Global workplace trends for 2020

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In 2020, about two fifths of the global workforce will consist of Generation X and Millennials. Despite their notorious reputation of job-hopping, a recent survey has suggested that they are in fact as loyal as the previous generation.

Almost 90% of Millennials surveyed said that they would choose to stay in a job for the next 10 years if they knew they’d get annual raises and upward career mobility. Some of them are even planning to stay in their jobs for at least six years.

Nevertheless, multiple surveys have suggested that they do have different views on life, and therefor have different demands. To help you stay on top of your game, here are four trends that will impact HR in 2020, as predicted by Perkbox.

• Flexibility reigns supreme. 2020 will be a year where HR provides even more flexibility in the workplace as it becomes a necessity to attract top talent. In the not too distant past, flexible working was seen as a perk provided only by a select group of businesses and in many instances only in isolated occasions. Today, in contrast, flexible working is the make-or-break factor for many employees. Expect much more of this in 2020.

• The rise of internal communications. Communication specialists will be in high demand in an effort to combat workplace communications overload. One of the challenges technology has brought to the modern world is communication overload. Gone are the days where we only communicated by email. Tools such as Skype, Zoom, Notion and Slack are becoming an everyday fixture in the modern workplace. This in turn has led to a rise in communication specialists as organisations try navigate new complexities such as lower productivity, increasing stress levels and more confusion (where the intention was clarity), associated with these initiatives.

• The corporate vs startup culture clash will be a thing of the past, when it comes to employee experience (EX). Traditionally conflicting organisational cultures will converge to form an ‘employee first’ culture with elements of both. As we head into 2020, the startup vs corporate culture clash will become a thing of the past, particularly when it comes to EX. We are already seeing large corporations moving closer to that startup vibe by offering cooler, more inspirational workplaces – a huge change compared to the traditional office environment of the past. On the flip side, many startups are moving rapidly into scale-up territory, with thousands of customers and hundreds of employees, and with this, they too, are seeing a new level of formality required across communication and administrative systems. Expect to see these two traditionally conflicting cultures converge and the emergence of an ‘employee first’ culture, combining elements of both in 2020.
• The digitalisation of corporate social responsibility (CSR). 2019 saw an increase in the demand for CSR practices from employees. Advances in technology will make these easier to address for employers in 2020. Finally, CSR policies will also come into sharper focus as employers come under increasing pressure to provide initiatives for a socially-conscious generation, while partners and clients will also start to pose questions about CSR.