Our 2024 Workplace Predictions

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We’re officially in New Year's preparation mode. For the year's final Ask a Coach column, we are diving into workplace predictions for 2024. The working world has been through many shifts in the past few years. 2024 is projected to be another exciting one.

We’re sharing our top 5 key trends here in what we hope is an “easy to skim” format to ensure you have all the actionable takeaways and can implement these learnings in a way that supercharges your career. 

To dive deeper into these predictions, check out my podcast episode with our founder, Lauren, on The Career Contessa Podcast. 

Table of Contents

Welcome to Ask a Coach. I’m Marnie, a Career Contessa Coach. In this advice column, I’ll answer the most common questions we get in career coaching sessions here at Career Contessa. 

Topics will range from job search tactics and negotiations to career development and career fulfillment. Have a burning question you want to see answered? Send it my way! Looking to have a coaching session of your own? Check out our rockstar list of coaches. 

In researching this column, a handful of trends emerged across the board. They were continuations of larger workplace themes over the past few years. For example, there continues to be a generational shift as baby boomers gradually exit and younger generations continue to enter (with a strong focus on Gen Z). There’s also an ongoing concern for employee burnout, which started before 2020 but has really peaked in priority over the past four years. 

For the purposes of our readout, we decided to highlight the predictions that felt most relevant to this specific year ahead. If you’re curious about going deeper on any specific prediction, you can check out the original source in each section to read more.

Without further ado, let’s get into it!

1. Ongoing Importance of Salary Transparency

I know many of us have been waiting for salary transparency to become more of the “norm” in the workplace, and while we’re not there quite yet, we made some pretty significant strides in 2023 that are projected to continue into 2024. 

Robert Half’s 2024 Market Outlook reports that "salary transparency will continue to be an advantage for both employers and employees." The report goes on to highlight that 42 percent of workers now expect to see a salary range in a job posting and 57 percent would take themselves out of consideration if the employer doesn’t provide it upon request.

These are pretty incredible statistics, considering pay transparency laws were only recently passed. 

What It Means for Your Career

This prediction is helpful for both current job seekers and anyone who is simply looking to gain more clarity around their pay structure.

My personal hope is that with more salary ranges being shared across many different types of industries, we’ll slowly start to move towards true pay equity within companies so that employees who are doing the same role are being paid comparable salaries. 

What You Can Do About It

Let’s break this down into job seekers and non-job seekers:

Job Seekers:

The pay band being shared upfront in a job listing can save you a lot of anxiety and uncertainty. You can now decide if the role is a good fit for you based on how much you’re looking to make before you start the larger interview process. 

Salary information will help you once you get to the offer stage of the interview process as well. You’ll now be able to use the salary band to respond to your initial salary offer and really put pressure on your future employer to justify the salary you’ve been given. Here are two questions to keep top of mind:

Non-Job Seekers

Being able to access the pay band for your current role can help you build a case for a raise internally or it can simply help give you confidence that you are being compensated appropriately for your job.

If you are looking for a raise, you can access the pay band for your role from a similar job opening listed on your company’s website. If no comparable roles are listed, or your company isn’t sharing pay bands in their postings, you can email HR and ask for the pay band information for your specific role. 

Once you can access the pay band, you can view where your current salary falls and make a case for where you should be as part of your negotiation. If you’re a more senior team member, and expect a promotion to the next level in the not-so-distant future (under a year), then being towards the high end of your current role’s pay band is a justified request. 

2. The Continued Rise of AI

Naturally, we couldn’t miss this one. AI (Artificial Intelligence) is a buzzword for good reason. Forbes is predicting the continued rise of AI as we head into 2024, which will allow us to keep becoming more efficient.

However, Forbes highlights that the real power in leveraging AI will come from being able to spot its limitations and knowing where you still need to apply human creativity, passion, and innovation.

What It Means for Your Career

The ability to use AI in the job search won’t be going anywhere. ChatGPT for resumes, cover letters, and interview prep is never a bad place to start. There are also lesser-known tools, like JobScan and ResumeWorded, that will scan your resume for keywords and tell you how competitive you are for an ATS (applicant tracking system). 

What You Can Do About It

While I’m all for working smarter, not harder, these tools are meant to be great starting points for your job search journey but they shouldn’t be the final destination. The more you can add your own personal voice and anecdotes into any AI-generated content, the more you will stand out as the uniquely qualified human you are compared to other applicants who lean too heavily on AI. 

3. Upskilling + Reskilling Essential to Advancement 

2024 is projected to be another year of growth and evolution for the workforce at large, with both upskilling and reskilling remaining at the center stage. 

LinkedIn’s 2024 Trends Report predicts that upskilling and reskilling will remain essential for staying competitive and advancing careers, especially with ongoing automation and new roles continuing to emerge across industries.

To quickly define these two terms:

What It Means for Your Career

The need to always be evolving is closely linked to the exciting opportunities we have available to us in the current work world. When I think about upskilling and reskilling, I think of both efforts as a way to “meet the moment” of your next dream role.

I’ve had coaching clients who set out on a job search, unsure of where they want to go next, and once they discover the skills they can build upon, the path ahead is suddenly clear. I’ve even had clients get new jobs they didn’t know existed before they opened their minds to their own capabilities. All this to say, if you’re willing to put in the work for constant evolution, you will be rewarded for it. 

What You Can Do About It

There are infinite ways to continue learning in our very modern world. If you’re looking for more passive forms of learning, you can prioritize following accounts on social media platforms that dive into professional skills. If you’re ready to go more in-depth, you can't go wrong with podcasts or Ted Talks.

Lastly, if you enjoy more structure and really like to go deep on a certain topic you can check out our list of Career Contessa self-led courses.

4. Return to Office Continues on Hybrid Basis 

This is a contentious topic, and I’m definitely “Team Remote Work.” In doing research for 2024 work trends, I couldn’t escape a specific prediction around remote and hybrid work.

According to CNBC, 90 percent of companies say they’ll return to the office by 2024. The reason behind the push, according to experts, is less due to organizational needs and more due to the sentiment that company leaders "never intended for the world to change this dramatically and the office to just go away.”

Regardless of the reasoning, it’s a prediction to keep top of mind since we've seen employee expectations shift towards remote work in the past few years. 

What It Means for Your Career

While you may notice more companies encouraging employees to return to the office, it won’t necessarily be full-time. Many experts are projecting that the 5-day commute is dead. When it comes to employee retention, it’s much easier to push through hybrid work than a full in-office setup.

If a hybrid schedule doesn’t align with your work preferences, and you’re worried about finding companies that will accommodate remote workers, a great way to widen your scope is to look into small and medium-sized businesses. These companies may be less well-known, but many are now attracting top talent by leaning into flexibility and accommodating full-time remote work. 

What You Can Do About It

Regardless of work schedules, it can be empowering to be strategic about your personal day-to-day and how you can make work fit into your life (rather than the other way around). I've always found in my personal career that this mental shift gives me a larger sense of purpose. 

For example, if you’re in a hybrid role and are scheduled to go into the office two days a week, are you someone who wants to take advantage of being near the office by going to a fun workout class after work or getting drinks with co-workers? Maybe you’re the opposite, and it’s important for you to keep your evenings open to decompress with solo time.

There’s no right or wrong way to operate. The key is to get really clear on what works best for you and create as many opportunities for you to feel in control as possible. 

5. Career Coaching Becomes More Mainstream

We’re ending on a high note with a custom prediction based on the aggregate 2024 research. Career coaching is predicted to become more mainstream.

Every prediction that’s highlighted above ties back to a key theme of career coaching in some fashion:

What It Means for Your Career

In addition to the predictions I’ve already touched on, I found quite a few reports that projected quitting rates to remain higher in 2024 than pre-pandemic rates.

As more people choose to leave their roles, either to seek more value alignment or to make more money, we’re projecting that we’ll see an uptick in job seekers working with career coaches to differentiate themselves in a competitive job market.

What You Can Do About It

Whether you are looking to find a new job, put boundaries in place at your current job, or simply learn how to do your job more efficiently, working with a career coach can help you make your work life more fulfilling in 2024.

If you’re not in the space to work with a coach directly, there’s a lot of magic in taking time for yourself to think more long-term about your career before we head into the new year.

This can be as simple as sitting down with a good cup of coffee and a notebook to reflect on your mental health at work, your biggest accomplishments, and your biggest goals for 2024. If you need more inspiration, you can always tap a friend or family member to do the exercise together (personal development can really be a whole family affair). 

Until Next Time! 

I want to say a special thank you for reading the Ask a Coach column this year! It’s been really fun to kick off the series over the past few months, and we have many exciting topics slated for early 2024. Don’t forget to send me a note if you have any topics or questions you’d like to see answered in future articles.

Wishing you all a happy, healthy and restful holiday season!