After close to two years of living with the pandemic, 2022 looks like it will be the year where a sense of normalcy will finally return to the world. However, nothing will ever truly be the same again. Both our daily life and our way of working will be different. As such, UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group), a global provider of human capital management, has identified several megatrends that will take center stage in the year to come.
Rise of the Grey-Collar
The workforce has typically been divided into white-collar and blue-collar workers. Grey-collar workers on the other hand combine both the technical and physical skills from both categories. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of a diversified skill set, thus leading to an increasing demand for grey-collar workers. Organizations will need to adapt quickly as more and more blue-collars shift towards grey, expected better wages and benefits to go with their expertise.
Ethical Leaders
The pandemic has pushed everyone to the limit, and employees are fed-up with being mistreated. Employees today demand both diversity and equity in wages, benefits, treatment, and so on. Leaders can no longer hope to scale shareholder value without scaling shared values. Ethical leadership is not a must as trust, transparency, listening, and commitment to action will be at the top of priority lists for businesses in 2022. The “Great Resignation” is simply a sign that companies are not doing enough.
Agility of Compliance
Agility has always been a massive advantage that smaller companies have over the gargantuan MNCs and corporations. However, it seems that the new world of work will require all organizations to be more agile. A proactive approach to compliance will need to be taken. The best companies are the ones that will be paying close attention to industry trends and public sentiments, recognizing the long-term penalties of not adapting, and quickly implementing solutions to avoid such situations.
