In 2019, I closed the year in a Fast Company column with a look ahead for the field of HR, resulting in the first of what’s now become an annual series exploring how the world of work would change in 2020, 2021, and 2022.

As I think about what’s ahead for 2023, I want to take a moment to reflect on what we’ve experienced since this series launched.

The past three years have been some of the most consequential and disruptive we’ve seen. It’s so much more than the pandemic. Remote work, social justice progress (and backlash), war, geopolitical conflict, booming hiring markets, inflation, layoffs, reproductive freedom, “the great [insert preferred euphemism],” and so much more.

We entered 2022 in a white-hot HR job market we haven’t seen in years. Compensation packages ballooned as companies competed fiercely for talent across the spectrum, from chief people officers to recruiters and sourcers. LinkedIn feeds were flooded with new job announcements. After navigating the turmoil of the past several years, the field of HR had finally been elevated to a place of key strategic importance to the C-suite and the business.

By Q2, cracks began appearing, as economic uncertainty loomed and companies began tightening their fiscal plans and budgets.

In the tech sector, where the free flow of venture capital over the past several years fueled (over-) hiring bonanzas, companies began cutting headcount — starting a ripple that grew to almost 150,000 tech layoffs across more than 900 companies, according to Layoffs.fyi.

The flood of LinkedIn job announcement posts was replaced by layoff lists as more companies conducted RIFs.

By Q4, change and volatility were the only constants we could safely rely upon. Burnout became commonplace as we carried the collective weight of these experiences.

Despite the dire warnings of a recession and the layoffs across tech, the broader economic red lights are not flashing . . . yet. Recent jobs reports numbers in the U.S. showed payroll grew 263,000 in November, beating expectations and seeing notable increases in industries including healthcare, professional and technical services, and leisure and hospitality.

Hiring still fell 4.9% from October, and was down 20.5% from a year earlier, according to the LinkedIn Workforce Report.

As we enter into another year of building this new world of work, the field of HR and people operations carries hard-earned lessons from the past several years that will shape our path forward.

These are some of the ways the world of HR will look different in 2023:

1. Prioritizing self-development

There are two critical determinants of success in the new world of work: learning agility and network equity. Your ability to prioritize both are essential.

Learning agility is critical, as volatility will continue to define the new world of work. Our ability to quickly distill, learn, synthesize, and implement new ideas will shape our success as a function. This means we have to embed learning into our weekly workflows. Being “too busy” with the demands of our jobs won’t cut it. We need to be selfish — for our own growth and our ability to add value to our business.

Network equity is also important, as your success in HR today is more than the knowledge and experience you directly possess; it’s the knowledge and experience you have access to. Your community has never been more important. Proactively building a robust network of experiences and abilities outside of your own will help you navigate the range of situations and experiences you’ll face in 2023.

The layoffs of the past year have shown that no job is forever. We have to begin thinking of our career like entrepreneurs ensuring we’re investing in ourselves — not just our employers.

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Source: Talent Blog, 20 janvier 2023, by Lars Schmidt