While many reports mention a heightened distrust of organizations, it’s also obvious that people expect organizations to fully embrace corporate citizenship and be active on issues related to politics, culture and social debate. At the same time increased flexibility of remote work is also likely to increase turnover rates. Unless a strong purpose and company-wide decision making glues everything and everyone together, organizations will become even more fragile. 

Here are the top trends in this category:

• The chief purpose officer will be the next major C-level role. 
• Employees seek companies whose values match their own.
• Employees want to be involved in the conversations and decisions that affect workflow and direction. People analytics will come in handy to serve this need. There will be a notable shift from a handful of leaders making decisions to thousands of people managers sending feedback to centralized hubs.
• Organizations will have an increased focus on Employee Experience (which is now elevated to Customer Experience levels). 

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The days of managers whose existence was justified by the reports and spreadsheets they submitted each month are long gone. With increased automation, leadership is more about coaching, mentoring, and enabling people to grow. Here are the top trends in this category:

• Managerial tasks will be automated, creating space for managers to build more human relationships with their employees. According to HBR “the next generation of technology will start to replace additional managerial tasks, such as providing performance feedback and supporting employees in building n-ew peer-to-peer connections. With this growth in automation, companies will be faced with a choice: decrease the number of managers or change the expectations of what it means to be a manager.”
• The way leaders conduct meetings will change. With the rise of asynchronous communication employers could start working with video recordings containing detailed explanations of the work that needs to be done. Meetings conducted live via an online medium will require better facilitation and communication skills.
• Coaching will be among the leadership PowerSkills of 2022. As technology fully automates predictable work processes, leaders will need to channel  their energy towards team development and people growth which are best facilitated through coaching.

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Employers will focus on the physical, mental and psychological well being of their employees in order to enhance engagement, creativity and productivity. Organizations will embrace micro-learning as a key L&D tool to encourage learning in a noisy world.

Here are the top trends in this category: 

• Employers will focus on building psychological safety and mindfulness in the workplace. Leaders will initiate programs and activities to enhance collaboration and transparency. 
• Wellness will become the newest metric that companies use to understand their employees.
• Micro-learning will ensure upskilling and reskilling in the workplace. Bite-sized learning content, platforms and programs will address current challenges such as lack of time, resistance to change, and lack of motivation to take on additional responsibilities.
• Time in person will be more valuable.  The office is no longer the place to perform work-related tasks. It’s becoming the focal point for building and nurturing culture - a place to gather for big project kick-offs, team bonding activities, gift exchange etc. To make the most of time spent at the office, employees will need to prepare differently for meetings and to develop new skills for teamwork and collaboration. 

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