New Roles, New Platforms in the New Workplace

The pandemic has remade the workforce experience, ushering in new roles, responsibilities, and tech solutions to meet hybrid workplace demands.

Author: Michelle Russell       

remote work

New job roles have emerged during the pandemic to address changes it brought on, including chief remote work officer and head of hybrid work.

“We have participated in the largest at-scale remote work experiment the world has seen, and it has had a dramatic impact on the employee experience,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said earlier this year when unveiling Microsoft Viva, the company’s new employee experience platform (EXP).

Tony Lee

Tony Lee

The nature of work has changed during the pandemic and businesses everywhere are figuring out how to adapt. “The worldwide shift to hybrid working models happening now is something most organizations have never had to deal with before,” Ben Reuveni, CEO and co-founder of talent marketplace software provider Gloat, told CMSWire, a publication for digital and marketing executives.

As a result, Reuveni said, “we’re seeing a number of new roles emerge within our talent marketplace that are designed to address this, with titles like Head of Hybrid Work, Head of Dynamic Work, and Workplace Environment Architect. Unilever … has a VP of Future of Work overseeing their shift to a hybrid working model. These roles tend to focus on managing the tools and technologies that keep hybrid offices connected and addressing the complex HR, leadership, and cultural needs of distributed teams.”

Tony Lee, vice president of content at SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) is seeing the same thing in terms of new job titles that “have emerged due to the pandemic and the changing work world,” Lee told Convene, “and they reflect a heightened focus on remote and hybrid work.” But he also pointed to other new roles that have been created as a result of larger societal changes during the pandemic, roles that focus on employee health and wellness and social equity, as well as “an increased attempt to focus resources on generating revenue.” Lee rattled off a few: chief remote work officer, VP of cybersecurity, director of employee wellness, chief sustainability officer, and managing director of revenue growth. “Companies see the need to create job titles that address urgent workplace issues that aren’t expected to diminish anytime soon,” he said, “and they are expanding efforts to find talented, experienced candidates to fill these roles.”

Michelle Russell is editor in chief of Convene.


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