We’ve reached the time of year when many business leaders begin to look to the year ahead and consider how their organisations might need to change to meet the challenges that lie ahead.

This is probably especially true in the current climate of rising costs, disrupted supply chains, uncertain financial markets and the continuing political fluctuations around Brexit and our wider trade agreements.

A new year feels like a fresh chapter, and whether it’s in January or the start of the new fiscal year in April, it’s likely that you’re considering making changes to the way your business operates in the future.

As we count down the weeks until Christmas and the New Year, many businesses and their HR teams will be turning their attention to what lies ahead in 2023 in terms of strategic objectives and how to achieve them.

The only certainty in the new year is uncertainty. Whatever comes of the cost-of-living crisis and the economic impact of businesses, the year ahead will be one full of challenges, problem-solving and difficult decisions.

The deepening energy crisis has already led to widespread alarm – from the global economic markets to personal finance, an energy sector showing little sign of reduced volatility represents a growing cause for concern.

But there’s another dimension to the stranglehold that Russia’s war in Ukraine has placed on Western gas supplies – the unwelcome prospect of energy rationing through planned rolling power outages through the winter.

The employment market is sailing through unsettling and uncertain times – possibly the most volatile times we’ve seen in nearly 15 years.

Rewind a year and it would have been hard to imagine a more seismic shift in what a ‘normal’ employee market might look like than the one that happened during the near two-year pandemic lockdown.

Diversity and inclusion in the workplace have been a big agenda item for most businesses for a good many years now, but increasingly D&I – or I&D, for the many who believe diversity can only be achieved in organisations that are already inclusive – is being replaced by DE&I.