BENGALURU: As reported by the Economic times, the “Way We Work Study”, delegated by Unify, reveals about 35 percentage of knowledge workers, whose job is to "think for a living", in the US, UK and Germany believe that their current roles will not exist in five year's time, while on the other hand 65 percentage of them think that their roles will be different from what it is now or will not appear the same.

The study was surveyed among 9,000 knowledge workers, in the USA, UK and Germany and questioned about their current and future attitudes and expectations in their working lives. The study infers that the present state may be due to the rapidly changing work environment, on-demand economy or global digital transformation, where it does conclude that the impact of change in the working world is being felt from the boardroom to the employee lounge. 

The study also finds that being part of "virtual" teams are more effective for many of the employees. Around 52 percent of knowledge workers say that they now work in more virtual teams (distributed across offices and locations) than they have done in the past. They also believe that it is good. 42percentage of them believe that virtual teams can be more effective than face-to-face teams and nearly 49 percent report that their organizations operate through technology and communication rather than through offices and locations. Another 36 percent suggest that creative thinking is one of the biggest benefits of working with people outside of traditional, physically located teams. Virtual teams are also being enabled by cloud technology, with more 57 percent knowledge workers suggesting that they use on-demand tools for teamwork, project management or virtual collaboration.

"Today, knowledge workers have an unrivalled freedom in how they connect and engage with each other. This has been provided to them, by and large, through technology," says Jon Pritchard, CEO of Unify.  He further adds, "The Way We Work Study shows the significant impact that technology, the trend of digital transformation and the on-demand economy is currently having on the workplace. It's our belief that knowledge workers will increasingly want to define how, when and where they work. It's up to businesses to enable this behavior and manage further disruption and change.”

 As there is a constant inflow of research workers, the current office structure is also rapidly changing. Among the surveyed employees, 20 percent of them spend their time outside the traditional office work environment and a 27 percent of them want to spend almost 50 percent of their time this way. 69 percent of knowledge workers suggest that having a single office as a physical workplace is less important than it was in the past and a massive 74 percent believe that digital technology including the internet and the social media has drastically changed the workplace behaviors. Only a mere 7 percent has expressed their interest in spending 75-100 percent of their time outside the traditional office environment indicating that office space is still the first choice by the majority of employees.

The study also understands that freelancing and contractors occupy considerably a big space. Of all the employees surveyed, 21 percent of them currently work as freelancers or contractors and a 53 percent said that they would accept it on a regular employment if offered.

Knowledge workers know what they want from their ideal working environments. In their current roles 30 percent describe their businesses as successful, 28 percent as collaborative and 26 percent as supportive. This is quite far of their ideal though- 51 percent of respondents still want their workplace to be successful, 50 percent wants It to be also creative, and 45 and 41 percent of the employees wants it to be exciting and innovative respectively.

It is also noted that Knowledge workers are taking more control of their time maintaining Work-life balance efficiently. A whopping 95 percent states that they currently have a good balance between their work and personal lives and a further 50 percent say that their work-life balance has improved in the last five years.

The “Way We Work Study” proves that there are some dramatic changes ahead in business where new ways of working are concerned. As in the present world the employers should take steps to retain talented employees by providing them the desired tools as technology today empowers knowledge workers to construct a future of work by their own.

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