, you need a robust onboarding initiative to get new recruits up to speed and adjust them to the workplace while trying to accommodate what may be a lack of social sharpness.

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This also brings your collaboration culture into question, since you need coworkers to feel comfortable sharing insights and working closely together. 

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One of the best ways to bring employees together is to use software solutions that can bridge the social gap and make collaboration straightforward. Asynchronous communication can be the best way to stay in contact if video calls and meetings feel intimidating for new hires.

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Employee Monitoring Software Supports Change

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When facing challenges and change, you need to equip yourself with systems and tools that help you reach the other side. 

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For example, internet activity monitor software is one way you can stay in control even when facing uncertainty. With a remote pc monitoring tool like Insightful, you can monitor remote employees and make sure that workloads are evenly distributed, and productivity levels are high.

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Monitoring work performance is crucial as it provides you with benchmarks you can use to evaluate how workforce productivity is impacted by various changes. Web activity monitor Insightful empowers you with data by allowing you to monitor employee computer usage, which you can then use to build productivity reports.

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While monitoring staff alone won’t safeguard you from the challenges 2023 is set to bring, it can give you the data you need to inform effective decision-making as you move forwards.

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