New research identifies 2023 trends for enhancing the employee experience

Research from the Blanchard Institute has identified 2023 trends to strengthen the employee experience with leadership development seen as a key driver for enhancing workplace engagement. 

Blanchard’s 2023 HR and L&D Trends Report Enhancing the employee experience in a hybrid world surveyed over 700 global participants, including leadership, learning and talent development professionals. The research looked at businesses of all sizes across a swathe of industries, and it identified a number of challenges for HR professionals, with the top four being:

• Having enough capacity and resources to meet the needs of workforce development
• Reducing turnover and attrition
• Improving engagement and experience
• Developing culture despite shifts to hybrid work arrangements

These issues are currently experienced by many, if not most, within the aged care sector. Therefore, Hello Leaders decided to dig deeper into the report to see how global trends may shed light on solutions for aged care leaders. 

Capacity and resource constraints

For the most part, both leaders and employees want to engage in professional development and growth, but there are obstacles across the professional world limiting opportunities. These common concerns include a lack of perceived senior level buy-in, affordability and time constraints. 

Regarding time, many respondents said they’re interested in building new skills but existing responsibilities are already pushing them to the brink of burnout. Being time-poor means they are also skill-poor as there’s often no room to commit any more personal time to development. 

In addition, the survey found employees want to see additional buy-in from leaders where workplace development is concerned. The belief is if they’re being asked to upskill and grow, leaders should also be focused on their own professional development. Otherwise, there’s a disconnect between employees who perceive their leaders to be uninvested.

Workforce challenges

A limited budget for attracting and retaining workers can be found throughout the professional world, not just in aged care. HR professionals surveyed by Blanchard also identified the difficult balancing act of attracting high-quality talent without inflating wages beyond a point financial burden. Other key concerns include:

• A sense of disconnection between the employee and their workplace
• Not enough shared values
• Limited opportunities to grow and develop
• Poor leadership
• A lack of managerial interest in team health and well-being
• Challenges in helping staff return to the office after working from home

With ongoing retention issues, 75% of employers still believe murky waters lay ahead with no shortcuts around hiring challenges. Whether it’s finding people with the right skills or actually convincing top candidates to sign a contract, most are doubtful they can address existing skill gaps quickly.

Amongst the negatives, most employers do recognise they have to build trust between managers and employees as a way to overcome retention woes. The results do speak for themselves as respondents often highlighted the connection between quality leadership, high retention levels and positive employee experiences. 

Learning and development aspirations

Several new trends have emerged as employers acknowledged their desire to increase capacity to meet the needs of workforce development. Among these is a focus on longer-term learning rather than ad-hoc courses here and there.

• 71% of respondents believe learning journeys over the course of six or more weeks are best
• 60% want to incorporate learning and development opportunities into everyday tasks for employees
• Leadership development is a top priority with some employers looking to increase budget allocations by up to 30%

Interestingly, there is an even divide between how employers want to offer training courses to their staff; 32% in-person, 38% virtual instructor-led and 31% self-paced. This combination provides alternative ways to engage with staff, catering to a variety of needs, while ensuring the repetitive nature of pure, self-paced online learning is avoided. 

Where to from here?

Employers have identified several focus areas to improve employee engagement, retention and learning:

• Increased trust between employees and managers
• A more balanced workload to reduce burnout
• Greater connections between work and purpose
• Clear performance expectations
• More teamwork and collaboration
• Content creation targeted at teaching relevant skills to staff
• Enhanced leadership development

Although there is no uniform approach to addressing the above focus areas, employers who understand areas of concern can provide better conditions for their employees. If you recognise where improvement can be made, you can enhance engagement and strengthen your ability to retain key staff at all levels.