Every few years businesses spends thousands on external consultants to review and reorganise their workplaces in a bid to boost productivity.

But HR software firm Employment Hero's chief people officer Alex Hattingh says in many ways the pandemic triggered change management automatically. Whether it's "going agile" to remove hierarchy and introduce flexible working or reshuffling roles and incorporating more digitisation into the workplace, working through lockdowns fast forwarded these trends across businesses regardless of size.

With that, though, has come additional stress on employees, with many working long hours, juggling new roles devoid of a work-life balance.

Lockdowns in 2021 had a deeper impact on people, spurring on the trend of the “great resignation”, Hattingh says.

"I think it's really stemmed from remote work and lockdown, because you have to make a conscious effort to build relationships now in this virtual world. And people have realised that maybe their jobs aren't as enjoyable as they thought, because they were always around people, and they were just going through the motions, but now they've had more deep thinking time.

“Burnout is huge and I’m seeing it across our own employees. They’re all just so looking forward to a couple weeks off over Christmas because for some it’s been two years non-stop."

A survey by Employment Hero of 1000 New Zealand professionals in September revealed almost half reported they were considering taking jobs overseas once borders opened.

And the big motivator was that they felt they could earn more elsewhere, Hattingh says. The survey also shows employees are also seeking career development.

Hattingh says companies need to communicate their mission right from the job description. She says with a hot job market and the power shifting in favour of workers, businesses need to sell themselves to attract the best talent.

“My advice to businesses is if you see someone resign, look internally for someone you can promote. Even if they’re not yet ready you can get them there because replacing someone at a junior level is easier.

“Call out good behaviour when you see it. You can never over communicate recognition. It’s been a tough two years.”

The big trend to stick will be flexible working conditions, Hattingh says. “If employers don't offer that flexibility, they will definitely lose talent to companies that are keeping up with the times."

Frog Recruitment managing director Shannon Barlow says she expects to see some of the workplace trends that have cropped up in the later half of 2021, particularly the hot job market and wage inflation, establish within the local market.

And companies have taken notice. Barlow says she's seeing employers lure in talent by offering pay rises as high as 50 percent of what they would be earning.

“No matter how creative you are with incentives or improvements to culture, sometimes you just can’t compete with a price increase like that,” Barlow says.

“Businesses are kind of falling over themselves trying to impress candidates, or to show them what they have to offer when it's been the other way around for so long.”

In 2022 she also expects offices to be redesigned to compliment flexible working rather than reverting to pre-Covid work style.

“We will see businesses retain their office spaces and redesign it to make it more collaborative to bring a sense of community and give people a reason to work from the office.

On the skills shortage front, Barlow says employers will be pushing for more options for unvaccinated staff to get staff back into the office including rapid antigen testing as they risk losing out on talent amid the “greatest skills shortage of our lifetime”.

“Talent pools are swiftly evaporating and we can’t afford to miss out on 10 percent of the workforce because they’re unvaccinated.”

Barlow says there will also be increased pressure on for the government to release more details on the border opening.

“If we’re too slow we’ll miss the boat on attracting talent or benefit from a brain gain.”

She says businesses have already been investing in ways to automate their operations they are unable to find people for.

“We're seeing jobs that didn't exist before. And a lot of it is about rethinking operations like removing manual labour or administrative tasks to allow for new areas and perhaps more creative or technical roles.”