The workplace used to be a rigid place where employees conformed to cultural norms such as wearing a shirt and tie and working 9-5. Being in the office every day was an expectation.
Today’s modern workplace is more of a fluid, casual environment, where work-life balance is championed and, depending on your business culture, some of the team might even come to work dressed in sweatpants from time to time.
New-age employers have found that the old, rigid style of thinking is inefficient in reality and doesn't meet new age challenges, like employees collaborating effectively over long distances. The modern workplace environment has a blended workforce, is becoming more responsive to problems, and less tied down to physical locations. Employees now use modern collaborative software like Meet and Google Docs to communicate more effectively with their colleagues around the world in real time.
The workplace continues to evolve in order to meet the needs of both employees and employers. Let’s take a look at 5 modern workplace trends and how they are changing the way we work.
1. Flexible workforce
According to a study from Intuit, freelancers will comprise 40 percent of the workforce by the year 2020. The biggest reason for this growing trend is that employers are finding that freelancers can drive efficiency, especially with the savings on administrative and healthcare costs.
Freelance marketplaces like Upwork are helping to drive the shift towards the gig economy. Sites such as Freelancer, Fiverr, Guru, and even LinkedIn are providing specialized workers with opportunities to work remotely for a wide range of companies around the world.
The rise of the internet also has given rise to the gig economy. Sites like Upwork are connecting more people around the world. This give them the freedom and flexibility to choose the kind of work they want. Millennials, in particular, are trading in the traditional security and benefits of a full-time job for more freelancing opportunities where they have complete control over their schedule.
These outsourcing platforms are hugely beneficial for freelancers, too. Workers enjoy:
- The flexibility to choose whom they work for and at what pay rates
- The ability to set their own schedule
- The freedom to work remotely
Freelancers can have a wide range of specializations. Writers, graphic designers, Photoshop experts, customer service specialists, accountants and many more can freelance by looking for work on sites like Upwork, Guru, and Freelancer. Companies benefit by getting access to a vast talent pool of specialized professionals.
Freelancers aren’t just working with small businesses on a tight budget either. Some of the largest companies in the world take advantage of freelancers for specialized talent. Companies like Facebook, IBM, and BBC Worldwide have used freelancer sites to get projects done on budget and on-time.
In summary, employers are becoming more dynamic and improving productivity. They prefer to hire from a rich talent pool of remote workers from around the world. And with that, there is an increasing need for managers who can skillfully manage both freelancers and full-time employees working alongside one another.
This brings us to trend number two.
2. Collaboration, and a lot of it
Even in our digital age, collaboration can still be a difficult thing to master. As connectivity increases, so do the number of platforms which employees, employers, and clients communicate on. This can pose problems for teams that are working in the same office — let alone those that are working and communicating remotely.
Take a post-click landing page for example and everything that goes into the creation process. Typically, you have a copywriter, designer, and ultimately a manager or VP that gives the final approval for publishing. With all of the necessary post-click landing page elements required to create an optimized page, there is constant communication and changes to be made before a page is published.
Project managers would have to organize copywriters, editors, and designers as well as feedback from clients or other stakeholders. Copywriters might prefer to communicate through Slack or Google Docs, while clients may prefer giving feedback and providing suggestions through Gmail or Trello. Communication through multiple channels likely meant publishing delays and details lost in translation — all making collaboration inefficient.
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