The employment landscape is not immune to the changes that the digital revolution has imposed on the world. New trends and employment opportunities have emerged in recent decades thanks to technology. We tell you what they consist of. 

An iconic image of the 50s is workers punching in and out at the large factories with their huge chimneys. Belonging to one of these companies was a significant achievement not only for an individual, but also for their family. 

Colombian writer Laura Restrepo, in her novel The dark bride, perfectly portrays this situation: “(…) having a contract in any of the fields was a sign of entry into heaven. We are now salaried personnel, they said and repeated to themselves, making the vowels sound with more pride than if they were kings of Rome. In the midst of that immense humanity that was spinning adrift, becoming an oilman meant salvation.” 

But times are different now and the way we work has changed. “Globalization and digitalization are transforming the world of work. Companies are looking for new strategies to react to these changes,” concludes an article on new work Journal Forbes.  

We are not necessarily talking about new jobs: the really significant change is in the new work formats that have been generated in recent years. “The hierarchical forms of the past and the pyramidal structures are beginning to mutate to work more and more horizontally. The new work paths try to put the employee at the center of the business and increasingly move from fixed hours and assigned spaces to new ones,” explains the job board. Boomerang.com. 

In this context, where professionals take on greater relevance and are protagonists, while technology offers a wide spectrum of possibilities, these 5 new work formats are trending: 

1. The coworking They are a collaborative space where professionals meet to work. They are shared offices that have transformed the habitat of small and medium-sized businesses and independent professionals. These spaces regularly provide their inhabitants with the tools necessary for the development of their activities. The most obvious advantage is the reduction in operating costs. A disadvantage is the lack of privacy for certain things, such as phone calls, excessive noise or distractions because they are open spaces.
2. El remote work o teleworking It is a solution that has gained strength in recent years and has made room in the legislation of different countries. Technology has made it possible for the ubiquity of companies not to be a problem. This new way of working is a solution for companies, but also an ideal option for employees to be able to dedicate more and better time to their families or personal purposes.It certainly poses certain challenges, and that is why educational actions are needed to ensure that employees do not take on more work, so that families understand this new way of working and can respect this space.
3. El . is a freelancer who offers his services to various employers. This is possible thanks to the globalization of information and technology. Time, being able to have it, is a fundamental factor for the new generations that inhabit the world. This is a substantial change with that society of the last century where “The role model was to 'make a career' in a company until retirement,” as what indicates Karina Perez Galindo, associate director of the human resources consultancy Robert Half, adds that this valued stability is now in decline.This type of work has its own particular challenges, one of which, the most important, is to be clear about the seasonality of work, to know which season of the year has more or less work and to plan the economy accordingly.
4. The introduction of fixed schedule, The industrial revolution enabled factory workers to make a clear distinction between the time they spent on work activities and the time they had left for their personal and family life. The current world and the way we live in it imposes challenges on companies and requires them to adopt new leadership and work models. To achieve this, it is necessary to establish strategies for intelligent flexibility.For José Prieto, a partner at Baker & McKenzie, the idea is to manage work intelligently in such a way that it can be more profitable. Concepts such as mobility, permanent communication and flexible hours become the basis of this method that offers companies a new approach aimed at meeting objectives, allowing a balance between employees' personal and professional lives.
5. In this work environment, decisions are no longer go exclusively through people, it is necessary to integrate a new variable: artificial intelligence.  Entrepreneur and technologist Santiago Bilinkis warns that we are witnessing the emergence of the first superhuman-scale companies. Companies with hundreds or billions of users, “where the volume of work required for the evaluation and circulation of content reaches a level that is unmanageable by human beings. For these companies, artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms are the only way to manage their businesses.” 

According to LinkedIn, “professionals are evaluating and questioning the world we build and the values ​​that drive us” and the work environment is also adapting to these reflections and changes that occur due to various factors, such as technology or time dedicated to family and social life. 

Bibliographic sources:

• Forbes
• Boomerang.com
• GeoInnova
• Robert Half Consulting
• LinkedIn