According to Howard Grosvenor, managing consultant at
people performance specialist SHL, global changes will have a great
impact on the way we work in the future. UK employees will need to
be flexible enough to continually work across time zones, languages
and cultures.
The employee of the future will most probably not be sitting at
a desk from nine to five. Future workspaces may be made up of
meeting spaces, and the notion of nine to five might gradually
disappear, with staff working ad hoc hours to fit around their home
commitments.
Offices may well disappear and instead miniature business
centres could spring up near satellite offices. Increasingly,
people will work from home as organisations cut down their
overheads on office space and use remote locations. Better
technology infrastructure will make distributed working easier. All
of this will have a positive impact on health and stress
levels.
With this new-age worker in mind, many employers are now
considering remote working and working from home as viable options
in their recruitment drive.
Recruitment websites, including Remote Employment and
BCSRecruit.com, will come to the fore and take the lead in
recruiting tomorrow's workers. Currently, around 3.1 million people
usually or regularly work from home and this is likely to double in
the near future.
Ken Sheridan, managing director of Remote Employment, believes
the recent emergence of virtual jobs and virtual communities is
changing the way companies attract and retain skilled employees.
Smarter organisations reduce employment costs by adopting remote
working as a regular employment solution.
Flexible working practices, such as remote working and working
from home, can increase business productivity and competitiveness,
help to reduce transport congestion and pollution, improve worker's
health, and assist disadvantaged groups.
Sheridan says, "The new worker's green agenda will increase home
working, which will make it much easier for families to achieve a
better work-life balance. Remote employment hopes thousands of
companies and organisations will follow the new-age worker by
implementing flexible working practices to the benefit of their
business, their employees, and the country as a whole."
David Harvey, product manager of BCSrecruit.com, said, "The
trend towards home working is not showing any signs of abating. We
believe that working from home is a lifestyle choice that many
employers will increasingly need to bear in mind when recruiting
those with in-demand skills. If they do not take heed of this
growing trend towards flexible home working, they may well find
that valued employees move with their feet to companies who do,
taking advantage of online recruitment opportunities."