Accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, the future trends of work are increasingly shifting to be a lot more humane and employee-centred to focus on flexibility of working time and space.
These new approaches touch upon every aspect of our work so, it is crucial to be well versed in what these trends are and what they have to offer in order to reap the benefits and quickly adapt to the changes that they bring.
Employee wellness
Employee wellness includes activities and programs that aim to improve employee health and well-being. Prioritising employee well-being is the main way an employer can help employees manage stress, build relationships, improve productivity, and reduce burnout.
An increasing number of employers are embracing the idea of work-site wellness programs to encourage employees to engage in healthy behaviours. Holistic wellness programs are becoming even more important to employees after COVID-19, when many people experienced some degree of hardships instigated by the pandemic.
There are plenty of easy, employee-friendly well-being options to expand your workplace wellness. The programmes could be divided into four broad categories: physical, mental, emotional and financial health. In an office environment, every category could be addressed through designated exercise spaces, meditation and counselling, coaching and personal advice sessions.
Flexible Working
'Flexible working' term is used to describe any working pattern adapted to suit employee needs including part time work and flexi-time. An increasing number of organisations now recognise that it makes good business sense to offer flexible working arrangements for their staff as these flexible working arrangements can benefit employers, employees and families alike.
One of the most popular arrangements, flexi-time means employees can begin their work earlier in the day or later than the originally set time. Flexible hours tend to vary depending on a job's requirements, how the business operates within its particular industry and the employee's particular preferences or needs.
Aside from the flexible hours, businesses in the UK and around the world are also starting to test a relatively novel concept – a four-day work week whereby the work week isn’t a compressed work schedule, but rather reduced hours. For example, the employee would work around 28 hours over four days and have a three-day weekend.
The ongoing trial aims to achieve several ambitious goals to redefine the corporate view on employee performance and improve employee wellbeing. Among projected benefits are improved employee happiness through achieving an optimum work-life balance. With more time to spend on themselves and their loved ones, employees are expected to be more rested and happier. This in turn should improve productivity and engagement with the business. A shorter workweek may reengage workers by pointing their focus to tasks, performance, and productivity, rather than clocking in hours.
Multi-functional workspace
The multi-space office offering different areas for different types of tasks, is becoming more and more popular in office design. Each zone has its own purpose in a multi-space office, and employees can choose the space that best suits the task at hand. A multi-space office offers a quicker access to a better-tailored workspace, which promotes worker productivity through smooth flow of information, collaboration and socialising.
To achieve this type of office design, many organisations are investing in office furniture and resources that allow them to serve several different functions. Modular furniture and moving partitions allow a versatile and easy to reassemble way to adapt the space to the current task according to the number of people present, and the style and or type of meeting at hand.
Soft seating elements are among the employees’ favourite options. Lightweight stools or bean bags provide good alternatives to regular, bulky office furniture which is difficult to move, and offers a relaxing and informal alternative.
From a technology perspective, mobile office furniture with embedded charging and Bluetooth stations allow employees to stay connected and collaborate effectively wherever they are, as well as help avoid a common frustration with low batteries.
Diversity and Inclusion
Promoting and delivering Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace is an essential aspect of good people management. Diversity and Inclusion is about creating working environments and cultures where every individual can feel safe, a sense of belonging and empowerment to achieve their full potential.
Some of the recent global events have shown that people are still being marginalised on the basis of race and culture. At these trying times, it is even more important for companies and industry leaders to rectify and bolster any institutional bias.
Openness to diversity widens access to the best talent, while inclusivity allows engagement with talent effectively. Together, this leads to enhanced innovation, creativity, productivity, reputation, engagement and business results.
Ongoing learning
In the context of professional development, ongoing learning in the workplace is about developing new skills and knowledge, while also reinforcing what has been previously learned.
Daily habits and practices are what form the foundation of ongoing learning. Activities that facilitate the process can include taking a formal course, observing more-experienced employees, asking for assistance with an unfamiliar topic, exploring new and alternative work methods, studying, casual conversation and practicing the use of a skill.
To stay competitive, organisations must continually adapt to ever-changing social and economic environments. As an exemplar future trend, ongoing learning exhibits a very employee-centred, humane approach to workforce development. As an organisation's success depends on its people, it is important for employee skill sets to evolve to meet the demands of the business climate. Ongoing learning practices in the workplace have shown the potential to increase employee engagement, job satisfaction and knowledge retention.
Less focus on roles, more focus on skills
The pandemic made many of us revaluate not just how and where we work but also why we work. Workers now better understand the need to articulate the skills they have and the skills they want, especially as we all seek work that is more rewarding.
Skills are critical because they address core business challenges, with the competencies needed in a workforce to overcome those challenges. Roles, on the other hand, describe the way individual members of a workforce relate to an overall organisational structure or hierarchy.
By focusing on skills, businesses address the fact that solving problems and answering their core business questions is the key to driving innovation and success within information-age enterprises.
From the worker’s point of view, focusing on developing their skills, rather than further developing their abilities to carry out their role, leaves them better positioned to capitalise on new career opportunities.
Employee monitoring and analytics
Employee monitoring and analytics is a method for watching employee activity and productivity levels throughout the workday. Usually, it is a set of software tools that gather and help make sense of data on employee output, based on various criteria such as time, deadline, number of employees involved, resources and more.
The method has gained attention very recently as an unprecedented proportion of the workforce has been forced to work remotely as the pandemic began, therefore prompting employers’ desire to have more visibility into remote employees’ activities during the workday.
Monitoring employees can erode trust, harm job satisfaction, and increase stress levels. However, for companies that decide that it’s worth the trade-offs, there are many benefits including leadership making thoughtful, informed decisions about their workforce productivity. Insights, not just data, enable managers to provide actionable direction and instruction to struggling and under-performing employees so that they can do and perform better at work. This practice potentially allows management to increase business productivity from a distance.
Emphasis on soft skills
Soft skills are non-technical skills that relate to how we work and include interpersonal skills, communication skills, listening skills, time management, problem-solving, leadership, and empathy.
Someone can be excellent with technical, job-specific skills, but if they can't manage their time or work within a team, they may not be successful in the workplace. Soft skills are also transferable skills that can be used regardless of the person's job. This makes job candidates with soft skills very adaptable and flexible employees.
Developing soft skills is important because they help us work well with others. Communication skills, teamwork, and adaptability enable us to connect with co-workers, express ideas, receive feedback, and achieve consensus.
Greater use of AI and Automation
Recent technological progress is pushing the boundaries of what machines can do in the workplace. AI and Automation are already generating value in various products and services, and companies across sectors use them in an array of processes to personalise product recommendations, find anomalies in production, identify fraudulent transactions, and more.
Looking ahead, these technologies will transform the nature of work and the workplace itself. Machines will be able to carry out more of the tasks done by humans, complement the work that humans do, and even perform some tasks that go beyond what humans can do. As a result, some occupations will decline, others will grow, and many more will change.
In the face of this vast transition, the consensus is that there is far more to gain than to lose. Additional economic growth, including from business dynamism and rising productivity growth, will continue to create jobs. Many other new occupations that we cannot currently imagine will also emerge.
Conclusion
The pandemic has forced businesses to evolve in unprecedented pace, and the business-employee relationship stands central in this transition. To be innovative and progressive, to be able to retain productive workforce and attract new talent, the business must utilise the future trends of workplace tools and the benefits they have to offer.
This is a moment of breakthrough, where the correct and carefully tailored approach will result in higher level of employee wellbeing and happiness, greater productivity and efficiency of work time and space.