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Executive Summary: Future of Work [2026-2030]

 

 

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What are the biggest challenges for organizations in adapting to the future of work?

Challenges include adapting to AI-driven automation, managing hybrid workforces, and continuously reskilling employees.

2. What will the future of work be like by 2050?

Work is expected to become more fluid, with AI-driven tools, flexible hours, and virtual environments dominating how, when, and where we work.

The New Workforce Equation: Human + Digital + Purpose

Workforce Model 2030

By 2030, the workforce equation is shifting toward a tech-driven triad of digital platforms + human adaptability + organizational purpose. On the digital front, companies expect structural labour-market churn equal to 22% of today’s jobs while creating new roles equivalent to 14% (170 million), while displacing 8% (92 million) of current roles.

Concurrently, nearly 92% of companies plan to increase their AI investment, yet only 1% believe they are mature in AI deployment.

 

 

Further, in AI-exposed industries, the wage premium for workers with AI skills stands at 56%, and job roles show demand growth for digital literacy, resilience, creativity, and leadership.

 

Credit: PwC

 

Additionally, employers expect that the demographic changes, technological advancement, economic volatility, and the green transition are among the major drivers to shape the global labour market by 2030.

Case Examples by Industry Leaders

Schneider Electric’s Open Talent Market

Schneider Electric launched its AI-enabled internal talent marketplace in early 2020. Within two months, over 60% of employees had registered, and 2300+ had begun exploring new roles internally. Moreover, the platform unlocked over 127 000 hours of previously unused capacity within weeks.

Approximately 50% of exiting employees had cited a lack of internal growth as their reason for departure, which was one of the key drivers for launching the marketplace. The market leverages AI matching of skills, mentors, gigs, and projects, with employees able to upload LinkedIn profiles, specify aspirations, and receive suggestions for full-time roles or short-term assignments.

Unilever’s Hybrid Culture Framework

Unilever defines global hybrid-working principles. For roles that permit it, employees are expected to spend at least 40% of their working time in the office to enable collaboration and connection. They also emphasize team-level workshops to align when/where teams meet, anchor days for co-location, and agreement on remote vs in-office work.

Additionally, Unilever’s U-Work program extends flexible work arrangements to employees and alumni. For example, a retained gig pool enables individuals to work assignments across the company while remaining connected to Unilever to enhance the utilization of known talent.

Atlassian’s Team Anywhere

Since 2020, Atlassian’s Team Anywhere policy has allowed employees to choose their work location from among more than 10 000 unique locations instead of being tied to 12 global offices.

Credit: Atlassian

92% of employees say the policy assists them in doing their best work, and 91% say it’s a key reason they stay at the company. Despite no in-office mandates, more than 80% of employees visited an office at least once per quarter in the past year.

Atlassian uses data-driven experimentation with its Team Anywhere Lab to optimize practices with one outcome, which is a 17% reduction in unnecessary meetings and a 36% improvement in workload sustainability from focus-time experiments.

Salesforce’s Success From Anywhere

Salesforce’s hybrid working model, Success From Anywhere, leverages its own digital stack to enable employees to work from anywhere while maintaining productivity and collaboration.

The company reported that before COVID-19, many employees wanted to come in only a few times a month but still maintain access to office space. Now, they track commute emissions reduction as a metric aligned to the environmental purpose as well as workforce flexibility.

Additionally, Salesforce observed that average desk utilization across its global campuses was around 30%, which prompted a major redesign of its workspaces. As a result, the company increased social and collaborative areas from 40-60% of total office space to better support connection and creativity.

 

Credit: Salesforce

 

At the same time, the adoption of Slack as its digital HQ changed collaboration patterns. Individual productivity rose by 16%, team productivity by 13%, and email volume fell by 46%.

PepsiCo’s myDevelopment

PepsiCo follows its internal marketplace, myDevelopment, and Digital Academy. Within one year, 11 000+ employees completed 140 000+ learning modules and earned 600+ certifications through the Digital Academy.

Likewise, through the myDevelopment marketplace, US employees numbered 15 000+ profiles created and 1600+ enrolled in the first wave. Further, participants recorded 18% lower attrition compared to non-participants, and were 1.7x more likely to have a job-level or role change.

1. Widespread Adoption of AI and Automation

Global employers identify technology as the dominant engine of transformation. 86% of global employers expect AI and information processing to reshape their businesses by 2030. Likewise, 58% expect robotics and automation to do so, and 60% say broadening digital access is the single most transformative trend overall.

 

 

In parallel, adoption has already crossed a decisive threshold. 78% of respondents in a McKinsey survey report using AI in at least one function, up from 72% in early 2024. At the same time, 21% of organizations using generative AI report that they have fundamentally redesigned at least some workflows.

However, the scaling gap remains material as 95% of enterprise generative AI initiatives have no measurable profit & loss impact due to weak integration and poor task fit. This failure is attributed to the learning gap, both in the tools available and in organizational capability to integrate them effectively.

Consequently, employers expect that 39% of current worker skills will be reshaped or become outdated by 2025-2030, while 63% cite skills gaps as a barrier to business transformation. This, in turn, drives 85% to prioritize upskilling, 70% to hire for new skills, and 50% to transition staff from declining to growing roles.

Additionally, exposure to automation pressures is widespread across advanced economies. On average, 28% of jobs in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries fall into the highest risk band for automation. Also, enterprise IT budgets are tilting toward AI-intensive capabilities as the worldwide IT spending is expected to reach USD 5.61 trillion in 2025, 9.8% year-over-year.

Technological Enablers of AI and Automation

Data & Analytics Ecosystems

Organizations applying AI-driven forecasting in operations have achieved error reductions of 20-50%, which translates into lost-sales and product-unavailability cuts of up to 65%. Furthermore, the global data-governance market is projected to grow from USD 5.38 billion in 2025 to USD 18.07 billion by 2032, a CAGR of 18.9%.

Consequently, organizations invest in data lakes, real-time pipelines, and integrated metadata for enabling AI/automation to operate on high-quality inputs at scale.

Modelling & Model-Lifecycle Infrastructure (ModelOps)

56% of enterprise leaders say it still takes 6-18 months to move a generative AI project from development to production, which shows how operational inefficiencies slow value realization. Moreover, only 14% of companies have a formal AI assurance process.

However, organizations that embed ModelOps practices, such as automated monitoring, retraining, and performance tracking, report up to an 80% reduction in issue-resolution time and faster time to production.

Workflow & Human-Machine Integration

40% of the global workforce will need to reskill within three years due to AI-driven workflow changes. Moreover, workers using generative AI save an average of 5.4% of total work hours, about 2.2 hours per week.

Moreover, 69% of employees believe AI will improve job performance, yet only 25% say their company has a clear AI strategy, revealing a gap between optimism and readiness. However, effective human-machine collaboration is expected to unlock USD 4.4 trillion in productivity gains globally.

Spotlighting an Innovator: HSE.AI offers an AI-based Workplace Safety System

Turkish startup HSE.AI develops an AI-powered workplace safety system that operates through automated visual inspection. It analyzes video feeds from workplace cameras to detect noncompliance with safety protocols such as missing helmets, gloves, or vests. Also, it identifies environmental, mechanical, or behavioral risks in real time.

Further, it integrates AI-powered monitoring with data analytics to produce actionable reports, alerts, and performance insights for occupational health and safety teams. The platform functions without hardware or sensor installation while maintaining data encryption and personal data protection.

2. Remote & Hybrid Work

As of mid-2023, full days worked at home comprised 28% of paid workdays for Americans aged 20-64. This is about 4x the 2019 level. Likewise, employees with a graduate degree worked from home about 37% of days versus about 18% for those with only a high-school degree.

In the USA, 27% of paid workdays were work-from-home in July 2025, and by spring 2025, full-time employees split 60% on-site, 27% hybrid, 13% fully remote, which indicates a durable hybrid core rather than a full return to pre-2020 patterns. Moreover, sectoral data show that information, finance & insurance, and professional & business services host the largest shares of hybrid and remote roles.

 

Credit: WFH Research

 

Additionally, switching to a hybrid schedule with two days from home resulted in no loss of performance or promotions and reduced employee resignations by 33%.

With respect to the labor market, 24% of new professional postings in Q2 2025 were hybrid and 12% fully remote. Yet, a CBRE-cited compilation notes 37% of companies enforced office attendance in 2025, up from 17% in 2024. Also, employees in fully remote-capable jobs averaged 42.9 hours per week in 2024, down from 44.1 hours in 2019, yet output per worker edged up slightly.

Technologies Enabling Hybrid Work

Cloud-based Collaboration & Productivity Platforms

Cloud-based collaboration and productivity platforms remain foundational for hybrid work. 93% of all companies in 2025 are using cloud-based collaboration tools, while 83% reported using at least one software-as-a-service (SaaS) product in their operations.

Moreover, usage of digital workplace tools such as collaboration software rose from 55% in 2019 to 79% in 2021 among workers globally.

With these high adoption figures, hybrid-capable workforces rely heavily on platforms that integrate messaging, file-sharing, video, and project management. For example, collaboration tools account for a solution segment share of over 65% in the cloud-collaboration market in 2024. This market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 16.2% from 2025 to 2030.

Video Conferencing & Unified Communication Technologies

Among remote workers, 80% rely on video-conferencing platforms for interviews and trainings, and 53% believe video conferencing is effective for team meetings and stand-ups. Additionally, 42% of all video-conferencing sessions were conducted on mobile devices rather than desktop or laptop.

Moreover, the average employee attends approximately 7.3 video calls per week when fully remote. This stands in comparison to about 4.1 calls per week for hybrid workers and 2.6 calls per week for fully in-office workers.

 

Credit: LoopUp

 

Further, 67% of companies report having implemented new communication tools in the recent year. Also, remote employees save about 2 to 3 weeks per year by using video calls instead of travelling.

Likewise, 29.5% of companies had fully shifted their communications to cloud-based unified communications as a service (UCaaS) platforms as of early 2024. Of those still on on-premises private branch exchange (PBX), 56% plan to migrate to cloud communications within the next three years.

Secure Access & Infrastructure Technologies

In 2025, 63% of businesses provide VPN access to employees. Additionally, 42% of businesses integrate VPNs with multi-factor authentication (MFA) to harden access.

 

 

Moreover, 32% of organizations have adopted virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and an additional 12% plan to adopt it within the next two years. This VDI market is expected to reach USD 90.51 billion by 2034.

In parallel, 63% of organizations worldwide have fully or partially implemented a zero trust strategy, while 81% of organizations plan to adopt it within 12 months. Further, 65% of organizations plan to replace VPN services as part of the shift toward zero trust.

Spotlighting an Innovator: RemoteDesk provides Enterprise Data Protection Solutions

US-based startup RemoteDesk provides enterprise-grade insider threat monitoring solutions with continuous facial authentication and computer vision technology. The solution verifies user identity in real time, monitors active sessions, and generates timestamped logs and threat alerts. This prevents unauthorized access and data breaches across remote, hybrid, and in-office environments.

Moreover, it integrates multifactor facial verification, electronic data leak protection, and behavioral analytics to detect impersonation, suspicious activity, and compliance violations under regulations. Built on a zero-knowledge architecture, it maintains data confidentiality by ensuring that no raw session data is accessible, even to the company itself.

3. Demographic & Generational Shifts

The UN Economic Commission for Africa estimates the working-age population of 20-64 will increase from 883 million in 2024 to 1.6 billion by 2050. With this, Africans will constitute almost 25% of the global working-age population and one in three of the world’s young people by mid-century.

Likewise, within Asia, India’s demographic momentum is set to contribute outsized additions to the global workforce, with estimates indicating an increase of roughly 183 million people aged 15-64 between 2020 and 2050. By contrast, China’s population fell for a third straight year in 2024 to 1.408 billion, while those aged 60+ reached about 22% (310.31 million people) in 2024, to face an emerging shortage of working-age people.

At the same time, aging societies are keeping more older adults economically active to reshape age composition at work. For instance, the employment rate of people aged 55-64 in the European Union stood around 65.2% in 2024.

 

 

Similarly, Japan is one of the world’s oldest populations, reports participation among seniors, with 25.2% of people 65+ working and employment rates of 52% for ages 65-69, 34% for 70-74, and 11.4% for 75+.

On the other hand, Generation Z of the USA accounted for roughly 18% of the labor force by Q2 2024, while baby boomers were 15%, with millennials comprising the largest share at 36% and the silent generation at about 1%.

 

 

Complementing this, the permanent-type migration to OECD countries reached 6.5 million. Moreover, foreign-born individuals made up only 9% of the EU workforce in 2022 but accounted for about half of its growth over the subsequent three years.

Technologies Enabling Generational Collaboration

Accessible AI

The share of workers using their own AI tools at work ranges between 73% and 85%, with the highest share being among Generation Z workers at 85%.

 

Credit: Microsoft

 

Additionally, 62% of workers aged 35-44 have high levels of AI expertise, compared with 50% of workers aged 18-24 and only 22% of workers aged 65+. Similarly, of employees aged 55-64 and 65+, only 26% and 22% respectively report being extensively familiar with generative AI tools.

Moreover, older workers and less-educated cohorts still lag in AI-related fluency and use. For instance, workers with at least a bachelor’s degree increased AI use from 20% to 28%, whereas the less-educated saw only 13% to 16%. Meanwhile, advanced career researchers experienced a 19% decrease in tool use compared to earlier-career researchers, and female researchers reported a 7% lower usage rate than men.

Remote Work and Collaboration Infrastructure

In the USA during the first quarter of 2024, 35.5 million individuals teleworked or worked at home for pay, representing 22.9% of employed persons. Among these teleworkers, those aged 25+ numbered 34 million, up from 21.5% a year earlier.

 

 

When looking at hours worked at home, 36.7% of teleworkers in Q1 2024 worked 40 or more hours from home, down from 42.8% the previous year. Further, 36.5% of remote workers in the USA are aged 25-39, 29.8% are aged 40-54, 16% are aged 55-64, and 10.7% are aged 65 or older. Outside the USA, 50% of remote job seekers are aged 1834, 74% have a post-secondary credential, and 66% at least a bachelor’s degree.

From a generational preference perspective, 84% of millennials and 74% of Generation Z respondents want more remote-work options, compared with 49% of Generation X and 32% of Baby Boomers. Moreover, 82% of millennials and 75% of Generation Z believe that technology makes them more productive at work, whereas only 53% of Generation X and 38% of Baby Boomers said the same.

Skills-Signal Infrastructure

In 2023, 3.2% of workers were likely to add skills on professional networking platforms, which was double that of 2018 (1.5%). Additionally, 14% of LinkedIn recruiter searches across OECD countries filtered by skills alone, while only 1% used both skills and degree filters.

Further, fewer than 20% of employers eliminated degree requirements as a strategy to widen their talent pools. Also, 47% said their goal was to attract more diverse candidates, while 62% indicated an interest in offering reskilling and upskilling opportunities.

Similarly, in 2023, individuals with a master’s degree or higher listed an average of more than 14 skills, compared with roughly 11 skills among those with less than upper secondary education.

Spotlighting an Innovator: Udaan provides a Skill Development & Learning Platform

Indian startup Udaan provides a digital skill development and learning platform for youth across India. The platform delivers structured, government-recognized training programs in domains such as AI, cybersecurity, blockchain, no-code development, and entrepreneurship through live sessions led by industry experts.

Moreover, it integrates learning, community engagement, and career readiness by combining courses with access to mentorship, networking, and real-time industry data. Thus, it bridges the skill gap between traditional education and the demands of the digital economy.

4. Gig Economy & Freelance Workforce

A 2024 analysis found that 48% of gig workers joined the freelance economy because they wanted greater autonomy over their schedule and mode of work, while 44% of workers cited the ability to balance career and family needs as a key motivation for entering gig work.

Likewise, individual proprietorships in selected industries like property managers or writers’ gig categories generated approximately USD 152.6 billion in receipts in 2023.

 

 

About 53% of Generation Z freelancers now work full-time on freelance projects, moving away from traditional nine-to-five employment. Meanwhile, the gig workforce is projected to reach 23.5 million in India by 2029-30.

On the broader scale, 1.57 billion people are engaged in freelancing or gig-type work in 2025, out of a total global workforce of approximately 3.38 billion. Also, the number of freelancers in the USA alone increased 90% between 2020 and 2024.

Similarly, over 4.7 million independent workers in the USA in 2024 earned more than USD 100 000, up from 3 million in 2020. On the other hand, Indonesia’s gig workforce ranges between 430 000 and 2.3 million, whereas China reported 200 million gig workers, which is roughly one-fourth of their population.

Technologies Enabling the Freelance Talent

Platforms & Marketplace

The global market for freelance platforms is expected to reach USD 14.39 billion by 2030. Marketplace platforms offer a definite structure of matching supply (freelancers) and demand (clients or projects). For example, the hourly segment of freelance platforms accounted for 41.49% or roughly USD 3.04 billion of the platform revenue in 2024. With this, North America was the largest revenue-generating region for freelance platforms in 2024.

Moreover, the company Upwork generated revenue of USD 769.32 million in 2024. Further, over 18 million freelancers are registered on Upwork, spanning more than 180 countries. Among registered freelancers, 3.7 million are based in the USA, accounting for 66% of the freelancer base.

 

Credit: DemandSage

 

Meanwhile, regional platforms such as Afriwork in East Africa had over 300 000 registered job seekers and more than 50 000 SMEs onboarded by 2023 while facilitating upwards of 70 000 job matches.

Transactions & Financial Infrastructure

85% of US freelancers surveyed say they use PayPal as the primary means of withdrawing funds from freelance platforms. Additionally, freelancers cite speed (38%) and security (44%) as their top two considerations when choosing a payment method.

Moreover, 29% of invoices are paid at least one day late, 75% of those late payments were settled within 14 days, and 90% were cleared within a month. However, 58% of freelancers say they have dealt with clients failing to pay, which in turn highlights the importance of reliable payment systems that freelancers count on.

Freelancers across 22 markets ranked mobile invoicing, mobile payment receipt, and mobile communication tools as key to supporting their work-lives. Similarly, the global nature of payment infrastructure allows freelancers to serve international clients. For example, 97% of US freelancers surveyed had domestic clients, yet 58% had international clients.

AI & Automation

54% of freelancers reported advanced or expert-level proficiency with AI tools, compared with just 38% of full-time employees. Moreover, 62% of these freelancers said they use AI tools at least several times per week, versus 53% of full-time employees.

 

Credit: Upwork

 

Further, 9 in 10 freelancers say AI has had a positive impact on their work, and 42% credit AI with assisting them to specialize in a particular niche. Meanwhile, 90% of freelancers reported that AI helps them acquire new skills faster.

Moreover, Upwork’s AI proposal generator enables freelancers to get high-quality, tailored proposals in under 2 minutes rather than 15-20 minutes. Also, it claims that users have achieved a 40% higher win rate when using its tool.

Spotlighting an Innovator: Transit Gigs develops a Transit Workforce Platform

US-based startup Transit Gigs provides a digital platform that connects transportation employers with qualified freelance professionals on demand. The platform allows agencies to post open shifts for roles such as drivers, dispatchers, attendants, and traffic agents, which verified freelancers accept through the startup’s app.

Moreover, it combines smart scheduling technology with a verified talent pool to fill last-minute vacancies, reduce absenteeism, and ensure continuous service coverage. By integrating flexible work opportunities for freelancers and real-time matching for employers, it reduces overtime expenses, improves operational reliability, and addresses workforce shortages in the transit sector.

 

 

5. Continuous Upskilling & Reskilling

75% of global knowledge workers already use generative AI. Yet there is a training gap that accelerates the need for peer-led and formal upskilling, as only 39% of users report receiving company-provided AI training and just 25% of companies plan to offer it this year, according to the same 2024 analysis.

Additionally, strategy is increasingly cross-functional, since 66% of leaders wouldn’t hire candidates without AI skills.

Reinforcing this, 79% of leaders agree that moving to skills-based approaches is important for navigating boundaryless work.

Additionally, internal mobility is treated as a measurable output of learning cultures, as stronger learning cultures lead to higher mobility.

However, strategy must address inclusion gaps as 18% of adults across OECD countries lack basic proficiency in at least one foundational domain, which demands targeted reskilling pathways for lower-skilled workers. Within such adult skills, literacy proficiency has improved only in Denmark (8.8) and Finland (15.2) over the past decade, while most other economies, including the USA (12.4) and Lithuania (28.4) have seen declines.

 

Credit: OECD

 

Moreover, participation disparities exceed 20 percentage points between older and younger workers and between low- and medium/high-skilled adults. On the other hand, skill instability moderates to 39% (from 44% in 2023), which indicates organizations are better at anticipating change but still require persistent reskilling to keep pace.

Technologies Powering Learning and Development

Intelligent Learning & Personalization

It is estimated that about 40% of the workforce will need to reskill over the next three years to adjust to digital and AI-driven changes. Likewise, 44% of employees currently report receiving moderate to significant organizational support for generative AI capability-building, while 29% say they are fully supported.

 

 

However, within three years, the percentage of workers receiving full support will rise to 31%, and those with none or minimal support will fall to 10%. Additionally, 77% of workers who use AI tools on the job say AI tools assist them in accomplishing more in less time, and 73% say their quality of work improves.

Likewise, personalized learning platforms deployed in a workforce setting leverage individual performance metrics, role demands, and historical training data to craft custom learning pathways.

Immersive & Experiential Skill Development

Extended-reality (XR) training captures behavioural data, eye-tracking, and heat maps. This enables detailed measurement of trainee interaction and performance. 30% of companies are integrating virtual reality (VR), while 21% are making it part of their strategy.

 

Credit: PwC

 

For instance, manufacturing workers trained via VR achieved 60.22% knowledge gains compared to 39.55% via traditional methods. Likewise, in an industrial context, implementers of VR training reported 45% faster skill acquisition compared to conventional training methods, 70% reduced workplace injuries, and 80% knowledge retention in VR-trainees.

Similarly, in a workforce-training study, learners exposed to VR-based training were found to be 275% more confident in applying newly learned skills than those trained via computer-based methods.

 

Credit: PwC

 

Additionally, immersive technologies bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and actual job-execution readiness by simulating real tasks safely and at scale in Industry 4.0 environments. Also, VR training becomes approximately 52% less costly per learner for large-scale deployment.

Collaborative and Social Learning

Across workplace learning models, the 70-20-10 framework attributes 20% of development to learning with others and 70% to on-the-job experiences that social tools amplify. This leaves 10% to formal courses.

Likewise, 9 out of 10 global executives plan to increase or hold steady investment in L&D for upskilling and reskilling.

Moreover, 47% of L&D teams plan microlearning programs. Further, 87% of L&D leaders say they demonstrate business value by assisting employees in gaining skills to move into different internal roles.

 

 

Building on this, companies with a strong learning culture see 57% retention, 23% internal mobility, and 7% promotions to management.

That is to say, creating a learning culture has risen near the top of priorities as it ranked third after aligning programs to business goals and upskilling.

Spotlighting an Innovator: Teamsharq offers a Browser-based Virtual Training Platform

Polish startup Teamsharq provides a cloud-based platform that delivers full-featured virtual training environments for technical and instructor-led learning. It enables organizations and trainers to deploy complete Windows or Linux systems directly in a web browser to eliminate installation, configuration, and infrastructure challenges.

Likewise, the platform supports collaboration, real-time feedback, and secure, isolated cloud instances that replicate real-world conditions for effective skill development. It enhances training outcomes by offering scalable, consistent, and hands-on learning experiences while reducing IT overhead and ensuring workforce readiness.

6. Employee Well-being, Mental Health & Human-centric Work

28% of workers ranked work-related stress and burnout among their top three factors negatively affecting mental health. Within that group, the three biggest contributors were excessive workloads (44%), inadequate staffing (41%), and lack of recognition (33%).

Moreover, only 29% of organizations train line managers in supporting staff with mental ill health. However, among those that do, 73% of organizations report that managers are confident in having sensitive discussions.

Moreover, employees who felt more positive and involved in their work reported mental-health ratings that were 50% higher than those who felt disconnected or disengaged at work.

 

Credit: WebMD

 

Similarly, 36% of organizations with employees working from home noted that sickness absence decreased as a consequence, compared with only 16% saying it increased.

Additionally, 76% of US workers reported at least one symptom of a mental health condition, and 84% said their workplace conditions had contributed to at least one mental-health challenge.

Likewise, 44% identified stress as the top mental-health challenge, and for HR, 50% cited stress as a top issue, an increase of 32% from the previous year.

Credit: Lyra Health

 

Financial stress is also rising as workers across six countries reported that the current economic climate (63%) and political environment (56%) negatively impacted their mental health.

Technologies Enabling Employee Well-being

Digital Mental Health Platforms

Globally, 12 billion working days are lost each year to depression and anxiety, resulting in a loss of USD 1 trillion per year in productivity. Additionally, 52% of employees in 2023 reported feeling burned out in the past year because of work. Moreover, 15% of working-age adults live with a mental disorder. Also, 73% of workers say their organization says it cares about mental health, yet gaps persist in perceived resourcing.

However, 90% of employers now offer mental-health benefits while confirming enterprise-level availability of digital mental-health solutions and tele-therapy options.

 

Credit: Calm Health

 

A Headspace outcomes study reported a 22% reduction in depression symptoms, 18% reduction in anxiety, and 6.5% improvement in suicidality for app-only users. Moreover, 65% of employees say a caring manager improves their mental health, while only 38% of employees say their manager builds a low-stress environment.

Safety, Health & Well-Being

In 2023, the USA private industry employers reported 2.6 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses, an 8.4% decrease from 2022. Moreover, illness cases declined 56.6% to 200 100 in 2023, driven by a 72.6% fall in respiratory illnesses to 100 200 cases. However, roughly 35% of cases occur within a worker’s first year on the job.

 

Credit: OSHA

 

Additionally, four sectors accounted for 85% of submitted cases. Those include healthcare (28%), transportation & warehousing (21%), retail (19%), and manufacturing (17%). Likewise, Great Britain recorded 543 000 workers with work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in 2023-2024. Consequently, MSDs were associated with an estimated 7.8 million working days lost in 2023-2024.

To tackle these, companies implementing IoT-based worker-safety systems have achieved a 10-20% reduction in workplace injuries. Similarly, wearable-tech devices cut unsafe movements from 320 to just 12 each day and improved compliance with ergonomic standards by about 30%.

Workplace Design & Ergonomic Tech

The most common digitalisation risks for employees are prolonged sitting (54%) and repetitive movements (47%), followed by increased work intensity (34%) and information overload (32%). However, computer-prompt systems that cue workers to break up sitting reduce sedentary time versus no prompts in office populations.

Engineering controls for material handling, including an industrial passive back exoskeleton, show a 10.5% reduction in mean back extensor muscle activity during order-picking.

Further, motorized lower-limb or knee-assist exoskeletons cut leg muscle activation by 20% during demanding tasks, suggesting application for employees in construction and logistics roles.

Likewise, office lighting design standards such as 500 lux (EU), 500-750 lux (Japan), and 300-500 or more lux (China) reduce visual strain for employees. Also, workers in open-plan offices experience performance decrements in acoustically poor spaces.

Spotlighting an Innovator: Oxyzn develops a Digital Wellbeing Platform

UK-based startup Oxyzn delivers a digital workplace wellbeing platform that centralizes holistic health and wellness resources for organizations. The platform provides employees access to different wellbeing categories through live and on-demand sessions led by expert coaches. These cover activities such as meditation, fitness, and educational health talks.

Further, it integrates an interactive calendar, personalized wellness journeys, and a content library to engage employees and support long-term participation. Additionally, it offers management tools, including onboarding support, internal communications templates, and data-driven insights to track engagement and program effectiveness.

7. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEI&B)

Companies in the top 25% for board gender diversity were 27% more likely to outperform financially. Further, women hold 44.7% of Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 board seats, an increase of 44.7% from 42.6% in 2023. In the FTSE 350, women’s representation rose to 43.4%, up 42.6% from the previous year.

However, belonging and psychological safety showed a measurable gap in 2025, with 86% of professionals reporting they belong at work but only 76% saying they feel safe speaking up. Similarly, hybrid workers reported the strongest belonging, with 48% saying they mostly or completely belong.

 

 

Likewise, employee resource groups (ERGs) emerged as core belonging infrastructure, with 90% of Fortune 500 hosting ERGs. With this, 72% of companies operating ERGs report attracting diverse talent, and employees outside ERGs were 1.4x more likely to report low belonging. However, only 25% of employees said their employer asked for DEI feedback.

On the other hand, only 4 of 9 US metros with pay-transparency laws had fully closed the controlled gender pay gap. Likewise, 7% of white men climb the executive ladder while only 5% of white women do.

Innovations Enhancing the Employee Experience

Inclusive & Skill-based Hiring

In 2025, 85% of companies reported using skills-based hiring, up 4 percentage points from 81% in 2024. Moreover, a 6.1x median increase is seen in eligible candidates when employers switch from prior-title matching to skills-based matching across 56 countries, while it is a 15.9x uplift in the USA alone.

 

Credit: LinkedIn

 

Gender inclusion also registers with double-digit gains under skills-based hiring, where the share of women in AI talent pools can rise by up to 24%, and where occupations with the lowest female representation see a 13% global uplift in women’s share. This ranges from 44% in Ukraine to 29% in Egypt and 27% in Pakistan.

Also, sector-specific results show additional numeric lift. In technology, 93% of employers using skills-based hiring reported improved diversity, compared with 84% across all industries.

Hybrid Engagement Tools

In 2025, hybrid engagement tools became essential for daily work. About 51% of US-based remote-capable employees use hybrid setups. Additionally, teams spread across different locations grew from 13% in 2023 to 27% in 2025.

Moreover, in 2024-2025, online meeting tools added new language features. Zoom supports 35 caption languages, Google Meet supports 87, and Microsoft Teams Premium provides live translated captions. Slack Huddles found a 37% increase in productivity for 720 users.

Further, accessible design follows the web content accessibility guidelines WCAG standards for neurodiverse employees. It improves navigation, reading, and input for people with autism, dyslexia, or ADHD.

Workplace Belonging & Inclusivity

Culture-change programs use employee listening platforms, such as SMS or QR codes, that collect continuous feedback and sentiment signals. Additionally, crowdsourcing platforms let employees share and vote on ideas in real time. This turns deskless workers’ customer insights into strategic advantages through structured, company-wide ideation.

Further, organizations also include project-based staffing that builds cross-functional experience. Likewise, frameworks validate and document skill growth. Similarly, organizations using pay equity technology report 41% higher ROI, 37% faster workflows, and 48% better insights. Nearly 45% of companies not yet using such tools plan to adopt them.

Moreover, organizations focus on highly personalized learning to offer plans tailored to each employee’s skills, goals, and tenure. Likewise, AI helps identify skill gaps, while leaders continue to provide hands-on coaching and mentorship. Also, it analyzes feedback to turn insights into personalized, real-time nudges that encourage behavior change directly within employees’ daily workflows.

Spotlighting an Innovator: KarmaV enables Ethical AI Recruitment Automation

Singaporean startup KarmaV provides an intelligent automation platform that enables organizations to establish workforce diversity and make ethical recruitment decisions.

It integrates multiple data sources to evaluate talent pools, identify skill gaps, and predict attrition risks to set data-driven hiring goals and simulate workforce outcomes.

Moreover, the platform’s FairKarma cognitive automation engine ensures unbiased candidate screening by removing interpersonal biases and recommending candidates based on merit and long-term potential.

Its solutions include programmatic job advertising, automated application evaluation, and a no-code career site builder that enhances employer branding while streamlining recruitment workflows.

HR & Leadership Role in Supporting the Future of Work

Only 21% of employees globally reported being engaged in their work in 2024. Moreover, manager engagement dropped from 30% in 2023 to 27% in 2024.

 

Credit: Gallup

 

Additionally, organizations that facilitate a positive employee experience are 1.3x more likely to outperform. Also, companies with top-quartile cultures deliver shareholder returns 60% higher than the median. Similarly, organizations achieve successful transformation 5x more when leaders consistently demonstrate the behavior changes they expect from their employees.

 

 

Moreover, HR links talent to value by placing top performers in critical roles, as organizations that do so are over 2x more likely to outperform peers, thereby strengthening execution capacity. For instance, the HRs integrate nine interconnected imperatives to align purpose, culture, and value with agile operations by enabling faster decisions, flexible structures, and continuous learning.

In parallel, lean structures enhance decision quality, as empowered employees are 3x more likely to report faster, higher-quality decisions.

Explore Innovative Solutions Driving the Next Era of Work

Business and HR leaders need to align people strategy, technology, and culture to build adaptable and future-ready organizations. Yet, balancing workforce transformation, digital adoption, and employee well-being remains complex as evolving skill needs, automation, and hybrid work models reshape how value is created and sustained.

With access to over 9 million emerging companies and 20K+ technologies & trends globally, our AI and Big Data-powered Discovery Platform equips you with the actionable insights you need to stay ahead of the curve in your market.

Leverage this powerful tool to spot the next big thing before it goes mainstream. Stay relevant, resilient, and ready for what is next.