Human resources consultancy group, O.C Tanner Europe Limited, has identified several new workplace culture trends, heading into 2021.
Workplace Culture Trends 2021
O.C Tanner Europe Limited have identified the 5 following workplace culture trends heading into 2021:-
- Workplace culture in terms of employee engagement with work, and with the employer and its objectives, has declined during the pandemic due to furlough and remote working from home, and needs to be rebuilt.
- Increased levels of working remotely from home will remain permanently at a higher level than prior to the pandemic. Other changes, such as video interviews during recruitment, will also remain
- The increased use of new technology during the pandemic, means that its use is here to stay
- The greater impact of social issues
- The influence of younger workers (referred to as "generation z") entering the workplace, and its impact
Remote Working And New Technology Is Here To Stay
The COVID-19 pandemic has sped up the workplace culture trends towards remote working from home and the use of new technology by employers, and the increased use of the same is likely to be permanent.
In a survey of Chief Financial Officers (CFO's), Deloitte's found that CFO's anticipate that the number of employees engaging in home-working will rise from just 5% pre-pandemic, to around 27% by 2025.
Furthermore, research by Slack found that 72% of employees did not want to return to working full time in an office environment, and preferred a hybrid approach in which they worked part of the working week in the office, and the rest of their contracted hours remotely from home. Just 12% of employees wanted to return to working full time at the office.
Moreover, as we highlighted in a previous article on the workplace culture trends towards working from home and the increased use of new technology, a survey of 1,046 employers conducted by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), found that:
- 66% of employers will be changing their policy on home working, so as to allow more employees to work from home
- 44% of employers will be providing additional facilities and funding to support home working
- The CIPD found that: “33% of employers plan to introduce new forms of flexible working or try and increase the uptake of existing flexible working arrangements, including working from home on a regular basis (70%), always working from home (45%), part-time hours (40%), flexi-time (39%), term-time working (16%) and compressed."
A separate survey by HubbleHQ found that 86% of employees want to engage in remote working from home at least once a week. Similar results were uncovered by the recent Global Workplace Analytics Survey, which found that once the pandemic is over, 76% of employees want to continue working from home at least 2.5 days per week long term.
Reaction
Commenting upon the workplace culture trends, the Managing Director of O.C. Tanner Europe Limited, Robert Ordever, states: "Leaders and HR professionals need to be prepared for the challenges ahead as they tackle the fallout from the pandemic. There must be a concerted effort to heal broken and damaged workplace cultures while building on the positive developments as a result of COVID-19. Inclusive, connected and purpose-driven workplaces must be prioritised and it’s time to drive technological advancements to bring people together. 2021 needs to be a year of deliberate and positive transformation."
Ian Stewart, the chief economist at Deloitte's adds in an interview with the Daily Telegraph that: "By and large, this massive forced experiment in home-working has been very successful. Sectors have been able to maintain quite a high degree of effectiveness operating from home. Part of the success of the last nine months has been that it is based on networks and knowledge and relationships which were built up in more normal times, and we will have to focus on replenishing that. This is certainly not the end of the offices - offices and places where people can work together are going to be very important. Overwhelmingly, people want a combination [of home and office working]."
