The global post-COVID landscape has utterly changed many businesses. From the new normal to conversations around prioritising employee’s mental health, providing relevant perks, the great resignation, enhanced technology tools for staff and customers, and many more, the modern workplace — now more innovative and evolving — will never remain the same!
Suffice to say that 2022 will see a lot of these supposedly temporary adaptations becoming part of the norm. Could this be good news? Yes, I think.
Here are some workplace trends in 2022 and what they might mean for you:
1. Hybrid & Remote-work-first model
2021 did not only prove that employees could be trusted to work remotely, it showed that majority of workers might want to hold on to that model. Just as the number of remote-first companies have multiplied, even more are opting for a hybrid work system.
This implies that hybrid and remote work are here to stay, but the question now is: “How many days should employees work from the office or at home? Dynamic businesses and human resource managers are open to negotiate with their staff on how to work, instead of imposing a straight jacket option for all.
2. Workers having more than one job
Remote work has helped employees save work travel time, which in turn became an opportunity to get extra jobs either owned by the employee or another company. This has inherently widened the talent marketplace as individuals can work beyond their borders, and in different time zones.
As they multitask and split their time appropriately between employers, individuals have a duty to ensure that having more than one job doesn’t have an impact on their ability to perform well in each role.
3. The Great Resignation
One of the post-COVID effects is that employees had time to review their growth process and decide if they want to switch career or continue in their chosen path. This led to the ‘Great Resignation’ and increased competition in the marketplace.
The Great Resignation is empowering workers as more people switch careers and make bold career decisions. The result is that employers now offer better working conditions and incentives to maintain and keep performing staff. The rise of the four-day work week in some companies is proof of this.
4. Improved employee welfare management
Office perks, unlike before, are no longer essentially linked to the buildings in which work is done. So, if you are aiming for happier employees in 2022, there needs to be a mindset shift when it comes to benefits. This could be in terms of flexible work hours or days, competitive salaries, recognition of highly performing staff, contribution to household bills especially when a company cuts down on office work days, wellbeing and mental health benefits or support at work!
5. Skills over roles
There is a big change in how work is assessed as more business managers are now concerned with what potential staff can do, not just what they have done. Skills are germane to drive organisation’s competitive edge and the workflow that makes that happen.
Employees therefore need to develop critical skills that potentially open up multiple opportunities for their career advancement, rather than preparing for a specific type of role they desire.
If you’re preparing for a major career change, you should carry out some research to find out which skills are most important to your future career.
6. Technology growth in the workplace
There is also an increasing technology adoption by businesses and for their customers. For instance, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data analytics are creating more jobs and helping businesses scale up comfortably and efficiently. These jobs include web development, UI/UX design, UX writing for chatbots, and more.
The insights above are some of the major features of the modern workplace emerging.
What is your business doing differently to key into these changes? How are you as an individual leveraging these changes for your career advancement? Are there more workplace disruptions to look forward to?
Kindly share your thoughts in the comment section.