We all know that work will never be the same, even if we don’t understand how it will be different just yet. What we can state with certainty is that the shift to distributed work has provided an equal opportunity to reimagine everything about how we go about our business.
If we can rewire our brains and move past decades of doctrine about 9-to-5, and some office-based work, there’s an opportunity to retain the best parts of office culture while freeing ourselves from bad habits and inefficient processes.
What’s Next for Employees?
From the employees perspective, the change is enormous, and people are making long term choices about where they want to live and how they want to work. Changing expectations include much more flexibility in the workplace, general working conditions and work-life balance.
In an article written for Stewart Butterfield, the CEO and co-founder of Slack by Future Forum found that of the 4,700 employees interviewed the majority do not want to return to the old working way. Only 12% want to return to full-time office work, and 72% want an amalgamation of the remote-office model and in-house employment, reinforcing the expectation of flexibility.
In another positive move, the changing face of employment means remote working has almost overnight promoted gender equality, racial diversity and has helped stamp out ageism. Indicators say that the remote employee and employer relationship is no longer held back by unconscious bias. Employees are more likely to be evaluated on what they can achieve and not who or where they are.
According to a report written by McKinsey and Co, the added benefit to both the employee and employer is apparent. By empowering all employees no matter who they are; you can increase your talent pool and turn around your ability to compete in an increasingly challenging market.
However, with all that said remote workers don’t make up most of our nation’s workforce. Quoting government statistics, a full one-in-four or 26% of workers are in the transportation, food service, cleaning and maintenance, retail and personal care industries. We must learn from Covid-19 and build better safety nets for all workers? There’s little doubt the future is digital, so we must make sure swathes of the population aren’t left behind.
Employers Must Move With The Times
For employers and HR professionals the Covid-19 crisis has had their work cut out for them and brought forward decades of ongoing wellbeing trends into just few weeks and months in order to keep employees going and coping with the pandemic.
According to the Employee Wellbeing Research 2020 wellbeing programmes are becoming a defining feature of business’ culture, helping to develop resilient, successful organisations. It states that the events in 2020 are set to push the workplace health agenda further towards centre stage. Employers have indicated that, even in the face of cuts and risk of recession, they are committed to wellbeing spend. The percentage of employers that deliver wellbeing consistently across their whole business has doubled since 2019 to 51%.
Positive change won’t work if employers do not evolve to meet new challenges. New challenges will almost certainly mean an upgrade not only in the systems used but also in a new mindset that must include positive reinforcement of trust and accountability.
Small Changes that Create Massive Waves
With many managing our whole lives via our mobile devices, will deciding when we receive our wages be the next stage of total personal financial control?
Financial wellbeing is a high priority for companies and employees alike; the move to online banking, and digital integration started long before the pandemic. Lives change just by tapping a few words on our keyboards we can start a business, change a career or move home, not to mention things we do on daily basis such as pay our bills and purchases and access our money.
In a recession or a crisis, access to finance becomes a problem. One way to reverse this trend is by widening the access to funds or capital via financial technology with forward-thinking strategies that can pave the way for entrepreneurship and give employees strength and flexibility in one fell swoop. Money worries/financial wellbeing is predicted to be one of the top five growth areas in wellbeing provision for this year.
Employers would do well to pass such benefit on to employees who have the upper hand even in an open employment market as key talent remains in short supply. One way to maintain a balance is to empower workers by giving them the power to determining some of their working arrangements, including early access to wages.
Proactive and progressive companies will take this opportunity to embrace the new normal and turn it into a competitive advantage while simultaneously improving their workers’ lives.
On-Demand Wages
In 2019 the recruitment company Glassdoor wrote an article stating that “While high salaries and perks may have once been the keys to attracting top talent, a company’s mission and culture matter most to job seekers”. Highlighting that it’s a company’s ethos that attracts and retains top-class talent.
Right now, employers require an edge, even in a global pandemic the task of recruiting valuable talent requires a marker. On-demand wage solution such as fastP.A.Y.E will set you out as a highly progressive employer, an employer that has modernised their strategy to not only compete in the modern marketplace but who supports its employees in the toughest of times.
FastP.A.Y.E is an ethical and sustainable way for employers to deliver a financial wellbeing strategy to their employees. It focuses on promoting the modern workplace, allowing flexible wage management that increases the applicant pool, fostering productivity and boosting morale.
The key benefits that differentiate fastP.A.Y.E from competitors are;
- It’s an ethical solution, and it is not a loan
- The employer is in full control
- The employee reaps the benefit of access to flexible pay options for free
- As a by-product, you can increase morale and productivity
- Widen the applicant pool and maintain a high level of staff retention
Do you have fastP.A.Y.E in your new era toolbox?