The 9 Trends that Will Shape The Future of Work

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I am currently on the paradise-like island of Saint Maarten, where I have been assisting my client in expanding his vision and mission and clarifying his purpose in life for the last two weeks. Daily we have been working on demystifying his challenges and creating a detailed plan for his growth and a winning strategy for achieving the goals we set during his Vital Planning Business and Life Mastery custom-made for him training. And one of the coaching themes has been around assisting him with using his insights and foresight to predict the trends that will shape the future of work and what he needs to do now to ensure he is prepared for any eventuality that may occur.

Why is this important?

Because the Corona Virus Pandemic forced us to live through the most significant workplace disruption in generations, the volatility and uncertainty level will not slow down in 2022. The consequences of Brexit, the war in Ukraine and New Covid variants will continue to emerge and may temporarily cause workplaces to go remote. The hybrid work adopted during lockdown will influence more people to change their behaviours according to what is happening every moment.

After a mass vaccination campaign, many of us expected the world to return to normalcy, and many executives felt it would be a matter of a few short months before we would all return to the workplace. However, as we experienced, 2021 was more unpredictable than expected, with the rise of new Covid variants, a massive drive for digital transformations, a war for talent, quit rates at an all-time high, and in 2022 we are facing the highest inflation levels in a generation.

The level of volatility will only increase in 2023 as the way we work is constantly changing, and it doesn't look to be slowing down. By looking at trends in technology, talent mobility, workplace environment, well-being, and productivity, we can get a glimpse into what the future of work will look like.

Let's take a closer look at each trend.

New COVID19 variants will continue to emerge and may temporarily cause workplaces to remain remote.

Despite a strong push from governments worldwide, many employers will not adopt a vaccine mandate. Instead, many may rely on testing to keep their workplaces safe. Employers will be concerned that a vaccine mandate will cause a mass turnover. A Gartner survey found that heads of H.R. expect nearly 7% of the workforce to quit if they put a mandate in place. While 7% may not seem like a significant number and might be an overestimate, whatever turnover occurs will not distribute evenly. Some departments in some geographies might see turnover rates of 15%.

Many employers are concerned that a vaccine mandate might not survive a series of ongoing court challenges. Given that risk, they are hesitant to adopt a mandate that may be reversed at some point in the future. Some employers don't feel they have the right to make this decision for their employees and contend that it is still an issue of employee choice.

Hybrid work will create more unevenness around where, when, and how much different employees are working. As annual compensation increases fall behind inflation, many employees will be greeted with real wage cuts. These realities will be layered on top of longer-term technological transformation, continued COVID19 adaptation journeys, and ongoing political disruption and uncertainty.

Hiring and Retaining Talent

The future of work is about talent. More specifically, it's about attracting and retaining the right people for your company—and how you help them be successful.

That's because, as Fast Company reported in a recent article on this topic:

• "Talent is the most important resource in the future of work. Talent is a differentiator between companies more than anything else. And talent drives innovation and new capabilities—the things that make companies unique from one another."

Several factors will affect how organisations compete for talent in 2023 and beyond:

Shorten the work week rather than increase pay.

A few businesses I have been coaching offer significant compensation increases to attract and retain talent in today's market. While some companies can compete for talent through compensation alone, others don't have the financial resources to do so. Rather than trying to win the war for talent by increasing wages, one of my clients looked at reducing the number of hours worked by employees and keeping compensation flat.

Historically, leisure time becomes more valuable and appealing to workers as wages rise. Reducing the hours employees need to work gives less liquid employers a better chance to compete with organisations that offer higher overall compensation but don't offer reduced hours. Ultimately, we're likely to see a handful of organisations adopt 30 to 35 -hour work weeks with the same compensation as a new way to compete for knowledge workers.

Technology

Technology is the most critical driver of change in the workplace. It has always been, but in 2023 and beyond, technology will become more integrated into our lives and more personalised, pervasive and intelligent.

A.I. (artificial intelligence), machine learning and automation will benefit us more than ever. Robotics will help us do things that were previously impossible or too expensive, such as:

• 3D printing food and other day-to-day items on demand
• Making customised clothing at home with a 3D printer
• Creating highly accurate virtual reality experiences that multiple people can share. Metaverse is a perfect example of this.
• A.I. does most administrative work, freeing people and managers to do other high-priority tasks.
• Create and Use Star Trek-like technologies, space travel, space exploration, mining, and governance.

Workplace

The future workplace will be flexible, open, collaborative, mobile, diverse, and global.

• Flexible: In 2023 and beyond, you'll be able to move between locations and work styles daily seamlessly. You could start your day in an office but then go home for some evening chores after finishing up some projects remotely. Or perhaps you want to take advantage of a sabbatical program where you travel worldwide while still being able to work remotely (or even do both). Whatever your needs are at the moment, the workplace will accommodate them by allowing mobility within your job role and flexibility regarding how much time you spend working each day and whether that work is done in person or remotely. For the last ten years, I've been travelling globally, assisting clients in finding solutions to their everyday problems. We no longer will be bound by a specific location, which is very appealing to today's workforce.
• Open: This concept applies not only to physical spaces within organisations but also across entire industries—from offices/workplaces all over town; to retail stores in downtown areas, factories, hospitals; schools; libraries…you name it! If there's an industry space out there today (and most likely many more tomorrow), its doors will be open for collaboration with other employers from around town/world who have similar needs via their own companies' platforms, only accessible through certain apps; installed on smartphones.

Productivity

Productivity is a primary concern for businesses and will only become more critical as time goes on. The days of working from 9 to 5 are long gone; now, we're constantly connected via digital devices and the internet, enabling us to work anywhere at any time. This means people need the right tools and technology to be productive—whether at their desks, airports, or trains.

It's also essential for managers to take care of their employees' well-being by providing them with an environment that promotes productivity: one in which they can thrive personally and professionally. This could mean making sure there are spaces for employees who want quiet time (or no time), providing healthy snacks between meals, allowing remote work arrangements whenever possible so people aren't tied down by travel schedules when needing flexibility in meeting deadlines...the list goes on!

Well-being

Workplace well-being is about more than just physical health. It's about employees' overall health, and it encompasses physical, mental and emotional wellness. Today's generation puts a high value on working for companies that promote well-being as a way of living and working. Many companies expanded the wellness support they provided to their employees in the wake of the pandemic.

A Gartner 2020 survey of 52 H.R. executives found that:

• 38% increased support for financial well-being
• 50% increased support for physical well-being
• 85% increased support for mental health benefits
• 94% of companies made significant investments in their well-being programs

These programs work for those that take advantage of them. Gartner's analysis shows that employees who utilise these benefits report 23% higher levels of mental health, 17% higher levels of physical health, and are 23% more likely to say they sleep well at night. These improvements in personal outcomes translate to higher levels of performance and retention.

However, there has been limited uptake of these programs by employees. Across the last two years, the client's I have worked with shared that less than 40% of employees have taken advantage of any well-being offering provided by their employer. My client, Paul McMonagle, has also experienced this in the Oil and Gas industry.

As we advance, many organisations will adopt new employee well-being measures that capture their employees' emotional, financial, mental, and physical health to more accurately predict employee performance and retention. While technology tools help, they will not be a substitute for expert coaches, trainers, and mentors. More companies will come to realise the importance of human connection and involvement when it comes to improving employee mental health.

Mindset

The most crucial trend in determining the future of work is mindset. Mindset is the ability to adapt to changing circumstances, new technologies and working practices. It's about having an open mind and being willing to learn new skills or change your job for a better fit.

In 2023 and beyond, only those who adapt and embrace change will have a job that pays enough for them to live comfortably. The rest will find themselves unemployed or living off their savings until they can save up enough money for another career change — but by then, it'll be too late because A.I. has taken all our jobs anyway!

During the Covid pandemic, some clients stopped their coaching journeys due to the fear and the uncertainty that followed. However, the clients who continued their coaching and training journey's throughout lockdown built even stronger emotional resilience and focused more of their time and money on developing their mindset, creating intellectual property, and learning new skills, adapting to the ever-changing business landscape. They used their weekly, biweekly or monthly coaching to learn how to best "surf the waves", and some ended up tripling their business or even starting new companies during the pandemic.

Investing in growing, educating, and transforming your mindset through various challenges you are facing enables you to look back at this time and say, "this was the moment that everything came together for me". My book, The Unfakeable Code?, was written during the first lockdown; the idea was born the moment the news broke out of what was happening in Italy. I knew then the impact would be global, so it covers a lot about navigating uncertainty, living an inauthentic life, and what you can do to overcome stressful situations and upgrade your mind's codes that create an inspired destiny you want for yourself. What I learned throughout the pandemic and what problems I solved for my clients during the pandemic inspired me to write about how to overcome challenges with ease as you climb greater heights and be successful in any economy, and strive for excellence. This turned into my upcoming book, A Path to Excellence?, available everywhere from September.

What will the future bring for the way we work? More flexible but more uncertain.

• Flexible working. The future of work will be about more than just remote and home working. It's also going to be about hybrid working and the freedom to choose your working environment. For example, one of the most popular ways that people are already getting more flexibility in their lives is through online tools like Microsoft Teams, Slack or Trello that allow employees to connect without physically being together. This kind of flexibility will only become more common as it becomes more accessible for people to keep up with each other through new technologies such as A.I. automation and digital transformation, which enable them to work longer hours while they're at home or on vacation because they can access everything they need from any device without having an office setting around them all day long (more on this later).
• You are being valued by your employer again! The rise in employee engagement means that employers will no longer see you as merely someone who gets paid for doing their job well; instead, you'll become part owner in whatever project it may be, which will make it easier for both sides when discussing money matters down here on earth rather than off somewhere else (like Mars). This new way of thinking could change everything from how much you earn per hour vs overtime pay-outs during times like Christmas break when companies usually stop paying workers' salaries altogether due to budget constraints - but if everyone owns shares, then everyone benefits equally so everyone stays motivated throughout this challenging period where there aren't many opportunities available outside work itself due to lack interest/desire/energy levels being lower than usual due to recent setbacks encountered during these past few months.

Conclusion

The wheel of life keeps moving. Things are changing, and they're not returning to the way they were. But we can't afford to wait until 2023 to start planning our future. Now is the time to embrace these trends so that you're prepared for whatever comes next!

Businesses and leaders that choose to change the expectations for their managers will need to change managers' mindsets and skill sets from managing tasks to managing the whole experience of employees. This goes beyond managing employees' specific responsibilities and extends to managing their perception of their career trajectories, the impact of work on their personal lives, and their relationship with the organisation as a whole. While this shift may slow attrition, it requires substantially empowering managers and every employee. Many employers will be planning to adopt a hybrid working model for their knowledge workers in 2023 and beyond.

What will change is how variable that disruption becomes. In 2023, leaders and business owners will need to learn how to thrive in a period of turmoil that plays out unevenly across their organisations.

You've just read about The 9 Trends that Will Shape The Future of Work. Now it's time to take the next step and start influencing the world authentically, resiliently and purposefully on your terms.

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Love and Wisdom

Tony J. Selimi - Award-Winning Author, Speaker, and Transformational Life and Business Coach Specialising in Human Behaviour, Leadership Excellence, and Maximising Human Potential. Winner of the London SME Most Visionary Entrepreneur 2020 award, Corporate Coaching and Recruitment Business Coach of the Year 2021 Award, Silver Winner of Literary Book Award 2021, and Maincreast Media Book Award 2021 for A Path to Wisdom, #Loneliness, and The Unfakeable Code?. Winner of Book Excellence Award 2022!

P.S. I trust you got much value from this week's article. As your coaching partner, it will be an honour to work on accelerating your mental clarity and productivity and achieving peak performance. My range of products and services is uniquely designed to deliver insights and solutions that address new and emerging executive and business challenges and enable H.R. leaders to take decisive actions. My combined expertise in engineering, technology, CBT, NLP, human behaviour, emotional intelligence and business coaching can support you through talent acquisition and management, improving the employee experience and mental health, changing direction, and leadership. Together we can work on issues that can lead to the future of work, including the impact of emerging technologies on work, new employment models, workforce planning and product creation cycle, and the future of work and leadership strategy development.

I work on a virtual basis and in-person with clients all over the globe, facilitating the realisation and accomplishment of personal, relational, professional, financial and business goals. Here are four ways I can assist you in creating life-changing breakthroughs, growth, and accelerating your journey to excellent health, influence, Wealth, transformational leadership, and go from where you are to where you genuinely want to be in every critical area of life.

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