Companies, big and small, constantly try to improve their policies and practices to keep their employees happy and motivated. With increased entrepreneurship, the small business industry is experiencing significant growth and development, resulting in multiple small business HR trends.
In 2023, the following five HR trends are expected to dominate the small business industry:
Flexibility
Small businesses are providing greater flexibility to their employees. This includes both remote work and flexible schedules.
While it benefits small business employees, it also helps small businesses save significantly on bills and resources. Candidates joining small businesses understand their limited resources and utilize their knowledge to negotiate better work hours. In turn, small businesses enjoy higher productivity without compromising their profits.
Outsourcing
Small businesses do not require full-time employees for several operations. The HR trends of remote work and flexible hours have allowed small businesses to replace temp employees with outsourced resources. Outsourcing work through online platforms like Freelancer, Upwork, etc., has also made it a much cheaper and more efficient option.
Promoting Employees from Within
An excellent way through which small businesses reward their initial employees is by promoting them alongside the business growth. Every member of the small business industry has gone through the challenge of finding candidates willing to join them. Thus, rewarding the candidates who joined, stuck with, and contributed to a small business are being repaid through one of the best HR trends. But this trend doesn’t just benefit the employees; it also results in cost-efficient recruitment and increased loyalty for the business.
Pay Transparency
While outsourcing and promoting from within resolve several recruitment problems small businesses face, transparency helps them find a larger pool of candidates. Pay transparency emerged as one of the important HR trends due to increased economic instability and distrust of the workforce toward business owners. With small business industries new to the picture, pay transparency has become their gateway to earning employee trust.
Enhanced Communication
Economic instability resulting in inflation, recession, and unemployment has resulted in significant employee doubts and concerns. Job uncertainty has resulted in employees’ motivation and productivity diminishing. Since small businesses have a greater chance of getting impacted by the recession, small business employees are also looking to jump ship before they drown with it.
The small business industry is combatting this problem through enhanced communication. Keeping employees aware of business stability has become one of the most important aspects of running a small business. In the long run, this trend is expected to prove significantly beneficial for small businesses as it opens doors for honest communication between employers and employees on navigating the economic collapse to ensure business stability, if not growth.
While small businesses pursue these HR trends more eagerly, keeping up with any policy and practice that instills trust, motivation, and satisfaction among employees has become vital for all businesses.
