With the rise of sustainability awareness and the need for increasingly specialized talent, the gap between company offers and employee demands seems to be widening.
The new year has also brought up new challenges. With sustainability and the livelihood of our planet as primary concerns for the years to come, most areas of life and business have been subject to changes that need new answers and solutions.
Today we wanted to focus on the challenges presented in companies’ Human Resources departments, as sustainability awareness, the aftermath of the pandemic and the uncertainty of the future seem to have broken into this area quite abruptly.
The HR offer and demand gap
Perhaps one of the primary concerns and challenges facing HR departments today is that of the gap between what companies have to offer and what they ‘need’ to demand from employees.
One one hand, companies are finding the need to hire specialized talent that will help them succeed and navigate current emerging challenges. However, there seems to be a lack of talent, or at least not under the conditions and purpose advertised by the latter.
On the other hand, employees and people within the job market have increasingly demanding expectations from their workplaces. Not only in terms of flexibility or salary, for example, but also in terms of the values and purpose that hold the company together.
Sustainability, social impact and diversity are among people’s concerns, but how does this translate to HR departments’ strategies?
4 main challenges for HR
According to a recent study published by Forética on 2023 ESG trends, there are four distinct challenges affecting HR and companies’ internal social impact today.
The latter have emerged in recent years as a consequence of high rotation and abandonment rates, the impact of globalization in the talent market and the need for new abilities and skills among other things.
1. Purpose and values
2. Finding the right talent
The rise of purpose and company values as primary elements of HR strategies continue to make their way through talent markets, specially among younger generations. But there seems to be a gap between priorities and expectations for those taking the traditional route in HR strategies, which in turn translates to poorer employee engagement.
On a different note, companies find it increasingly difficult to find people and talent with the right skills for the positions they need to fulfill. This can be explained by two conflicting elements, on one hand, we need to consider how fast some businesses, sectors or industries need to evolve and adapt; on the other hand, certain professional profiles are rather scarce.
3. The aftermath of the pandemic
Although at times it seems as though the COVID-19 pandemic happen so long ago, the consequences, or the lessons learned afterwards, are still very present for a lot of people. The problema lies in the fact that technological tools and methodologies for remote working and flexibility have not been followed with the necessary cultural adaptation of business leaders and teams.
4. Diversity
Diversity needs to be understood as a great added value, for productivity, inclusivity and an overall more open workplace environment. However, given the globalized nature of the world, diversity has come into many companies without the necessary mechanisms in place. This is, diversity needs to be accompanied by an ecosystem that facilitates connection and learning among different people.
Building a culture of sustainability
In DoGood we are convinced of the need to understand and manage efforts to achieve a sustainable transition inside an organization for the correct and efficient functioning of the business and the community it operates in.
We alone cannot achieve the substantial changes necessary, but we work on the basis of collaboration, transparency and accuracy.
Working collectively can help us find that which alone may seem unattainable, making the workplace is the perfect environment to find that collective eagerness to make a difference, both for the sustainability and purpose of the company and a more sustainable way of being for all employees.
Through our technology we help companies establish ESG impact objectives for employees in regards to the sustainability strategy of the company.
We are able to activate and track employees’ impact, creating engagement that translates into improved ESG metrics, reputational value and an overall positive impact for the environment and society.
