Featuring:
Katy Tynan, Vice President, Principal Analyst and Betsy Summers, Principal Analyst
Show Notes:
By all accounts we’re heading into unchartered waters in 2023. The long-term workforce trends that culminated in the “great resignation” have made good talent scarce. That means that as the economy continues to slow, organizations will need to prioritize retaining and engaging the talent that they already have. On this week’s podcast episode, Vice President, Principal Analyst Katy Tynan and Principal Analyst Betsy Summers break down the slow-economy, tight-talent-market paradox and discuss Forrester’s 2023 future-of-work predictions.
One way companies will look to fill talent gaps is by sourcing talent internally. Forrester predicts that in 2023, companies will step up their internal talent mobility efforts. New, AI-powered technologies will make redeploying existing talent easier, cheaper, and more effective, says Summers. “You’ll see more companies upskilling and reskilling their talent, building pipeline so they can move them around,” she says.
The analysts double down on another 2023 prediction: that recession-focused firms will pay a price for cutting investments in employee experience. If “you lay off 10% of your organization, and then you cut back on the coffee, and then you force everyone to come back into the office … those people are going to be less engaged, they’re going to do less work, and you will have effectively cut your staff by 20% or even 30% in terms of your actual productivity,” says Tynan. “Investing in employee experience … is the absolute best way to get the optimal productivity out of a constrained talent pool.”
The analysts also discuss predictions for the future of anywhere work and share valuable advice for companies navigating difficult workforce-related decisions. Success, they say, ultimately comes down to looking beyond the headlines and making decisions based on the context of your business, customers, and employees.
