With the dynamic global markets, a major concern, and the changing workplace dynamics in the past few years still fresh in memory, employees worldwide are now taking a step back to redefine the role of their workplaces in their lives.
From work-life balance to job security, salary and benefits, value alignment, and well-being, employees are questioning the fundamentals of the organizations they are employed for. And a simple conclusion that they have reached is that it's time to redefine the relationship with work and create more human-centric practices that not only allow employees to meet their basic needs but also enable them to live a healthy and happy life.
As we continue with a new and most uncertain decade in recent history, here are a few workplace trends that you can look forward to in 2023.
Trend #1: Hybrid Working Continues to be the Norm
Now that we have moved out of the pandemic, and organizations' need to offer the flexibility of working from home isn't there anymore, employees still look forward to continuing with hybrid working setups.
However, moving workspaces into the home setting has brought several concerns for the employers, such as establishing a collaborative team culture and engaging employees.
But regardless of the organizational challenges, employees prefer to operate with a hybrid work structure as it allows greater flexibility and improved work-life balance. And given the employees' preferences, organizations are now figuring out how to create a more consistent blend of working at home and in the office for employee roles that do not require physical on-site presence.
Organizations preparing to create a blend of the hybrid working model are training senior executives for remote leadership to better support the workforce. Moreover, they are also adopting technologies that help connect people from multiple remote locations.
Trend # 2: Employers Would Want Employees Back into the Office
While employees have a completely different set of preferences, employers prefer things slightly differently.
According to a recent survey, 90% of the participant companies require employees to work from the office in the coming year.
Of the organizations currently allowing employees to work entirely remotely, the majority (around 75%) responded that they would definitely or likely change their working location policy within the coming 6 months.
But why is there a need to change the working location policy when employees are content with remote working?
The reason for bringing about this change is that organizations are losing money because they have to bear the fixed expenses of keeping their offices while there aren't many occupants. So there must be a solution for how long businesses should continue to pay for the expenses of keeping a workplace.
Until a solution is found, we can look forward to conflicting desires of the employees and employers, with one group focusing on enjoying the flexibility of working from home while the other pushing to get employees back into the physical office.
Trend # 3: Employees Have Been Operating At Exceeding Capacity for Years and Hence Need to Recharge
The events of the past few years have been particularly challenging for employers and employees alike.
Businesses were forced to change how they operate overnight and develop new ways to continue working while engaging employees. On the other hand, employees have been working remotely throughout these years, bringing a unique set of challenges. However, employees continued to exceed expectations and deliver amazing results despite remote work's challenges.
But now, the trend is changing. Employees today want to take a step back and recharge. They are also resetting boundaries and working on redefining their roles within the organization so they can enjoy better work-life balance. In the last 12 months, there has been a 2% decrease in overall satisfaction with work-life balance. And while it isn't a huge drop, it highlights the underlying employee sentiment.
While organizations claim to support a healthy work-life balance, employees now want something beyond these claims. They need solid organizational measures that promote a healthy work-life balance, so employees can recharge themselves and gear up for the coming years.
Trend # 4: An Ever-Increasing Need to Streamline Poor Processes and Inefficient Systems to Avoid Employee Burnout
Outdated and inefficient systems and poor processes have remained a part of organizations for decades. And it holds true even in today's modern age of digitalization, where it's relatively easy to implement cloud-based technologies to streamline processes.
However, they are now becoming a pressing concern because they have turned out to be a major source of employee burnout. According to statistics, 40% of employees feel burnout because of inadequate and inefficient processes and systems.
It is an organizational challenge as these processes and systems are designed to drive productivity, and the trend is likely to haunt organizations in 2023 until there are enhanced processes and systems to improve organizational efficiency and productivity.
Trend # 5: Quiet Quitting Will Be the New "In" Thing
One of the latest workplace trends that we can look forward to in the year 2023 is quite quitting. It's when employees are still on their job and don't exactly quit the job. However, they are no longer putting more time and effort into their jobs than necessary.
Hence, there needs to be more enthusiasm and engagement from employees for their existing jobs.
The trend will be more pronounced among the younger generations (Gen Z and millennials) compared to older generations, which will continue to work with excitement and enthusiasm.
One of the sub-trends that fall in this category is that remote workers are much more prone to quit quitting compared to employees who physically go to work.
The trend is likely to continue into 2023, especially among employees who are being pushed to return to the office and among employees who struggle to find work-life balance with their existing job.
Trend # 6: Increased Job Hopping
Gone are the days when employees would continue to work for the same organization for three decades.
Today, an increasing number of employees, especially Gen Z and millennial workers, are now switching jobs more frequently than ever. According to an estimate, it's predicted that an average Gen Z employee will switch over 15 jobs throughout their career. While these are still premature estimates, unlike Boomers, the more recent generations will exhibit a different level of loyalty to any organization.
One of the most likely reasons for this surprising trend is that, unlike Boomers, Zoomers don't believe in the idea of being passionate about their job. For the newer generations, the job is just a means to fund a certain lifestyle, so as long as their need is being met, they will continue with a certain job and make a move when things don't turn out to be in the right direction.
Moreover, for millennials, the primary focus is on equipping themselves with tasks so once they have mastered a particular skill from one organization, they will not hesitate to hop and move to a place where they can utilize their newly acquired skill and make money off it.
Trend # 7: Employee Well-Being Will Be a Priority
Today, more than ever, there is a need for organizations to focus on employee well-being. Even when employees aren't working physically in the offices, organizations need to have policies and plans with an all-encompassing focus on total employee well-being. Moreover, the broader idea of wellness should be personalized as every employee defines self-care and wellness differently.
Furthermore, there is a need to consider physical and mental health symptoms to be considered as a manifestation of a broader problem.
Organizations need to invest more into resolving physical and mental health symptoms by creating a more comfortable work environment by designing an ergonomic workplace setup. This can be done by collaborating with reliable, ergonomic office equipment and accessory supplier like FlexiSpot that provide appropriate equipment to ensure the comfort and safety of employees at work. Whether it's ergonomic office furniture like desks and chairs or ergonomic office accessories such as footrests, anti-fatigue mats, or more, Flexispot provides a complete ergonomic solution for organizations and individuals so you can ensure complete employee well-being.
Moreover, organizations also need to focus on incorporating wellness days and digital detoxing breaks into standard company practices to allow employees to take care of their physical and mental needs.
Getting Started with 2023
As we continue with the decade of uncertainty that was haunted by a pandemic for the first few years, we can look forward to unique workplace trends emerging this year and beyond. While we have highlighted seven workplace trends, there will be a lot more than the new year will have to offer.
