What's keeping you up at night right now?

Hi, I think the main thing that concerns me at the moment is the work readiness and resilience/mental health  of young people entering the workplace.  

Many of the young people wanting to start work now are those who had their early secondary education hugely affected by lockdown and the pandemic and whilst the media will say that the number of young people out of work is because there aren't any jobs, it is much more complex than that (at the risk of sounding very old, unemployment was over double the current rate when I left school).

There seems to be much higher levels of anxiety with this group and I can understand why as they missed out on the time when they would start to learn how to navigate the complexities of interpersonal relationships. On top of this, parents often seem reluctant to try to support their children to act independently. I don't have children that age so don't know why this may be but there are far more parents approaching employers and posting on social media trying to find work for their children, rather than encouraging them to do that themselves.

The second concern is really that businesses still don't really understand the role of HR. This does cause stress as the employer often think that we are there to sort out people problems for them, rather than providing advice and guidance to the manager.to be able to manage those situation. This leads to frustration on the part of the manager and HR being made to feel as though they are letting people down. This does come across strongly in the posts made on this forum. Often there will be a very complex and challenging situation and the person who has been left to hold that particular 'baby' is the HR Professional

I'd echo those concerns. I think the talent pipeline and equipping people for the world of the work is a consistent one that evolves over time in response to the challenges faced and differences we see appearing. 

I'd also echo the need for HR to be clear what we do, what we don't, how we work and that we are often the facilitator, coach, enabler, advisor and people experts in the business that doesn't mean we do all the management for managers and leaders. That's been a consistent challenge to get across through my whole career and I don't see it changing. How we manage that on-going challenge in an increasingly dispersed, diverse, asynchronous, tech enabled workplace is going to stretch us. 

I'd echo those concerns. I think the talent pipeline and equipping people for the world of the work is a consistent one that evolves over time in response to the challenges faced and differences we see appearing. 

I'd also echo the need for HR to be clear what we do, what we don't, how we work and that we are often the facilitator, coach, enabler, advisor and people experts in the business that doesn't mean we do all the management for managers and leaders. That's been a consistent challenge to get across through my whole career and I don't see it changing. How we manage that on-going challenge in an increasingly dispersed, diverse, asynchronous, tech enabled workplace is going to stretch us.