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The beginning of the end? Or the end of the beginning?
Jan 14, 2022
This time last year I outlined 6 ways our work habits would change in 2021, based on my conversations with business and HR leaders. So what did we actually witness last year? And will it be 'back to normal' or 'all change again' in 2022?
Businesses continued redesigning their operating models and transforming front and back office operations, and business travel remains at much lower level than pre-2020. The shift towards more tech-enabled client conversations and service delivery is here to stay. Individuals may have gained more control over how they fit their home lives around their work but the working day has lengthened without any proven rise in productivity and concern is growing about joyless work interactions, the rise of loneliness and disengagement. Hearing the mistrustful phrase ‘shirking from home‘ may be a distant memory and many organisations are continuing to trial different working arrangements before committing to a fixed ‘future model’. However there’s a chasm emerging between ‘old school’ leaders insisting on a blanket, full-time return to the office and more enlightened leaders who accept that people are unwilling to give up the autonomy they have gained over their work lives. The result? With the Great Resignation and the Great Job Hop, employees are voting with their feet if they see a better deal (aka greater flexibility) on offer elsewhere.
How might these developments play out further over the coming months? What are the new characteristics of the employer/employee relationship? Here are 7 trends that will reshape our world of work in 2022:
1. Time-centric benefits. The gym membership and travel loans seem outdated now and in their place, people are valuing time-related benefits. These include: additional/more varied leave entitlements; meeting-free weeks; and more creative time-flexible schedules such as term-time hours or being able to ‘bank’ non-working days and take these in longer stretches during quieter business periods. There will be more demand for sabbaticals, and at senior levels too such as this recent HSBC example.
2. The return of the awayday. As many people are likely to continue working remotely at least half of the time, the value of bringing people physically together centres more on nurturing social bonds, strengthening interpersonal trust and encouraging creative collaboration in a more rewarding way than talking through our computer screens. Outdoor-, nature- and wellbeing-focused activities and venues will be prized. Geese herding may have had its day though, according to the FT’s Working It podcast.
3. More collective recognition and rewards. As business strive to maintain or strengthen team bonds and a united sense of community, they are increasingly moving to team-based bonuses and away from rewards mechanisms that pit individuals against each other in a win/lose, competitive culture.
4. Investment in the ‘manager as coach’. Historically firms have only invested in building coaching expertise among senior executives and ‘high potential’ future leaders; line managers have tended to be overlooked. With hybrid- and remote-working, employee wellbeing and retention higher up the agenda, the role of the manager is no longer that of a supervisor looking over team members’ shoulders. Instead, successful managers now need to be coach, facilitator, counsellor and inclusive leader rolled into one.
5. Flexi-time leaders. The last bastion to fall: whilst many workforces have embraced more flexible working arrangements lower down the hierarchy, the senior leadership team is often still full-time and most likely to be found back in the office. Until that changes, people will look up the career ladder and see only one model for life at the top. And that will hamper efforts to create a more diverse senior cadre.
6. Offices that work. Workplaces that are designed to meet people’s actual needs, not a uniform set of cubicles or hot desks alongside a bank of meeting rooms. Quiet rooms, creative/collaboration spaces, hybrid-meeting rooms like this one at Google, areas for downtime and physical/mental recharging will be needed, as will outdoor working spaces where these can be created. People will be encouraged to plug in to any desk, pick up the (sanitised) noise cancelling headphones, switch on their ‘do not disturb’ light and turn off their video cameras and online messaging channels.
7. Team time management. Teams will benefit from allocating half days or full days to certain activities such as routine meetings, performance management, planning, learning and development, productive working time and social activities. Similarly greater co-ordination will be required across leadership groups around which days they will be in the office so that people coming in on less popular days of the week (Mondays and Fridays) will still have access to senior colleagues, the chance to network professionally and to be mentored in person. And in return, those leaders can talk directly and regularly with a wide range of employees so they are picking up new ideas and concerns and responding swiftly.
Professor Julian Hiscox, chairman in infection and global health at the University of Liverpool, has told the BBC that ‘it is now the beginning of the end, at least in the UK … I think life in 2022 will be almost back to before the pandemic.’ After two difficult years we’re all hoping we’re on the final stretch, but for me there's one big caveat: that our COVID-driven innovations at work leads to more permanent, positive change for businesses and employees alike.
Businesses continued redesigning their operating models and transforming front and back office operations, and business travel remains at much lower level than pre-2020. The shift towards more tech-enabled client conversations and service delivery is here to stay. Individuals may have gained more control over how they fit their home lives around their work but the working day has lengthened without any proven rise in productivity and concern is growing about joyless work interactions, the rise of loneliness and disengagement. Hearing the mistrustful phrase ‘shirking from home‘ may be a distant memory and many organisations are continuing to trial different working arrangements before committing to a fixed ‘future model’. However there’s a chasm emerging between ‘old school’ leaders insisting on a blanket, full-time return to the office and more enlightened leaders who accept that people are unwilling to give up the autonomy they have gained over their work lives. The result? With the Great Resignation and the Great Job Hop, employees are voting with their feet if they see a better deal (aka greater flexibility) on offer elsewhere.
How might these developments play out further over the coming months? What are the new characteristics of the employer/employee relationship? Here are 7 trends that will reshape our world of work in 2022:
1. Time-centric benefits. The gym membership and travel loans seem outdated now and in their place, people are valuing time-related benefits. These include: additional/more varied leave entitlements; meeting-free weeks; and more creative time-flexible schedules such as term-time hours or being able to ‘bank’ non-working days and take these in longer stretches during quieter business periods. There will be more demand for sabbaticals, and at senior levels too such as this recent HSBC example.
2. The return of the awayday. As many people are likely to continue working remotely at least half of the time, the value of bringing people physically together centres more on nurturing social bonds, strengthening interpersonal trust and encouraging creative collaboration in a more rewarding way than talking through our computer screens. Outdoor-, nature- and wellbeing-focused activities and venues will be prized. Geese herding may have had its day though, according to the FT’s Working It podcast.
3. More collective recognition and rewards. As business strive to maintain or strengthen team bonds and a united sense of community, they are increasingly moving to team-based bonuses and away from rewards mechanisms that pit individuals against each other in a win/lose, competitive culture.
4. Investment in the ‘manager as coach’. Historically firms have only invested in building coaching expertise among senior executives and ‘high potential’ future leaders; line managers have tended to be overlooked. With hybrid- and remote-working, employee wellbeing and retention higher up the agenda, the role of the manager is no longer that of a supervisor looking over team members’ shoulders. Instead, successful managers now need to be coach, facilitator, counsellor and inclusive leader rolled into one.
5. Flexi-time leaders. The last bastion to fall: whilst many workforces have embraced more flexible working arrangements lower down the hierarchy, the senior leadership team is often still full-time and most likely to be found back in the office. Until that changes, people will look up the career ladder and see only one model for life at the top. And that will hamper efforts to create a more diverse senior cadre.
6. Offices that work. Workplaces that are designed to meet people’s actual needs, not a uniform set of cubicles or hot desks alongside a bank of meeting rooms. Quiet rooms, creative/collaboration spaces, hybrid-meeting rooms like this one at Google, areas for downtime and physical/mental recharging will be needed, as will outdoor working spaces where these can be created. People will be encouraged to plug in to any desk, pick up the (sanitised) noise cancelling headphones, switch on their ‘do not disturb’ light and turn off their video cameras and online messaging channels.
7. Team time management. Teams will benefit from allocating half days or full days to certain activities such as routine meetings, performance management, planning, learning and development, productive working time and social activities. Similarly greater co-ordination will be required across leadership groups around which days they will be in the office so that people coming in on less popular days of the week (Mondays and Fridays) will still have access to senior colleagues, the chance to network professionally and to be mentored in person. And in return, those leaders can talk directly and regularly with a wide range of employees so they are picking up new ideas and concerns and responding swiftly.
Professor Julian Hiscox, chairman in infection and global health at the University of Liverpool, has told the BBC that ‘it is now the beginning of the end, at least in the UK … I think life in 2022 will be almost back to before the pandemic.’ After two difficult years we’re all hoping we’re on the final stretch, but for me there's one big caveat: that our COVID-driven innovations at work leads to more permanent, positive change for businesses and employees alike.
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