The world of work has changed significantly over the past couple of years. From high rises to home offices; workers worldwide have made the switch to hybrid working. And thanks to implementing new technologies, lots of people are now able to work from anywhere. So, we’ve done a deep dive into the future of work and where that may lead.
We spoke to people from around CloudCall, as well as the wider technology industry, to ask how a remote world and the rise of automation, will affect people’s work lives.
McKinsey & Company reported “Perhaps the most obvious impact of COVID-19 on the labour force is the dramatic increase in employees working remotely.”
Their findings showed three broad trends that may reshape the world of work:
- A dramatic increase in remote working worldwide
- E-commerce has grown two to five times faster than before the pandemic
- An acceleration of adopting automation and AI technologies
Forbes stated that the ability to work from home “has now become the norm for most businesses.”
They said that “by 2025, an estimated 70% of the workforce will be working remotely at least five days a month.”
But how has the sudden switch to hybrid working affected the technology industry?
“The whole transformation into remote working has been great.” Andy Hallet, Co-Founder at RecWired told us at our Purple Panel event ‘The future of work: Engaging top talent in a remote world’.
“The default is now to expect hybrid working. and there’s so many different sectors and companies which will now benefit from that. You can hire talent no matter where they are in the country, or even the world.”
The recruitment industry especially has changed drastically in recent years. Candidates now expect hybrid flexibility, online interview processes and a great culture whilst working remotely.
In fact, Digger report that “80% of workers say they would turn down a job that didn’t offer flexible working.”
Businesses who’ve invested in new technologies, such as CloudCall, not only seamlessly work from home, but also provide better service and have more flexibility.
“The beauty of working remotely is having flexibility, the CloudCall for Bullhorn integration gives us that.” Brian Cunningham, Managing Director at Allen Recruitment Consulting told us.
Long gone are the days of traditional telephones as we know them. And thankfully so is that excruciatingly long internet dial-up process from the late 90’s!
A whole new world (of telephony)
Fancy taking a magic carpet ride (whilst conducting an interview)? Or packing up and moving to live under the sea? Well now you can (kind of).
Cloud telephony allows you to work from anywhere. All you need is a laptop and an internet connection and away you go.
Don’t worry about telephone lines, handset phones or even a notepad. Cloud telephony providers, such as ourselves, have created their systems with you in mind.
Rachael Broomes, Operations Manager at Levin Group said “Without CloudCall, we wouldn’t be able to continue the way we are. You need a system that’s integrated with your database to be able to work efficiently.”
As the world is increasing the amount of people working remotely, it’s time that businesses invest into systems that enable their teams to work efficiently and operations to run seamlessly, no matter where their employees are based.
Businesses are no longer bound by location.
With an efficient cloud telephony solution such as CloudCall, a remote team of experts can work just as smoothly as a team all working out of the same office.
Smarp found that “40% of companies say they’re planning to accelerate the adoption of new ways of working.”
We ourselves, have changed the way we work in the past two years. Simon Cleaver, CloudCall CEO says “Before the COVID pandemic transformed office life, our employees were in the office five days a week, however we’ll now be adopting a hybrid working approach.”
“I believe a mix of home and office working is the future with the blend varying depending upon departmental requirements. The office will still be important, but as a hub. The glue to keep people connected, having fun and collaborating together.”
“Business owners have had to pivot their strategies, marketing plans, and in some cases, their core products and services, to match this new way of working. They’ve also had to accelerate their adoption of technology. Having tools, like CloudCall, that support remote working is vital in ensuring teams remain productive and safe while working remotely.”
It’s clear that hybrid working isn’t just the future of work, but it’s already here. What’s interesting is going to be how many companies wise up quickly. To realizing that implementing technologies now, will save them a lot of trouble later down the line.
Giving your employees the tools to do their jobs effectively and productively, from wherever they are working, will be the key to success in the next few years.
CloudCall Chief People Officer, Abigail Wilkinson says: “We’ve seen drastic changes since March 2020. With most of our workforce moving to hybrid working, we’ve not only seen an increase in sales but also improvements in our customer satisfaction and our employees have said they have a greater work-life balance.”
Josh Bersin wrote in the HR Predictions for 2021 report, that “There’s no more reason to debate whether people are allowed to work at home; they’re now working everywhere. The big trend to me is that work comes to you rather than you going to work.”
What do the experts think?
We sat down for a chat with CloudCall Chief Product Officer, Diogo Coutinho, to hear his thoughts on the future of work, from the perspective of someone who creates and develops tools to help people work remotely for a living.
How does CloudCall help our users that are working from anywhere?
“We created our mobile app for people to be able to work on-the-go. For an estate agent, for example, you’re constantly moving from a flat, to a house, to another property.
You need to be able to manage your calls and messages whilst away from the office.
Whilst you’re making those calls and sending those messages, with a telephony integration, you have the confidence that those records are being synced back into the CRM. Then people back in the office know what is going on, as everything is saved back into the CRM that everyone has access to.”
What does the future of the workplace look like to you?
“Whilst we’re very dependent on people’s skillsets or their specific roles, I think for most of us in the tech industry, the office will become a destination. Somewhere to come to collaborate, to do creative work, to feed from each other’s ideas.
The office won’t be a place to go to and sit with your headphones on and make calls all day, as it’s much more comfortable for people to be doing that at home.
I see offices being more like collaborative spaces, which will pose a challenge to businesses who still haven’t adapted to that design, or even interior design. We need more standing up spaces, lounge spaces and less monitors on sit down desks.”
How do you think hybrid working can benefit a business?
“A business that adopts a flexible arrangement can maximize the potential of their employees. Every business will have employees who will perform much better when working from home doing focused work, without the distractions of the office.
The less distractions there are, the better the quality of work that they will be producing. For others it can be the opposite, some people need to feed from each other’s creativity in order to produce high quality work or need to have various discussions to get to a conclusion.
Flexible working allows people to do their best work. Whether it’s focusing at home or collaborating in an office; giving employees the freedom to work how they want will only benefit the standard of work being produced.
The playing field has become levelled. People who are better suited to creating their best work at home were not able to, due to the constraints of being in an office five days a week. The pandemic flipped that on its head, as people who work best collaboratively were not able to do so. It’s only now that we are able to get the best of both worlds, to maximize performance across the board.”
How will the acceleration and automation of AI affect the future of work?
“People will spend less time on repetitive and mundane tasks. People will be able to use their time focusing on other areas or tasks, doing more creative work using more cognitive processes rather than manual processes.
More than anything, the rise of AI will add more value to human work, the creative side that automation will struggle to recreate.
Some people may think that more technology will lead to people losing their jobs, whereas technology creates new roles. Think of a Social Media Manager for instance, this is a role that didn’t exist 20 years ago. It exists because of new tech.
Automation and AI will also create jobs that don’t exist today, to support that new technology. Whether that is going to balance up or not, we’ll have to see.”
We spoke to Lisa Jones, Director & Founder at Barclay Jones, on her thoughts about the future of work. She said:
“To thrive in the current world of work, recruiters need to look at training and systems, which will enable their teams to be more effective and deliver results. A third of recruiters quit their role due to a lack of training.”
“Remote or hybrid working can ensure that you provide the right support, training and get the best out of your teams in the current market.”
“Hybrid working can help you ensure you provide support and get the best out of your teams, especially in this new world we find ourselves in. But hybrid is not just about WFH – it’s reinvigorating the processes and humans to deliver best practice.”
How can my team thrive in a hybrid workplace?
We don’t have all the answers in the world, but we can definitely help you with this one. Get in contact with us, so we can tell you how CloudCall can help your business with successfully working from anywhere.
