FUTURE WORK TRENDS IN 2022

The rate of turnover will depend largely on an employer’s stand on curating a hybrid work environment. Before the pandemic era, Work from Home (WFH) was seen as a flexible option, a luxury afforded to employees under certain circumstances. Now however, it is a necessity. The hybrid work model has already gained popularity due to its ability to increase an employee’s productivity, work-life balance, and satisfaction. Employees now expect flexibility in their jobs. They expect a say in the how, where and when they work and employers who do not harvest this environment will see an increase in turnover rates as employees are now shifting towards roles which offer a value proposition which is better aligned with their own needs and desires. For these reasons alone it is said that more than 90% of employers will opt for a hybrid work model in 2022.

According to the latest future of Work Report, several new work models such as gig working via the use of contractual workers and freelancers coupled with hybrid workers and part-time employees (interns or contracted workers) are in the exploratory stages. Meanwhile, several other practices like outsourcing jobs to different agencies and partnering with companies are steadily emerging as the new norm. Full time employees may miss out on these opportunities due to fear of being viewed as unemployed while freelancing. However, studies have shown that the scope for those who work on a variety of projects, in numerous companies simultaneously, is ever increasing as they benefit from the hybrid work model the most.

Integrated technology systems have been widely used over the past few years to simplify performance appraisals, learning, recruiting and short listings. The Mckinsey reports suggest that by the year 2024, at least 50% of people’s interactions with computers will be handled by Artificial Intelligence generated speech. In 2022. Organizations will take advantage of all technological advances to easily deal with workforce management in a way that is efficient rather than time consuming. This will be applied to onboarding, attendance, payroll, and employee experience operations. Moving forward, technology will be used to assess the contributions being made by employees as new technology will provide more background information about the person on call. Collaboration technology will also be used extensively to improve the way employees communicate and interact with each other.

Managers are an important link as they are the primary connection between hybrid employees and the company and are therefore responsible for the way the organization is perceived. They are also the first line in surfacing existing problems and elevating fairness concerns which effect the running of the company on a day-to-day basis. But research shows that 65% of tasks performed by managers today will be automated by 2025. This raises the question: what will the expectations of a manager be? They will be expected to go beyond managing employee’s responsibilities and will extend towards managing career trajectories, the impact of work in personal lives and manage their relationship with the company.

Wellness will be the newest metric to understand employee satisfaction. In 2022 new measures will be used to gauge the mental, physical, and financial health of employees to garner higher levels of performance and retention. In past years several other metrics were taken into consideration to assess levels of employee satisfaction and fulfillment. However, new studies have shown that employees gravitate towards companies that cater to not just their financial needs but that facilitate better work-life balance, give them a sense of purpose, and align with their own values and beliefs. Therefore, it is now imperative to consider the mental, physical, and financial health of employees in order to retain them.