Future of Work: The Top Five Emerging Trends

"Businesses will go mobile —For small to medium-sized firms, the availability of remote work options proves to be a perk and a necessity. Businesses will operate while building resilience and dynamic comfort of employees."

Due to COVID-19, work culture has observed major disruptions in the last few years. From the regular working culture to the remote work, automation has changed everything about recruitment, in-house training, and productivity. And many wonder what the future holds in terms of work culture with digital transformation.

A recent survey stated that the pandemic pushed growth in remote work by nearly 1,200%. Not a surprise, right? But will this continue next year, and what about the year after that? The same survey also indicates that 64% of businesses plan to reimagine their work model, which would be different from what they had before. That gap indicates that one-third of organizations would be left behind a vast population. But, to build a future-ready workplace, we must create a "new normal" that sustains workers in both work and personal lives. Indeed, not all businesses will continue remotely. Some employees will return to the office, known as hybrid work.

The future will be digital — How will businesses gain success?

Coming to the main question, how can businesses survive competition to eliminate any time crunch and synchronize the work experience. So, here are the top 5 trends to watch out for in the future of work.

#1: Anywhere, Anytime Operations

With digital transformation, entrepreneurial opportunities have been dramatically associated with remote work. The shift to hybrid work has increased the need for data-centric services. Businesses worldwide seek to integrate technologies to enhance their teams' collaboration and flexibility. Therefore, there's a need to set up groundbreaking tools to get on-demand access to the business resources with the Desktop as a Service (DaaS) solution, and it can spin out to be fully independent and remote desktop hosting

It makes it easy for enterprises to third-party onboard vendors who can make secure cloud-based virtual desktops available to them anytime, anywhere.

• Enables workforce to work from anywhere
• Distributed desktops across a secure infrastructure
• Works well with different devices: Android, Mac, Windows, and more
• Multiple users can share the workspace
• Comes with full-fledged setup and deployment

Hence the services are available remotely regardless of location; corporations find endless opportunities to equip their team with the installed applications to increase productivity.

#2: Increased Augmented Reality in Higher Education

The future of work is expected to witness Augmented Reality mixed with classroom training. As we can see, with change in the enterprise landscape, majorly every industry, including Education, needs to gain new experience. Augmented Reality gives device-agnostic expertise to the learners by adding virtual elements to the actual image. Thus, this virtual technology creates interactive environments so that the student can build, strategize, experiment, and evolve in the learning process.

When Augmented Reality meets the on-demand access of virtual desktops, it can do wonders for the education industry. Managed Virtual desktops give them a graphics-intensive experience that acts as a cherry on the cake for augmented Reality. The graphics-intensive experience offers them the opportunity to explore the subject with profound detail.

#3: Technology Oriented Recruiting Process:

Recruitment is also set to see enhanced digital technology to measure remote employee expertise. One such concept is Digital footprints, which are the trail of data we leave while being online. It comprises everything- from social media to browser databases.

The hiring strategies will change instead of relying on resumes for information. Job seekers will trust the 'digital footprint.'

The importance of CVs and resumes may fade from recruiting process in favor of some digital tools such as Applicant Tracking Systems, video assessments, and more. The hybrid and remote recruitment process demand these tools to establish a smooth recruitment process, from interviewing to onboarding.

#4: Use of Performance Management Tools

In the last two years, we have seen emerging technologies changing the face of businesses. As your workplace sets foot on adaptable ground, one shouldn't overlook the matter of trust. Thus, firms can quickly gain employee satisfaction through performance and trust. The real goal of any business is to get the best results from every employee.

The thriving hybrid culture is all about mutual consideration and collaboration, discovering ways to implement new strategies to assess employee and team performance. For instance, tracking the number of hours an employee worked can be a standard metric for most businesses but not a relevant one. However, business leaders need virtual technologies to monitor their employees as more work becomes performance-based. While the performance tracking tools can be in the form of the virtual clock in and out, time tracking and productivity monitoring tool, or compensation management. At the end of a month, employees' performance should count on competence and behavior.

#5: Employee-First Approach

The future of hybrid work lies in the hands of employees' satisfaction when it comes to managing the hybrid workforce, and you need to adopt it. However, productivity doesn't need to be estimated in days or hours. It's calculated in outcomes and responsibility.

It's observed that the trend toward flexible working hours builds trust between employer and employee. Flexible working hours are among the top metrics employees look for while searching for a job.

It's about counting on employees to perform their tasks efficiently and focusing on results rather than clock-ins. Depending on the role, it should be okay if the person can perform well working late nights or a little later in the day. Of course, collaboration tools, including video calls and access to work applications from anywhere, are essential. Still, equally noteworthy is virtual technology to enhance the way workers can connect with the in-built infrastructure.

And if the proper virtual infrastructure is deployed, they can virtually meet, create, problem-solve, and innovate to perform better. The trend says, 'Let's make it frictionless for your employees to navigate their workday and perform to their best from any location.'

The Bottom Line: What the Future Holds for Businesses

At the peak, these emerging trends can help you predict what steps you should plan for the competition ahead.

As more and more firms are expected to move towards virtual desktop technologies, Augmented Reality, and performance measurement tools, the way work is done might also change. The growth of digital technologies that we have seen in the last decade may double up.

Furthermore, with virtual collaboration and cybersecurity taking the front seat of business concerns, an increase in demand for virtual tools is possible. Meanwhile, a result-driven strategy incorporates innovative in-person collaboration in the workplace. Lastly, the future of work will continue to innovate and bring new challenges to the flexible work culture.

Are you ready to give virtual technologies a place in the hybrid workplace? Can you embrace the future trends that'll take 2022?