International Talentor Future Lab 2022 – Key Trends and Challenges in HR

Disruptive times bring about many new challenges, for leaders and their teams. To get future-ready, HR leaders need to know the key trends and challenges – in the economic and social system, in their organizations and in the personal sphere of the employees. We have, therefore, invited HR executives from leading international companies to join the International Talentor Future Lab 2022 and analyze key trends, challenges and suitable actions in HR.

The Talentor Future Lab is an interactive, software-based workshop for co-creative strategy development. The process is fast, unconventional and produces robust results. Initiated in 2019 by Talentor Austria, the Future Lab is based on scientific insights from network theory, behavioral sciences and operations research. Led by FASresearch Institute, international HR experts analyzed the following questions in the Talentor Future Lab 2022:

1. Elephant in the room: The trend Personal and Organizational Resilience is the so-called “elephant in the room”. Participants know that this trend is
   heavily affecting their companies. At the same time, they consider them to be insufficiently prepared.
2. Don’t worry, be happy? Companies are also strongly affected by developing a Company Culture for a diverse workforce, Hybrid Working and the need for Digital Talents. However, according to the participants’ assessments, the companies are fairly well prepared.
3. HR in the Covid19 aftermath: Companies are still more likely to be affected by the challenge Hybrid Leadership because they tend to be less prepared to create employee loyalty in the virtual/hybrid world.
4. Blind spots? The organizations are moderately affected by these trends, but rather poorly prepared. Please note that one of the key functions of HR management is also concerned: Virtual Onboarding & Retention Management.

In the second step, the international HR experts of the Talentor Future Lab addressed the most pressing challenge: the notorious "elephant in the room". The focus was on the question: What measures should be taken to strengthen resilience on the organizational, team and individual level?

1. Quick win: Introducing programs for Coaching and Mentoring Employees has a very high impact on improving personal & organizational resilience. In addition, this action is not too complex to implement, and participants are more likely to respond with motivation to engage in its execution.
2. Go agile! Though more complex to implement, transforming the traditional ways the company works to a more agile format – e.g. by encouraging employee autonomy – also has a strong effect. In addition, this action profits from the highest motivation to engage.
3. Effective & easy, but no fun: These actions that often involve the top management level – Communication, Lesson Learned – have an average impact and a low complexity. However, the motivation to engage in the implementation is also rather low.
4. Underestimated? Communication on Employee Assistance Programs shows the lowest impact because employees rarely make use of these programs, since it might be seen as a sign of weakness. However, this action could turn into a quick win for those who manage to motivate their workforce, because it is not too complex.

Many thanks for the interesting discussion in the Talentor Future Lab 2022 to the international HR experts and our Talentor partners from China, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.