What changes are you going to expect at work this year?

The pandemic has revolutionized the way companies and employees see work culture. The past norms have got a hit and new ways of work culture have evolved. The covid pandemic has transformed the work over the past three years in ways that few could have imagined. It has normalized remote work and created a shortfall of critical workers. It made the organizations take the mental health of employees very seriously and need for a sane work-life balance are critical to retention and engagement.

So what does the prospect of 2023 holds for you at your job regardless of your niche or industry? Let’s check it out here.

Lay-offs will see new highs after historic lows

The recession is looming large over the world economy, particularly in the USA. there is a possibility of more widespread job cuts across sectors such as tech, media, and finance. The lay-offs have already started to pick pace in other industries.

The lay-offs in 2021 and 2022 were at their historic lows since 1993. The job market has cooled to some extent. But it is still running hot in some special segments with high levels of job openings per job seeker. The overall slowdown in hiring will continue with employers likely to reinstate performance-based hiring. In case of a full-blown recession, the lay-offs will cut much deeper.

Work flexibility will be enhanced and improved

There are still debates going on about how many days employees not physically stay at work. But it is for sure that a hybrid system of doing work is not going away any time soon.

Around 66 percent of employees around the globe are permitted to work in a hybrid mode and around 9 percent have the luxury of working from home full-time.

Front-line workers like retail employees, healthcare professionals, and security guards have no choice but to be always present at the site. Demands have arisen that they should be offered other forms of flexibility like being given a regular schedule in advance. It could also mean more paid leaves.

The talent war will reward handsomely

Information technology professionals will still steal the day at work when it comes to who gets the biggest raises and bonuses. Most organizations are of the view that the talent market will remain competitive at least in the first half of the year. Companies will do what they have to attract the best talent.

Employers have increased the pay and bonuses by 3 and 5 percent respectively but that somehow doesn’t reflect in the employees day to day living due to the higher inflation rate. Inflation erodes the purchasing capacity of increased pay for employees.

Now it is easier to assess the worth of your talents

It is difficult to figure out whether one is being paid competitively for their talents as companies are not open about what they are paying others and colleagues won’t discuss their pay.

The good news is that New York City, the state of California, and a few other states have brought legislation that makes it obligatory for companies to implement pay transparency rules for job postings. It is going to be easier in 2023 to confirm one is being paid fairly relative to one’s teammates and to determine the salary range on offer if one is looking for a new job.

Because the rules are still new, the companies have not been uniform in how they are handling the new rules. Companies are unhelpfully advertising wider pay ranges such as $50,000 to $200,000 which is of the least help to job seekers.

More discretion in spending benefit money

Employers offer their full-time staffers some big benefits like subsidized health insurance. They also offer a range of secondary benefits and perks such as tuition fee reimbursement, supplemental life insurance, a stipend for home office supplies, and financial coaching. Nowadays, companies let employees decide how best to spend these perks by letting them direct a fixed amount of money across the secondary benefits that are most important to them.

So this was the list of things that you will see in 2023 for the first time. The work culture has evolved a lot and is still evolving for the better for both employers and employees.