Little Buddha said
In 2021, many people expect the world to return to normalcy, but the results are beyond expectations. 2022 is likely to be even more turbulent. There may be new variants of the virus, and work may once again be temporarily shifted to remote work. Mixed work systems exacerbate inequalities in duty stations, time and workloads. Many employees are growing their annual wages at a slower rate than inflation. The following eight phenomena will become potential trends in the workplace in 2022.
First, mixed and remote work has become the normal work of knowledge-based employees
Flexibility in how, where and when to work is no longer a differentiator, but a basic bargaining chip. Employees want to be able to work flexibly, just as they want their employers to provide health insurance. Employers who don't allow flexible work can lose employees and people switch to positions where their value propositions are more in line with their expectations.
However, in today's labor market, which is in short supply, many organizations cannot slow attrition even if they increase flexibility. There are two reasons for the increase in churn rates.
First, the power to keep employees behind has weakened. Employees who work in mixed or remote work have weaker social and emotional connections with their colleagues. The social pressure to keep employees staying is reduced, and employees are more likely to resign.
Second, the number of employers to choose from increases, and the force to attract employees to leave has become stronger. Mixed and remote work has become the norm, and the range of employers available to employees has expanded. Even if mixed work models require employees to go to the office at least once a week, the risk of attrition increases. If commutes are less frequent, employees are more receptive to the increase in time spent on a single commute. The range of employers available will increase and employees will be more tolerant of a single commute.
These factors have led to a sustained increase in the rate of attrition, which is higher than historical standards. A large number of employees resign at one time will turn into a state of continuous resignation.
Second, some management tasks will be automatically handled, leaving room for managers to establish a more humane relationship with employees.
The relationship between managers and employees has become more important than ever. For hybrid and remote employees, managers are the primary connection point through which employers can experience.
At the same time, HR technology vendors have developed technology products that can handle repetitive administrative tasks such as scheduling, approving expense reports, and supervising direct reports to complete tasks. Next-generation technologies will gradually take over other management tasks, such as providing performance feedback and supporting employees to build new colleague relationships. Our research shows that 65% of the tasks currently undertaken by managers can be automated by 2025.
With such technological developments, companies are faced with a choice: whether to reduce the number of managers or change the expectations of managers.
If the jurisdiction of managers is increased, the number of managers required is reduced, and the organization can reduce labor costs. If you choose to change your expectations of managers, you also need to change managers' thinking and skills – from managing tasks to managing the entire experience of employees. This is not only about managing the specific responsibilities of employees, but also about managing employees' perceptions of their career trajectory, the impact of their work on their personal lives, and their relationship to the organization as a whole. This shift can reduce employee turnover, but it will require a significant increase in managerial autonomy.
Third, remote collaboration tools will become tools to assist in assessing and improving performance.
Employees are geographically more dispersed, and managers can't see what employees are doing. This situation leads to inaccurate and implicitly biased performance evaluations based on where employees work rather than the actual impact. A survey of nearly 3,000 managers conducted by Gartner in the fall of 2020 showed that 64 percent of managers and executives believe that employees in the office perform better than remote employees, and 76 percent believe that employees in the office are more likely to be promoted.
The tools that employees currently use for remote collaboration will be used to measure their contributions in the future. For example, new technologies can provide background information for speakers in webinars. The more participants learned about the speakers, the more attention they paid to the issues that the speakers attached to the most important issues.
Teamwork-related technologies can also encourage employees to behave differently and improve interaction among team members, such as encouraging managers to speak up for less active members of meetings. This will allow participants to adjust the way they interact and improve the quality of the meeting.
Managing a mixed workforce is too complex, and some employers will ask employees to return to the office.
More than 90% of employers plan to adopt a mixed work model for knowledge workers by 2022. While this was the case at the beginning of the year, we expect many high-profile businesses to change direction and require employees to return to full-time office work. The factors contributing to this trend are as follows:
CEOs cite the mixed-work system as the reason for poor business performance
Increased employee turnover in the mixed-work model
Some employees who work in mixed jobs are said to be doing several jobs at the same time
Feel lost organizational culture
Still, organizations that require employees to return to the office will soon find that the problem stems from other underlying factors. Requiring employees to return to the office will only increase the turnover rate further.
Fifth, physical and mental health will become the latest indicator for enterprises to understand employees.
Over the years executives have experimented with different metrics, such as employee satisfaction or engagement, for understanding employees. In 2022, companies will add new measures to measure the physical and mental health and financial health of their employees.
In the aftermath of the pandemic, many businesses have expanded the range of health support they provide to their employees. A 2020 Survey of 52 HR Executives by Gartner found:
94% of businesses invest heavily in health projects
85% of businesses increased mental health support
50% of businesses increased their physical health support
38% of businesses increased their financial health support
These projects are effective for those who utilize them. Gartner's analysis showed that employees who used these support programs were 23 percent more mentally healthy and 17 percent more physically healthy, and said they had a good night's sleep 23 percent more. These improvements in individual outcomes increase job performance and retention.
However, employee utilization of these projects is limited. Our data shows that less than 40% of employees have utilized employer-provided health programs in the past twelve months.
In 2022, organizations will adopt new employee health metrics to capture employees' financial health and physical and mental health, and more accurately predict employee performance and retention rates.
Sixth, the emergence of a new C-level executive position - chief purpose officer
Political, cultural and social controversies have penetrated the workplace. Employees are asked to fully express themselves at work, and organizations try to create a more inclusive and productive work environment. This is a very different situation than it was a decade ago, when employees had to "leave their personal views outside the office door."
Employees also expect employers to be more involved in current social and political discussions. Gartner's analysis found that three-quarters of employees expect their employers to pay attention to current social and political issues.
Taken together, these factors can lead to conflict in the workplace – a 2020 survey of more than 500 employees by Gartner showed that 44 percent actively avoid politically ill-minded colleagues. Gartner's analysis also found that if employees are disappointed in their employers' positions on current social and political issues, their engagement will drop by 1/3.
A change in the organization's relationship with its employees and community, as well as its role in society, will allow for a new C-level position to emerge in 2022: Chief Purpose Officer. At present, this type of responsibility is scattered in various positions such as human resources, legal affairs, and external communications. In 2022, ESG will become increasingly important in corporate strategy, and these responsibilities will be consolidated into a new role.
The harm of sitting is equivalent to smoking.
Switching to remote work has affected employees in every way. Some reported increased activity and weight loss (35 percent), but more people sat longer (40 percent) and gained weight, possibly because the amount of activity they had been commuting and walking around the workplace had disappeared. Differences in the amount of activity of different groups of people can increase the health risks faced by some remote employees.
In response, organizations adopt new communication programs, benefits, and technologies to assist remote employees in actively and improve their health. As with traditional wellness programs, participation in these wellness programs is low, and some companies may be too late to attract employee resentment. Physical fitness programs also pose risks to diversity and inclusion, as they can affect the engagement of employees with disabilities.
In a mixed model of work without intervention, diversity and inclusion deteriorate
Gartner's analysis found that employees working in mixed or remote work performed on par with employees in the office. However, managers believe that employees in the office perform better than those at home and are more likely to be promoted. This misleading perception is reinforced by the public announcement by some executives that employees working in mixed and remote jobs are underperforming. As a result, managers are more likely to get employees who come to the office to get promotions and raises — even if the employees who don't come to the office aren't lagging behind.
The data also show that under mixed working hours, women work from home more often than men. So without intervention, the gender pay gap will widen and leadership diversity will decline. Without stronger intentions, talent from minorities may be excluded from key conversations, career opportunities, and other career-friendly networks.
We have all experienced the worst workplace chaos in generations and will continue to do so. All that will change is the degree of change in this mess. In 2022, leaders will learn how to thrive at a time when all parts of the organization are facing chaos.
Keywords: megatrends
Brian Kropp | by Emily Rose McRae
Brian Kropp is a Principal Investigator in Gartner's HR Practices business, where he provides insights and solutions that address emerging management challenges and enable HR leaders to take decisive action. Emily Rose McRae leads Gartner's future work and talent analysis research team. Her work covers all the issues that could lead to the future of work, including the impact of emerging technologies on work, new employment patterns, workforce planning, and the future of work strategy development.
Shuojian | translated by Zhou Qiang| edited
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