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workplacetrends2015
be on trendAs we begin 2015, we look at some of the key trends
that we predict will really impact on the workplace
this year. Here are our top 10 workplace trends for
the New Year and beyond.
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In our constantly connected modern world, the
lines between home and work are becoming
increasingly blurred. Gone are the days of the
traditional 9 – 5, with many of us checking our work
emails before we even reach the office, or catching
up on work in the evening. We expect to see this
trend becoming increasingly common in 2015,
with smartphones and tablets making agile
working easy.
Whilst many employees relish the opportunity
to work outside the traditional working day, it’s
important to ensure you maintain a healthy
work/life balance. "The negative impacts of this
'always on' culture are that your mind is never
resting, you're not giving your body time to recover,
so you're always stressed” says Dr Christine Grant,
an occupational psychologist at Coventry
University's Centre for Research in Psychology,
Behaviour and Achievement.
It’s not just work that we’re increasingly connected
to though; the average Briton now spends over 11
hours a day consuming media according to Ofcom,
largely due to smartphones – a dramatic rise from 8
hours 48 minutes in 2010.
Growth of the ‘always on’ culture
be connected
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Changing nature of office space
be nomadic
Work is increasingly seen as an activity rather than a
location, and the way we use office space is changing as a
result. We can expect to see a growth in the nomadic
workforce, with offices evolving to have more meeting
spaces and less traditional desking. For many employees
the office is increasingly becoming somewhere they work
occasionally, rather than the place that they spend every
working day.
The trend for hot desking is set to continue, with
60% of those working in the public sector
expecting that they will be sharing a desk within 3
years according to a recent study by the Guardian.
There will be a real focus on collaborative working
spaces going forward, with meeting rooms
becoming flexile workspaces that can be used in a
variety of ways.
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Multi-generational workforce
be generational
We now have four generations working side by
side in the workplace, spanning over 50 years.
These can generally be broken down into four
distinct groups:
Organisations will need to focus on successfully
utilising the skills of a diverse, multi-generational
workforce. We expect to see a shift from traditional
retirement to part-time working, with many people
continuing to work into their seventies and beyond.
• The traditionalists - born between 1927 and 1945
• The Baby Boomers - born between 1946 and
1964
• Generation X – born between 1965 and the early
1980s
• Generation Y – born in 1980 or later
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Technology
be smart
Technology will continue to have a significant impact on the changing nature
of the workplace. There will be a continued migration to cloud, allowing
synergy across multiple devices and complementing our increasingly mobile
culture.
We predict a rise in smart wearables, spearheaded by the release of the Apple
Watch this year. Fewer than 10 million smart wearable devices were bought in
2013 but research firm CCS Insight expects a huge rise in sales in the future.
Marina Koytecheva, Director of Forecasting at CIS says that smart watches will
become the new tech trend “as soon as technology and fashion collide”. She
also says that “for people to cotton on to smart wearables, pricing also needs
to come down... we saw it with tablet computers”.
CIS predicts that the main use of smart wearables by 2018 will be health-
related, such as heartbeat tracking. Smart watches can measure the number
of calories burned, and how much exercise and activity you’ve done. Smart
watches convey information from the wearer’s smartphone to their wrist, such
as updates and notifications.
We predict there will be a real growth in people wearing health-related smart
wearables at work. Devices like the Lumo lift enable you to correct your
posture, and monitor your activity including the number of ‘good posture
hours’, steps travelled and calories burned. Or for round the clock monitoring
there’s the fitbit, which tracks your steps, distance, calories burned, and stairs
climbed. At bedtime it measures your sleep quality, helps you learn how to
sleep better, and wakes you in the morning.
Our top technology prediction from last year, 3D printing, will see a continued
rise in uptake. As this technology gets less expensive, we’ll see it becoming
increasingly common, particularly in the industrial and bio-chemical sectors.
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The skills gap
be skilled
With the economic recovery continuing, over
50% of UK businesses are planning on hiring
more staff in 2015 according to the CBI.
However many are concerned that a skills
shortage will prevent jobs being filled.
“It’s a concern that the UK’s growing skills gap is
now seen as the number one workforce threat
to the long-term health of its economy.
Companies and the Government need to work
together to find ways to develop skills within
the workforce and help employees move into
higher skilled and better paid jobs.” Said Katja
Hall, the CBI’s deputy director-general.
With 1 in 3 jobs* set to ‘disappear’ in the next
20 years, due to automation, we predict there
will be a growing awareness of the need to
develop a highly skilled workforce. New jobs
will be created, but they are likely to be at the
highly skilled end of the market.
Roles at risk of disappearing include office
and administrative support; sales and
services; transportation; construction and
extraction; and production. ‘Low or no risk’
jobs are in skilled management; financial
services; computing, engineering and science;
education; legal services; community services;
the arts and media; and healthcare.
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New ways to travel
be mobile
Travel moves into a different gear this year, as
trials of driverless cars take place in Bristol,
Coventry, Milton Keynes and the London
borough of Greenwich. Government funding of
£19m will allow the trials, lasting from 18 to 36
months, to comprehensively test new self-
driving technology. All the trials will take place
away from public roads, though the aim is to
make automated driving a reality on British roads
in the future.
“We’re looking to start our first trial with
automated shuttles with members of the public
in May,” said Dr Nick Reed from the Transport
Research Lab (TRL), leader of the consortium
running the Greenwich trials.
Transport minister Claire Perry said “Driverless
cars have huge potential to transform the UK’s
transport network – they could improve safety,
reduce congestion and lower emissions,
particularly CO2. We’re determined to ensure
driverless cars can fulfil this potential which is
why we’re actively reviewing regulatory obstacles
to create the right framework for trialling these
vehicles on UK roads.”
We’re already seeing a shift from traditional car
ownership to car rental, with the rise of city car
clubs where you can rent a vehicle by the hour.
More and more people are choosing to rent a car,
rather than invest in their own. In 2013, vehicle
rental and leasing companies purchased
approximately 308,000 UK manufactured
vehicles; more than 80% of UK vehicles sold in
the UK. We expect to see this trend continue in
2015 and beyond, with people migrating towards
the shared ‘as you need it’ model.
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Narrowing of the gender pay gap
be equal
Figures released by the ONS in November 2014
revealed the gap between men and women’s earnings
is at its lowest level since records began. The
difference stood at 9.4% in April compared with 10%
a year earlier, a gap of about £100 a week. Although
the figures were a result of men’s pay dropping faster
than women’s in real terms, we predict that 2015 will
see a further narrowing of the gender pay gap.
Women aged 22 – 29 working for more than 30 hours
a week in 2014 were actually paid 1.1% more than
men in the same age bracket when hourly earnings
were compared and, for the first time were also paid
more in the 30 to 39 age bracket.
Although weekly earnings suggest men are paid
more in all age groups, the hourly earnings level is
the preferred measure used by the ONS to judge the
pay gap. Men in full-time work earn on average
£29,441 and women in full-time jobs earn £23,889.
“We have more women in work than ever before,
but businesses need to value diversity in their
workforce and pay attention to the role of women in
their organisations” said Nicky Morgan, Minister for
Women and Equalities.
We expect to see the gender pay gap shrink further
in 2015. The pay gap between men and women has
been measured since 1997, when it stood at 17.4%.
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Growth of social media
We predict that use of social media will be
increasingly common in the workplace, with more
and more organisations relaxing restrictions on
accessing social media at work. With most
companies actively operating on social channels,
there’s a growing trend towards allowing employees
to access social media from their computers and
phones.
A recent study by LinkedIn and Altimeter Group in
July 2014, found that a majority of engaged
employees - 54% – read content by their company
through social media. The report studied those
companies which were found to be the best at
engaging their employees. It revealed that the top
performing companies build relationships with their
be social
employees through social
media and leverage their core values to
empower their employees to be brand ambassadors.
Companies are also increasingly using platforms like LinkedIn
to recruit new staff, and 48% of UK recruiters now screen the
social media profiles of applicants, according to
Careerbuilder.co.uk.
British employees are the most likely in Europe to ignore
workplace restrictions on social media, with two in five
admitting to using Facebook at work even if it is banned. 41%
of British workers who are banned accessing Facebook at
work admitted using the site in a study of 4,500 office
workers by Samsung Electronics in July 2014.
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Rise in flexible working
be flexible
The growing trend for flexible working could
benefit the economy by £90bn, the Centre for
Economics and Business Research (Cebr) revealed
last month.
The Cebr research, commissioned by mobile
workspace solutions company Citrix, reached this
“best case scenario” based on a survey of 1,272
Britons. The study found that 83% of knowledge
workers, which the Cebr defines as “thinking jobs”
including lawyers, engineers, and doctors, would
use flexible working options if they were available.
This could add £11.5bn (or 0.7% of GDP) to the UK
economy through the improved use of employees’
time.
7 out of the 10 people who are currently
unemployed because they are retired, a carer, a
stay-at-home parent or disabled, said they would
be inclined to start working if they could do so
flexibly. By allowing these people to work from
home or outside traditional office hours could add
£78.5bn to the economy, adding 4.7% to GDP.
A YouGov Poll, also conducted in December 2014,
found that 90% of companies already offer some
form of flexible working. New legislation in 2014
means that employees can now apply for flexible
working rights after they have worked for an
employer for 26 weeks. We predict that flexible
working will become increasingly popular in 2015,
although the YouGov poll also revealed that 42% of
workers don’t currently feel comfortable about
requesting it.
New shared parental leave and pay rights will
become active in April 2015, and we are likely to
see a real shift in the way working parents take
leave going forwards. The change in the law means
that new parents can share leave during the first
year of a child’s life. The Government predicts that
between 2 – 8% of fathers will take advantage of
this in 2015, but we’re likely to see this becoming
increasingly common going forwards.
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Wellbeing and productivity
be well
Finally, we predict a growing awareness of
the importance of workplace wellbeing.
The new workplace wellbeing charter was
launched in England, last year in June.
Workplace charters provide employers –
of all sizes and sectors – with an easy
and systematic way of driving
improvements in workplace health.
Having a healthy workforce can reduce
sickness absence, lower staff
turnover and boost
productivity. The charter
comes in three levels –
commitment,
achievement and
excellence – each
containing different
standards that need
to be achieved.
We’re likely to see more workplaces adopting
innovative solutions to improve workplace health,
including ergonomic furniture and sit and stand
desking. More and more people are recognising the
health risks of long periods of sitting, so we expect
to see a rise in meetings on the move. Individuals
are also recognising the benefits of focusing on
their own wellbeing, and trying to incorporate
more movement into their working day.
Encouraging movement around the workplace
can increase productivity too. By
focusing on staff wellbeing, employers
can reduce absenteeism, improve
morale and create a better working
environment.
