Future of Work

We’ve seen a lot of changes in the business landscape since COVID-19 hit the country. While most of the country is under strict shelter-in-place orders, companies of every type are being forced to reconsider how to stay connected with teammates and customers. One of the most obvious casualties: Company and industry events. Because information surrounding

We are all wondering: what’s next? This paper poses and answers 10 questions. This post is available as a PDF to download and cite on ResearchGate and SSRN. These are predictions for the COVID-19 era and beyond based on my research.[1] Question One: will the novel coronavirus / COVID19 accelerate automation? Answer: yes. Automation has already evolved beyond manufacturing

Last week’s discussion with leaders in the Future of Work and open talent ecosystem was powerful and open. It revolved around macro trends seen in the workforce marketplace and in that discussion, John Healy from Kelly asked the question: What rules need to be broken. That was a spark and got everyone excited. So, this

As the pandemic forces many staff to work remotely, it is shaping the future of work – with more AI-enabled digital tools being incorporated to equip employees with ways to automate and enhance business processes. Surprisingly, an IDC survey only last year revealed that almost one-in-three office workers would not delegate any work to AI (27 percent).

While no one can accurately predict when the COVID-19 pandemic will end, one thing is certain that the world of work will be changed forever. Throughout this sudden metamorphosis, two organisational components have played a critical role – technology and people. On one side of the coin, businesses have needed to be digitally ready for business continuity, and simultaneously, the safety and prioritisation of people has had to take precedence. Together, these elements have paved the way for the future of work to reach the world sooner than we imagined. 

Post-COVID-19, the work culture and the employee experience that we know is going to change, and change permanently. But how exactly? What are the likely shifts, and how can we prepare for them? The most important part is to involve all levels of the workplace now in rethinking and redesigning how work could or should work when everyone slowly comes back online in the workspace. Giving people active roles in designing the future puts their heads in a constructive and committed space. It can help you weather this challenging time and reposition your business for success. 

Most strikingly, coronavirus global pandemic crisis is presenting the third existential challenge of the last fifty years. The first is climate change, the second income inequality, and the third is this global pandemic brought on by the latest novel coronavirus. Each of these challenges is reshaping work in some way, but it is this third test, one that is freezing our economy and forcing job losses for many and job changes for all, that will require our response to all three.

COVID-19 is rewriting the rules on the limits of government, on the shape of the  economy, and on where, when, and how we work. The crisis has shone a light on the worst practices of our current economic model. We need a more embracing vision about the future and where we fit into it, especially if we want to make this a shared story. The post-crisis response must not be left to individual gestures, it must be a collective decision to do things differently.Here are six challenges we need to be thinking about as we prepare for the future

Diversity hiring is when recruiters purposely consider job candidates from a variety of backgrounds and take steps to ensure that hiring practices are completely inclusive and free from barriers and biases based on a candidate’s race, ethnicity, age, gender, religion and other characteristics that have nothing to do with work history or job performance. Diversity hiring is a priority that should be at the top of every HR manager’s agenda in 2020. If implemented correctly, the recommendations given here will help the workplace better reflect the very mixed society we live in.

The future looks pretty grim indeed until you start looking at jobs that have already been automated. There are some things that a machine will never do. Machines will never strike out at a Little League game, have their hearts broken or see their children born. That makes it difficult, if not impossible, for machines to relate to humans as well as a human can. The future of work is humans collaborating with other humans to design work for machines.

When personal safety and livelihoods are at stake, not to mention a lingering threat to the bottom line, it has perhaps never been more important for companies to be prepared with a business continuity plan that leverages technology. And for those who have been struggling to catch up, it is important to start planning a “return to work” strategy now, critically thinking through the role that remote and flexible work and technology will continue to play in the weeks and months ahead. This will help businesses recover from the current pandemic and better equip them to handle the next crisis.