Future of work revisited — Five trends that will define the Future of Work in 2022
Much has been written about the changes that have taken place in our working lives since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The “home office”, or I believe some now call it the “alternative workplace”, has become the new normal where furry friends have been adopted en masse while the 9-to-5 workday has gone out of the window. As Harvard Business Review rightly puts it, work has moved to the worker instead of the worker to work. Now that these (not so) new ways of working have been adopted, it’s time to look ahead. Let’s discuss five Future of Work trends that we believe should be followed closely in the coming months.
In fact, we, here at Inkef Capital, have been focusing on the Future of Work space for quite some years now with investments in the Global HR space through Remote.com (unicorn), Health & Wellbeing with Urban Sports Club and Workplace Communications with Happeo and another investment in the low-code/no-code space soon to be announced!
Trend 1 — From headcount to skill count
Gone are those days where (HR) Managers are making hiring plans based on the number of heads required for certain projects or department. Agile companies have started to shift their resourcing models and are adjusting to the new reality, where it will be all about skills. New tools have launched that help companies identify professionals not necessary based on where they come from but on the hard and soft skills they possess. Interestingly, it will not stop there. Skills will act as the horizontal layer in the Future of Work and will become core throughout the entire talent life cycle, including training, internal mobility, promotion and retention.
Companies to watch: 5Mins, how.fm, TechWolf, Fuse Universal and SkyHive.
Trend 2 — First things first — Employees’ health and wellbeing
Companies have taken a huge step forward and have now started to recognise the importance of supporting their employees’ (mental) health and wellbeing, especially after the spike of burnouts during the pandemic. The industry is clearly being digitalised by new players who address the needs of employees to receive more convenient and personalised care.
Whereas some companies go for more of a personalised “one-size-fits-all” approach (e.g. Unmind for mental health & wellbeing for all employees), others have decided to offer platforms that address specific sub-sectors (e.g. Peppy for pregnancy, parenthood, menopause and more). No matter the approach, the fact is that the industry is changing — (mental) health & wellbeing is no longer the taboo that is used to be, and rightly so.
Companies to watch: Peppy, Teale, Moka.Care, Unmind, Nilo Health, and Urban Sports Club.
Trend 3 — The rise of the Contingent Workforce Management Platforms
Gone are those days where companies only needed tools to manage their employed, payroll workers. It is now all about the entire workforce, including contractors, freelancers, gig workers, independents and more. This extended workforce is also referred to as contingent workforce and has now finally reached C-suite level in terms of priority. According to a report by Intuit, currently 40% of the US workforce are contingent workers and this number is only expected to increase.
Whereas some platforms, such as Inkef’s stellar portfolio company Remote.com, offer global HR solutions for distributed teams (employed & contingent workforce), others are focusing specifically on helping companies manage just that last group. More specifically, these contingent workforce platforms enable companies to easily source, invoice and pay contingent workers, while having their spend and compliance in order too, all from one single platform. In others words, HRTech, FinTech, RegTech and Legaltech all in one!
Companies to watch: Stoke (acquired by Fiverr), Worksome, Utmost and Bubty
Trend 4 — Culture, culture, culture
With the war of talent exploding, company culture has never been so important. As we all know, a strong company culture sets the foundations for productivity and retention of employees. What used to be a buzzword has now actually become tangible, with tools available in the market that help companies gather data points on their culture, which can then inform hiring so talent can be found that truly fits the organisation. Copenhagen’s Platypus is a pioneer in this space. Check them out!
Other start-ups are tackling culture more from a diversity & inclusion perspective. For example, Fair HQ helps companies build a diverse and inclusive organisation through evidence-based insights and assessments.
Lastly, misconduct reporting and resolution will also become more important than ever, especially now that not all voices will always be heard because of the hybrid working model. As Rungway rightly stated, companies need to learn how to move from pledges to impact while building truly inclusive and connected cultures.
Companies to watch: Rungway, Platypus, Vault and FairHQ
Trend 5 — It’s all about the creators!
Last but not least are of course the creators. A clear power shift is under way from platforms and brands to creators themselves, who now have the capability to move beyond sponsored posts to running their own business. According to Signalfire, already more than 50 million people call themselves creators. In fact, the market is now valued at $20bn with estimations that it could grow by 5x by the end of this year (2022). According to a study by toy production company Lego, today’s kids are three times more likely to aspire to become a YouTuber rather than an Astronaut.
The industry of independent content creators, curators, and community builders is booming and the platforms that help them monetise what they love and turn their passion into a profession will become inevitable in the future.
Companies to watch: Elopage, Passionfroot, Easol.
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PS. Are you a start-up in the Future of Work space looking to raise VC funding? Please do reach out to carien@inkef.com.
