Fedhealth

There’s currently a war for talent happening globally, and as a business owner or leader you need to keep on top of it. Why? Not paying attention to these seismic shifts in the workplace means losing out on retaining the best people in your organisation, which could be detrimental to its ongoing success. 

With this in mind, here are 5 workplace trends you need to know about right now:

1. The Great Resignation

The ‘Great Resignation’, also known as the Big Quit or Great Reshuffle, refers to an economic trend where huge numbers of people around the world voluntarily resigned from their jobs starting in early 2021. Organisational psychologist and Texas A&M University professor Anthony Klotz first coined the phrase. 

However, it’s important to note that this trend refers to a specific subset of people, most of whom are operating within economies where they are privileged to have been able to keep their jobs over the pandemic. These are employees who have alternative options to support themselves (for example other job offers, state benefits or savings) and not necessarily lower income individuals operating in job markets like ours, with high unemployment and lower job security. 

2. Mental health focus 

The mental health crisis is one that has been shared globally, exacerbated by the economic and social impact of the pandemic. Isolation, job losses, uncertainty, the death or illness of loved ones and the associated grief over the past few years have all taken an intense toll on our mental health. 

Companies are therefore placing the mental wellbeing of their staff at the forefront, establishing internal mental health programmes (or taking advantage of ones offered by their medical aid providers, such as this one from Fedhealth), educating employees on mental health issues, and spending budget to ensure people are supported. They’re doing this because they know that if they don’t address burnout and focus on building up the resilience of staff members, their productivity, turnover and ultimately bottom line will be affected.

3. Hybrid work and the commute

Hybrid working is not a new trend; over the past two years many of us have adapted our 9-to-5s to some sort of WFH and in-office mix. However, what is influencing this further is the rising cost of fuel which in turn affects transport costs. With employees spending an increasing percentage of their salaries on their commutes, it begs the question whether employers can legitimately continue to demand that staff spend time in the office – without offering some sort of travel allowance as compensation. A recent poll conducted by Business Tech highlighted this concern, noting that it may spark a trend where employees start to work exclusively from their homes.

4. Designing more attractive workplaces 

Linked to the above, employers must pay a lot more attention to making offices and workspaces desirable places to spend time, in order to encourage workers to come in. No more drab cubicles and terrible coffee – instead, they’ll need to focus on aesthetics and design, providing tasty food and drinks, and giving staff recreation opportunities they wouldn’t get at home (think group exercise classes or meditation, or a company table tennis tournament for example).

5. The changing work week

Gartner predicts that in order to attract talent in future, employers will start to offer shorter work weeks, giving employees more time off. Because they can’t necessarily increase salaries due to strained economies, companies will start to decrease working hours instead. Many companies are already offering employees the option to choose 32, 36 or 40 hour work weeks (split as they choose), as opposed to forcing everyone to work five days a week, for eight hours each day.

While the future of the working world may be uncertain, what is clear is that flexibility is the most desirable trait that employees want in a job. Companies that focus on providing this, and on taking excellent care of their employees, should be worthy winners in the battle for talent going forward.