What's next? The "best bets" on the top 9 ways your world of work may change

As business leaders strive to navigate a rapidly changing environment, it would be fair to say that 2020 shakes many organizations and business models, raising priorities and plans. For many organizations, this includes responding to social justice movements, moving to remote full-time staff, determining how best to support workers' well-being, managing a hybrid workforce, and now addressing legal concerns about the Covid-19 vaccine.

It would be nice to believe that 2021 will be about stability and return to normal; however, this year will likely be full of critical transitions. These are the best bets for the top 9.

Bet 1) Employers will move from managing the employee experience to managing their employees' life experiences. The pandemic gave business leaders greater visibility into the personal lives of their employees, who faced unprecedented personal and professional struggles last year.

Supporting employees in their personal lives more effectively ensures that employees have better lives and perform at a higher level. According to Gartner's ReimagineHR Employee Survey 2020, employers who support employees with life experiences see a 23% increase in the number of employees reporting better mental health and a 17% increase in the number of employees reporting better physical health. There is also a real benefit for employers who see a 21% increase in the number of high performers than organizations that do not provide the same support level.

So 2021 will be the year when employer support will become significant employee benefits from mental health, financial health, and even what was previously seen outside the boundaries, such as sleep.

Bet 2) More companies will adopt positions on current social and political debates. The desire of employees to work in organizations whose values ​​overlap with them has been increasing for some time. In 2020, this demand accelerated: Gartner research shows that 74% of employees expect their employers to participate more actively in the cultural discussions of the day. I believe CEOs must respond to retain and attract the best talent.

However, it is no longer enough to explain the problems of the day: Employees expect more. And CEOs who spent resources on these issues were rewarded with employees with a higher loyalty. A Gartner survey found that when their organizations took action on today's social issues, the number of employees considered highly committed rose from 40% to 60%.

Bet 3) The gender wage gap will continue to widen as employees return to the office. Many organizations have embraced - or are planning this year - a hybrid workforce that allows employees to work from the corporate office, home, or alternative third space. In this hybrid scenario, we hear from CHROs that surveys of their employees show that men are more likely to decide to return to work, while women are more likely to continue working from home.

According to a recent Gartner survey, 64% of managers believe office workers outperform remote workers and give office workers a higher raise than home workers. However, the data we gathered from 2019 and 2020 shows the opposite: Full-time remote workers are more likely to perform 5% higher than full-time employees in the office.

If men are more likely to work from the office and managers are biased towards in-office workers, we should expect managers to over-reward male employees. Possibly at the expense of female employees, the gender-wage gap worsens when the pandemic already has a disproportionate effect on women.

Bet 4) The new regulations will limit employee monitoring. More than 1 in 4 companies bought new technology during the pandemic for the first time to passively track and monitor their employees. However, many of the same companies did not determine how to balance employee privacy with technology, and employees were frustrated. The Gartner study found that less than 50% of employees trust their organizations with their data, and 44% do not receive any information about the data collected about them. In 2021, we expect various new regulations at the state and local levels to limit what employers can monitor their employees. Given the variability this will create, companies will likely adopt the most restrictive standards across the workforce.

Bet 5) Flexibility will vary from location to time. While enabling employees to work remotely will become commonplace throughout 2020, the next wave of flexibility will occur when employees are expected to work.

Gartner's 2020 ReimagineHR Employee Survey revealed that only 36% of employees performed well in organizations with a standard 40-hour workweek. Offering employees flexibility in when, where and how long to work, organizations see 55% of their workforce as high performers. In 2021, we can expect to see an increase in new jobs where employees will be measured by output rather than agreed hours.

Bet 6) Leading companies will make bulk purchases of Covid vaccine for employees and be sued for Covid vaccine requirements. Employers supplying the Covid vaccine to the workforce will use this action as a critical differentiator to attract and retain talent. In line with employers providing the vaccine, companies will face more lawsuits asking their employees to obtain evidence of vaccination before allowing them to return to the workplace. The case will slow down efforts to return to the workplace, even as the use of vaccines increases.

Bet 7) Mental health support is the new normal. Over the past few years, employers have offered enhanced benefits to support their employees, such as extended parental leave. Gartner research revealed that 45% of the welfare budget increases were allocated to mental and emotional well-being programs even before the pandemic. The Covid-19 outbreak has brought welfare to the forefront, as employers are more aware than ever of the impact of mental health on the workplace by employees and the association.

At the end of March, 68% of organizations launched at least one new healthcare aid to assist employees during the pandemic. In 2021, employers will go further by stigmatizing mental health by expanding mental health benefits, creating days to shut down the entire company to offer a "collective mental health day" to raise awareness of this critical issue across the workforce.

Bet 8) Employers will search for talent "on hire" to fill the skills gap. The number of skills employers are looking for has increased significantly - analysis shows that companies listed about 33% more job postings in 2020 than in 2017. As a result, organizations cannot reuse the capabilities of their current workforce quickly enough.

Some companies will stop trying to develop skills for an uncertain future and instead hire and pay a premium for those skills when the need arises. Instead, other companies will expand and contract their conditional use with organizations to recruit or develop their partnerships to "hire" employees for a short period to meet the skill needs they face.

Bet 9) States will compete to attract individual talent rather than trying to relocate companies. States and cities have historically provided incentives to enable companies to move into their jurisdiction. The belief is that if you can encourage companies to come, they will bring business with them. The new era of remote and hybrid work will develop this strategy where employees' lives will be less dependent on their employer's location than ever before.

Given this deterioration of the company's location and employee position, US states and cities will begin to use tax policies to create incentives for individuals to move into their jurisdiction, rather than just granting tax credits to large corporations to relocate. We see new programs in cities like Topeka, KS, and Tulsa, OK, bidding remote workers up to $15,000 to move there. These jurisdictions will compete for individual employees and their jobs, not just for the employer.

While 2020 is the most turbulent year in modern history, it would be mistaken to think that the setbacks are over. Instead, as we move into 2021 and beyond, the rate of cuts will potentially accelerate as the effects of 2020 will continue over the next few years.

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