If your work week has been anything like ours at TMS, your head and your inbox may be overflowing with information about 2023 business predictions. For the TMS L&D team, it has raised the question “how can we use this information to best serve our Accredited Practitioners?”
Read on for a couple of ideas that we think are relevant right now and may help your clients navigate the dynamics of 2023. 
With an economic downturn looming, companies may be tempted to scale back on People initiatives. However, the importance of investing in People is more critical than ever. “In 2023, your workplace culture priorities will determine whether your company thrives or falls behind,” says Ted Kitterman from Great Places to Work.
This is the wrong time to pull back on worker experience. Market research indicates that companies that prioritize the experience of their workers in a recession not only thrive in the short-term, but also see sustained value growth in the years following a crisis.
Great Places to Work propose 3 strategies pitched to mitigate the risk of losing top talent this year:
- Invest in employee wellbeing
- Maintain flexible work options
- Build a culture of trust
Wellbeing
Now is the time to demonstrate care for workers. Communicating in a way that ensures they feel respected and valued goes a long way to supporting a sense of well-being and engagement. Effective Pacing is one of the most powerful tools to maintain effective communication at work.
Flexibility
Work flexibility is here to stay. Hybrid and remote work became mainstream during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many large companies are asking workers to return to site. There are benefits to this, but instead of a blanket mandate encourage leaders to ask:
- How can managers bridge virtual and in-person experiences and maintain a sense of connection and belonging?
- What is the currency that adds value to attract employees back to the physical world?
- Do I truly understand the needs of employees that make hybrid work so attractive?
- How will I manage the trade-offs between employee desires and business goals?
- What didn’t work in the old physical world that was normalized?
Understanding team and individual work preferences will put some science behind optimising workplace flexibility arrangements.
Trust
2023 has already brought layoffs, and there is a prediction of more on the way. In times of pressure, it's human nature to resort to the “tried and true”: lean teams, on-site work, core business focus etc. While cutbacks may be necessary, reactive strategies could be damaging. Ensuring policy change doesn’t marginalise specific work groups is crucial to mitigate a loss in trust workers will experience if they perceive diversity and inclusion is no longer a priority. Ensuring leaders make decisions that balance Analysis and Beliefs will be important for policy change particularly when it involves people.
Investing and developing People will be a critical success factor for business in 2023. TMS is gearing up for a big year. We are revising resources, building new content, and developing our systems so that we can best support our Accredited Practitioners to serve their clients and ignite human potential.
Contact us any time. We are here to help.