The Workplace
9 Future of Work Trends Post-COVID-19
As the pandemic resets major work trends, HR leaders need to rethink workforce and employee planning, management, performance and experience strategies.
The 9 HR trends emerge as the lasting result of workforce and workplace changes resulting from coronavirus pandemic disruption, according to a Gartner survey of 800-plus HR leaders are:
- Increase in remote working
A recent Gartner poll showed that 48% of employees will likely work remotely at least part of the time after COVID-19 versus 30% before the pandemic.
- Expanded data collection
Gartner analysis shows that 16% of employers are using technologies more frequently to monitor their employees through methods such as virtual clocking in and out, tracking work computer usage, and monitoring employee emails or internal communications/chat. While some companies track productivity, others monitor employee engagement and well-being to better understand employee experience.
- Contingent worker expansion
Gartner analysis shows that organizations will continue to expand their use of contingent workers to maintain more flexibility in workforce management post-COVID-19, and will consider introducing other job models they have seen during the pandemic, such as talent sharing and 80% pay for 80% work.
- Expanded employer role as social safety net
The pandemic has increased the trend of employers playing an expanded role in their employees’ financial, physical and mental well-being.
- Separation of critical skills and roles
To build the workforce you’ll need post-pandemic, focus less on roles — which group unrelated skills — than on the skills needed to drive the organization’s competitive advantage and the workflows that fuel that advantage.
- (De-)Humanization of employees
Organizations have recognized the humanitarian crisis of the pandemic and prioritized the well-being of employees as people over employees as workers.
- Emergence of new top-tier employers
Prior to COVID-19, organizations were already facing increased employee demands for transparency. Employees and prospective candidates will judge organizations by the way in which they treated employees during the pandemic. Balance the decisions made today to resolve immediate concerns during the pandemic with the long-term impact on the employment brand.
- Transition from designing for efficiency to designing for resilience
To build a more responsive organization, design roles and structures around outcomes to increase agility and flexibility and formalize how processes can flex. Also, provide employees with varied, adaptive and flexible roles so they acquire cross-functional knowledge and training.
- Increase in organization complexity
Enable business units to customize performance management, because what one part of the enterprise needs might not work elsewhere. As organizational complexity complicates career pathing, providing reskilling and career development support — for example, by developing resources and building out platforms to provide visibility into internal positions.
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