With a promising year well underway, it’s time to look at the top 2018 workplace office trends set to shape our current and emerging workforces. Millennials currently make up the majority of office workers, while Gen Z and their technological expertise will be trickling in over the next several years.
Here are the top 2018 workplace office trends that I think are pretty cool, among the others set to shape how the workplace operates:
Remote workplaces to be eliminated by many companies.
It seems like it was just yesterday that remote work opportunities became the norm. It seemed traditional office work was soon-to-be a thing of the past. Everyone was so psyched about the laptop and suitcase lifestyle. It seemed like less of a passing trend and more like the new way of working and doing business.
However, research is showing that millennials and Gen Z are 20% more productive and 72% happier when they have a place to call “the office” to collab with their workplace pals.
Big corporations like IBM have eliminated their remote workforce in favor of more office collaboration. Apple just built the massive $5-billion glass mega-structure, Apple Park to give their employees a reason to come into the office. Google has long been known for their collaboration-promoting workplace innovations.
Companies will make efforts to fill skill gaps and prepare Generation Z for positions that don’t yet exist.
It might come as a big shock to learn that 45% of small businesses in the United States have positions they can’t fill due to lack of qualified applicants. This adds up to an average $400,000 in lost productivity, sales, and lack of innovation losses per year.
A study by IBM in 2016 found that training is the key differentiator between the best performing businesses and the worst. They estimated 84% of workers at top performing companies get the training they need. Whereas the poorest performing businesses were only training around 16% of their employees adequately.
Companies save an average of $70,000 a year when employees are trained properly. As Gen Z continues to mature and move into the workforce, many companies are gearing up this effort in anticipation of their arrival. This is because the majority of the positions they’ll be tasked to fill haven’t even been created yet.
Mental health will continue to gain traction as THE most important factor in a business’s success.
It should come as no surprise that companies are taking notice and making changes to how they view their worker’s mental health and overall wellness. It’s a reality that when the mind isn’t well, the body soon follows, creating multiple instances where an employee may miss work for an extended period of time.
As millennials age and become potential victims of career burnout, businesses all over are starting to implement procedures to help them with burnout, financial stress, and depression. These and other illnesses can result in up to 5 days of missed work, on average.
Most laborers would consider this a silly consideration. But, the lack of physical exertion faced by many office workers make them even more susceptible to mental health related absenteeism and other productivity killers. Many businesses are now offering on-the-job counselling and support to those will mental health problems.
Which 2018 workplace office trend are you most excited about?
Hopefully these and other changes happening in 2018 will help millennials and Gen Z become the most productive, successful, and fulfilled workforce ever.
Only time will tell!
Main Image Credit: yggg/Flickr
