The Evolving workplace

RAM NIDUMOLU JANUARY 1, 2020

Depending on one’s perspective, today’s workplace is evolving into one that is filled with great opportunities, or one that teems with terrible challenges. In practice, both these perspectives are true simultaneously. The modern workplace is evolving in both exciting and foreboding ways.

Consider the positive side. In the World Economic Forum’s 2019 global survey of 5000 HR managers worldwide (combined with LinkedIn’s behavioural data analysis), the three most important workplace trends were:

  1. Greater Demand for Soft Skills: There is greater need for non-cognitive skills such as empathy, emotional intelligence, creativity, collaboration, and communication. In fact, 92% of those surveyed said that these skills mattered as much or more than hard skills. 

  2. More Flexible Work: Remote work and flexible hours are becoming more prevalent, mainly because employees want them and technology is making it possible through email, instant messaging, conference calls and social business platforms. For example, LinkedIn has seen a 78% increase since 2016 in job posts that mention work flexibility.

  3. Less Tolerance for Workplace Harassment: Ever since #MeToo became a global phenomenon, women (and men) have started speaking out about workplace harassment. LinkedIn reports a 71% increase in workplace harassment content that was shared on its platform.  Stronger anti-harassment policies and enforcement have ensured that companies are much less tolerant of harassment and bullying in the workplace.

While these are favorable workplace trends, the reality of everyday work is far more problematic, especially in India. In a 2019 cross-country study of well-being by Cigna, stress levels among Indians were higher than that of other developed or emerging countries.  As much as 82% of Indians were suffering from high stress due to work, health, or their finances. The situation is even worse for Indian Millennials: 95% of them are stressed, compared to the global average for millennials of 86%. In other surveys, more than half of employees said they had some form of workplace depression, with heavy work, poor work-life balance, workplace politics, and peer pressure as key reasons.