Beyond hybrid work and location changes owing to the pandemic, what kind of long-term shifts do you foresee for so-called ‘knowledge workers’ in regards to their relationship with their employer and work more generally?

Recent events are radically changing our workplaces and the relationship with our careers. We’re seeing unprecedented quit rates, increased labour organising, and pay increases by companies that have historically opposed them, like Walmart. Another indicator is pay transparency legislation across the US.

We see a large-scale transition from workplace rigidity to flexibility. This includes autonomy over when people work: we notice more organisations make ‘core working hours’ explicit. The Future Forum team at Slack has written about schedule and location flexibility and the many benefits they offer to knowledge workers, particularly women and people of colour. When people have more control over their schedules and more agency overall, they are more likely to stay in their jobs, which matters amid global competition for talent.

With people living and working longer, what can we expect from having multiple generations in the workforce?

Our editorial and research teams are studying this now. We’re looking at changes in culture and engagement, such as how to overcome age-related bias. I’m curious about improvements in continuous learning, like two-way mentorship and upskilling, especially in light of many baby boomers retiring. Relatedly, we know that younger generations are reshaping work today; for example, they are more likely to expect that executives will practice servant leadership, prioritising and empowering employees.

Younger staff also arrive with a different set of goals for what they’ll do on the job. Research from the Edelman Trust Barometer about trust in the workplace shows that four in five Gen Z employees have a strong expectation that, in their jobs, they will have opportunities to help address social problems or support their local communities.

Impact, purpose, values-alignment – employees are increasingly looking for these themes in their job search. What, in your view, is driving this trend and how will it change workplaces over coming years?

In our team’s recent research, employee mental wellbeing topped the list of considerations that executives and their deputies say they’re actively looking to solve with staff. This wasn’t the case in years past, and mental health benefits are just one approach toward creating thriving workplaces. The path out of the pandemic presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reset to a model that’s fairer for all, and to make our work more purposeful, productive, and flexible.

We’re actively watching the power of employee voice. It can result in more humane management and leadership of people’s full lives, including caregiving. Smart leaders should also make good use of ‘shocks to the system’, including employee walkouts, company scandals, mergers, or news events, to restart conversations that may have stalled out of employees’ understandable fears of speaking up.

There has been a lot of focus on DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) in the last decade, especially in the tech sphere. Are there signs that progress made on these issues is having a real impact?

We certainly see productive efforts toward increased employee stock ownership and board representation by underrepresented groups. We see improvement in how organisations think about their staff and leadership in terms of neurodiversity, class, and identities that extend beyond what a person looks like. (On this point, regularly surveying employees and asking about multiple variations of diversity is important to reveal insights into how various groups experience the workplace very differently.) And yet, there’s no question that organisations can be doing much more substantively – not just talking about DEI as a priority, but resourcing it with real investment – to make it possible for talent to show up and do their best work.

What are some general skills and traits that will be most useful for ‘knowledge workers’ – young and old – as the job market evolves?

A few things I look for in hiring ‘change-ready‘ people: do they bring a growth mindset and empower others? Are they anti-racist? Assuming they bring meaningful intellectual contributions, are they also thoughtful around giving and receiving feedback? Do they bring curiosity about the motivations of the people they serve with their work? Being considerate and creative with regards to the climate matters, too, to create a world where all workers thrive.

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