While the pandemic has raged on for close to two years now and companies all over the world face massive disruptions to the way they work, have you ever wondered what the workplace would be like in the near future?

Enhanced Employee Experience

While some employees embraced remote working fully, there are others who yearned to return to the workplace. According to a principal psychologist at a workday company, “If there’s too much remote or hybrid working, it can make it harder for organisations to engage employees and make them feel part of a wider culture”. 

While organisations recognise the need for employee engagement during this period, many are not sure how to do so. Perhaps the best way is for employees to be given autonomy over when, how, and where they work to cater to individual needs. Employees also want to see that rules are equally applied to them so that they are not treated differently or passed over for promotions when they are not working in the office. Employees should also be updated on the latest happenings in the company and be provided with information on support, work arrangements, and team progress and activities. Surveys should be conducted frequently in a flexible manner to understand their needs and wants as well as areas requiring support.

Employers would need to focus on continuous employee engagement so as to help their staff inculcate a sense of belonging and purpose to the organisation. In other words, enhancing employee experience (EX) is now a top priority for company leaders today and in the foreseeable future. By 2022, 75 percent of companies will include EX improvement as a performance for HR and IT though many would still struggle to enhance EX. Maintaining connection and productivity through working remotely is a major challenge, however, companies need to address complicated systems, toxic environments, poor leadership training, and insufficient belonging measures in order to up their game. Companies that do not care about improving EX would see lower productivity, higher MC rates, and higher turnover.

In short, as stated by the Head of Solution in Workday, “Employees want to feel recognised; they want to be rewarded for their contributions, and they want to feel that they are actually bringing value to the organisation they belong in.” 

Less need for Face to Face networking?

Traditionally, business deals and meetings were made face to face as such meetings tend to foster bonds and negotiate differences. However, there has been a long hiatus in such networking events and yet dealmaking has still persisted at a frantic pace over the past year.

Videoconferencing has replaced short business trips and face-to-face networking events as they are cheaper, more efficient, and more effective. There are great benefits to retaining online business dealings even if in-person meetings are revived in the future. Furthermore, short-haul business trips have seemed to lose their appeal due to environmental and monetary concerns. Face-to-face meetings are no longer necessary to make deals work. What this means is that while some people may miss the social interactions made possible only with in-person networking sessions, there is now an easier option--going virtual.

What other changes do you think will happen in the near future? Do you think such changes will make us more productive and engaged in the long term?