Every professional needs to be up-to-date with the latest trends to keep growing their career. Because of that, we are bringing you 5 business trends for 2022. Since we know that our audience is very diverse, we have made the effort to highlight a trend in five different fields: business innovation, human resources, logistics, project management and tourism and hospitality.
We have tracked for you the latest ideas that started becoming popular during 2021 and that we think will receive the main attention during 2022. So, keep reading to learn about them and start 2022 being ahead of the game.
5 Trends in Business for 2022
1. Human Resources: addressing employees mental health
US labour market is experiencing a surprising phenomenon since the second half of 2021. Millions of workers are abandoning their jobs, creating a movement that already has a name: The Great Resignation.
There are multiple reasons behind all these resignations. Insufficient salaries. Bad working conditions. The impact of the COVID pandemic. But the main focus is being set on employees’ mental health. An aspect that a lot of companies have usually overlooked until now.
In September 2021, 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs, a never seen record-breaking number. And experts expect this trend to be replicated in other countries once the pandemic finishes. For that reason, human resources departments are getting more involved in creating a safe environment for their employees.
Everyone has always considered normal to take care of their physical health. But mental health has been seen as lesser important, even a taboo. That is not the case anymore. And HR managers must eliminate stigmas to maintain the company workers pleased with their job and avoid career burnout.
As we explained to you in our e-book ‘Seizing opportunities: Diversity and Inclusion (DEI) HR toolkit’, fostering a safe space is one of the key elements to retain talent. In a competitive world as today’s is, retaining your best talents is as essential as hiring new ones.
To do so, HR managers should use their employees’ feedback to address the issues the team consider significant and try to find a solution for them. Also, taking care of minority groups to make them feel represented in the company. And, of course, addressing any abuse case at the moment it is noticed.
2. Logistics and Supply Chain: using Big Data to improve the business model
2021 has not been an easy year for companies working in the supply chain industry. The uncertainty the pandemic has brought, the increase in transportation costs or the shortage of key production materials are some reasons why 2021 has been a very hard year for those working in logistics.
In such a complicated world like the one we live in, everything is changing by the minute and tons of events can affect the worldwide community. Let’s remember that last year a container ship obstructed the Suez Canal for six days, and impacted the supply chain industry for months. Because of that, being able to forecast the inventory and delivery needs at any given moment is crucial. Big Data can help companies achieve that.
To do so, contracting Big Data experts will be essential for any logistics company. The amount of data generated nowadays is gigantic. And since every business wants to find ways to track this data and use it to its advantage, Big Data professionals are one of the most demanded profiles.
The list of uses of Big Data in logistics is as long as it can be imagined: the optimization of commercial routes, an increase in reliability, automatizing inventory management, etc. All key elements to reduce the costs and increase the benefit margin on any logistic operation.
Our article on ‘How blockchain can improve logistics by sharing information’ can give you some details on the newest technology trends are trying to find solutions to the supply chain industry main issues. For sure, Big Data will play an important role in making 2022 a great year for logistics.
3. Project Management: including the rise of remote working in project planning strategies
After almost two years into the pandemic, remote working is here to stay even after the COVID19 crisis ends. During the lockdown, remote working was not only an option but the main solution for most companies to remain active. Now, a lot of organizations are using it because of its benefits.
The annual report ‘State of Remote Work’ concluded in its 2021 edition that 90% of remote workers consider themselves more productive working from home than in the office. 55% of workers also said that they work more hours at home than in the physical office.
Not only that, remote work is one of the ideal conditions for a lot of people looking for a job today. So it is also becoming important to retain talent. According to the same survey, 1 in 3 employees currently doing remote work would quit their job if they could no longer work remotely after the pandemic.
With the rise of remote working and this data in place, Project Managers must develop strategies to include this way of work in their plans. First, analysing how it can fit in their companies. Finding the benefits and the challenges that exist having employees working from home. And after that, addressing the main issues to allow the project to run smoothly wherever their staff is.
How? For instance, defining the ways collaborative work is done if someone is working remotely, in the office or having a hybrid schedule. Also, choosing (or developing) the ideal software tools to optimize communication among all the teams involved. Or creating clear instructions and goals for every member, even if there are not physically present.
Every project is different, so the Project Manager will have to evaluate the characteristics of their business to design a plan that works for them. But for sure, as one of the main trends in business for 2022, this the year Project Managers will have to integrate remote working in their planning strategies.
4. Tourism and Hospitality Management: Bleisure travellers & hotel workspaces
Linked to the same idea of remote working, a 2022 trend for the Tourism and Hospitality industry is bleisure travel. With more flexibility to work away from the office, the number of people that travel for business and leisure reasons at the same time is going up.
In fact, the most recognized hospitality management university, the École Hôtelière de Lausanne, has placed Bleisure travellers and hotel workspaces as the number one trend to be up-to-date in this field during the new year that we are entering.
If you didn’t know by now, the word bleisure comes from the mix of business and leisure. When talking about business travel and leisure, we are used to visualizing a top executive travelling around the world while having fun in exotic places. But with the growth of remote working, a new kind of bleisure traveller has appeared.
Remote workers that can work from anywhere are choosing to do tourism at the same time. Booking themselves in places they want to visit for leisure now that they have the option to not work from the office and can do it from places like transports or hotels and with a much flexible schedule.
The hotel industry, really hurt by the pandemic, is responding to this demand with the creation of hotel workspaces. Different hotels are offering rooms specially prepared to work in them. With high-speed internet connections, better views to increase productivity or special prices to make longer stays easier.
Bleisure travelling is an option that is only viable for a small number of people. But the tourism and hospitality industry will track during 2022 these ‘digital nomads’ to have available plans for them and make this trend a new opportunity to attract clients.
5. Business Innovation trend: the creation of the Metaverse
The concept of the Metaverse has already been a business trend before 2022. Some consider it the future of the human relationship. Some others think it is a virtual reality project destined to fail. But what is certain is that the biggest companies in the world are entering the Metaverse and are currently trying to figure out its uses.
If you still don’t know what is this all about, here you have a quick explanation. We are talking about a virtual world where we all have a digital avatar and to which we can have access with immersive technologies like virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR). The most recent works have this virtual universe hosted in blockchain networks. The Metaverse is supposed to allow its users to build their own spaces inside of it and end up creating some sort of imitation or the real world to interact with.
Although it may sound hard to imagine, the idea of a virtual universe in which everyone has an avatar and can interact with other humans and establish relations has already existed for years in video games. The key point of the Metaverse is that it is one single and unified world where everyone could theoretically be connected.
Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Google… All the big tech companies are investing in the Metaverse. Creating new ways for the user to interact with it. Positioning themselves in the best possible spot to be important in this new universe. And even creating an economy inside of the Metaverse that involves its users.
Can you see yourself working inside a virtual world and getting a salary by doing so? Artists are already doing it with crypto-art and non-fungible tokens (also known as NFTs). Some fashion brands are thinking about opening stores in the Metaverse to sell their products, with crypto-currencies that exist inside this virtual environment.
Time will tell if the Metaverse is the next big step for the internet to evolve. But for sure, it will become one of the main trends in business for 2022 and companies will explore new ways to make a profit of it.
