Anticipating the trends of the workplace of the future is vital for every business that wants to protect itself and grow.
This year, we’ve dived into some of the major future trends that businesses in all industries will need to manage if they want to succeed.
Here’s a round-up of the themes we’ve already identified as well as some questions for the future:
The workplace of the future – the view from 2022
1) Remote working
COVID-19 launched the already growing trend of remote working into the stratosphere. Many businesses were already discovering that some degree of hybrid working was a big draw to new and existing talent. We expect this trend to continue, with:
- A growing rise of awareness of the technological challenges involved in making remote working secure.
- More appreciation of the need to encourage productivity as well as employee wellbeing when working from home.
- Some pushback from those who don’t personally enjoy working from home and have concerns about productivity.
2) Cybersecurity
Rising levels of cybercrime and the growing sophistication of hackers and their attacks are also trends we expect to continue. We think there is little doubt that:
- The number of data breaches will continue to rise and the cost of individual breaches continue to grow.
- Targeted attacks where data is mined for specific purposes will also rise in frequency.
- More – but probably not enough – companies will come to realise the critical nature of team cybersecurity training including the latest social engineering tactics and malware.
3) Productivity
The way productivity ties in with other major trends – especially cybersecurity and remote working – is likely to become better understood in the coming years. A contemporary buzzword, productivity is likely to remain so for the near future at least:
- Maximising productivity will continue to require balancing performance targets with employee wellbeing, the benefits of which more organisations will realise.
- Use of productivity-boosting software like Google Workplace and Microsoft 365 will become more widespread as their advantages become clear.
- Employee monitoring software (a.k.a. bossware) and the moral implications of its use are likely to rise profile – we’re hoping for a less dystopian result than some of these developers clearly envision!
4) Social and environmental responsibility
The spread of acceptance that CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and ESG (Environmental and Social Governance) are drivers of profit, not a cost, will continue:
- Businesses with better ESG credentials will attract the best Gen Z talent.
- The financial and reputational cost of being “outed” as a poor performer in these fields is likely to grow.
- SaaS (Software as a Service) and other digital tools will continue to be incorporated into the CSR and ESG strategies of organisations, enabling honest communication and reporting.
5) Digital transformation
Businesses in almost every industry will continue to integrate more digital technologies into the way they work. Common objections will continue to fade, with many companies becoming digital technology companies:
- IoT will become a feature in more services and products than ever before.
- AI-assisted or AI-operated services will become more common.
- The need and ability to automate more tasks will help drive productivity.
The workplace of the future – 2023 and beyond
Yet these are far from the only trends we see on the horizon. Businesses in key industries like engineering, manufacturing, recruitment, and many others will need to ask themselves questions like:
- Will the need to maximise remote working productivity and employee wellbeing mean you might need to offer your team money to upgrade their home office setup?
- How do you communicate your hard work on CSR to attract that Gen Z talent?
- Does working from home really work for your company model?
And that’s far from all!
Check out our full FREE Workplace of the Future downloadable PDF to find out more.