2020 was a strange year for many employees across the UK and in the wider world. The pandemic threw everything off the rails, and things are still far from being back to normal. As a result of this, certain trends have developed that are influencing the working experience, and they’re set to do so well into the future.

Many of these were already established before 2021, but now they’re becoming particularly noticeable and potentially changing the way we work forever.

Skills Increase

Finding a job isn’t always the easiest task when you face so much competition. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that things will get any easier in 2021, not when there’s such a demand for skills.

According to research by Gartner, 64% of HR managers don’t believe that current employees can keep pace with future skill needs. That means that when new people are hired, there’s an expectation for them to already have these skills to avoid repeating the problem. It’s far easier to bring in new employees who already have these abilities at their disposal, rather than trying to reskill them with the rest of the workforce.

Remote Working

Already a growing working experience before the pandemic, 2020 saw a significant increase in remote working as people tried to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This has continued into 2021, with millions still doing their jobs from home. The thing is, even when the virus becomes a thing of the past, a lot of employees are still going to be working from the comfort of their sofas.

Remote work is here to stay, with plenty of jobs now advertised as such on platforms like Recamov. Here, you can find remote jobs that are well-paid and offer excellent experience, all without you having to leave your home. Such positions are ideal for anyone who enjoys the freedom of working outside of the office, or who may be homebound for medical or disability reasons.

Flexible Working

In a way, this is an extension of remote working. However, on top of employees being able to work where they want, there’s also a growing trend in people being able to work when they want.

It seems that staff are gaining the working experience of more freedom to fit their jobs around their personal lives, rather than the other way around. Although it’s unlikely that standard 9-5 businesses will ever allow staff to do all their hours in the middle of the night, flexibility definitely seems to be a big thing already in 2021. With remote working set to become fairly commonplace post-pandemic, it’s likely that flexibility will go hand-in-hand with this to ensure that employees get to work when it suits them best.

Mental Health Support

It used to be that if you had mental health struggles, you couldn’t resolve your issues without it having a significant impact on your job. Thankfully, times are changing, and employers are becoming more accepting of such difficulties, providing staff with increasing support to help them get better.

Obviously, there’s still a long way to go before such support is at the level it should be. However, the pandemic’s impact has prompted many businesses to realise just how essential it is to look after employee mental healthNearly 13% of workplace absences were tied to mental health before COVID-19, and employers risk seeing this statistic increase without changing their ways. That’s not what anyone wants when the current situation is already making life challenging for many businesses.

As with every year, 2021 is set to see a lot of ups and downs for businesses and employees alike. With the pandemic still having such a significant impact on everything, things aren’t likely to change anytime soon, so these trends are here to stay.

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As an experienced business and finance writer I understand the corporate landscape and the driving forces behind it. Over the years I’ve shared my insight and knowledge with key industry publications and dedicated my time to showing how business leaders can make their organisations more effective.