How work happens in the corporate sector can now be easily divided into two key parts – before and after the pandemic. We all know what it was like before the pandemic, what happened after lockdowns were enforced and the current state of affairs. Now, the curiosity is around what will happen in the future.
Is remote work going to remain the norm? Will companies succeed in making employees join back the offices? How would employees resist, and why might they have to give in? Or what would be the perfect scenario where both employees and employers are happy? What are the current digital transformation requirements, and why do they matter to the companies and the workers? Is the entire world becoming a global village in terms of the job market?
The questions are too many and really complex. The best way to get answers is to observe these four current trends mentioned here and prepare yourself to ensure seamless work and optimum manpower numbers. Here are the four work trends that are set to change the work forever and reshape how the corporate sector functions.
Remote work is the norm – employees can’t be forced back to join the office
Employers predicted it to be a standard thing for their organizations – employees working remotely. But still, the larger share of people was the one that talked about how companies will manage to call employees back to the office. It happened in some cases when employers showed strictness and issued ultimatums to the extent that it was a ‘join back or resign’ situation.
But the idea did not succeed, and workers were clear that remote work offers them more flexibility in many aspects, from personal to professional. They were sure that they wanted to work remotely. The idea was not taken well by the companies, but the resistance they saw from remote employees in 2021 was a good enough sign to tell them that remote work is here to stay.
Soon, the employers gave in, and employees are now upbeat about it. They are ready to work with companies that offer totally remote or hybrid work opportunities, and they are ignoring in-office jobs. It is now more or less clear to every employer that remote work is the norm, and if they have to hire the best talent, especially the knowledge workers, they have to offer remote job opportunities.
The remote work environment will get highly competitive
In some way, this is the drawcard that employers hold. Remote work has opened up the job market immensely. A tech company in the US might hire remote workers on a regular basis in Ukraine, or a business consultancy in the UK might hire marketing specialists from Australia.
The entire world is open, and it’s not limited to the geographical location of the company’s office and diversity in workplace matters more than ever. A wider talent pool availability, the ability to hire diverse employees, chance to remove the cultural barriers by hiring across the world will lead to competitive pay packages and might even enable companies to tell their local employees to join the office instead of allowing them to work remotely.
This will somehow create a good balance between the employee and the employer and not lead to a situation where workers can dictate terms and ask for work flexibility and negotiate higher packages easily. For the ideal situation, a balance must be maintained. And it will be achieved soon because the recruiters enjoy a wider talent pool to pick candidates from. The job market is in the recruiter’s favor after the recession fears and massive layoffs happening through 2022 and 2023 and continuing in 2024.
Job market saw a big shift in the form of Great Resignation – Something new that HR should prepare for
For around two years, employees resigned in millions every month. Then, there were signs that the workers were developing a positive mindset and coming out of the ‘find the purpose’ phase. Recruiters were on their toes as even the best job sites saw a decline in the number of resumes being uploaded or updated. The job market was in favor of workers at that time.
When great resignation subsided, resumes were uploaded on job sites, social media profiles were updated, and networking was gaining traction as workers sought to find jobs again. This was big news for the corporate sector, which had suffered as worker shortage meant supply chain and manufacturing disruptions.
As workers started joining back offices (remote or hybrid) and employers started aligning their recruitment programs, the HR teams were exuberant. This was an entirely new trend that nobody had foreseen. In the future, the employees might quit again (not millions of them, though) if they feel dissatisfied with the job. This means a bigger challenge for the HR teams to retain employees. The companies will also need to be proactive and plan strategically to manage a situation that might lead to a worker shortage and things that follow, like supply chain disruptions.
Automation and digital transformation
Video calls and online meetings tools like Zoom and Teams, and collaboration tools like Slack, Trello and Monday were the biggest gainers during the lockdown period. As remote work became the norm, there was a greater need for the best online collaboration tools and automation solutions to continue the work seamlessly and effectively. The work continued at an even better pace. Employees started upgrading themselves technologically. Companies invested heavily in the latest work software and business process-enhancing online tools.
This led to massive automation and digital transformation drive across industries. The companies that were reluctant to invest in technology and the employees who were happy to work with traditional tools suddenly changed their way of thinking to keep up with the digital transformation. This trend will get more aggressive in the near future and will define the future of work.
Newer and smarter tools and software for seamless connectivity to improve work productivity and ensure the highest level of cybersecurity in a remote work environment will come up. Those who still do not want to adopt technology and prepare for the remote work future will find themselves outdone by others. HR must ensure optimum training levels across the organization to keep employees technologically updated, which will keep them productive and committed to their job. Despite massive layoffs from large companies like Google, Microsoft and Amazon to startups, the job market still needs talented people who can multitask and add value to organizational processes.
