There are some modern workplace trends taking place around us that we must pay attention to today because they'll shape our workplace's future.

The workplace as we know it is being transformed today. This is happening as new modern trends occur around us. These are things that we must pay attention to because they'll shape our workplace's future.

The Aging Workforce

The American workforce is full of baby boomers who are living longer than previous generations so they’re retiring later. This means it’s continuing to age with about three in four Americans working past “retirement” age and another two-thirds working even when they’re “retired.” In fact, according to Pew Research by 2050 the number of people age 65 and older will triple from 531 million in 2010 to 1.5 billion.

America isn’t the only country that’s witnessing this change in demographics. China is also expecting to see its senior population increase from 8.3% in 2010 to 24% by 2050. This change is brought about by the 10,000 baby boomers who turn 65-years-old each day. When most of these people were asked, less than half of them said they expected to retire by the time they turned 65. This is something that about one-third of companies are prepared for though. Unfortunately, this means that companies will be faced with a major cost when it comes to retirement benefits, healthcare, and equal opportunities. Baby boomers want to maintain their leadership positions – something that makes it harder on younger workers who want to climb their corporate ladder. Companies pay the price in terms of higher turnovers and increased stress and frustration.

Reinventing Performance Reviews

Thankfully, the standard 90-day or annual performance review has now become a thing of the past. The new norm is for frequent, timely recognition in which leaders conduct regular check-ins with each team member. During these check-ins, both parties can work together to set expectations, review priorities, comment on recent work, and provide course correction. This change in operational procedures occurred because companies have discovered that this is the best way to assess someone’s performance. They understand that soliciting their employees’ statements about their daily job tasks is more important than what upper management thinks. As such, these reviews are now being conducted weekly and a combination of consumer feedback tools and online surveys are being utilized herein.

Artificial Intelligence

One of the most talked-about topics in HR circles today is AI. This is because it’s surrounded by both excitement and fear. Nevertheless, it’s expected that almost every new device will come equipped with AI soon. This is especially true of companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple. These companies even asked millennials what the next big global technology trend was and about one-third of them said AI.

An example of this is chatbots which are fueled by AI. These are programs that facilitate text conversions and they’re expected to continue permeating the workplace throughout this year. This is because they can easily save businesses as much as $79 million in salaries each year now that they’re over 30% effective. In fact, about 20% of companies have already deployed them in their workplace – a number that’s expected to grow to around 57% by 2021. These companies are using them as personal assistants, offering on-demand customer support, mining data, streamlining business processes, recovering product information, and answering questions for their employees.

Shift to the Cloud

Career Builder for Employers says the shift to the cloud is also significantly reshaping our workplace today. This is something that’s seen as more businesses start turning to the cloud for their business phone system for communication. Solutions like this are quite beneficial and something all businesses should consider today since it’ll help them run more smoothly.

Shared Work Spaces

HR Technologist says that while young professionals, start-ups, and sole proprietors were the only ones to use shared office spaces in the past, this is changing. Today, shared office spaces are now being increasingly used by businesses that want to attract talent. This is a trend that’s expected to continue growing as more businesses seek to find frugal ways in which to collaborate with other businesses while building profitable relationships at the same time.

Prioritizing Financial Wellness

Forbes says about 78% of Americans are stressed out, physically ill, and depressed because they’re living paycheck to paycheck and have large amounts of student loan debt (over $1.4 trillion). This is negatively impacting both their productivity and job satisfaction too. In fact, it’s making them lose about 6 productive workdays each year. This is something that companies must do something about. Many employers offer student loan repayment assistance programs. Other options also include refinancing student loans for a lower interest rate through private lenders and speaking to the employer to see what can be done. HR departments must offer mental health counseling, so employees can deal with mental health issues like depression, anxiety, bipolar and ADHD.

Although most of these disorders are hidden, about 84% of employees show physical, psychological, or behavioral symptoms of poor mental health. This leads to about 5 missed workdays and 11.5 days of reduced productivity every three months, something that costs America 200 million lost workdays and between $17 - $44 billion in lost productivity per year. Fortunately, there are many managers who are taking note of this today and they’re willing to let their employees take a mental health day. They’re also starting to have some serious conversations around this topic. There are even some companies that offer 24/7 access to counseling, mental health toolkits, and mental health advocates who are working to support the de-stigmatization of mental health issues in the workplace today.

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Use of collaborative technologies

As new collaborative technologies continue emerging they’ll redefine and reshape how way we see the workplace. With the innovation and advent of new recruiting technologies, everything will change from the inside out in our work in the upcoming years. These technologies will give us the freedom and flexibility to work from anywhere and at any time from our choice of devices. As this happens it’ll be much easier to find subject matter experts too. Additionally, we’ll watch as hierarchies continue being flattened since every employee can now join or communicate with anyone within the company at any time that’s convenient for them. More systems are being connected and opportunities are magnified as each day passes.