9 Future Work Trends Post-COVID-19
A recent Gartner survey has identified some lasting changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic disruption, “large-scale shifts that are changing how people work and how business gets done“. These trends will form the scorecard on how you are judged against your peers and will likely mean that you need to revisit both your Strategic Plan and your Business Continuity Plan.
1: Remote Work

48% of employees will work remotely at least part of the time after COVID-19 compared to 30% before the pandemic.
2: Data Collection
16% of employers are using technologies more frequently to monitor their employees through methods such as virtual clocking in and out, tracking work computer usage, and monitoring employee emails or internal communications/chat. Some use this monitoring to measure productivity while others seek to learn about employee engagement.
3: Gig Workers
32% of organizations are replacing full- time employees with contingent workers as a cost-saving measure.
4: Social Safety Net
The pandemic has increased the trend of employers playing an expanded role in their employees’ financial, physical and mental well-being. Support includes enhanced sick leave, financial assistance, adjusted hours of operation and child care provisions.
5: Skills and Roles
Before COVID-19, critical roles were viewed as roles with critical skills, or the capabilities an organization needed to meet its strategic goals. Now, employers are realizing that they need to offer greater career development support to employees in critical roles who lack critical skills.
6: (De-)Humanization
Organizations are becoming more polarized in how they treat their employees. While some organizations have prioritized the well-being of employees as people, others have pushed employees to work in conditions that are high risk with little support.
7: Transparency
Prior to COVID-19, organizations were already facing increased employee demands for transparency. The trend has progressed to open and frequent communication to show how they are supporting employees despite the implementation of cost- saving measures.
8: Efficiency/Resilience
In 2019, 55% of organizational redesigns were focused on increased efficiency. This came at a cost of flexibility to respond to disruptions. The trend is now towards a more responsive organization, with employees given varied, adaptive and flexible roles so they acquire cross-functional knowledge and training.
9: Complexity
Post-pandemic. companies will focus on expanding their geographic diversification to mitigate and manage risk in times of disruption. This will have a negative impact on employee experience.
What This Means
Management will need to focus on improving digital collaboration, employee experience and performance evaluation in order to improve employee retention while improving productivity.
If you’d like to comment on this article or explore these ideas further, contact me at maria.
This article was published in the
November 2021
edition of The TMC Advisor
- ISSN 2369-663X Volume:8 Issue:5
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