How Will Your Company Adapt To the New Flexible Workforce in 2021?
How Will Your Company Adapt To the New Flexible Workforce in 2021?
The new flexible workforce means
more than just working from home or staggered hours. With COVID-19, staff has
set up shop anywhere there is power and Wi-Fi, and there is no going back. Omri
Dekalo, CEO and Co-Founder of Ubeya, describes strategies to thrive in this new workplace
reality.
As the world continues to adapt to
the realities of COVID-19, companies, and employees are reinventing themselves
in order to survive. Prior to the recent upheavals in the job market, when the
term ‘flexible workforce’ was used, it was usually in regards to working
outside of a rigid 9-to-5 schedule, a condensed work week, or occasionally
working from home. With the massive layoffs we have seen in recent months and
the rise in social distancing demands, even the term ‘flexible workforce’ needs
to be a lot more flexible.
As
businesses begin to cautiously reopen, an increasing number of employees,
displaced from their traditional workplace, are praising the benefits of remote
work. Indeed, a recent World Economic Forum survey reported
that a staggering 98% of people said they would like the option to work
remotely for the rest of their careers. We can only expect this trend to
increase as tech-savvy and mobile-driven Generation Z (people born from 1997 to
2012) enters the workforce.
Challenges and Opportunities
This new concept of flexibility in
the evolving workplace will put new pressures on businesses. How will employers
effectively train, motivate, and engage when a majority of employees work in
virtual environments? What about hybrid environments where the entire
workforce shares a common workspace part-time, or on different days? It will
come down to two intertwined factors: technology and company culture.
Company culture is, of course,
always in flux, determined by everything from leadership style to economic
conditions. The pandemic outbreak has accelerated the way many companies
approach traditional employee operations and is driving new interpretations of
work hours and days. PepsiCo, for instance, recently removed all official start
and end times to give employees more autonomy around how they organize their
work schedules, in a new initiative called Flextime.
The new
flexible workforce, however, means much more than working from home or
staggered hours. It gives employees the power to set up shop anywhere they have
internet access; it means being able to work as a cashier on Mondays and
Wednesdays, and do deliveries three evenings a week. They will continue to
embrace the option and the tools to work anywhere at any time. In a recent
report, global market research company Forrester called this the “Anywhere-Plus-Office Hybrid
Model.” It’s a model that should be considered if you have a diverse
workforce looking for flexibility.
Learn More: 5 Ways to Strengthen
Culture When Times are Tough
Adapting to
Change
With these changes occurring at an
accelerated pace, we can expect them to put new demands on future employees and
human resources managers alike. Already the need for individuals that are
comfortable with implementing and using new technology, in addition to the
basic skills required for various jobs, is becoming paramount. Economic
conditions may also mean that we will continue to see a downsizing trend. A
smaller employee base will force business owners to maximize the value each employee
brings to the company. On the other hand, this will also provide employees with
a greater opportunity to take on new roles and responsibilities and acquire
additional skill sets to further their career aspirations.
Despite the advantages of a flexible
workforce, managers are undoubtedly facing pressure to maintain employee
engagement and productivity. Generation Z may be tech-savvy but they also value
regular feedback from their supervisors. HR personnel will have to adapt to new
working styles, processes, and career values in order to keep their workforce
engaged while upholding company needs.
Technology
Will Be the Key
Technology will arguably play the
most crucial role in the way the new flexible workforce is managed. Companies
are already reshaping the way existing technologies, from cybersecurity
solutions to communications tools like Zoom, can be used in a different way to
serve the evolving demands of rolling lockdowns and unpredictable markets.
In order to
efficiently deploy and manage a more flexible workforce, employers and managers
will need systems in place to help them oversee all the moving pieces of their
workforce and expedite daily operational processes. Performance management AI
tools, for example, may offer employees data-driven progress plans to keep them
motivated and ensure productivity.
Smooth operations, high
productivity, and increased engagement rates can also be achieved through
management platforms that instantly perform automated tasks like notifying
employees to apply for upcoming work opportunities and access details such as
location, wages, position, and uniform requirements. These types of smart
platforms will also help managers maintain and cultivate relationships with
employees, wherever they are.
Online
tools are also being developed to facilitate employee mentoring and growth, not
just supervision. As the flexible workplace continues to change, employees are
already focusing on the need to learn new skills to prosper. A new survey from
California-based Degreed, called the State of Skills Report 2021, suggests
that upskilling will be vital to economic recovery post-Covid-19. “More than a
third (38%) of respondents feel less confident now than they did before the
pandemic that they have the skills to do their jobs effectively. Nearly half
(46%) predict their current skills will become obsolete in the next 3 to 5
years.” Upskilling will
allow employees to play a larger role within their company, and in turn will
empower them to further build on their abilities.
The COVID-19 crisis has brought
with it a demand for a more flexible workforce with the term flexible taking on
an entirely new meaning than we have come to know and understand. It is no
longer about merely working from home, or a few flex perks thrown in for good
measure. It is now about flexibility that requires an entire transformation of
people, processes, and infrastructure. While the pandemic has brought with it
no small number of challenges, new opportunities have arisen, both for
businesses to operate with greater efficiency and technological prowess, and
for employees to achieve a greater level of work-life balance and job
satisfaction.
Comments
Post a Comment