Ever since the evolution of man, machine, money and many others have been known, there’s been only one constant factor that is ‘change’. If organizations think that their procedures, expectations, policies, technologies and manpower trends are up-to-date, then it is probably time for some rework and updates.
Digital transformation including increased automation, AI, Robotics, Cloud and mobile is a reality around the world and promises a higher productivity, efficiency, safety and convenience to businesses. Use of technology and digitization have already incepted a major trend setting across the global workplace, which will be more visible and prominent by 2020.
The technological advances around our lives have been immense but the workplace have not been able to catch up at the same pace. Working in big offices, cubicles, computers, desks, following a formal reporting system, formal dressing and waking up in the mornings are conventional trends which are likely to cease soon. The global workplace will be more virtual, decentralized, extremely flexible and mobile. With growing dynamism in the workforce demographics, the work environment has become more wavering.
Based on the most popular researches and studies, following are some of the new emerging trends which will be influencing workplaces and are likely to impact every business. Employers may consider these trends as critical to growth and existence in global future workplace:
- Remote and flexible working (virtual working): Remote working grants freedom but noteworthy is that it may also drive the efficiency and increase employee productivity due to lesser distractions at work. Flexible working lowers the stress levels and is an important criterion for the young job seekers to choose an employer. The concept of working from anywhere is very enticing for rising number of digital nomads. Flexible working may greatly support a domestic cause like marriage or motherhood in case of women employees.
- 2. Security and compliance: Cyber security attacks and data breaches have dreaded many companies. Large companies already have the security systems in place where as smaller employers need to focus on this area. According to Forbes data, 38% of the remote workers hired by SMEs do not have technological support or expertise while operating from home or public space. 72% of the breaches actually occur in companies with under 100 employees.
- 3. Trust building: In an E&Y survey, less than half of the global professionals trust their employer, boss or colleagues. Issues for remote workers include unfair treatment on pay and promotions and lack of leadership. So, transparency should be the new upcoming trend.
- 4. Gig workers: With the smartphone technologies booming, there’s been a significant change in the lifestyle of people including how they make, manage and spend money. Gig workers are just new entrepreneurs who can package their skills and tasks well and sell it directly to the consumers with the help of technology. Almost all the big corporations have been utilizing gig workers for their non-core tasks. There are growing number of platforms where these gig workers connect and share their work with potential clients and other freelancers.
- 5. Hiving off jobs (Fragmentation): In a McKinsey Global Institute report on The Future of Work, which is called ‘Jobs lost, jobs gained : Workforce transitions in a time of automation’, one of the major findings is that between 75 million and 375 million people around the world may need to change occupational categories or acquire new skills by 2030. Evidently, the focus must shift on identifying the potential skillset which needs to be hired as specialized workers and the activities that can be automated.
- 6. The longevity dividend: Deloitte Insight – 2018 Global Human Capital Trends highlights that more than 80% of the US employers believe that the workers aged 50 and more are a valuable resource for training and mentoring. They are instrumental source of institutional knowledge and life skills. As the talent markets grow more competitive, organizations find it more valuable to keep older workers on the jobs rather than finding replacements. This talent pool has a competitive advantage. They represent a proven, committed and diverse set of workers.
All these ideas above have been greatly corroborated by the startups. In their diverse organizational culture, startups are observed promoting great freedom to employees, paying for results, rewarding higher productivity, bring your own device to work (BYOD) like phones and tablets, mobility and connecting to work via the ‘cloud’ – virtually every collaboration platform and mainline business process has a cloud based deployment option. Gig workers and freelancers are inseparable part of workforce.
Other than the mainstream trends, effective time management and collaboration remains pertinent to business growth. Also, retraining and upskilling of the workforce shifts to the priority bucket for the organizations with larger part being remote workers. Leveraging technology to benefit is the key and a myriad of apps and tools are awaiting the choice of organization’s suitability.
In an excerpt from an editorial by Kirk Koenigsbauer, Microsoft 365:
“As companies continue to harness the power of technology to automate, simplify, and integrate many aspects of work, there are a few essential questions each one will need to answer. How can we enable a modern workplace that is productive, responsive, creative, and secure? How do we empower individuals and teams to create and deliver value for the business? Where do we start on the journey to transform our workplace?”
Clearly, there are the dilemmas and ambiguities which require focus and coherence for value-based performance. This poses an urge on the employers to balance these emerging trends and leverage them for productive outcomes and business growth, effectively reduce the capital costs and increase the returns, define the dependency on gig workers, decide the optimum level of hiring of specialized workers and automation, know the skills that your organization needs to invest upon and ensure that the workforce is skilled and up to date with the new technologies and digitization of the business.
It is time to look forward and embrace. Get tuned to the new trends and be part of the millennials. Have you started rating yourself with these trends yet?
