Naiman Labs Newsletter #2. Plans and trends

Hi friends!

This has been the 1st full work week of 2023 and for me it has been all about planning.

I was making action plans with my team at work. I planned all the important events and initiatives we need to launch. I also spent a lot of time planning my personal year and life - setting goals for me and my family, we discussed a lot what we are going to achieve in 2023.

I have never been a “planner” before. I used to think that planning was too difficult and unpredictable.

Though recently I’ve realized that it is essential for success. And a famous catchy phrase “failing to plan is planning to fail” actually makes a lot of sense. Your plan is your flashlight that allows you to see your path.

Recent years have shown us that we can plan only so much, because there are tons of unpredictable and uncontrollable events. So we always need to plan our activities wisely and and be flexible enough to adjust our plans accordingly.

💡 Topic of the week

When I was planning HR initiatives at work I paid a lot of attention of our current needs and issues we need to solve of course. But of course we always try to anticipate some events and anticipate what will be important for our team in the future. That’s why I also always observe the main HR trends. I observe HR trends every year and honestly there’s not much new in there. Key areas and issue almost always remain the same.

Consulting companies and researchers have identified the following HR topics as key areas of focus for 2023:

Leadership skills and managers' effectiveness.

What I observe is that strong leadership skills are so often overlooked, but they are essentially important not only for people, but for the company. According to Gartner and Deloitte every 4th company says that their leadership programs are not relevant for 2023 and not helping leaders to be effective leaders.

Managing the organizational changes.

We live in changing times and there have been many significant shifts in work environment. The main focus in here is on managing these changes carefully, because even people simply get tired of changes and anxiety. You can find more details in the Gartner research below.

Employee experience enhancement.

Companies are becoming more and more human-centric and they have started treat their employees as their clients and customers.

Better hiring.

Not in terms of hiring more or for higher salaries as many TikTok “experts” claim. But hiring better. Recruitment processes to become more data-based, more efficient and I like the term that Gartner uses: "enhancement of recruitment intelligence". And of course better hiring is strongly connected with employee experience, so companies plan to focus on their on-boarding processes.

📝 People management article of the week

This week I am sharing a very nice research on HR trends 2023 conducted by Gartner. They surveyed more than 800 HR leaders to identify their priorities and challenges for 2023.

​Top_5_Priorities_for_HR_Leaders_in_2023_1672638465.pdf​

👩‍💻 Your career tip of the week

I always tell it to the managers I work with. Whenever you give a critical feedback to your team members always remember: you should criticise the work, not the person. It is essentially important.

The same tip works for team members. Whenever you get a feedback, please remember and that this feedback is not about you. It is about your work. So you can find something to improve. Do not take it personally.

⚙️ Productivity tip of the week

Probably the most famous productivity tip is having a "quick capture space". It comes from David Allen's GTD system as well as with Tiago Forte's famous "write it down" quote (his nice video about note-taking is here)

The tip is simple: always have an “Inbox” note and keep it as close as possible, so I can open it with the minimal effort. I use it to write down all my thoughts, ideas and tasks I have.

You can have it as a Notes widget on your phone, or as a quick capture to-do list, or as a favorite Notion page, or as a simple notebook on your workdesk. I personally prefer just a simple Apple Notes single note widget.

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I wish you all a great week ahead!Vlad from Naiman Labs