Human Resource Outsourcing

Remote work trends in 2022 and beyond

Remote work: An emerging trend

A few decades ago, only a few employees received permission to work from home for special reasons. Companies had to go the extra mile to provide them with phones, expensive high-speed internet connections, or such gadgets to complement remote work. While remote work culture increased as years passed, companies still considered freelancers or remote workers a drain on business productivity. The prevailing belief among managers was that workers performed their best under a watchful eye.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic played a significant role in shifting these beliefs. The entire work landscape changed. According to studies, 48% of employees globally are currently working remotely. Companies are leveraging emerging technologies to communicate and collaborate virtually and even experiencing greater productivity. So, what are the top work-from-home trends for 2022?

Five remote work trends shaping the remote work culture

The writing is on the wall. Remote work culture is here to stay and grow. Studies reveal that stress levels among employees were already higher during the pandemic. Companies do not want to elevate it by forcing employees back to the office. Adding to this is a favourable culture of work from home. New working strategies, software, and trends have helped companies maintain productivity while reducing infrastructure costs. Here are the top 5 trends for 2022 and beyond.

• Opportunities available for the workforce

  The pandemic changed the expectations of potential employees and current managers. One survey showed that 60% of managers would support remote work culture. Employees are no longer shy to request work-from-home option, and if they’re denied, they switch to other companies that offer this option. Over time, either a fully remote or a hybrid work culture will take over. In a hybrid work setting, companies offer employees the flexibility to work for a few days from the office and on other days remotely.




• The use of technology for communication and collaboration

  Previously, collaboration and communication were among the top challenges that hindered remote work culture. Their share was 20% among all the other concerns. Advancements in technology are now supporting remote work culture like never before. While employees can communicate and collaborate over team meeting platforms, managers can get a real-time bird’s eye view of their employees and business metrics on the cloud. A top management consulting firm predicts that face-to-face meetings will comprise only 25% of the overall business meetings by 2024.




• Higher importance of cybersecurity

  With most work happening over the internet, 85% of respondents in a survey say cybersecurity is ever more critical. However, thanks to top-notch cloud platforms, businesses can be sure that their data is safe and under the scrutiny of cybersecurity experts.




• Virtual HR processes and team building

  Reports reveal that 86% of organisations now prefer virtual recruitment, and the search volume for ‘remote recruitment’ on search engines has gone up by 247% in the past five years. Managers and HR recruiters say that remote hiring simplifies logistics, shortens process time, and reduces costs. On the other end, 80% of candidates are comfortable with the remote recruitment process. Numerous solutions offer virtual team-building activities that maintain the vibrancy of the company’s culture and helps in engaging with employees beyond work.




• Greater attention to the employee’s well-being

  Employee well-being is among the top 6 priorities for HR, and the work-from-home culture achieves it to a large extent. The employees are not under constant scrutiny and can design their work schedule with family commitments in mind. Businesses do not mind as long as the work is delivered on time and employees meet their targets. However, some challenges businesses have observed with the remote work culture are employee loneliness, not being able to unplug, and other distractions at home. Considering these 5 trends, there is a lot that HR needs to align itself to.

  For organisations on the digital transformation journey, agility is key in responding to a rapidly changing technology and business landscape. Now more than ever, it is crucial to deliver and exceed on organisational expectations with a robust digital mindset backed by innovation. Enabling businesses to sense, learn, respond, and evolve like a living organism, will be imperative for business excellence going forward. A comprehensive, yet modular suite of services is doing exactly that. Equipping organisations with intuitive decision-making automatically at scale, actionable insights based on real-time solutions, anytime/anywhere experience, and in-depth data visibility across functions leading to hyper-productivity, Live Enterprise is building connected organisations that are innovating collaboratively for the future.

How can Infosys BPM help?

Outsourcing HR processes to experts help you retain talent through the following services and offerings:

• Get expert help from talent sourcing and development to engagement and retention.
• Stay up to date with the challenges that employees face in remote work and ensure greater mental health and well-being.
• Manage payroll, benefits administration, and employee learning with a dedicated team.
• Access a larger talent pool and current market trends.
• Match your HR and employee retention policies with your competitor businesses.

Read more about HR outsourcing at Infosys BPM.