Robots, telecommuting and improved online recruiting will be on the rise in 2017. Every day there are new technologies and trends that impact how, when and where you work.

In order to become more productive in the workplace, and invaluable, you will want to stay current with advancements in technologies that streamline functions. You can be the innovator to help your organization integrate automation technologies to improve efficiency.

Via money.usnews.com >

This was a "remarkable" year for hiring, according to Glassdoor’s chief economist, Andrew Chamberlain. He says that the U.S. added an average 180,000 new jobs per month, well above the "break even" pace of job growth of 50,000 to 110,000 economists estimate the economy needs to keep Americans fully employed.

Pay is also on the rise. Median base pay for U.S. workers was up 3.1% from 2015, the fastest pace in three years. Can we top all that in 2017?

According to Glassdoor’s newest report on job trends, there are also a record number of unfilled jobs—5.85 million as of April—which represents the most since the BLS started tracking job openings in 2000. That’s compounded with the fact that every employer is hiring for tech roles, Chamberlain observes, and there are just so many talented candidates out there.

Via fastcompany.com > 

By the year 2025, most workers (70 percent) and employers (68 percent) agree a majority of the workforce will be employed in an agile working capacity as contractors, consultants, temporary or freelance staff, according to a study released by Randstad US. The Workplace 2025 report of more than 3,100 workersand 1,500 HR and c-suite executives across the US found that as early as 2019, as much as 50 percent of the workforce will be comprised of agile workers, as nearly 4 in 10 (39 percent) workers say they are likely to consider shifting to an agile arrangement over the next two-to-three years. The study claims that this movement is fueling an equally aggressive adoption of new workforce models that tap into both permanent and agile employees to combat staffing shortages, leverage globalization and fuel greater innovation for organizations.

• Approximately half (46 percent) of workers surveyed said they personally chose to become an agile worker. The Workplace 2025 study uncovered the primary motivations behind this:
• 68 percent agree it better fits their lifestyle.
• 63 percent believe working as an agile working employee will make them more qualified in the future workplace.
• 56 percent agree agile work makes them more money.
• 48 agree agile work offers them better career growth than working as a permanent employee.
• 38 percent agree they feel more job security working as an agile worker than they do as a permanent employee.

Via workplaceinsight.net >

Americans are no strangers to spending hours of their lives stuck in traffic jams as they make their way to and from work.

Congestion has become so bad in many U.S cities that commuters lose 42 hours a year – around a full week’s work, up from 18 hours in 1982, according to the 2015 Urban Mobility Scorecard.

The worst places for gridlock include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and New York City. Figures from navigation services firm TomTom show they all suffered from rising levels of congestion over the past year. Yet there’s a good reason for having so much traffic on the roads. “We noticed that cities that went up significantly are also employment hot spots,” Nick Cohn, a senior traffic expert at TomTom tells USA Today.

Via jllrealviews.com >

The fourth industrial revolution is creating prospects of a future that few fully comprehend, but the implications for the world of work are already taking shape. 

Trying to make sense of the future, in the face of such significant change and disruption, can leave you sympathizing with Alice of Lewis Carroll’s 19th-century writings.

We’re confronted with such a dizzying array of shifting macro-environmental forces and rapid technological advances that most of us struggle to keep up with, let alone decipher. We read of countless innovations and new possibilities that not too long ago would have been written off as the result of an overactive imagination or simply material for a Hollywood plot.

The reality, however, is that the relationship between technology and humanity is changing – fast. And it’s no longer a distant future but already here, shaping not just the way in which we live, but the way we work.

Via raconteur.net >

Long before it was fashionable or even, let’s face it, socially acceptable, freelance workers had grown used to being on the move. Whether it was using the free wi-fi at a local coffee shop, or cadging desk space from a colleague or client, “anywhere, anytime” working was not so much a slogan for people who peck at keyboards for a living, as a way of life.

These days some work from places like Second Home, a sumptuous co-working space in East London, sharing foliage-filled corridors, space-age meeting rooms and “silent roaming areas” with a variety of tech-related businesses and the odd lone gun. Yet while it may sound exotic to those with fixed desks and labelled staplers, they are hardly outliers. Not only are co-working spaces now commonplace in most large cities around the world, WeWork, the best-known of the new players in the market, which has just opened its 100th site in Berlin, recently raised $430 million (£345 million) from investors giving it a valuation of $16 billion (£12.8 billion).

Via raconteur.net >

A decade in, we’ve grown so comfortable with social media platforms that it’s almost socially acceptable to blatantly browse them at work (though it might be difficult to argue their professional utility unless you work in a marketing role). In fact, the creative director of the magazine I edit messages me on Facebook more often than he sends me emails.

For the most part, that’s great. Facebook Messenger is well integrated into my life, works great on my Android phone, and is easy to use on my laptop. That said, the system’s not without its faults: Sometimes, he’ll catch me in the middle of writing a story, asking for a status update—which, as a writer, can sometimes throw me off. Other times, I’ll forget a detail he mentions in our conversation, and things get tricky when I need to reference something he said but can’t search for it with the same precision compared to Gmail. As a result of the social media platform’s universality, the line between messages best delivered through email and those that are appropriate for a friendly chat is quickly thinning. The result? An always-on mentality that causes meaning to dissipate.

Via skyword.com >

Flexible working and great mobile devices top employees’ list of perks but businesses are struggling to make it a reality, according to a new study from BT. Two thirds (67 percent) of UK office workers say mobile working is more important than a company car, and half now carry most of what they need to do their job in their bag, according to our latest research. However, despite their employees’ appetite for new flexible ways of working, organisations are still struggling with technology and budget limitations to make it a reality. ‘The mobile multiplier’ research, which independently surveyed 1,500 office workers in large organisations in France, Germany, Spain and the UK, claims we are already in a new era in which mobile and flexible working is no longer a perk but a staple requirement. Results show workers are keen to break away from the static office: Today’s office workers put flexible working top of a benefits package from the ideal employer, with 76 percent including it in their top three priorities.

Via workplaceinsight.net >

There are few greater compliments for a company than being perceived as innovative – fresh thinking and doing things differently to stand out from the crowd.

While much of this innovation comes down to a company’s products and services to keep it at the forefront of the market in which it operates, it’s also about the company’s culture. And creating the right workplace conditions is paramount.

A new survey by the architecture, design and consulting firm Gensler, has revealed a statistical correlation between workplace design and how innovative that company’s employees believe it to be. The U.S. Workplace Survey 2016, comprised of 4,000 employees in 11 industries, found that companies with high scores for workplace functionality and effectiveness also have better innovation rankings.

Via jllrealviews.com >