How To Prepare For the Future of Work: 7 Predictions To Guide Your Way
I published my book, Office Optional: How To Build A Connected Culture With Virtual Teams right before the Covid-19 pandemic began. The timing was fortuitous. Seemingly the whole world switched to remote work; what I thought would happen 10 years out was rapidly taking place in a matter of days.
The world of work continues to rapidly change. The greatest risk to companies today is standing still — organizations must constantly evolve to remain competitive. My company, Centric Consulting, has been on the frontlines of helping organizations make the switch to remote or hybrid work, providing insights on where the future of work is headed.
Below are seven predictions for what’s ahead and how companies can begin to prepare.
Prediction 1: Hybrid Is the new normal.
The world has forever changed, and we aren’t returning to an office-centric world.
Centric has been remote for more than 20 years. It only took a few months for the rest of the world to discover what we’ve always known to be true: Employees are happier not going into the office every day.
We’ve reached a tipping point, and there’s no going back. Employees aren’t willing to give up the flexibility of remote work. Multiple studies confirm this: The 2021 Microsoft Work Trend Index found that 73% of employees don’t want to return to the office full-time. The Future Forum from Slack found that 93% of knowledge workers want flexibility in their schedule and 76% want flexibility in where they work.
If companies today want to attract and retain talent, they must offer remote work. They don’t have a choice. Even JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, one of the most outspoken critics of remote work, recently caved, allowing about 40% of employees to work remotely.
How to prepare: Adopt a hybrid-friendly policy to grant workers the flexibility they demand and to continue attracting and retaining talent.
Prediction 2: Office space won’t go away, but it will serve a different function.
Hybrid companies have a different need for physical office space. Some companies will need less square footage, while others will need to redesign their space for more collaborative work or as a place employees can gather for relationship- and culture-building purposes. Companies will also likely increasingly open satellite offices in the suburbs or use coworking spaces.
This prediction may not come to fruition for five or more years. Data shows the use of office space is around 40–50%, but demand for office real estate has only declined 1%. What’s driving this? A few things:
- Leases are often 7-8 years. As leases come up, I predict we’ll see companies reevaluating the square footage and design of their spaces.
- Companies lack confidence in how well hybrid will play out. They’re reluctant to invest in building out physical space or downsizing too significantly.
Centric’s Delhi, India, office provides a good indicator of how this prediction will play out in the U.S. To attract employees, we have to offer remote work. Delhi is home to 32 million people — the commute can be brutal and there’s a lot of competition for talent. When our lease comes due this year, we plan to get a smaller space, designed more for coming together than for heads-down work. We’ll also open satellite offices in the Delhi suburbs.
How to prepare: Think about how your need for office space has changed since the pandemic. How are employees using the space? How can it better accommodate those activities?
Prediction 3: Companies will increasingly make use of freelance talent.
There are currently around 60 million independent workers, and that number is predicted to rise.
Data from MBO Partners says that nontraditional employment reached 51 million in 2021, a 34% increase from 2020. Another study from Upwork revealed that 20% of U.S. workers are considering freelancing as their future career. By one estimate, the number of U.S. freelancers will reach 86.5 million — just over half of the U.S. workforce — by 2027.
With so many highly skilled workers choosing to go freelance, companies will increasingly turn to contractors or gig workers. In learning to adopt an on-demand approach to talent, companies will become more agile, innovative and productive while simultaneously accessing a larger universe of minds contributing to their organization.
Some experts theorize that future organizations will be leaner, operating with a small core group of employees supported by highly skilled freelancers, contractors or gig workers. Some freelancers will come on board for one-off projects while others will become integrated into organizations for longer-term initiatives.
How to prepare: While this reality seems a long ways off, there are real benefits to developing a freelance strategy now. Don’t think of freelancers as last-minute add-ons to save drowning projects. Many serious freelancers would rather develop mutually beneficial long-term relationships, so learn to incorporate them early on to projects and unlock the full power of their skills.
Prediction 4: Leaders will need to lean on a whole new set of skills.
This is already a reality. Again, the world of work isn’t returning to a pre-pandemic “normal.” And the leadership style of the last 70 years no longer applies. As teams are increasingly distributed and virtual interaction becomes the norm, leaders will need to flex new muscles to keep their people engaged and inspired.
The most effective leaders of tomorrow will prioritize relationship-building and sustainable work-life balance. They will trust their people, encourage trust and authentic relationships among team members, model strong work-life boundaries and help their teams feel connected to and inspired by their organization’s mission.
How to prepare: Train leaders in the new essential skills for the hybrid workplace. (And consider calling in some outside experts. Centric, for instance, has developed training to help leaders be more effective in a hybrid setting.)
Prediction 5: Organizations will learn to harness the insights from digital exhaust.
The tools that make remote, asynchronous work possible also collect a ton of data (called digital exhaust), providing companies with new depths of understanding of their operations. As companies learn to examine and make use of this treasure trove of data, they’ll likely become flatter, with less need for middle management to disseminate knowledge.
Companies that learn to use the insights from digital exhaust will unlock some major competitive advantages, including accelerated process improvement and improved team function and organizational design.
Digital exhaust can also help companies better use their greatest asset: Their people. The most critical employees may not be those with impressive titles. Digital data from collaboration tools can reveal how information flows through an organization, highlighting major connectors. Knowing the true linchpins can help companies improve retention and promotion approaches.
How to prepare: Learn how to leverage technology to improve your organization, then explore the data that tech can deliver. What stories is that data telling? Let the data help write the future of your organization.
Prediction 6: Companies will put people first, investing in employee wellbeing.
The Great Resignation. The Great Reconfiguration. The Great Reevaluation. Whatever you call it, the root cause behind these trends is companies failing to put employees first. Companies with toxic cultures or cultures that don’t value employees as human beings are bleeding talent.
Why now? The pandemic caused everyone to revaluate their priorities. People realized that there is much more to life than working endless hours at a company that doesn’t care for their wellbeing or work-life balance.
Companies of the future will adopt cultures that truly value people — and go beyond mere lip service. They will invest in their people, for example by offering mental health benefits, improved remote work experiences, meaningful mentorship and clear career pathways.
How to prepare: Hire a great chief people officer to discover what employees value and figure out a way to deliver it.
Prediction 7: Web3 will disrupt everything we know about business.
Web1 was the internet in its earliest days, with much more limited use and capabilities than we have today. If you’re using the web now for pretty much anything, you’re participating in Web2.
The next big thing is Web3, which encompasses things like bitcoin and the metaverse. In a nutshell, Web3 will decentralize the internet, using blockchain technology (a decentralized, digital ledger) and token-based economics. When Web3 gains prominence, currencies, government functions and more will likewise become decentralized. Data ownership will radically change, too. All this will change everything about the way organizations are structured and run.
One Web3 business model is the DAO (decentralized autonomous organization). Like Web3 at large, DAOs run on blockchain technology and smart contracts. The blockchain is where the rules and governance of the DAO lives; this can only be changed by majority vote of DAO participants. Every decision is collectively and publicly discussed, voted on and documented. In other words, DAOs run on a radically democratized and transparent way of decision making.
The DAO world is already gaining traction. Andreesen Horowitz, a venture capital firm cofounded by visionary technologist Marc Andreessen, has led major fundraising rounds for DAOs and firms that back DAO creation. Some theorize that DAOs will disrupt the Y Combinator startup model, gaining an edge through an ability to rapidly scale.
How to prepare: Invest in innovation — perform small pilots that test different ways of operating to prepare for a decentralized future.
The Future of Work Is Coming. Are You Ready?
Some of these predictions are already coming true. Some are still years away and may never come fully to fruition. What is clear, however, is that the world of work is rapidly changing, and companies need to learn to evolve along with it. The most successful organizations of the future will be nimble and agile. They’ll invest in equipping their leaders with the necessary skills to guide a hybrid workforce. They’ll explore new ways to engage talent, keep employees happy and fulfilled and harness data.
