What Are the Workplace Trends to Look Forward to in 2022?

Another year, another change is coming thanks to the last year's experiences and inspiration. With so much happening in how we think of work and where we should do it, new tools and trends have emerged that are posed to take 2022 by storm. So, without further ado, here are five workplace trends for 2022.

Hybrid working directly results from the many lockdowns that we saw during the pandemic. Many employees had to work from home due to government emergency laws, so many employers had the chance to see the outcome of this change. And for many workers, this certainly was great for productivity and work-life balance, while it was stressful and awful for others. And so, hybrid working seems to be the best compromise to keep everyone happy while boosting productivity.

While pre-pandemic, many companies staffed their offices only with those they needed the most; now that the chance of losing an employee for two or more weeks is a common occurrence, many companies began staffing employees with overlapping skills rather than purely focused on one job. This means that there have been more job openings than before, and this trend seems to be continuing well into 2022.

Many companies took to AI and automated analytics to monitor their employees who newly worked from home. But it is safe to say this is not just a result of the pandemic. These tools have been in development for a while and have now reached great utility as they can be implemented together with online working tools like Slack. Managers have a better idea than ever how much work is done by whom, and they can think of better strategies for organising work. However, many have correctly warned that these tools could be easily exploited to both the employees and ultimately to the employer's detriment.

2021 showed that while it is good to specialise in a field, many workers will have to re-skill when taking a new position. Sometimes this process can take as long as six months. As a result, many companies have realised that rather than looking for a specific worker who already does what they need, they have a better chance of finding a good employee with good soft skills and generally good skillset and specialising that worker themselves. Hence, it has become better to be a jack of all trades rather than a master of one.

AI and automation are not only used for monitoring employees. It has also replaced countless jobs previously done by people who can now focus on more challenging and creative tasks. AI has been used in copywriting, programming, translation, secretarial work, organisation and administration, and so much more. If anything has changed the face of the workplace, it is artificial intelligence that has helped many people cut down on repetitive tasks. And 2022 is posed to be no different.