Performance
7
min read
The workplace has been constantly changing for a few years now. With the changing nature and scope of work, employee priorities as well as organizational objectives are undergoing transformation. More specifically, the past two years, with the unleashing of the pandemic, have led us to redefining the Future of Work with some interesting workplace trends coming to the forefront.
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Top 20 Workplace Trends & Statistics You Must Know
The modern workplace is driven by new age priorities — an emphasis on employee engagement, hybrid model of working, increased focus on employee wellbeing initiatives and of course digital transformation through HR tech. Let’s look at the current trends and statistics across these areas:
Employee Engagement and Company Culture
- 86% of employees and executives cite the lack of effective collaboration and communication as the main causes for workplace failures (Salesforce)
- 46% of job seekers cite company culture as very important when choosing to apply to a company (built in)
- 85% of the global workforce doesn’t feel actively engaged (Gallup)
- Employee engagement leads to a 17% increase in productivity and a 41% decrease in absenteeism (Gallup)
- Companies that support collaborative work environment are five times more likely to be high performing (Institute of Corporate Productivity)
- 33% of employees say environmental factors negatively affect their productivity and engagement levels (Gallup)
- Good Company Culture Increases Revenue by 4X (Forbes)
- 37% of employees consider timely recognition most important factor for job satisfaction (O.C. Tanner)
- Only 29% of employees are happy with career advancement opportunities (SHRM)
Remote and Hybrid Working
- Hybrid work models are used by 63% of high-growth companies (Accenture)
- 65% of employees think they would be more productive at home than in the office (FlexJobs)
- 75% of remote workers prefer working remotely as they find it easier to be productive at home (FlexJobs)
HR Technology
- HR managers lose an average of 14 hours a week manually completing tasks that could be automated. More than a quarter waste 20 hours or more (CareerBuilder)
- Nearly 40% of companies are using some form of AI in HR alone (Deloitte)
- 80% of HR employees found that using HR technologies improved employee attitude toward the company (G2 Crowd)
Employee Wellbeing and Stress
- 80 percent of employees complain of stress at work (TimesJobs)
- 60% of employees quit because of stress (TimesJobs)
- 79% of employees are burned out (O.C. Tanner)
- 70% of employees enrolled in wellness programs have reported higher job satisfaction than those not enrolled in the companies’ program (Aflac)
- 89% of workers at companies that support well-being initiatives are more likely to recommend their company as a good place to work (American Psychological Association)
Now that you are aware of what the workplace statistics look like in 2022, you must be wondering how to prepare your organization for the Future of Work.
Let’s get you started on that with these top 9 workplace trends for 2022 to facilitate employee and business success.
1. Focus on employee wellbeing will increase
You would agree when we say that health and wellbeing have become key priorities for everyone at and beyond work. Invariably, as one of the workplace trends for 2022, this priority will manifest itself in the form of focus on providing innovative employee wellbeing benefits.
Organizations need to augment their efforts on employees wellness to ensure a healthy workforce. Some of the top practices that have been observed lately include —
- flexibility of time, opportunity to work from anywhere,
- increased health benefits and insurances,
- collaboration with mental health platforms among others.
Most of the efforts have been concentrated towards ensuring that employees don’t reach the brink of burn out and are able to attain the right balance between work and life. This will grow further in 2022, becoming a key workplace trend.
To learn more about employee wellbeing initiatives, read this article on Wellness in the Workplace.
2. Effective communication will become key for collaboration
Many of you may look at this workplace trend and consider it business as usual. However, the focus on effective communication will become more pronounced. If your organization is on the path of adopting hybrid models of work, effective communication will be extremely important to achieve meaningful collaboration.
As mentioned above, 86% of employees and executives cite the lack of effective collaboration and communication as the main causes for workplace failures.
One of the most critical components here will be to empower your managers to develop the right skills and competencies to lead with impact. You need to ensure that your line managers are able to articulate their thoughts well and are equally good active listeners to ensure a good employee experience.
Within effective communication, one of the key workplace trends for 2022 will be a focus on conducting 1:1 conversations effectively. You must ascertain that your managers have the right tools and resources or guided templates to facilitate meaningful conversations with their team members.
Here’s a list of top 50 1:1 meeting questions for you to take inspiration from for your next crucial conversation.
3. Hybrid work will become a norm
If your organization transitioned to remote work with the unleashing of the pandemic, you must understand by now that for many roles, physical workspace doesn’t matter too much. Keeping pace with this thought, our next workplace trend revolves around the rise of hybrid work models.
Research shows that most fast growing companies adopt a hybrid work model. In fact, companies like Tata Steel, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft are offering their employees the option to permanently work from home as 65% of employees think they would be more productive at home than in the office.
However, as work from home or hybrid work becomes a norm, you may need to reinvent your focus towards culture and engagement.
First, there needs to be a clear hybrid work policy to ensure there is no chaos or confusion among your team members.
Second, you need to invest in the right tools and resources which can help you constantly gauge and monitor employee pulse, identify any potential challenges in the way and enable redressal of obstacles. The objective is to ensure seamless remote engagement which will require external collaboration and partnerships.
We have compiled this list of 27 fun remote team-building activities to boost engagement. Don’t forget to check it out.
4. Development of a value driven culture
Core values will play a major role in driving success for fast growing organizations, making it a key workplace trend for 2022. Millennials and Gen Z joining the workforce today have different priorities and are looking for opportunities that align with their core values and objectives in life.
Research shows that 46% of job seekers cite company culture as very important when choosing to apply to a company. Therefore, organizations are likely to move towards a value driven culture, where some key values or attributes will define their goals and priorities as well as ways of work and employee policies.
We have an exclusive guide that will help you build a thriving company culture in 2022. Click here to get the PDF.
5. Focus on developing an empowering employee experience will continue to grow
One key aspect you must have noticed across all the workplace trends we have discussed so far is a focus on employees. This suggests that workplaces are increasingly moving towards an employee-centric culture and creating an empowering employee experience.
One of the key components of this workplace trend would be to comprehensively gauge employee pulse and take real time action on any challenges. No wonder, demand for platforms like SuperBeings is on the rise. These platforms help you conduct, measure and understand employee sentiment to implement organizational policies and practices that your employees love.
6. Organizations will strive to preempt risks and challenges
The last two years have made it very clear that to survive and thrive in an uncertain world, we need to predict risks and adopt remedial measures even before challenges surface.
While this is mostly understood from a business continuity perspective, it is equally important for people managers and HR leaders.
On the onset of the ‘great resignation’, attracting, retaining and developing high quality talent is becoming increasingly difficult. Therefore, as a key workplace trend, you need to preempt cultural risks and navigate before they surface.
Relying on annual surveys to identify risks is no longer effective in today’s fast changing world. Instead, you must adopt a more regular check-in based approach to monitoring employee pulse with continuous feedback, 1:1 conversations and daily pulse to ensure that your talent feels engaged, valued and empowered, thereby countering the risk of voluntary turnover, reduced productivity, etc.
7. Fairness and distributive justice in recognition
As organizations seek to onboard a diverse workforce in terms of gender, age, geographical backgrounds, etc. a major workplace trend will revolve around ensuring fairness for all. This is particularly tricky as what might seem relevant and fair to some might not come across as the same for others. Especially in a multigenerational workforce.
Moreover, fairness and distributive justice in recognition, benefits and perks will be a key aspect in the workplace trends for 2022. If you look closely, many organizations have been adopting a blanket approach when it comes to recognition.
However, increasingly, your employees will ask for benefits and recognition in accordance with their efforts and contribution, rather than being treated in the same way as others. This will also act as a source of motivation and encourage to constantly improve performance.
In order to create an unbiased performance review system, more and more companies will rely on data analytics and AI and move towards a continuous performance management approach leaving the older annual review system behind.
8. People analytics will lead the way for retention
People analytics is all about collecting key employee data and sentiments, monitoring it over time to gauge trends and acting on the same to facilitate success for your organization. However, a major trend in the workplace we will see in 2022 is a continuous approach to gaining insights from people analytics.
If you have been focusing on an annual or bi-annual approach to capturing employee data and pulse, it’s time to change your ways. In this VUCA world, you need to continuously monitor different employee parameters which determine organizational health and benchmark your score against other high growth organizations.
9. Automation and AI will power people practices
With the rise of digital disruption and technological adoption, your role as a leader will also see an infusion of key tech drivers, automation being a leading one. As you drive your organization towards a more continuous approach for employee analytics, experience and more, you will find a considerable increase in administrative work.
According to a survey, HR managers lose an average of 14 hours a week manually completing tasks that could be automated. More than a quarter waste 20 hours or more.
To ensure that your managers are not burdened under the same and are able to concentrate on what matters most, i.e. empowering your workforce, you need to leverage the power of automation and AI.
One of the key workplace trends for 2022 will be the influx of the potential of automating administrative tasks, performance reviews, goals check-in, employee engagement activities, and ensuring multiple follow ups without any human intervention.
Furthermore, an infusion of artificial intelligence in the right tool can help you get AI driven recommendations based on the insights generated through automated pulse surveys. Invariably, automation will become of your greatest partners to create an empowering culture.
10. Adoption of the right tools will augment organizational impact
Finally, one of the last workplace trends that will influence 2022 will be the move towards adoption of the right tools and resources to supplement your efforts towards organizational success. The key point we are discussing here is how the right tool can help you focus on every aspect of the employee lifecycle.
Focusing on employee feedback, review, evaluation, performance, etc. in a continuous and process-driven manner is likely to be the new norm. Research shows that 80% of HR employees found that using HR technologies improved employee attitude toward the company.
Therefore, you need to ensure that you are ahead in the race by adopting a tool like SuperBeings which can support your organization to drive business performance using the power of aligned teams, effective managers and a motivated workforce.
If you are still unsure of which tools to choose, the following step-by-step guides will help you to choose the perfect tool to suit your very specific needs:
- OKR tools
- Employee engagement tools
- Employee pulse survey tools
- Employee performance review software
- Performance management software
Prepare Yourself for Future of Work
In the end, it is important to emphasize on the fact that organizations that are agile and prepared for the Future of Work and have the right resources and capabilities to leverage the workplace trends for 2022 are marked for success.
If you are gearing up for an impactful year, SuperBeings can help translate your strategy to results by connecting OKRs, Continuous Performance Management, Employee Engagement, and Manager Development in one unified solution.
Eliminate barriers, drive performance, set collective goals and develop the right culture for an empowering 2022. Get all your questions answered and book a demo today!
