Workplace Trends to Look Out For in 2022
Over the last couple of years, there have been significant changes in our professional lives—driven primarily by safety concerns and necessity. After all, the COVID-19 pandemic remains a part of life worldwide. And we’ve begun to adopt new practices, expectations, and behavioral patterns to ensure that we stay productive and achieve a more excellent work-life balance.
While specific sectors like healthcare and transportation likely won’t be impacted by hybrid workplaces or telecommuting, many other professions and industries like online marketing are increasingly opening up to the prospect of working in new ways.
This is to accommodate the changing behaviors of employees. And in this article, we’ll cover some of the biggest workplace trends you should look out for in 2022.
Hybrid working
When the question of working location comes up, there are usually four models that people think of—decentralized, remote workplaces, centralized organizations, and a hybrid approach.
One of the things that are possibly going to change in the coming year is that more workers will be given the option — instead of being constrained to the model chosen by the organization.
The hybrid structure will vary, ranging from the maintenance of centralized and permanent offices paired with hot-desking to cater to the idea that people will be working remotely more frequently to the elimination of office spaces entirely, supporting remote workforces instead.
Virtual culture
Digital presence isn’t just crucial for brand awareness and online reputation. It’s also important for business operations and employee engagement.
Therefore, it's essential to develop a plan to enhance the virtual culture of your company. Whether it’s hosting meetings online, promoting team-building exercises over the web, or networking, the way your business performs online will make a difference in drawing in talented individuals and keeping them invested in the brand.
Flexibility in schedule
Businesses are becoming much more open to the prospect of schedule flexibility as the need arises to accommodate workers whose families have children who are learning remotely.
Before the global pandemic struck, this was seen more as an earned perk. But nowadays, it's a necessity in attracting and engaging talent. It can help a company maintain a more consistent level of productivity and, more importantly, improve morale while driving down stress.
Staffing for the sake of resilience
Traditionally, the focus on hiring was to bring people aboard to build efficient and effective organizations.
However, times have changed, and the priority has firmly shifted towards resilience. No longer are skill overlaps and built-in redundancy frowned upon as inefficient — now they’re seen as sensible precautions. As a result, employee well-being and healthcare are now an integral part of the business model.
Many businesses have started to take much more responsibility than they’ve ever done before to ensure their respective workforces’ physical and emotional health.
Ensuring that employees are well is an integral component of resilience. In 2022, finding ways that will enable companies to address the well-being of their staff without having to be overly invasive and intrusive will be the key to success.
Prioritizing skills over roles
To build a successful workforce, it's vital to focus on skills that will drive the company's competitive edge and workflows in fuelling its advantage over roles that exist in the group.
Skills are invaluable because they can address the core challenges of a business. On the other hand, roles merely define individuals as related to the organizational hierarchy or structure.
From the worker's perspective, the focus on skill development rather than their roles within the organization leaves them positioned much better so they can capitalize on potential career opportunities. And the priority in skills over roles will likely continue in 2022 and beyond.
Additional cybersecurity measures
With the internet becoming an invaluable asset in the success of most businesses, the need for cybersecurity has increased as much as digital marketing has.
But, unfortunately, cybercriminals are only going to continue exploiting weaknesses in the system to access and steal data, especially now that most workforces are working remotely using the web. And the threat of cyberattacks will require an investment towards the necessary security measures to keep the IT infrastructure of the business protected.
Additionally, preventative measures will need to be practiced. From the use of a virtual private network to the regular changing of passwords, every action, no matter how insignificant, will help, so be sure that you encourage your employees to adopt safe internet practices.
Conclusion
Being aware of the current workplace trends, especially in today's world, is critical to the growth of a business.
What is happening outside your own organization can be reliable sources of change and can keep you prepared for what may come, and in turn, enable your organization to stay ahead of the competition.
So keep the above-mentioned trends in mind as you prepare for 2022. It will go a long way in helping your brand thrive and flourish.
About the Guest Author
Ron Evan Del Rosario is a Digital Marketing specialist and a writer who enjoys writing about traveling, psychology, and digital marketing. Nearly four years ago, he accidentally stumbled into the digital marketing field. Currently, he is based in Taiwan, taking up an MBA with a marketing focus. In his free time, he enjoys karaoke, window shopping, and watching Netflix.
Photo by olia danilevich from Pexels
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