Since the onset of the global pandemic, not just workplaces but also work culture has changed dramatically to meet the new normal. Organisations are increasingly adopting digital transformation and focusing on capability-building initiatives in light of ever-changing business conditions. Here are four ways in which the workplace will evolve to reshape the way we look at it:

1. Hybrid Workplaces : Businesses have begun to return to ‘business as usual,’ recognizing that work culture will never be the same again. As a result, hybrid work will be the new reality in 2022 and beyond, supporting both physical and remote workforces. Employees today want a mixed workplace with a focus on flexibility. It allows employees to have the best of both worlds – physical and virtual – while also allowing them to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
2. Virtual Communication : Providing powerful virtual communication and collaboration solutions to the hybrid workforce has become a must. In 2020, the overall global market for virtual communication was predicted to be around USD 9 billion, and by 2028, it is expected to be around USD 21 billion. The market’s CAGR is estimated to be around 5.92 percent. The videoconferencing market is predicted to develop at the quickest rate, with a CAGR of 7.48 percent from roughly USD 4 billion in 2020 to USD 6.5 billion by 2028. Majority of cloud service providers offer advanced virtual collaboration capabilities for hybrid workforces to communicate with team members and customers in a seamless manner.
3. Digitisation and Skilling : Digitisation has become inevitable in order to keep pace with the new normal. The legacy infrastructure is incapable of meeting the changing demands of today’s businesses and workforce. The hiring and skilling processes of businesses have been fundamentally transformed as a result of this. Upskilling and reskilling are now considered business necessities and imperatives. As a result, HR leaders have been driven to modernise their hiring and training practices.
4. AI-Augmented Workforce : Workplace and collaboration are being reviewed by companies across the globe. According to the Remote Work & Compensation Pulse Survey from May 2021, 48 percent of employees want to be entirely remote, while 44 percent choose hybrid working arrangements. Employers support the mixed work paradigm 51% of the time, while only 5% cite entirely remote work as an option. To function in such a situation, employees must be acquainted with automation and other cutting-edge technologies like cloud and AI. Businesses are attempting to establish an environment in which humans and machines may operate alongside each other in a shared workspace, boosting the human workforce’s talents. Intelligent automation is removing a lot of monotonous and repetitive work from the office, allowing individuals to focus on more useful activities and broadening the scope of their responsibilities.

The new normal is here to stay, and businesses all across the world must adapt in order to keep up. Businesses must invest in cutting-edge technology while also paying attention to their employees’ training and skilling needs. The emerging trends in the corporate sector will not only recreate the workplace of the future, but also make it more sustainable.

As written by Lakshmi Mittra, VP and Head, Clover Academy and published in Trak.in