Understanding the future of work: part 1

Christopher Pappas is the CEO and founder of eLearning industrya leading publishing platform that delivers inspiring content.

Work as we know it, especially in the workplace, has changed and many companies today are struggling to define the future of work and what’s next. Like the evolution of the internet, the workplace is rapidly entering the next phase: Work 3.0.

And while there were previous definitions of Work 3.0, mostly focused on the rapid rise of marketplaces for service companies, I’d like to suggest a new way to define this next phase.

We can draw parallels with the Internet where Web 1.0 resembles Work 1.0; it was fixed and static, “read-only, no feedback required.” Web 2.0 marks the era of user-generated content and interaction due to the rapid and unexpected rise of social media. Likewise, the pandemic acted as an agent of change, leading to what could be another update to Work 2.0, a sign of a desperate reliance on technology, the dismantling of work culture and the end of “the office” as we know it.

Moving forward

So what now? As we continue to normalize and become familiar with Work 2.0, there is a strong pull from many leaders to return to Work 1.0 in the expectation that employees will return to the office and magically restore the culture. However, there is an equally strong push from today’s workforce to enter a third phase, where remote working is promoted and the concept of work culture is changing.

For leaders to understand and adapt to this new future of work, they must first realize and acknowledge the issues that exist within the employee-leader dynamic. These issues begin with a cultural disconnect that many employees say leaders simply don’t understand.

According to recent data (download required) from my company’s “The Future of Work Report: 2022”, the reality is that four in five employees (78%) say company culture has changed since the pandemic, and half (50%) say that the business leaders don’t understand the new meaning or what employees want.

In fact, according to the same report, this disconnection has caused two in five (38%) employees to feel “embarrassed” by the so-called culture their leaders promote. They believe leaders are out of touch with what employees want in the company culture (53%), unaware of what actually motivates them (45%), or don’t care about culture and just want them to do their jobs (48%).

I believe the data shows a disconnect. Leaders’ reluctance to enter Work 3.0 is detrimental to employee engagement, retention, and overall business progress. Going forward, leaders must focus on closing these gaps and building the next generation of work, a place that empowers and motivates employees to thrive, innovate and disrupt.

To help build leaders for Work 3.0, I’d like to offer advice on three focus areas: culture, work environment, and upward mobility.

Why you should stop trying to go back

Culture, as we once knew it with happy hours and beer carts, is dead. That’s not to say that the perk culture is dead, but rather the old values ​​and traditions that once motivated employees no longer make sense and will certainly have no place in Work 3.0.

And this is a difficult concept for leaders to understand. Clinging to idealized (and frankly outdated) versions of company culture that only serve a leader’s goals or expectations has the potential to create irremediable rifts within a company and ultimately stifle progress. Leaders need to understand that the pandemic caused employees to value perks more than old-fashioned corporate culture.

Today, employees believe that company culture has more to do with flexibility, upward mobility and compensation than with office events, team building activities or happy hours. To create a culture that matters to your employees and is relevant to Work 3.0, start by listening to the changes that need to be made.

Unfortunately, many leaders don’t even ask employees for feedback, with nearly half of employees (48%) in my company’s report revealing that they were not asked for their input or that their input was not considered by leadership on culture-related matters. If leaders listened to what employees want, according to our data, they would find:

• Nearly half (45%) would rather have more vacation time than ‘corporate culture’. Leaders should prioritize giving employees enough (or more) time off, as research shows that vacations can, too increase productivity.

• The two top aspects considered most important to company culture – flexibility (32%) and good compensation/benefits/bonuses (29%) – have nothing to do with traditional views of company culture, such as get-togethers and team-building events. Instead of earmarking a budget for forced corporate fun, ask employees where the cultural budget should go or if they would rather receive a recognition bonus or access to professional development workshops instead. Leaders need to radically rethink how they budget for corporate culture.

• Two in five (40%) do not believe leaders care or have prioritized support for employee mental health and well-being. And what’s worse, 94% of the leaders believe they provide adequate mental health support, but only 67% of employees agree. Prioritizing employee mental well-being doesn’t have to break the bank. Start small with small improvements such as implementing “no video on Friday” or “finish Friday early”, giving employees an allowance for meditation classes or paying for access to self-help applications.

Once leaders begin to understand what culture really means to employees today, they’re one step closer to building the future of work. In the next article, I’ll talk about the importance of flexibility as part of the future of work and why you might not want to force employees back to the office.

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