Business Trends for the New Normal

We won’t be covering two thousand and twenty one business trends, but we will be looking at the top trends in 2021 as we head out into the ‘new normal’. Having established that the office isn’t dead, and that the hybrid workplace is here to stay, we take a look at the practices and principles that have flourished over furlough.

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Digits Go Digital

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Finger digits will be spending more time on keyboards as the online world expands. During the recent pandemic, one area that saw incredible growth was the world of digitisation - from remote work to healthcare, supply chains and customer service AI, moving online rapidly became a necessity that couldn’t be ignored.

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This has left silver spenders scrambling to play catch-up, as some of the nation’s most vulnerable and elderly citizens have had to quickly adapt to the era of virtual grocery deliveries, test kits and zoom calls. The workforce has also adapted to new modes of travel, and while some have welcomed the shift towards the remits of remote work, others have been missing the connection that the office provides.

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As the world begins to open back up, digital dominance won’t be going anywhere. However the need for flexibility and balance in adjusting our offline lives to our online demands means that hybrid solutions catering to choice, variety and innovation are set to be the clear winners of a post-COVID landscape.

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Remodelling And Restructuring

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Disruption paves the way for innovation, as old structures break down to make way for the new. For many, the interruption to our daily lives has enforced the need for a systems redesign. From management practices within organisations, to business structures and services - companies and individuals are experimenting with methods of working that have never been tried before.

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The general trend has been the shift towards more decentralised and distributed models of work, with the anti-fragility and adaptability that this inherently installs. An example is the move towards flexible workplace practices, with many companies adopting central HQs with a variety of satellite offices that enable employees to work closer to home.

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As well as improving employee wellbeing and productivity, this is helping to ease some of the pressures of urbanisation. The uptake in remote work practices has allowed employees to move back into commuter belts and other more affordable, greener spaces. This holds promise for rebuilding local communities and addressing opportunity distribution nationally.

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Wellbeing Wins

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There’s nothing quite like a global pandemic to remind us that health is wealth. Given that the majority of people will spend most of their lives at work, tackling wellbeing in the workplace is one of the fastest ways to improve the mental and physical impacts on society at large.

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An increasing number of SMEs are taking the lead when it comes to making health central to the workplace revolution. From finding more meaning and purpose through work, to fostering community and adjusting workspace practices, there’s never been a better time to join such a progressive space.

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Although they may lack large HR departments and corporate occupational health programmes, small businesses are finding that sometimes, the simplest solutions are often the best ones: with many local co-working spaces offering everything a start-up could need for the world of tomorrow, under one roof and for one tidy fee.

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Purpose Paves The Way

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At the heart of fulfilment lies meaning and purpose. Dystopian believers sense that the increasing level of automation in society may lead to increased job losses and homelessness. However many proponents believe that automation creates as many new jobs as it replaces. It also has the potential to help open up more meaning in human-driven work.

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In addition to this, the two key tenets of businesses that are still standing post-COVID include sustainability and resilience. Many believe that COVID has accelerated the move away from an outdated Friedman paradigm, and towards a more purpose-driven era of socially responsible Capitalism.

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The prevailing predisposition for purpose means that the future looks bright - creating enterprises and societies that are focused on advancing more than just the bottom line. The B Corporation movement has come to signal the gold-standard of what it means to incorporate all of community, employees, environment, customers and governance into the integrative mix.

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Evolutionary Economics

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The rush to adapt to a new environment has reinforced that evolution is not always seamless or elegant. While some of the novel methods still seem a little clunky or uncertain, it’s been a welcome move to align the focus with progress over perfection overall.

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The near-term challenge, then, is to move from reacting to the crisis to building and processing what is working well so far. This could mean focusing on omni-channel business models for retail, building up virtual and personalised forms of healthcare, and identifying and investing in next-generation products.

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While many feel that the future of work has arrived ahead of schedule, one thing that is certain is the inevitability of change. This is something that the flexible workspace knows only too well, with an increasing number of businesses moving from outdated, long-term leases and lengthy bureaucratic processes, to monthly-rolling contracts that can shapeshift as their business shrinks and grows.

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Up-skilling And Re-skilling

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As with the up-cycling and recycling of the circular economy, humans are choosing to up-skill and re-skill their talents. Part of this relates to the adaptation of the workforce to the requirements of automation, digitisation, and other technologies. Evidence shows that the benefits of re-skilling current staff, rather than letting them go and then finding new people, typically costs less and brings benefits that outweigh the costs. Investing in employees can also foster loyalty, customer satisfaction, and positive brand perception.

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Workforce development was a priority even before the pandemic. In a McKinsey survey conducted in May 2019, almost 90 percent of the executives and managers surveyed said their companies faced skill gaps or expected to in the next five years. But only a third said they were prepared to deal with the issue. Successful re-skilling starts with knowing what skills are needed, both right now and in the near future; offering tailored learning opportunities to meet them; and evaluating what does and doesn’t work, amidst a culture of lifelong learning.

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Stakeholder capitalism is coming of age, as American chocolate maker Milton S. Hershey put it more than a century ago, “business is a matter of human service.” In 1759, capitalism’s philosopher king Adam Smith noted in The Theory of Moral Sentiments that the individual is “sensible too that his own interest is connected with the prosperity of society, and that the happiness, perhaps the preservation of his existence, depends on its preservation.”

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The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the interconnectedness of business and society on an unprecedented scale. It has been a difficult year for many, but there is reason to be cautiously optimistic on the horizon. With some of the shifts taking place between business and governments, changes in design, sustainable growth, wellbeing, and purpose could provide an enduring foundation for the long term.

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