COVID-19 created a monumental shift in how many businesses and employees view the traditional “9 to 5”. You’d be hard-pressed to find any modern companies today not throwing around terms like ‘hybrid schedule’, ‘freelance position’, and ‘fully remote worker’.
It would appear we’ve entered a sort of online work renaissance, launched into full swing by the pandemic. And despite some executives’ best attempts to force employees back into the office, we can safely say this trend is going nowhere but up.
The future of remote work and the need for collaboration tools are critical components in this trend. And both these topics can be seen today, as companies around the world try to figure out how best to balance them all. So, these three rising trends can tell us about tomorrow’s Modern Workplace.
1. Hybrid by Design
The first noticeable trend in the future of work is the rise in hybrid employees. In many cases, these are employees originally forced into the home office during COVID, who have since returned to “business as usual”, at least for part of the week.
When we look at the numbers, 63% of high-revenue companies utilize the hybrid work model. In other words, the majority of large-scale, successful businesses have taken note of the advantages of having employees working both at home and in the office.
And that comes as no surprise, considering many of these companies have recorded a distinct rise in employee satisfaction, which directly correlates to better working results and the birth of more creative ideas.
The hybrid model doesn’t suit everybody, however. Studies have shown an individual’s preferences play a major role in the type of remote or non-remote position that suits them best. For instance, some fully remote workers literally crave human interaction with their coworkers, driving them to report back to the office full-time.
2. The Freedom to Freelance
Meanwhile, some people feel that even having to step into the office once a week is too much, and they’d rather do 100% of their work alone, online, and at home. It’s the increase of people like this that has caused an influx of freelance workers.
According to statistics, a whopping 1.57 billion people worldwide identify as freelancers. That accounts for 46.4% of the globe’s workforce. As crazy as that might seem, it makes sense when you realize that this number continues to grow by 2 million new freelance workers year over year in just the US alone.
Having this many freelancers around the world has created an interesting dynamic that any modern business has to adapt to. For instance, you’re often much better off hiring a freelancer for a one-time project or to cover a single client instead of trying to fill that position the old-fashioned way.
That’s because freelance workers maintain a flexible schedule, allowing them to pick up work on the fly. Plus, they often have a heavily varied work history, meaning they can better adapt to different roles within their given industry.
2023 has seen many companies posing questions similar to this: “Why should we go through all the headaches of HR, recruitment, and hiring somebody for an official position when we only need them for a specific 6-week project?”
3. The Right Tools for the Job
And the third and final trend quickly on the rise is the need for quality collaboration tools. With so many hybrid employees, remote workers, and freelancers, companies need a way for all these people to stay connected and working together.
Unfortunately, many businesses try to balance multiple subscriptions, different apps, and numerous devices in a way to create collaboration among their workers. Many of us are all too familiar with needing to acclimatize to a new set of collaborative tools, only for the next company or future projects to require something else entirely.
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