In the year 2022, businesses will face a more complex and competitive environment than ever before. As a result, in today’s business world, the skillsets demanded of a leader are changing. To properly educate current and future leaders, learning programs in organizations will need to address the following growing management and leadership trends for 2022 and the years ahead.

The resignation number will get worse

Companies have been dealing with a diminishing talent pool for some time, but the global pandemic has exacerbated it. In fact, according to a recent Korn Ferry survey report, 55 percent of professionals believe employee turnover will keep increasing in 2022, and 31 percent have said they would leave their job if they weren’t offered an attractive new position at their company. To address this leadership trend and issue, companies are raising initial salaries, providing more long-term incentives and benefits, and offering sign-on bonuses, even to less-senior employees.

Career nomads are on the rise

The pandemic has also caused a change in the way we work, with people now having to work from anywhere at any time. As surveyed by Korn Ferry, 32 percent of professionals fear they will not be able to return to work full-time. Similarly, 36 percent of professionals say they expect to shift jobs in the foreseeable future in terms of the pandemic causing them to rethink their goals and the changes they need.

Increased need for gender equality

Women leaders are effective at bringing companies success. To be effective, a leadership development program must take advantage of an important but rarely tapped source of talent – women leaders. Gender equality is important for workplaces both because it is fair and because it is good business practice. It helps countries perform better economically and grow faster. Gender equality at work has been linked to:

Several businesses are actively working to achieve not only equality but also comprehensive diversity among their workforce, a leadership trend largely driven by generation Z and millennials.

Better employer-employee connections are becoming more important

In 2022, leaders must actively create opportunities for greater connections within their companies, or employees will become increasingly isolated. Companies must establish a culture of listening, understanding, and inspiring for employees to feel more connected.

Given how the pandemic has prompted a shift from hour-long in-person meetings to half-hour Zoom sessions, this is especially relevant.

Increased need for employee retention

Another vital leadership trend for 2022 is an increased need for employee retention. As a result of an increase in employee turnover due to the rise in job vacancies, companies need to be focusing on their internal mobility, reskilling, and upskilling current staff members to avoid losing valuable employees.

Some companies are focusing on developing career advancement opportunities for employees by offering additional training, development, coaching, and mentoring programs, while others are investing in new technology to improve employee skills.

Taking a hybrid approach to management and leadership development

A blend of traditional approaches to leadership and management training and development with new technologies and methods will be needed for leaders today. A blended approach to leadership development enables leaders to split their training programs into smaller chunks of 1–1 coaching, with some portable content such as online webinars, and on-the-go tutorials that leaders can easily integrate into their days without disrupting them too much. Blended learning allows for greater flexibility than traditional classroom settings because it doesn’t require learners to be physically present at one location.