Trends that take over businesses and companies never really happen overnight but they do have one thing in common with the way night arrives; it happens slowly and then comes all at once. A lot of the time, if you are looking in the right direction, trends can be spotted from their earliest days. The thing with knowing what trends to focus on and invest in is all about working out which trends will be embraced by the mainstream and become commonplace.
Take flexible working as an example. It started off with companies being lenient, to hot-desks, to incorporating flexihours, to having full-time members of staff working from home five days a week. But before you start trying to copy what Google is up to, it is worth knowing that small startups and independents often come start the best trends because they have to if they want to remain competitive.
With that in mind, here are some workplace trends we believe will take-off and be incorporated into all types of businesses:
A.I. Will Be King
We may not have seen the kind of robots depicted in Hollywood blockbusters, but they have arrived and they have started taking jobs; something that will continue. We’ve seen it in the automation of everything. Transferring money, paying for food, Siri, Amazon Echo, driverless cars. What’s more, if predictions and forecasts are right then we are going to see a change as big as the industrial revolution. So make sure you are ahead of the curve.
Internet of Things
Billions of things already talk to each other, and billions more will begin to with each passing year. So many gadgets are already able to send data to your pocket (or even your wrist). But while these may be gimmicks right now, these gimmicks are just the prelude, especially if you go by the movements being made by www.skyresponse.com who know full well that the big challenge will be data, which is why they offer companies the capability to manage and handle that side of things. Everything will begin to generate data, get on board or fall into oblivion.
The Freelance Cloud
Cloud computing was a huge phenomenon that changed the way business was done. But the biggest surprise it conjured up was the rise in websites, such as Upwork, that match employers with freelancers. Yeah, it has created a freelance cloud where millions of freelancers are able to offer the services across a huge myriad of digital tasks from remote locations. What’s more, it is only the beginning. It will shake up the way we work big time and, for businesses, that means the potential for lower wages and higher inequality.
Big Brother Businesses
One of the scariest predictions we have come across is about companies with more than 500 employees offering their staff free Fitbits (or equivalent tracking tech), something you can read about at www.theguardian.com. They may say that it is to make sure their employees are healthy and that they can help but, in reality, it is a management diagnostic tool. The reason for this is because the work we do is affected by so many factors, many of which happen outside of work; exercise, food, sleep etc. What they will do with this data is up for grabs, but whatever it is, the perks or rewards will have to outweigh in order for it to take off.