Workplace Trends That Will Shape Communications In The Next 6 Months

In this fifth part of a six-part post, our communications experts take a look at Workplace Trends which they predict will be affecting the communications environment in the next six months and beyond. Thank you to our Worldcom Partners from The Pollack Group, Wisse Kommunikatie, PRAM Consulting, and Do It On, for sharing their insightful predictions.

In addition to the trends below, you can view the Workplace Trends video. 

The Future of Work Trends

Workplace Culture Will Become Key in Attracting and Retaining Talent

The pandemic reset the clock on what “the office” means, sending some of the world’s biggest companies back to the drawing board on defining their corporate culture. Companies that are ambiguous about culture in the coming months may fall victim to the talent upheaval happening in the marketplace. Internal communications will be paramount. Companies need to align around what their culture truly is, communicate it internally, and then deliver on that culture’s promise.

HR Must Revise Onboarding Programs to Fit The New World Of Work

As teams have been forced to work from home and relationships have been established and maintained via rather impersonal and often crowded virtual meetings, traditional group dynamics have changed dramatically. Therefore, new employees will have a hard time building relationships within teams that were already established before COVID broke down the ‘office team’ structure.

The same challenge arises for new employees that have just left school or university. Ordinarily, school leavers would take their first steps into working life by completing an internship. But that, too, has shifted to the impersonal virtual world.  This means that many of them will have missed out on developing important social skills that allows them to easily build relationships with their teams. With many employees continuing to work from home, HR will need to revise the company’s onboarding programs to properly introduce, include and retain new employees.

The Positive Economic Impacts of Remote Working Will See It Become Standard Practice

Covid-19 has accelerated the agenda for flexible and remote working opportunities that many have been campaigning for over a number of years.  But the pandemic is not the only driving force behind the evolution of remote working. There are economic benefits too. Globally, remote workers save around $7,000 per year in transportation, food, and childcare. Simultaneously, companies that allow remote work see an average increase of $2,000 in profit per remote worker. These economic benefits for both employer and employee will be a driving force behind companies giving more opportunities for remote work in the future.

Hybrid Is The Thing of The Moment

The pandemic has demonstrated the possibilities of remote working on a global scale. Although there are many obvious benefits, it’s not all good. While employees have benefited from the increased flexibility that remote working allows, many are missing out on the social interactions, relationship building and ease of collaboration that office working brings. This means that companies and employees will be exploring the possibilities of hybrid working in the next 18 to 24 months. Most companies will switch to smaller, inclusive workplaces, where people can come for two or three days a week to work, attend events, regular meetings, and moments of personal and professional sharing.

Other predictions from our Worldcom Experts:

• PR Trends Predictions post where our consultants take a look at communications trends
• Leadership/PR Strategy Predictions post where our experts predict leadership behavior and PR strategy trends
• Macro Trends post where our experts predict macro trends that will shape communications in the next 6 months
• Digital Trends where our consultants take a look at the digital trends that will shape communications in the coming months
• PR Agency Trends where our experts predict which trends will be affecting the communications environment in the next six months.

If you want to re-visit the predictions our Worldcom Experts made at the start of the 2021 you can view these here:

1. Part 1: 2021 PR and Content Marketing Predictions
2. Part 2: 2021 PR and Internal Comms/Employee Wellbeing Predictions
3. Part 3: 2021 PR and Leadership/Strategy Predictions
4. Part 4: 2021 PR and Sector Trends Predictions