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By: Haris Shamsi, Director @ YOTTABYTE
The year 2020 was all about speculations about whether or not remote work will stay; the year 2021 made us apprehend that this new work-from-home norm is sure to stick around forever. Before the pandemic of Covid-19, many businesses were reluctant to accept the notion; ''remote work is a new normal''. Also, they were not ready to make remote work a practical work option for their teams. They struggled to thread the needle on communication, productivity, culture, overall employee growth, advancement, and well-being.
With research data distills, it has incurred that more shifts have been seen from professional settings to home offices, from conference tables to zoom online meetings, and from onsite hiring to remote human resource operations.
The transitioning data put forward by Global Workplace Analytics estimates almost “56% of the U.S. workforce holds a job that is compatible with remote work.’’
FlexJobs shared recent survey results and goes as; "97% of workers want some of the remote-work post-pandemic.''
‘’Around 50% of the workers work remotely since 2020.’’ as mentioned by GitLab.
This clear depiction of flexibility and change in preferences has set fertile grounds for remote work trends, which will persist even after 2022. Let's look at some of the remote work trends for 2022 in this article.
1. Skillsets overruling the roles
2. Role of technology and communications
3. Cybersecurity at the top of the priority list
4. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Augmented Workforce
5. HR Automation
SKILL SETS OVERRULING ROLES
''Jack of all master of none". It is one of the most rightly stated wisdom. An online profile with various general skills is less magnetic for employers than for those with a specialized skill set. There has been a considerable shift in hiring trends with remote work changes. Hiring bodies at the workplace preferred people with a more generalized set of skills, whereas a remote worker with a specialized skill set is considered the best.
Why is it so?
Let's first see what skills and roles imply in a workplace? Skill is the ability to address business challenges and provide a solution. On the other hand, the role demonstrates the relation or place an employee holds in an organization. There has been a trend of this flat organizational hierarchy structure which is an excellent example of focusing more on skills and less on roles.
If you are a job seeker, it is wise to learn a skill, sharpen the existing one and become a master of that to score your place in the industry. Mastering the specific tech skill will help you stand out from the competition in the market.
ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS
Communication has always been a key to rolling your dice and getting through the situation; Covid-19 on canvas blocking one-on-one conversations led to the development of tools and apps in technology that enabled workers to connect and communicate synchronously and asynchronously.
Besides the communication challenge, there arose a need to adopt new technologies and update ourselves with digital skills. Many organizations faced the challenge of effectively communicating across teams and started focusing on improving the whole communication process in their organization.
Employees and job hunters must upgrade their skills for an online environment.
CYBERSECURITY AT THE TOP OF THE PRIORITY LIST
Remote working undoubtedly has resulted in cybersecurity risks. Working from home possess a threat to the data because each home office is not protected to the level of protection a centralized office provides.
Gartner says, ‘’As the new normal of hybrid work takes shape, all organizations will need an always-connected defensive posture and clarity on what business risks remote users elevate to remain secure.’’
As the trend of going remote is picking up momentum in 2022, employers will keep looking for fool-proof measures. Cybersecurity experts can offer their services in identifying and mitigating security vulnerabilities, implementing security controls, and ensuring the company's best security measures.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) AUGMENTED WORKFORCE
The nature of work is rapidly changing along with the workforce. The jobs are being re-carved and reinvented to keep pace with new trending technologies. Companies are adapting to become more digital and shifting to an AI-based model. AI augmentation is the combination of human and artificial intelligence, which can create value instead of chaos declared by many.
Gartner predicted; AI will produce more jobs than it displaces.
According to World Economic Forum, there will be a massive rise in creating jobs by AI and automation in 2025, with approximately 97 million new jobs.
AI is the future of the workforce. It will allow people to perform better by reducing human errors.
HR AUTOMATION
The workplace landscape has seen automation and digitalization booming across organizations. HR segment is automating more than it ever has. This has allowed HR to function better by making the right choices at the right time with little effort and time invested.
AI makes recruiting more manageable and faster, eliminating the aspect of biasness. AI-based hiring tools also make the onboarding process smoother, easier and quicker.
HR automation is undoubtedly an inevitable digital transformation and need of time when all the global workforce is going remote.
In my opinion, businesses are grappling with the effects of pandemics, and each new day will bring surprises, news, and challenges. It won't be wrong, to sum up as remote work itself will predict future trends. Remote work brought flexibility of work timings, work-life balance, no hassle of running to the office early morning, eliminating traveling cost, ease of working from your home office. It also has brought up innovative and technological challenges to each remote worker, which means investing in upgrading skills and technologies and developing a strategy is mandatory to make things easy during your virtual work journey.
Haris Shamsi is the Director at YOTTABYTE, Founder at 01hire.com & FracEstate.co
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