Gig workers will account for half of the U.S. workforce five years from now.
The ranks of “digital nomads” will increase to nearly 60 million by 2030.
The vast majority of employers will pay for employees’ home office setups.
Those are some of the predictions about the workforce in a report released by Delaware North.
The Buffalo-based hospitality giant commissioned “The Future of Recreation, Travel and Hospitality,” after almost completely shutting down its operations during the pandemic. Attention Span Media produced the report.
The report takes stock of trends from the past couple of years – including widespread remote work and diminished business travel – and gazes into the crystal ball:
By 2027, 80 million people will be part of the gig economy, compared with 55 million last year. “This inexorable rise means that the labor force will never go back to the previous normal,” the report said.
Some large, forward-thinking companies will create apps that will enable workers to pick up shifts at franchised locations where those workers travel to, the report said. “Unions will want to have a say in the creation of these internal work apps to protect seniority, pay rates and other benefits for their membership.”
The gig economy’s explosion has diverted workers away from entry-level jobs in the hospitality industry, the report said. “Even though gig jobs may not supply predictable income, they provide other benefits like flexible working hours and a wider variety of work.”
• The number of “digital nomads” – remote workers who are not anchored to a desk in one office to do their jobs – will rise to nearly 60 million by 2023, from 11 million in 2020.
“A growing number of people and businesses are embracing a future where the focus is on what work is getting done, and not where or when it’s getting done,” the report said. “This tectonic shift will not be reversed.”
The report predicts even traditional work schedules are headed for a shakeup: “Constructs like nine-to-five workdays, five-day workweeks, even four-day workweeks – ‘workweeks’ in general – will soon come to seem like relics of an inflexible dark age.”
As remote and hybrid work have gone mainstream, employers will be increasingly likely to pay for workers’ home office setups, the report said. Before the pandemic, only one in 10 companies paid for those setups; the report predicts by 2030, 75% of employers will do so.
The report also envisions large corporations opening “work hubs” where employees can meet up to work together, instead of traveling to the headquarters. “This will also help companies maintain their corporate culture, a quality too easily lost through remote working but essential for retaining workers and recruiting new ones,” the report said.
Delaware North said it is taking a close look at the report, which also covered the hospitality and tourism industries. “Delaware North has already begun leadership workshops to discuss how the company can use the report’s findings to shape investments and business lines going forward,” said Jerry Jacobs Jr., one of the company’s CEOs.
Getting to know you, virtually
In the old days – before the pandemic – newly hired employees would arrive at the office and meet their new co-workers.
That’s not necessarily the case anymore.
Fifty seven percent of employees in New York state who have begun a new job since March 2020 have never met their co-workers in person, according to a new survey by Green Building Elements.
If that percentage seems high, it’s a far cry from Nebraska’s 89%, which led all states. At the other end of the spectrum were Kentucky and Montana, where only 17% hadn’t met their co-workers in person.
The survey’s results reinforce themes that have emerged since the pandemic began: many workers prefer working from home, and are productive working that way. And with the rise of remote work, companies are more open to hiring employees who don’t even live in the same region or state.
The survey also found that among respondents across all states, 58% of work-from-home employees say their relationships with co-workers had improved since not working in an in-person environment. And 17% of those who are working from home – with the option to return to the office – say they would be more likely to come back if their employer made the workspace an “eco-friendly environment.”
Green Building Elements conducted the survey in May, with over 4,000 respondents.
Open to a job change
We’ve heard a lot about the “quit rate” and employees seizing the opportunity to change jobs during the pandemic, with so many jobs going unfilled.
That trend isn’t letting up, according to Robert Half’s Job Optimism Survey, which comes out twice a year.
Four in 10 workers said they are either looking or plan to look for a new role between now and the end of 2022, the latest survey found.
The most frequently cited reason for making a job change (65%) was a salary increase. More than half of the workers considering a job change said they planned to pursue a hybrid or fully remote job.
“In this market, even passive job seekers are flight risks, so it’s crucial for companies to address employees’ priorities before they even contemplate a career move,” said Paul McDonald, senior executive director of Robert Half.
Original Article: (https://buffalonews.com/business/local/ahead-for-the-workplace-more-gig-workers-and-digital-nomads/article_5b436d68-f741-11ec-84a7-6b9342454e5d.html )
