Big changes in the workplace predicted for 2022

The nature of office and working environments have seen huge changes over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Employers have faced challenges in keeping pace; from enabling entire workforces to operate from home, to some level of return to an office, to flexible, hybrid and remote working.

Now restrictions are easing and working from home is no longer necessarily a requirement, it’s not the case that everyone is rushing back to the office. And whether employers expect this or not, there are vast swathes of the workforce who now feel it is their right to work, at least some of the time, from home.

Hybrid working – the dominant model that’s set to fail

Hybrid working is a mix of remote working and working in the office. Analysts say this will be the model of working chosen by 60% of companies in 2022. But that it is also the most difficult model to implement.

How will employers decide who is in the office when? And will their decisions reflect the needs of their employees who expect to be able to manage their work-life balance now with time working remotely or from home too? Will all operational aspects of their business support a hybrid model?

It’s predicted that most companies will need a year of trialling and testing different models of hybrid working before they reach any success.

It’s advised for employers to work closely with their IT support function on trialling remote and office working models and take notice of the data of those functions where remote working has less impact, before rushing to resource the first model that presents.

Employee monitoring backlash

With the rise of remote working, employee monitoring tools have been in increasing usage by companies whose workforces have been operating entirely remotely during the pandemic. From measuring outputs, to keystrokes, to phone calls, some workforces have even been managed by AI tools, for example, an automated HR programme gathering employee data on work outputs, to assess which employees will remain in employment, attract a warning, etc.

Where there is a lack of human connection with employees, the automated management has been found to cause employee stress, resentment and an increase in resignations. While large organisations have reached for the first AI tool they can get their hands on to manage a workforce they suddenly can’t see under their noses every day, the general advice is that the approach must be a human one if employees are to feel happy and appreciated at work.

Employees want positive work experiences

There has been a great rise in people quitting their jobs. The year 2021 was termed, ‘the great resignation’ and many businesses had to simply close their doors because they could not hire the people they needed to replace those walking out the door.

This has raised questions among leaders about what people want from their working life. What will make an employee apply to work with you, and crucially, want to stay?

Just over 30% of the workforce want to come back to the office, with female and ethnic minority workers not as represented in this figure as much as men. As well as work-life balance, businesses now face the need to understand the deeper issues of what it takes to create a healthy, functioning and equitable workforce, as well as one that’s working to maximum efficiency.

While IT can help with the perfect model for enabling hybrid working for many businesses, as well as enabling what employees want from their actual working processes, such as ease and efficiency, and even making their experience as positive as possible with the right tech to do the right job, the cultural understanding and human approach of businesses will ultimately come down to the insight, approach and attitudes of those who run them.

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