It’s finally time to stabilize the talent game plan after three years of firefighting as companies grappled with the uncertainties of the pandemic, unforeseen departures in sectors such as technology, challenges posed by hybrid and remote work, and accelerated digitization and automation.
Organizations will focus on growing and building the talent pool to retain critical talent and find ways to contain attrition in 2023 while preparing for potential economic uncertainty and Preparing volatility on 2023 corporate workforce priorities and challenges in India.
The survey is based on responses from 438 companies across the manufacturing, consumer goods, technology, financial and services sectors.
Back to the drawing board
About 46% of the respondents are multinational companies and the rest are Indian companies.
The contrast in workforce challenges is stark, with a third of companies engaged in critical talent management in 2022 after the massive layoff wave that swept across top job-creating sectors. In 2023, companies are going back to the drawing board and focusing on employee engagement, leadership pipeline and employee career planning.
While undeclared work and gig workers were the talk of the town in 2022, they didn’t pose a major challenge for most industries. Only 5% of respondents cited undeclared work as a challenge for people and 3% found managing gig workers challenging.
“After the Great Retirement, companies have grappled with diverse talent challenges: while the spotlight has focused on gig workers and undeclared work, HR leaders have struggled with traditional areas such as talent retention, talent acquisition and key talent management,” said Nitin Sethi, CEO, Aon Consulting, India and South Asia.
In addition to the five main common challenges, different sectors have specific challenges and priorities.
Consumer organizations (10%) see flexible working as a challenge, while financial institutions (15%) say they care about the quality of talent. Not surprisingly, undeclared work is relatively more of a challenge for tech companies (14%).
Service (16%) and manufacturing (15%) companies cited performance management as one of their top challenges, largely due to the impact of digitalization on business strategy. As digitization has moved to the heart of talent strategy, the role of leaders has changed. Cascading these goals through the organization is critical and could prove difficult for organizations.
“With economic uncertainty and volatility expected in 2023, companies are focusing on leadership development and employee connectivity to build workforce resilience. Governance – Aon.
In the coming year, companies are looking beyond monetary rewards: the holistic well-being of employees is becoming the focus of rewards for most companies. Work environment, learning, salary competitiveness, internal wage parity (same role holders with similar experience levels get the same salary), and New Age perks like flextime, college debt and college grants, lifestyle perks, and skill development are the other key areas for companies, the survey found. “With labor costs becoming unsustainable, companies can no longer rely on monetary rewards to win the war for talent. Creating an inclusive work environment and promoting the holistic well-being of employees has emerged as a key necessity,” said Sethi.
The year 2023 will also see companies using culture to connect employees to the purpose of the organization. “Management accessibility and staff experience will play a key role on this journey,” Gandhi said.
