businessinfomag.uk magazine 32 PREDICTIONS ...continued transition and help businesses gain a deeper understanding of company and customer needs and behaviours across geographies, while still recognising local nuance and data residency requirements. From there, businesses can leverage new data sets and sources in the cloud to drive strategic decisions that support a more ‘glocal’ organisation. With more capacity and a secure global infrastructure that is flexible by nature, UK-based businesses with a global presence can leverage the cloud to simplify operations and seamlessly connect their data, people and processes with market and customer insights around the world. Cloud adoption is critical for businesses that want to scale to new markets both locally and globally, appeal to a global customer base, or operate with agility despite having a dispersed workforce. Moving operations to the likes of AWS and Google Cloud will become a requirement for business success in 2022 and the benefits of this cloud adoption will be truly realised through the enablement of glocal resilience. Smart buildings William Cowell de Gruchy, CEO, Infogrid 2022 will be the year of a smart building revolution In today’s world, businesses are more environmentally aware than ever, with many pledging to limit their carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. A great place to start is right in their own workplace. Space and hot water heating accounts for 21% of the energy used in the UK. Further to this, 19% of the UK’s Greenhouse Gases come from heating the places in which we live and work, and 10% of the UK’s electricity consumption comes from air conditioning units. Businesses can make a big reduction in their CO2 emissions in 2022 by developing a better understanding of how they use HVAC systems through smart building technology that uses the latest Machine Learning (ML) algorithms to collect data on systems and office environments, enabling them to optimise efficiency and reduce carbon emissions.While moving to a new, more efficient building might seem like a good idea, building construction is incredibly energy-intensive and produces high levels of carbon emissions. Smart building technology has an immediate impact and can keep existing buildings viable for much longer. The workplace environment has been a data blind- spot; 2022 will see that change as more organisations look to improve building efficiency. www.infogrid.io SOCIETY CSR Kaushalya Somasundaram, Head of UK Payments Partnerships & Industry Relations, Square 2022 will be the year of the socially conscious business Last year saw an outpouring of support for local charities, community initiatives and small businesses as people came together to help one another, and this will continue in 2022. In a recent study of ours, 91% of restaurants said they plan to continue local community initiatives and 43% of consumers said they would like to see businesses donate food or supplies to community organisations and charities. Providing support to local communities can help businesses attract more loyal customers, especially amongst millennials and Gen Z, and this will drive the growth of socially conscious businesses. www.squareup.com HUMAN RESOURCES Employee recruitment and wellbeing Darren Hockley, Managing Director, DeltaNet International Competition for talent In 2022, we’ll continue to see a battle for talent. Covid-19 and Brexit have created a perfect storm, with masses of skilled and non-skilled non-UK nationals leaving the UK. Organisations that don’t recognise the need for rapid change to support remote and hybrid working will experience significant skills gaps. The need to value and develop your people has never been more crucial, and organisations that put people first will win in the war for talent. Treating employees with the respect they deserve and empowering them to thrive in the environment that suits them best will be pivotal to securing and retaining the best talent. Organisations will continue to offer home and hybrid working policies, but they need to play catchup to ensure they still offer supportive and safe workplaces for hybrid, remote and home workers. Compliance will cut across many areas, including display screen equipment (DSE), ergonomics, information security, data protection, collaboration, health and wellbeing. When lockdowns were first imposed in 2020, organisations could have been forgiven for taking time to adapt and adjust. But we are well beyond the honeymoon period now. The year ahead will be more challenging than 2021 for mental health and wellbeing.We often see a delayed response to stressful situations and that, combined with more change and uncertainty and the impact of the skills gap, which will force fewer employees to do more, mean more people are likely to suffer. Organisations need to do more to help their employees through these difficult times, through effective management and support mechanisms. Investing in employee mental health and wellbeing will be crucial, not just for organisations and team management, but for talent attraction and retention. www.delta-net.com Darren Hockley, Delta Net International Ana Pinczuk, Anaplan
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