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HR Content Marketing: Key Trends to Keep Up in a Shifting Landscape

Published on Oct 18, 2023

HR Content Marketing: Key Trends to Keep Up in a Shifting Landscape
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studioID Industry Dive

Between hiring freezes, layoffs, and restructuring, HR departments are already dealing with major fallout before a recession has even officially arrived. Refine your content marketing strategy with a look at the most critical trends dominating the HR industry based on first-party engagement data from over 132,400 HR Dive readers.

Read on for the latest trends and themes affecting HR content marketing like economic uncertainty, disgruntled employees, and a shifting landscape.

3 Key Trends Across HR in 2023

Action Amid Economic Uncertainty

Although we haven’t even officially hit a recession yet, economic uncertainty is already wreaking havoc on HR departments across a majority of sectors. As companies scramble to get ahead and protect bottom lines, many have implemented hiring freezes, while others are jumping straight to layoffs and major restructuring actions. Inflation and labor shortages also top the list of HR leaders’ economic-influenced woes in 2023.

HR leaders are being forced to make difficult decisions and deal with the fallout, with many worrying for their department’s own job security as hiring slows. All of this action in the wake of economic uncertainty is highlighting a growing trend where the scope of the modern HR leader is widening. Today’s HR execs are being called upon to work more closely cross functionally, particularly with financial arms of the business to analyze data and find inventive ways to reduce costs and improve efficiencies.

⛈️ Related Reading: How Licensed Content Can Help Your Brand (And Your Audience) Weather Economic Uncertainty

A Frustrated + Disengaged Workforce

Despite economic concerns having seemingly reduced the previous years’ trends of ‘the Great Resignation’ and ‘quiet quitting,’ employee engagement continues to decline across the board. Burn out in the pandemic era roiled employee dissatisfaction, sparking backlash against corporations. This movement continues to pick up steam in 2023, with waves of anti-corporate content further stirring the pot on social platforms like TikTok and Reddit. Coupled with many companies forcing a return to office against employee wishes, HR leaders are facing an uphill battle.

But HR leaders are listening, and getting inventive in response. Between expanded mental health offerings, shifts to unlimited PTO policies, flexible hybrid work arrangements, and even experimentation with 4-day work weeks, HR leaders are making thoughtful moves to combat this alarming trend.

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Navigating a Changing Landscape

Between pay transparency laws going into effect in several states, strengthened FMLA laws, the recently passed Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and new overtime thresholds, HR leaders have a lot to keep up with in terms of new policy and compliance. And in the realm of DE&I, many companies are proudly revealing their latest reports that boast increases in hires of women and people of color. Yet other reports find that DE&I efforts are largely falling by the wayside in corporate America — causing many to question the sincerity and hope of future DE&I now that some of the pandemic-induced furor has cooled.

On the tech side, artificial intelligence has officially arrived. Many HR leaders are already experimenting with generative AI like ChatGPT and automation-focused forms. While many are thrilled about the potential AI holds to bring new speed and efficiency to the sourcing, interviewing, hiring, and management process — others fear for job security and a future where people management becomes people-less.