The Workforce of the Future: Key Insights And Predictions

If, one year ago, you’d been asked how quick it would be to transition to a situation where almost everyone at your organizations was working remotely from home, every day – what would you have said?

A year? Two years? It’s unlikely that anyone would have imagined it could be accomplished in a matter of days. And yet at the start of this year, due to elements beyond our control, that’s precisely what happened for many of us.

That incredible push for transformational change, which came out of necessity, allowed businesses to do something that they may previously have believed to be impossible. And at its heart was the importance of balancing the needs of the organization – to carry on running – with the needs of the employees – a safe and comfortable environment for them to work in. Other requirements – such as a perceived need for employees to be physically co-located in offices - turned out not to be as important as was previously thought.

Of course, a lot was on the table back then. As well as safety, employees were driven to buy in to this paradigm change by the prospect of an end to commuting, more freedom over how they use their time, and the opportunity to be closer to their homes and families.

But employers that were able to meet their employees’ expectations in those regards have gone on to thrive, while those that were unable or unprepared to meet the challenge have floundered.

This question of the benefits around meeting employee expectations is addressed by a study that has just been published by Cisco. The Workforce of the Future study of 10,000 office-based workers across 12 countries could give companies clues as to how the transformational benefits of this seismic shift in working culture could continue to be harnessed, to continue to drive further innovation and creativity.

Among the key findings of the survey are:

• The vast majority (87%) of respondents believe flexibility and options – over place and hours of work – leads to greater productivity.
• Over half (61%) believe their organizations should retain the faster decision-making processes that have been developed since the Covid-19 outbreak began.
• Nearly two thirds (64%) of respondents say the switch to working from home has improved their mental health.
• Over half (54%) say they are engaging in physical exercise more often due to working from home.

Beyond the facts and figures, the report highlights a greater than ever need for employers to understand the ways in which their teams and staff need to be supported. It’s clear that fantastic results can be achieved by teams working remotely and taking greater control of their lives. There have been some terrible examples of businesses getting this very wrong – for example the boss who told his staff that he wanted them to keep a video call open all day so he could monitor what they were doing. There have also been some great examples of companies showing they are willing to invest and support their staff with equipment and training, as well as regular social and extra-curricular activities delivered online.

Wendy Mars (Twitter, LinkedIn), Cisco’s President for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia, spoke to me about the publication of the report. In particular, she believes it highlights the ongoing importance of digital transformation, and the need for companies to adapt to it happening at an accelerated pace.

She said, “If we look at the speed and the pace at which businesses responded to this, as a result of not really having any choice… [there is] the need to be able to make sure employees can stay engaged, and businesses can run and operate … and being able to do that very quickly and rapidly by getting workforces up and running across the globe. And we saw the pace which organizations did that was truly remarkable.

“And now, the nature of working remotely or from home, and how people view that, has also shifted significantly … people have seen that employees can be incredibly productive working from home … this will fundamentally shift the nature of work for the future.”

It’s clear from talking to our friends and families that working from home has enabled many of us to establish what can objectively be called a far better work/life balance. On top of that, the findings of this study showing that we are taking better care of both our mental and physical health, as a result of changes to working lives, can only be positive thing.

In many ways, it seems the responsibility is now on companies and organizations to repay their staff for the speed and ability with which they were able to adapt, by ensuring they continue to have supportive environments in which to work.

Mars says, “There is going to be a big dependency there for people to be able to have an enterprise-class level of capability whether they are in an office or remote. The expectation of the user will be very high on that.”

Beyond that there will be challenges around ensuring staff are maintaining their skillsets as well as developing new abilities that will be valuable to themselves and their organizations in the future.

And company cultures are something that are also likely to be dramatically impacted by decentralization of workplaces. With face-to-face working and after-work beers not on the agenda for the foreseeable future, both employers and employees will have to be imaginative about fostering shared values and building team spirit. 

Once again, technology is likely to provide the long-term solution. With the arrival of 5G networking and technologies like virtual and augmented reality reaching maturity, stuttering video conferencing will become a thing of the past and new opportunities for interaction will emerge. Organizations that take a lead with this are likely to find their investments paying off in the form of a happier and more productive workforce of the future.

You can watch my full conversation with Wendy Mars below and access the full ebook on the research here:  The Workforce of the Future study 

Thank you for reading my post. Here at LinkedIn and at Forbes I regularly write about management and technology trends. I have also written a new book about AI, click here for more information. To read my future posts simply join my network here or click 'Follow'. Also feel free to connect with me via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Slideshare or YouTube.

About Bernard Marr

Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker, futurist, and a strategic business & technology advisor to governments and companies. He helps organisations improve their business performance, use data more intelligently, and understand the implications of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, blockchains, and the Internet of Things.

LinkedIn has ranked Bernard as one of the world’s top 5 business influencers. He is a frequent contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for Forbes. Every day Bernard actively engages his 1.5 million social media followers and shares content that reaches millions of readers.