February 10th 2023
As we move further away from the pandemic and look more to the future of business, we thought we’d give you some information on what we think are going to be big workplace trends in the coming year.
2023 will be an even bigger year for business, with a whole new generation entering the workforce, the continued growth of hybrid and flexible working and new workplace measures to ensure safety brought about by COVID-19.
We’re going to highlight some of our predictions for business in 2023, and also discuss what we think will be at the forefront of many people’s minds as they enter a new year of working.
Flexible Working is Here to Stay
Flexibility is now the new normal. People want to be able to work where and when they desire to. The best part is this has, overall, been massively effective, with businesses hardly seeing a drop in productivity at all across all of the time during the pandemic. In fact, many businesses saw an uptick in productivity across their workforce, who were for the most part, all working from home.
When we say flexible working, we don’t just mean working from home, however. This can also include flexible working hours, later starts, earlier finishes and many other types of working that are now becoming very common in modern business.
Giving employees the option to work flexibly not only increases their output but can also help to create a better work-life balance and promote overall mental wellbeing. Which leads us neatly into our next prediction for workplace trends in 2023.
Mental Wellbeing is More Important Than Ever
The next of our predicted workplace trends revolves around mental health in the workforce. 2023 is likely to heavily revolve around mental wellbeing and ensuring employees are in the right headspace. We’re not saying that employers never cared about this, but we expect to see a big focus in employee mental health and resources available to make sure that everyone is coping well.
At the end of the day, mental health is just as important as physical health, and happier workers are more effective workers. As an employer, it’s your responsibility to pay attention to this, and pick up on signs of burnout and address it as fast as possible.
If you’re able to implement some form of mental health resource within your company, it’s likely that your employees will see the effort made, and will stick around longer, making your retention numbers look better than previous years.
The Pay Gap Will Be a Huge Focal Point
With a dramatic rise in cost of living over the last few years, it’s understandable that employees are going to scrutinise how much they are getting paid for the work they are doing. It’s likely that pay gap conversations are already being had across many different industries, and 2023 will likely see a lot of that conversation turn into action.
As an employer in 2023, you must pay more attention to the plights of your workers with regards to pay and pay gaps and have open and transparent discussions on what the future of your business looks like when viewed through a compensation lens.
Employees in 2023 will want to be put first, after the previous years of toil and hardship in the pandemic. It’s clear that employees know their worth, and if they don’t feel valued, they will simply leave.
Workers Will Retain Leverage
Skilled workers understand that their talents are very much needed. If too many workers were to up and leave, it’s quite possible that a company will begin falling apart.
2023 feels like the year in which workers are more readily able to stand up for what they believe in. From unions demanding more pay (and some businesses trying to tamper with those efforts), to more people moving to freelance and remote working, it’s critical that businesses and employers take note of the shift in power dynamic that this year could bring and come to the table with solutions to these looming problems.
As an employer, it’s in your best interest to work with your employees, not against them, especially in 2023, if you want them to stick around.
Hiring and Retention Challenges
Hiring talent in today’s business world can sometimes be easy. Retaining that talent is the hardest part. As a business owner, you naturally want the best people for the job. However, if a talent shortage were to happen and hiring becomes increasingly more difficult, you look to your current employees to fill in the gaps. This puts strain on those having to take on more workload, which can then put them in a situation where they are considering leaving your business, especially if they feel like they’re not skilled in a particular area.
A big factor in retaining employees is the option of upskilling and reskilling, which affords them the opportunity to learn a new skillset whilst still working for you. In 2023, you should put an emphasis on upskilling and reskilling your current workforce, to hopefully minimize any impact a talent shortage could have on your business.
Increase in AI and Automation
We expect big things to happen in the AI space in 2023. Over the last few years, we’ve seen a dramatic uptick in AI usage across many different sectors, from copywriting to digital art creation, and while they may come with certain legal or ownership challenges, it’s clear that AI is going to only develop more.
Automation was always billed as ‘the death of the physical workforce’, but in recent years, it’s actually been quite the opposite. People are now working with automation to complete tasks faster than they ever could, and until AI or an automated working system can fully mimic that of a real human worker, it’s not likely to be taking anyone’s jobs just yet – in some sectors anyway.
2023 is going to be a big year for businesses, and it’s important that you understand each point we’ve made today, and how they can impact your business going forward. Workplace trends are easy to predict by looking at previous years and seeing what did, and didn’t, work, and that’s what we’ve tried to outline for you today.
If you’re looking to expand your space to accommodate more employees as you grow throughout 2023, head over and take a look at our serviced offices and managed office spaces, or use our free office search tool to see what we have available in your area.
