As outlined in the 2022 HR Trends Report^[1] by McLean & Company, recruiting and providing a great employee experience are ranked as the top two HR priorities of companies in 2022.

When compared with 2021 report, we see that recruitment stays the same as the top priority while providing a great employee experience moves up from the fifth rank to second. Obviously, the most salient finding in this study is the change in the ranking of employee experience as a HR priority.

Recruitment, although staying at the same rank (namely, the top HR priority) as the previous year, it is reported to have an even bigger share in time allocation. Compared to other HR functions, recruitment, is the only one which shows an increase in terms of the time that will be spent on it. Compared to 2021, HR departments will spend 25% more time on recruitment related activities.

In short, the importance and priority predictions of HR departments for 2022 revolve around two main functions, recruitment and employee experience.

Considering everything we’ve all been through during the pandemic period, this shift was meant to happen. In hindsight, it is now a bit easier to say it has been around us the whole time. We first observed what was happening and tried to describe it. We’ve witnessed lots of people quitting their jobs, sometimes without even trying to find another one. We called it the great resignation. Then we’ve seen the same people change positions or industries. Some even chose to relocate with or without a job prospect in sight. Then we called it the great reshuffle^[2]. Now, we’re talking about the great reconsideration^[3]. Employees are re-evaluating and reconsidering not only their jobs and working conditions, but also their overall expectations from life in general and what role should work play in it. When we look at the process more carefully, we see that the perceptions and value judgments of employees about work and work life are changing constantly and fundamentally, more than ever we’ve seen before.

Employee experience stands right at the intersection of these two phenomena we’ve been observing; the reconsideration process from the side of employees and the 2022 predictions of HR departments globally.

With this reconsideration and new perspective, employees are now expecting, even demanding a good life experience beyond meeting their basic needs. Sometimes it can be a basic and simple expectation such as recognition for the work one is doing and other times it can be a complex expectation related to the meaning of the work and its alignment with personal values. In the coming days, we will most likely witness that companies that work to meet the expectations of employees will come to the fore as companies or brands most preferred both by customers and employees.

As in many other areas, the quest for meeting the need and expectation starts with a correct definition and identification of the matter at hand, therefore an accurate measurement. Business solutions that enable easy measurement and tracking of all these processes are the most important items in the toolbox of the companies that act with the main goal of improving employee experience.

As Acsight, with our experience, expertise and technological infrastructure in customer experience measurement and management, we consider customer and employee experience as the two sides of the same coin, therefore expanding our offer to provide a more holistic approach to both customer and employee experience.

For more information about our solutions: https://www.cloud4feed.com/index/contact

[1] 2022 HR Trends Report.https://hr.mcleanco.com/research/ss/2022-hr-trends-report

[2] https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/great-resignation-microsoft-linkedin-satya-nadella.html

[3] https://www.aier.org/article/the-great-reconsideration/