One thing that the last two years has taught us is that change is a certainty. Workplaces, employers and employees have all had to overcome enormous challenges to adjust to the realities of working with Covid. This has meant many changes including a sudden shift to working from home, then returning to the workplace, dealing with COVID restrictions, volatility in business conditions, the unpredictability of supply and more recently, the increasing competition for talent. 

“We’ve been living through the greatest workplace disruption in generations and the level of volatility will not slow down in 2022”. Source: Harvard Business Review. 11 Trends that will shape work in 2022 and beyond.

What we have discovered in working with businesses of all sizes across a variety of industries is there are fundamentals that need to be maintained as well as new approaches that need to be adopted. A new awareness is emerging of what needs to be embraced to engage and manage people in the new world of work. 

Old work models will no longer suffice. The impact of Covid has accelerated workplace changes that were already underway but has now brought them into sharper focus as must haves for the future. You need to adapt your approach to HR to survive and grow.

 

Here are 2 things you absolutely must get right to engage and manage your people in the new work environment:

 

Align your HR strategy with your business goals through an effective HR plan. Planning has never been more important. You need to plan ahead so your business can respond to and anticipate hr needs. An effective HR plan enables businesses to meet their requirements for talent and skillsets as well as build necessary hr infrastructure to support the organisation’s current and future plans for growth and change.

Keep your finger on the pulse of culture and engagement. As workplace change becomes more frequent so has the need to monitor the health of the organisation. In the pre-Covid workplace we could monitor the mood by walking the floor or hanging out at the photocopier. But the hybrid work model, with both remote and office environments, means there is a need for more frequent insights and capturing feedback at the point of work will become increasingly important.

Read our top ten tips and gain access to our free resources by downloading the PDF “How to Engage and Manage your People in the new work environment.”