FUTURE OF WORK SPEAKER: 2021 and 2022 WORKFORCE TRENDS

Topic: What is Flexwork?: Rethinking the Future of Tomorrow’s Workplace and Schedules

Scenario: A concept championed by market leaders like Palo Alto Networks, Square, Zoom, and Box, flexwork suggests as follows: That the future of work now requires organizations to be way more adaptable and put greater emphasis on employee choice and flexibility in every area of business from physical location to learning and professional development options and job-related benefits.

Insight: Staffing will become increasingly flexible, and most workers won’t need to come into office spaces – which will growingly be used as spots for brainstorming, collaboration, and teamwork as needed. More flexible learning models and benefits programs keyed to the individual employee and their household needs will also need to be instituted to help maximize productivity – e.g. a single newly-minted college grad might want training and mentorship, while a senior exec with a family may need help with childcare. Attracting and retaining talent, and finding ways to operate more effectively, will be a function of your business’ flexibility going forward – and we all need to operate more elastically in a world of growing uncertainty.

 Topic: Using Virtual Meetings and Events to Boost Morale

Scenario: Employees are increasingly feeling disconnected from colleagues and clients, even as they’re suffering from online videoconferencing fatigue: Business leaders need to find better ways to engage, energize, and inspire them. This can be done just by changing meeting contents and formats to be more attention-grabbing and value-adding.

Insight: Short, snappy presentations and interviews resonate well, as do interactive program formats – e.g. fireside chats with notable figures in which employees can ask questions of celebrated industry figures in a casual and freeform format. Likewise, even routine meetings can be spiced up by adding polls, surveys, and more interactive and participatory activities, or the presence of a special guest – preferably someone with an interesting perspective or story who hails from outside your industry. Whatever the program, it’s important to design it with a fresh and fun angle in mind, speak to a topical trend, and keep things moving along as well: No more than 15 minutes should be spent on a topic, otherwise you run the risk of staffers’ eyes glazing over, meaning that presentations should be broken into smaller, more self-contained chunks.