5 years of navigating change: looking back on the future of work

If leaders could travel back in time to visit their organisation at the start of 2020, how would they even begin to explain to their team the profound changes waiting just around the corner?

From remote work and the Great Resignation to the rise of Generative AI (Artificial Intelligence), the last five years have seen an unprecedented transformation in the world of work. Organisations and their people have been tried and tested in completely novel ways, forcing leaders to adapt, pivot and anticipate. In the absence of a blueprint for the future, they only had the day’s data to inform their decisions.

Over the last five years, the Adecco Group has conducted 82,800 worker interviews across 25 countries to capture the perspectives of workers in these annual reports. These insights arm leaders with the tools for future-proofing the workforce.

To set the scene for the arrival of the fifth iteration of the Global Workplace of the Future (GWoF) report, here is a recap of some of the GWoF’s key insights since its first iteration.

Discover this year’s key insights in the GWoF 2024 launch webinar on 17 October. Register today and download your copy of the report as soon as it goes live. 

2020 – The future is flexible

Unsurprisingly, 2020 was defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced lasting organisational transformation. Trust became a pivotal issue, both for managers providing safety during the crisis and for workers, 78% of whom said that feeling trusted to be productive would remain a priority after the pandemic.

More flexible work was another key trend, with 75% of workers believing it will benefit them and 73% believing it will benefit businesses. The vast majority of C-Suite and executive managers agreed. However, new patterns of remote and hybrid working also created challenges. Half of workers feared full-time remote work would hinder team collaboration and 63% said it was important to have the opportunity to meet colleagues face-to-face. It is perhaps not surprising then that three quarters of global workers believed a mix of office-based and remote work was the best way forward.

As well as reflecting on their work/life balance, employees placed even greater emphasis on developing digital skills, with 69% saying that digital upskilling was now a long-term priority.

But 2020 also put human skills at the forefront of the world of work – where it would remain for the foreseeable future. Executives and managers had to find ways to stay agile while simultaneously updating their organization's patterns of collaboration and developing new ways to track productivity beyond total hours worked. Meanwhile, 74% of workers expected their manager to lead with empathy and support. This exposed a soft skills gap that would remain central to workplace dynamics for the following five years.

2021 – The Great Re-Evaluation

Interestingly, the second year of the pandemic threw up even bigger workplace challenges than the first. The prolonged physical and mental pressures took their toll on employees, with burnout a significant concern for almost 4 workers in 10. And paradoxically, at a time when employees were nearly always connected, many felt a deflating sense of isolation. This raised profound questions regarding wellbeing at work and led to a great re-evaluation by both managers and employees of their working patterns and priorities.

Hybrid working became the norm, with 8 out of 10 believing that it benefited both employees and employers. Many people also wanted a shorter working week, and 73% said contracts should prioritise meeting the needs of the role over hours worked. The speed and scale of these changes created significant challenges for executives and managers who, perhaps understandably, struggled to refresh working cultures and bring an increasingly fractured workforce together. In the years to come, many employers would face significant backlash in trying to do so by reversing the hybrid work model.

Employees, meanwhile, responded to their own shifting priorities by upskilling and considering a career reinvention. Indeed, more than half of workers (52%) said they were dissatisfied with their career development at their current company.

2022 – The Great Resignation

2022 was a year of resignations and fresh starts. Almost a third (27%) of workers said they planned to quit their current job within 12 months. Those who did leave became trendsetting ‘quitfluencers,’ with almost half (48%) of workers who had seen a colleague quit doing the same within a year. As a result, and despite the geopolitical and economic uncertainty caused by the Russia-Ukraine crisis, the job market became increasingly candidate-driven.

Salary was the single biggest factor motivating workers to change jobs. However, companies offering flexible work practices and upskilling opportunities came out ahead in talent retention. Tellingly, only half of workers thought their company invested in developing their skills and almost a quarter had never had a conversation about career progression.

2023 – The rise of AI

That trend didn’t just come to a screeching halt in 2023, it seemed to have reversed. The number of people staying in their job rose in 2023 – and it showed no sign of stopping. What changed? Upskilling and career development opportunities became the main levers for talent retention – and it seemed employers were delivering.

Job automation and AI impact on workers were equally dominant trends. Encouragingly, most workers (63%) thought AI would have a positive impact on their jobs, and just 7% considered Generative AI a threat. Workers once again placed a growing emphasis on training and development opportunities. The rise of AI encouraged managers and their teams to consider the workplace skills that could most easily be replaced by technology (such as time management and strategic planning), as well as the more distinctively human skills – such as leadership, empathy, and emotional intelligence – that are likely to remain valuable in the AI age.

Beyond the brave new world of technology, the problem of workplace wellbeing remained pervasive, with an alarming 65% of workers suffering from burnout.

The global workforce of today

So, what is the global worker voice saying today? Are workers still feeling optimistic about the promise of AI? How many workers plan to quit versus stay with their current employer? To what extent are global megatrends, from geopolitical conflict to the challenges of the green transition, weighing on their minds? Are diversity and inclusion initiatives tangibly building inclusive practices, cultures, and values?

The only certainty appears to be uncertainty, which makes the GWoF’s 2024 analysis of current trends all the more trenchant. The evolution of AI will feature as a pillar in this latest iteration as workers continue to grapple with its implications on their jobs and their employability. This year’s research will also investigate the tangible productivity impacts of AI and the unleashing of human potential. Workers have stressed the importance of career development and upskilling in their decision to quit or stay in a job. This year’s GWoF report will provide further insight into how employers are doing in providing this forward trajectory and how this fits into a lingering global skills scarcity problem. The report will also take stock of the current state of the workforce’s mental wellbeing.

Regardless of industry sector or role, leaders and employers must keep their finger on the pulse of the global workforce today – so they can design a talent strategy to build capabilities for the future. Navigating change will be inevitable tomorrow, so protecting employability and making the future work for everyone is crucial today.

Register today to join us for the GWoF 2024 launch webinar on 17 October. Together, we will explore the key takeaways and recommendations for employers as we venture into the next chapter of this brave new world of work.