As organizations consider their next steps in the midst of a global vaccine roll-out, keeping up with trends that will shape the workplace of the future is more vital than ever.

Business and institutions of every size, across every sector, and in every nation are pondering how they can rethink the way they operate – to be more resilient, to be more agile and to ensure their employees can thrive.

Rethinking the future of work today
In this most pivotal of moments, you need to evaluate how you can reset and renew ways of working to achieve a turbocharged transformation.

Fortunately, there are any number of predictions on the future of work.

Unfortunately, most of them tend to fall short – and fall into one of two camps:

1. A set of predictions that are so near-term, they’re barely the future at all
2. A set that are so far flung and distant, they offer little relevance

Enter the Workplace Experience series
What’s missing is an ambitious and visionary glimpse of the future, anchored to a realistic framework or approach that exists today – making this all the more real.

That’s why we’ve created the Future Workplace Experience Series, an evolving tapestry of perspectives on the key trends that will define the workplace in 2025 from business, workplace and industry leaders.

Just like the future of work, this series will emerge and develop over time. We’re launching with a set of initial projections, and we’ll then reveal new chapters every month.

Subscribe to follow the series as it evolves, and we'll take you on a journey of the noteworthy trends, including emerging themes from the pandemic and those developments we expect to accelerate in the next 3-5 years. Some of the first topics we’ll focus on include:

• Humanizing the workplace experience
• The future of the HR function
• The rise of automated intelligent digital colleagues
• The future of the work from anywhere model
• Democratized workplace IT with citizen developers
• The future of the manufacturing workplace
• The future of the healthcare workplace
• The future of the retail workplace
• The future of the banking workplace
• And more to be revealed…

So, with the first set of chapters now live, here’s what you can explore in our initial series of forecasts:

1) The emergence of a more human workplace
Kicking off the report, Florin Rotar dives into his prediction for a more empathetic and humane world of work. Florin discusses the three pillars that will define this emerging people-first workplace experience:

“There’s no excuse not to put your people at the center of your workplace and business transformation. We have truly entered the people-first Workplace Experience era. And here are the three trends that I believe will define this more empathetic employee-centered era throughout the next few years, through to 2025.”

Read Florin’s chapter

2) Rise of the intelligent digital co-worker
Next, IDC’s European Future of Work Lead, Angela Salmeron, explores the key considerations as organizations look to blend the human and AI workforce. As Angela highlights, the pandemic has dramatically accelerated the move to a digital future – and the AI workforce is arriving sooner than we may have anticipated:

“Digital co-workers are much needed in the new cognitive enterprise. The volatility, speed, and complexity of doing business today has created conditions that cannot be addressed optimally with human work only.

Read Angela’s chapter

3) Future of the manufacturing workplace
Finally, Nick Hussey and Jonny Williamson from The Manufacturer share their forecast for the future of work in the manufacturing sector and discuss how firms are preparing for the workplace of 2025.

Nick and Jonny discuss challenges ranging from recruitment and retention through to the anticipated proliferation of automation, AI and digital twins. Ultimately, Nick and Johnny are optimistic about the future for the industry:

“The manufacturing sector finds itself at a crossroads… Despite the challenges, we’re seeing strong evidence that industrial workplaces and workforces are adapting at speed and embracing change as they look to the future.”

Explore Nick and Jonny’s chapter

The future has only just begun
This is the start of our journey. Join us as we release new content every month – head to www.avanade.com/Future-WX, where you can also subscribe to receive the latest updates. And join in by telling us what you think about these predictions by offering your own using Avanade’s social channels (LinkedIn / Twitter).