The future of work: Remote work in the emerging new normal

Abstract

What HRM structures and schedules are most likely to characterize the post-pandemic period? This paper, taking a multidisciplinary approach to the analysis of the future of work and hybridized workforces, straddles the fields of HRM, business economics, and organizational behavior. It seeks to provide insights into the evolving post-pandemic’s new normal. The gains from the vaccination efforts in the US, in particular, are leading to shifts from the pandemic’s dismissal as a short-term phenomenon, to one that is now manageable. This paper, hence, analyzes the emerging trends and patterns that will most likely influence and shape the use of the human resource in companies, especially within the United States of America. It highlights the various discovered types, intensities, modalities, related to a range of worker types and work conditions associated with hybridized HRM, and the expected patterns and changes in employer-employee relationships likely to be maintained or expanded, that, informed by the Gratton framework of time and place. The paper maintains that not all work types are suitable for remote work. Additionally, certain gender biases are retained in the pandemic induced HRM hybrid models, while some are even reinforced. New work-life balance issues have also entered into work structuring and scheduling arrangements, with implications for the education attainment of the young and underserved, especially if, for example, hybrid education delivery becomes more widespread. The paper concludes with suggested research recommendations prompted, in part, by the pandemic’s workforce and HRM challenges.