Traditionally, businesses and enterprises were created with the aims of that entity as the priority.
That aim is of course still important, but recent trends have been for the individual to become more important, a business still wants to make a profit, but it should also care about the workplace wellbeing of its employees.
The same is true of any employee, they want more than just a salary in exchange for their time. They want a workplace that is engaging, where they feel valued and that shows it values them and also has their best interests at heart.
In 2020, this trend will only accelerate, the need to show staff they are valued will be increasingly key to retaining these quality workers.
Those aren’t just our words, numerous business analysts looking into the future have spotted the same trends.
Here are a few excerpts from articles that focus on workplace trends for 2020 and beyond.
 

Mental Health Awareness Will Be Crucial

Any employee can have issues that will impact their ability to work, and often mental health difficulties will have a profound impact.
Perhaps in the past, employees would hide their issues, quietly getting on with work, but at greatly reduced capacity. Nowadays, programmes such as the Employee Assistance Programme enable those who are struggling to speak to advisers and get confidential support 24/7.
Thrive Global have written about this trend, stating:
Satisfied employees typically perform better. What companies have learned is that mental health is a big part of the performance. There is not much satisfaction in feeling miserable in your job position. Once again, balancing accountability and understanding can be a challenge for some employers, but making mental health resources available is an excellent way to start. Making the workplace feel like an asset rather than a liability can improve performance.
 

An Emphasis on Work-Life Balance

Could the next decade be the period when workalike balance really comes to the fore?
Increasingly, people want more than just to have distinct worklife and Homelife; they want their workalike to feel engaging, valuable and enjoyable. Many would happily take a lower salary in exchange for working somewhere that was more fulfilling.
Any employer of course wants staff members to work hard, but they can also do so much to boost this worklife balance.
They can encourage team work and working collaboratively. They can ensure that company values are well known and shared.
They can also show that they are looking out for employees, making their life that bit easier. Creating a workplace nursery scheme saves parents thousands of pounds and makes childcare easier, setting up gym membership schemes, Dining Card club, a discount club and more enables people to save money on things they need.
The more an employer goes out of their way to help employees, the more they will feel valued and the less likely they will be to leave.
As FinancesOnline states:
Today, working late nights or long weeks to earn more is never a pre-eminence. The modern employees are now looking for better work-life balance and perks that positively impact their wellbeing. In fact, job seekers of today claim good work-life balance invariably sway their decisions when evaluating an organization
 

The role of the manager will change

“The new role of managers is to be more human and less machine” – those aren’t our words, they are taken from New York Times bestselling author Dan Schawbel, who has written his 10 trends to be aware of. 
Managers currently spend too much of their time carrying out admin style tasks, tasks that in future will be better left to robots and bots. Currently, survey data shows that on average, managers spend just 10% of their time on strategy, 7% on developing and encouraging talent and engaging with stakeholders and a huge 54% of their time on admin.
This needs to change – and that’s a general point, not one aimed at any particular company! Technology and automation should be able to take care of so much of that admin, managers should be able to focus on what machines can’t do – lateral thinking, empathy, staff development and more.
Dan suggests that workers feel distanced from managers and, by extension, the workplace as a whole. This distance can inevitably lead to lower retention rates and a lack of loyalty.
Focus can and will shift on to how managers can send more of their timer managing – and that’s managing people rather than admin.
 

Employee Benefits Will Be Key

As leading providers of employee benefits, we agree wholeheartedly with this one, but we’re not pushing our own research.
Instead, this comes from flexjobs.com who have looked at workplace trends, including the arrival of Generation Z into the workplace and the desire for greater remote working (a potential win-win in future as it enables employers to reduce office size and also gives workers flexibility).
On employee benefits, they argue that for skilled, in demand employers benefits are crucial to attract the best talent and then also retain these people. Salaries across employers might be similar, the added perks make a huge difference, both financially but also ion creating that sense of being valued.
As they state:
If unemployment rates remain low, employers likely will continue to increase benefits in 2020 as a way to attract and retain talent.
Employee benefits are great because there is no downside. It is not a case of them being a large administrative burden or costing the employer money, they actually lead to savings against N.I. 
They can also save the company money in other ways – for example any employee, however senior, might benefit from childcare provision; the ability to buy computers and IT equipment cheaply through the Discount Card scheme is as of much value to the person in charge of sourcing new laptops as it is to any individual employee.
Admin is easy too – all managed through a hub that gives everyone full access and the ability to select the benefits they wish to use.
 

Setting Up Benefits

For the business, setting up workplace benefits should not be an administrative burden; it also should not be costly. Many of the benefits in fact lead to savings and reductions in N.I.
At Enjoy Benefits, we have many years’ experience setting up suites of benefits for a huge range of employers, working with them to create a benefits hub that best suits their employees.
The benefits are easy to manage and maintain, while you would also have a named personal account manager at Enjoy Benefits on hand at all times to answer any queries.
If you would like an informal conversation , please contact us by calling 0800 088 7315 or use our Contact Form.