How organisations can prepare for the workplace of tomorrow

• Many organisations have increased their investment in the well-being of their employees.
  
• Supporting employees to build critical skills and competencies to navigate the uncertainty can go a long way in creating a strong perception among employees.
  
• Technological evolution will reshape the way humans work – by getting rid of routines and mindless tasks, and providing more time for people to work on larger issues.
  

The arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic left no choice for organisations but to transition to a remote working model almost overnight. Organisations that were tightly holding on to the fixed workstation were forced to adopt a more agile and flexible workplace model.

The rapid advancements of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and robotics, and the acceleration of digital transformation initiatives have paved the way for a more agile, flexible working model. These, in return, have created new expectations amongst the workforce regarding working needs and achieving work-life balance. Not only that, today’s dynamic workplace has also created many opportunities for organisations to thrive. While many organisations are keen and want to open their offices to get back to the traditional way of working, doing so won’t be feasible in the long run, with employees expecting flexibility and more work-life balance. It can also take a toll on the employees' health since over 54% of HR correspondents of a Gartner survey reported that their employees have been suffering from change fatigue. Organisational change fatigue is a general sense of apathy displayed by individuals or teams towards organisational changes.

Hence, enterprises must take a step back and rethink their strategies before building the workplace of tomorrow. Creating the future workplace demands that enterprises provide employees the option to ‘work from anywhere’ while helping them stay engaged with all of the primary tasks and procedures.

Organisations will need to sharpen their focus and reevaluate the combination of technology, culture and humans to concentrate on their workforce experience, productivity and business expansion.

Employee health & well-being
Getting ready for ‘Office 2.0’ requires organisations to build humane relationships with their employees. They should determine the employees who are in more urgent need of their support for tackling emotional stress and burnout. Additionally, organisations should address the challenges of low engagement and lack of inclusivity that could potentially hurt the culture of their organisation. Even though many organisations have increased their investment in the well-being of the employees, most employees are finding it difficult to take advantage of these offerings. Therefore, it will be necessary for organisations to deliver on the promise of well-being as part of their employee value proposition to attract and retain top talent.

Prepare for disruptions
A big part of building a future-ready workplace is planning for external and internal disruptions. While the internal aspects such as shadow IT and cyber security shortcomings create impediments for IT functions, external factors can also hurt IT advancements. For example, many organisations are wrestling with logistics issues along with a massive crunch in global semiconductor production. Such aspects not only hurt the revenue and reputation of the organisations but also create a fertile ground of uncertainty, which often leads to employees questioning their future at their workplace.

While nothing is certain, given today’s enterprise ecosystem, supporting employees to build critical skills and competencies to navigate the uncertainty can go a long way in creating a strong perception among employees.

Augmented workforce
The advancement in AI, ML, robotics and automation is already having a transformative effect on today’s workplace. Industry experts believe that this technological evolution will reshape the way humans perform their duties by getting rid of routines and mindless tasks and providing more time for people to work on larger issues.

Today’s organisations are evolving beyond simple AI implementations to a whole-spectrum of industrial usage that have formalised procedures, solutions, skill sets, and partner ecosystems to exploit the power of advanced technologies.

By forming alliances with partners possessing domain expertise, organisations can interpret the intricacies and scalability for cognitive automation at work.

To thrive in today’s workplace, organisations should gear up to build a new workplace model that can meet the complexities of today's workplace. It provides employees the autonomy to work from anywhere without organisations interfering in or invading their personal space. Also, taking care of the employees' overall well-being should be on the top of the agenda. With content employees delivering and exceeding results, the integration of continuously evolving technologies will only create a better future.
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