The year 2020 has been game-changing for the modern workplace. The changes brought about by the pandemic have massively transformed the way we live, work and interact — and many of them are here to stay. Here are the top three trends that I believe you can expect to see in 2021:
Trend 1: The Hybrid Workspace
2020 was the year when employers had to overhaul old ways of working. With the sudden emergence of COVID-19, organisations rapidly switched to remote work, relying heavily on Zoom and other virtual collaboration tools. Notwithstanding, offices couldn’t cease to exist altogether and people still felt the need to meet face-to-face occasionally in the same office. And this is why employers adopted the hybrid working model to support the future of work, giving employees more freedom around when and where to work from.
The new workplace has blurred the lines between physical and digital, and now a combination of both on-site and remote teams are run, with the hybrid model dominating our world of work.
Not surprising that global giants like Amazon and Google announced a hybrid working structure till the end of 2021, as soon as the pandemic outbreak occurred. As cases rose everyday worldwide, almost all companies followed suit. In a recent Slack survey, 72% of knowledge workers expressed a preference for a hybrid arrangement while research by Stanford University economics professor Nicholas Bloom further supports this, claiming that optimal situation for productivity is remote working for two days a week.
Indubitably, the hybrid work ecosystem seems to be the biggest workplace trend in 2021, and by 2025 we predict a world characterised by a dispersed and digitally enabled workforce.
Trend 2: Employee Wellbeing
2020 pushed people to navigate the rough waters of ambiguity and uncertainty, resulting in apprehension among employees and talking an ever-larger toll on our collective mental health. In a CDC survey conducted in June 2020, “40.9% of respondents reported at least one adverse mental or behavioural health condition, including symptoms of anxiety disorder, trauma- and stressor-related disorder (TSRD) related to the pandemic and increased substance use to cope with stress.” This ultimately permeates work as well as home life of millions of workers who are working remotely.
While mental health issues and workplace stress have already been widespread over the last decade, the constant need to push oneself to prove their contribution during the pandemic further exacerbated these. In 2021, there would be an increasing demand for employee safety, health and well-being. Many organisations will – and many already have – put in place access to virtual health programs along with online team building events. Gartner research showed that 45% of well-being budget increases were being allocated to mental and emotional well-being programs. Technology-based support for employee round the clock, such as online mental healthcare and crisis chatbots, are also likely to become more and more mainstream.
Trend 3: Training and Up-skilling
COVID-19 disrupted the social and economic order globally at lightning speed and on a scale so large that we have not seen in living memory. And while doing that, it further widened the skills gap in the process. Companies are scrambling to find innovative technologies and new ways to keep their business running while staying competitive in the market.
With remote working forecasted to continue well into 2021, employers need to help workers keep abreast of the tech changes and ensure they continue to grow and thrive. In Gartner, Inc.’s 2021 HR Priorities Survey, more than 750 HR leaders cited building critical skills and competencies as their number one priority in 2021, which indicates that integrating learning experience into employee workflows will be one of the major workplace trends in 2021.
Josh Bersin, a global industry analyst, notes that the “skilling craze” will continue in 2021, making every job in business one of “continuous learning.” “If a company does not have a learning culture that encourages and promotes individual learning, business will suffer. When you look at companies like Nokia, Digital Equipment, and others that have lost their markets, a common factor is that leaders ‘just didn’t learn what was going on.’”
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Paul Keijzer is the CEO and Founder of Engage Consulting and the co-Founder of The Talent Games, which aims to transform HR by digitising talent processes and creating more engaging and productive workplaces through gamification and mobile technology. As a global HR and Leadership Management expert, Paul knows how to combine business insights with people insights to transform organisations and put them on the path to growth.
