Over the past three years, the U.S. labor market has been tumultuous, to say the least. Initially, employers were uncertain how to manage remote staff and initiated large scale layoffs; then, employers were unable to retain their remaining staff, who resigned in droves in search of better working conditions and compensation packages.
Many employers are eager for a return to normal when it comes to attracting and maintaining talent in the workplace. Yet, it seems incredibly unlikely that 2023 will bring a return to pre-pandemic workforce behavior; in fact, the coming year could see even more upheaval to the traditional structure of the workforce.
The Struggle for Human Talent Will Intensify
Despite a brief dip in economic growth during the pandemic, businesses have thrived for several years in a row, allowing them to expand and add new positions in need of high-level human talent. Unfortunately, there just aren’t enough people with enough training to fill them. At the start of summer 2022, there were over 11 million jobs available across the U.S. and only about six million unemployed workers. Economists and employment experts believe that this trend will only worsen into 2023, with more and more high-level roles becoming available and an increasingly limited amount of talent ready and eager for work.
Likely, the labor crisis will send organizations scrambling in one of two directions: automation or competition. AI, machine learning and other advanced digital solutions are rapidly gaining sophistication to the degree that many businesses can reduce their need for human workforce and ensure that human staff enjoy more engaging and more rewarding tasks. At present, the United States is aggressively funding AI research, with the effect that AI programs will become much more powerful and much more widely available in the coming years.
Yet, not all workplace responsibilities can be outsourced to tech. To attain the high-level skill and knowledge necessary for tasks that only humans can perform, employers will need to compete aggressively with one another, offering better compensation packages, professional development opportunities, prioritization of work-life balance and more. Since the Great Resignation in 2021, employees have come to understand their immense value to organizational wellness. In return, employers need to identify how they can improve the employee experience and attract the top-tier talent they need.
Accessibility and Ability Matter More Than Presence
The COVID pandemic accelerated many workplace trends, chief among them the desire and capability for almost every employee to work remotely. Today, few workers are interested in spending a significant portion of their week trapped in an office cubicle — and employers need to be able to accommodate this shift.
Setting aside the jobs that do require an employee’s physical presence, many roles and responsibilities can be fulfilled from anywhere, given that a worker has the right tools, knowledge and skills. Recognizing this, some employers are moving away from the traditional employment model and relying primarily on contingent labor. When physical presence is no longer a concern, organizations can search the world for high-quality contingent workers to fill their needs. As long as an organization provides accessibility to the resources contingent workers need to complete their assigned tasks, contingent workers often have abilities above and beyond what a company requires.
However, employers need to be careful how they manage their contingent workforce. Many countries have labor laws that serve to distinguish employees from contingent labor for the purposes of regulation and taxation. To avoid severe fines and penalties, organizations should ensure that the roles and processes that govern the contingent workforce do not conflict with the tasks and treatment of traditional staff.
Culture Is the Workforce Word of the Year
In 2023, it is imperative that organizations of all sizes and scopes focus on the concept of culture. Some companies need to work to develop their corporate culture, which will define their values for employees and customers alike. A positive corporate culture will keep the workforce more satisfied and thus more likely to remain even given more lucrative opportunities with competing organizations. A significant concept within corporate culture is diversity and inclusion, which should help introduce a sense of multiculturalism to the workplace and elevate the voices of marginalized groups.
The old guidebooks for attracting and retaining talent are all but moot. In 2023 and beyond, employers will need to work harder to bring on the human talent they need, which might mean focusing on unconventional strategies for improving their workplace.