What will your work turn into in 10 years

    Over ten years ago, the world around us imperceptibly, but significantly changed. Recall the 2006th. Facebook has just opened free registration for everyone who has email, including companies. Telephone calls and teleconferences as the main means of business communication began to be supplanted by electronic correspondence and instant messengers. Fortune did not consider the best places to work for Google and the Boston Consulting Group, but the biotech giant Genentech and the Wegman grocery chain.

    Obviously, a lot has changed since 2006, and the next decade promises even more dramatic changes. Let's digress for a moment from the current work and try to look into the future so that it does not take us by surprise.

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    The border between the office and the house is blurred



    Remember the endless rows of work booths immortalized in the series “ Office ”, flooded with the harsh light of fluorescent lamps? Already these days, open-plan is becoming the norm and standing jobs are appearing. What will be next?

    Your favorite chair will be in the office
    . FastCompany magazine has compiled a list of eight major trends in office space design . In particular, experts noted the growing importance of elements of comfort and coziness: fireplaces, comfortable chairs and specially equipped relaxation areas to relieve stress. Offices will dispose of cables, power cords, and other accessories that create a sense of clutter. We are also promised the spread of universal modular workplaces that can be easily transformed or adapted to grow.

    The workplace will become a transformer.
    If you think about your office, then immediately imagine its layout. But, according to futurologist Jacob Morgan, this will not always be the case. He notes that companies will begin to relate to physical space as well as to software that requires constant updates. Business will stop spending money on costly redevelopment designed for centuries. Organizations will also be interested in personalization technologies , including workplaces, to which you can transfer information about preferred lighting and air temperature for each individual employee, as well as all his contacts, projects and necessary files.

    Office maintenance will be cheaper
    DevelopmentThe Internet of Things will allow you to determine the presence of people in the rooms, to turn off the lights and air conditioning in empty rooms, to warn cleaners about which of the offices have not been used and do not need cleaning, and to increase the efficiency of the office space .

    The offices themselves will begin to die.
    Monday morning will catch you at work at home, in the library or in the nearest cafe. According to Time, services such as Dropbox, Skype and other collaboration tools (including Wrike ) will contribute to the disappearance of traditional officesand the advent of an increasing number of freelancers, independent contractors, and remote teams. Companies are fully aware of their benefits if employees no longer have to spend 1-2 hours daily on their way to the office, which is expensive to rent. Employees, for their part, mostly welcome the opportunity to work from home. In addition, this trend promotes decentralization and has a good effect on the development of provincial cities.

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    New software, new habits



    Technology will remain the main driver of change. The popularity of mobile devices, social networks, and wearable technology is already changing the way we interact with colleagues, customers, and employers. Further more.

    You will become a user of a corporate social network.
    If there was a clear boundary between your life on social networks and life in the office, in the coming years it will begin to disappear and disappear completely, as companies are already introducing internal social networks such as Slack and Facebook At Work.

    Your phone will become the most important working tool.
    Today, 44% of employees use mobile devices to work more than 20 times a day, and 70% believe that in the future they will use them even more often. Mobile technology helps us not to drown in work tasks. In any case, 69% of those surveyed who admitted to using mobile devices at work say that this preserves or even improves the balance of work and personal time.

    And you will have to follow the rules of the company when working with your own phone.
    According to our data, about 62% of employees already use personal mobile devices for work. They, like their employers, face the difficult task of introducing and implementing rules and measures to protect confidential work information on such devices .

    The popularity of collaboration tools will grow.
    Collaboration applications, which allow entire teams and departments to work remotely, are already familiar and are being used by a growing number of companies. To implement such tools and encourage employees to work with them, companies will increase the value of such services in the eyes of end users, focusing on individual advantages (flexible schedule, recognition of achievements, etc.), rather than forcing people to become important to the company (acceleration innovation, productivity growth, etc.).

    You will have an “electronic butler”
    Services such as Siri and Cortana are becoming more “smarter” and more functional. Very soon we will have at workpersonal assistants based on artificial intelligence . They will study and predict our patterns of behavior and provide the necessary information in advance to increase your productivity.

    Wearable devices and the Internet of things will be used at work.
    Everyday routine tasks, such as making coffee or turning on the lights, will be performed automatically so that employees are not distracted from more complex and creative tasks. Wearable devices will tell employees when to take a break, and which foods it is advisable to avoid in the diet in order to maintain maximum performance. And companies will begin to analyze collected data on the activities, moods and habits of employees in order to find out how to increase labor productivity and employee satisfaction without being likened to Big Brother.

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    Organization methods will become softer



    Not only the tools and technologies that we use will change, but also our attitude to the work, and the methods of its implementation. In the next few years, companies will adopt new management technologies, values ​​and standards.

    Three business areas will emerge
    In a recent report, PriceWaterhouseCooper predicted that companies of the future could be attributed to three areas: the
    “blue sphere” of capitalism, where profit and market share are top priorities.
    The “green sphere”, where employees and customers demand from the organization that they care about the environment and the well-being of people and strive to change their lives for the better.
    The “orange sphere” of small enterprises, freelancers and entrepreneurs, primarily focused on economical and flexible working methods.

    Companies will become smaller, and their structure will become flatter.
    More and more new companies will try to maintain their initial small size. The staff will include a core group of founders and key employees, and the remaining necessary roles will be played by freelancers from around the world. At the same time, large companies will take on the simplification of the organizational structure and try to introduce a horizontal management style similar to the "holacracy" adopted by Zappos . As a result, employees will gain more authority for project management, get rid of a tight job hierarchy and be able to make a more significant contribution to the development of the company.

    The concept of “entrepreneur” will take on a new meaning.
    Just as project management methods are changing,our ideas about entrepreneurship are changing . Entrepreneurs will no longer be called solely those who create new products or establish companies. Now this definition includes independent freelancers, who are combined with other freelancers in a temporary group to implement a larger and more profitable project.

    Experiments and iterative processes will become the norm
    Companies will adopt a research style of work and will pay less attention to improving standard processes and products, and more to experiments and creating innovations.

    Distracted from work? You no longer have to do it secretly
    . Organizations begin to appreciate and even encourage work breaks.when you can get distracted by something else and eventually discover curious relationships that lead to the emergence of new ideas. At companies such as Google, employees have long been given time to complete side projects and satisfy curiosity. This practice is becoming more popular as management begins to take care of the performance and motivation of its staff.

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    Multifunctionality and communication skills will be valued higher



    As modern tools and technologies open up new opportunities and working methods, the skills we need become more and more non-trivial, and communication skills more and more in demand.

    “Gigonomics” will open up new opportunities
    Some of the most sought-after professions in the next decade will be associated with the developing “gigonomics” or the economy of free earnings . Among these professions is an instructor for creating a personal brand, which helps freelancers and consultants sell their services, or a triber, which helps companies form ideal working groups for certain projects. Even teachers and professors will become freelancers and choose to work with one of the many online learning platforms.

    You will become more likely to update your resume.
    Times when a person could work until retirement in a single company, struggling their way up the career ladder to the very top, are a thing of the past. Representatives of the next generation will change jobs at least ten times before reaching the age of forty . It will become commonplace to work for a company for several years, gain experience and knowledge, and then grab onto a more attractive opportunity.

    It will not be enough to have one single skill and use it throughout the entire working experience - you will have to master various skills and be able to use them according to the situation. Short-term continuing education courses will be especially popular., calculated for a year or several months, and over time, both employers and employees will get used to a high level of turnover.

    Among the working skills there will be experience in World of Warcraft. The
    ability to make collective decisions, especially in a distributed team, will be appreciated very highly. This is very rarely taught in traditional business schools, but fans of MMORPG and other online games have mastered this skill to perfection .

    Keep your IQ, EQ and CQ ready for you
    The growth of globalization and the growing diversity of staff means that not only a high IQ and developed emotional intelligence (EQ), but also cultural intelligence (CQ) and cultural sensitivity.

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    Company success will depend on culture



    A flexible work schedule, remote work and the need to motivate talented employees to keep them in the company forces employers to devote more time and resources to creating a corporate culture, thanks to which employees will want to come to the office.

    Colleagues will become members of the community
    Today, more than 87% of employees admit that they do not like their work , which means that the problem is not to hire a talented specialist, but to retain him. Companies will do more to create a genuine sense of ownership in order to inspire and nurture loyalty to their team.

    Mutual assessment will become the standard.
    Traditional certification methods are a thing of the past.as companies begin to use more flexible ways of getting feedback and employee ratings. Organizations will pay more attention to mentoring and advanced training, will allow employees to set goals for themselves, and will also collect internal reviews on an ongoing basis to stimulate the development of all employees of the company, up to senior management.

    There will be more
    benefits. Health insurance, paid holidays and other usual benefits will not go anywhere. Moreover, more and more companies begin to add personal benefits to them .depending on the corporate culture and personal circumstances of the employee. Employers rethink traditional benefits and compensations, trying to give their employees what they really need, such as paid parental leave , the possibility of continuing education and assistance in paying a student loan .

    The struggle for gender and cultural diversity will gain momentum
    Companies such as Facebook and Pinterest have introduced the requirement that at least one woman and one representative of underrepresented minorities be reviewed for each open leadership position, and Twitter and Pinterest publish their open selection decisions for greater transparency. Many companies will follow suit, as their interest in enhancing cultural diversity in work teams is constantly growing.

    As a result, they will begin to take measures to combat involuntary prejudice, for example, conduct blind interviews, when job seekers and interviewers cannot see each other, and their voices are distorted.

    HR managers will begin to evaluate the applicant’s corporate culture
    When you once again begin to look for work, your experience, diplomas and grading points will no longer be so important in comparison with the motivation, set goals and the desire to learn. The main issue will be your ability to fit into the cultural environment .

    Perhaps you yourself will be able to create a suitable position (the trend has already received its abbreviation BYOP - Build Your Own Position), based on your own interests and industry experience. First, you will establish a relationship with the company, and then create a role for yourself, instead of applying for a vacancy.

    You will become more picky in choosing an employer.
    Salary will no longer be a decisive factor in choosing a job. Since job seekersthey will choose companies that suit their lifestyle, values ​​and professional interests , organizations will try to create a sense of importance and meaningfulness of the work that they do in their employees . However, the concrete steps that will be taken in this direction are rather difficult to describe, and even more difficult to implement.

    We will see more women among top managers
    Studies showthat women leaders are more oriented towards cooperation than competition, have a higher emotional intelligence and strive to build long-term relationships. In the face of a threatening lack of talented specialists, the fact that women have more diploma holders and academic degrees, as well as the fact that they acquire 83% of consumer goods, means one thing: there should be more women in business who can cooperate with other women and sell them goods. However, here Russia is already a world leader and with one foot in the future.

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    It's time to learn how to work remotely



    According to statistics, the era of remote work has already begun and there is no end in sight: 80-90% of employees express a desire to work from home for at least part of the work week, and 50% say that they already have such an opportunity . Over the next few years, more effective methods of remote collaboration will be created that will achieve the level of cooperation and social interaction that is available only in the office today.

    Remote work will become the norm, not an exception.
    Instead of using the services of certain groups of remote specialists or allowing employees to work from home from time to time, companies will focus on remote work from the very beginning. Any face-to-face communication will become an exception to the rule, and companies will actively introduce technologies that will allow hiring talented specialists regardless of place of residence.

    You will change your house to make it more convenient to work
    in. Many residential buildings use an open plan, which is not too convenient for concentrated and efficient work. Increasingly, working remotely, people will begin to equip the workspace in their homes .

    Offices will be used only as platforms for collaboration.
    Separate desks and office cells will no longer be needed, because offices will turn into platforms for collaboration . People will come there only to work in a team.

    What do you think about the work of the future?



    We described only general trends, but it is clear that each company sees its own future in its own way. Wrike is a project management and collaboration service, so for us such forecasts are not just curiosity, but also part of business planning.

    It is important for us to constantly evaluate successful methods suitable for specific organizations and their employees, and look for ways to solve problems, and your predictions in the comments are warmly welcome!

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