“Virtually zero skills were reported to be ‘less important’ by employees in a hybrid environment compared to before the pandemic.”

“The top five skills that are becoming more important to employees in a hybrid world are: Adaptability, Communication, Planning, Patience and Problem Solving.”

“The skills that are becoming more important in a hybrid world are soft skills – those that are used to deal with challenges that are both personal and professional.”

“Fifty-seven percent of organizations expect increased talent competition over the next six months, and this trend continues to increase.”

“To address the main challenges around developing soft skills, organizations should do three things:

• Embrace radical flexibility in your learning offering by encouraging diverse learning experiences.

• Optimize time already spent on learning by using employee reflection to bring attention to moments of passive learning.

• Connect soft skills development to a sense of purpose by fostering emotional connection to maximize employee engagement.”

“In July 2022, 47% of organizations witnessed an increase in hiring volume as compared to the previous three months, while the estimated average turnover of employees in the last six months is 14%.”

“We’ve seen rapid changes in skill needs – the total number of skills required for a single job is increasing at 5.4% annually; 33% of the skills present in an average job posting in 2019 will not be needed by 2024.”

“Focusing on backfilling roles and existing talent profiles is too slow to keep pace with changing needs. Employers need a versatile talent pool they can repurpose to meet changing needs.”

“Versatile talent is defined by 3 characteristics: Low hiring difficulty, self-driven learners and easy to rotate internally.”

“To build organizational versatility by elevating early career talent hiring practices, HR should implement 3 strategies:

• Assess for Versatility Early During the Hiring Process

• Continue to Develop Talent in Flexible Roles

• Help Gen Z Candidates See Themselves in the Career”

“Only 34% of CHROs surveyed by Gartner agree that performance management is effective at their organization.”

“As the workplace has gotten more complex, most organizations have simplified their processes – for performance management that means standardizing the process. Yet, standardizing performance management is making it less useful.” 

“HR can increase the utility, or usefulness, of performance management by 10% when they customize performance processes to the individualized performance needs of employees.”

“When utility increases, employee perception of performance management fairness and accuracy increases by 50%.”

“To insert customization that drives the most impact, organizations should focus on three key areas to enable utility and fairness:

• Goal-Setting: Rather than setting individual goals in a vacuum, HR should shift to a goal setting strategy that aligns individual goals with the team’s goals

• Employee Feedback: Managers must ensure employee feedback is useful and able to be actioned while ensuring that they set expectations prior to feedback conversations

• Growth and Future Development: When evaluating performance, manager and HR leaders should focus on evaluating an employee’s achievements and growth – against themselves, not their peers – over time and on opportunities for future development.”