Future of Work

The whole world is currently engaged in a social experiment to reorganize around the COVID-19 pandemic. We see many organizations rapidly digitalizing, using all kinds of video conferencing services and online communication platforms, and we can expect to see more examples of simulation technologies, e.g. games and hybrid reality used to enhance the experience of working together, though we are physically at home. Fortunately, we are relatively well prepared; most people are already online. Imagine this would have happened 20 years ago. Here is how the COVID-19 pandemic may broadly shape the future of work.

It’s important during this time to find contingency opportunities for the workers who’ve suddenly found themselves out of a job, due to government closures, businesses shutting down. This week we pivoted our program and asked our community to share their insights and takeaways on what they’re experiencing due to the COVID-19 virus. We thought their answers would be relevant and useful to share with everyone, since we’re all in this together. Here are highlights from our conversation. 

Eventually the COVID-19 pandemic will end, offices will reopen and employees will return to work. However, in its wake, once the dust settles and routine returns, there will be a workforce who now knows it is possible to embrace remote working and who will expect the potential for that flexibility. It will be important for employers, particularly for those who have stayed in the more traditional camps, to be able to pivot to meet employees half way and embrace this new normal without the stigma that has been associated with virtual and distributed environments.

To prepare well for post-COVID-19 and to remain continously in employment, workers must be able and willing to create or give tangible value that is well above and beyond the price paid by their employers for their services that is in the form of salaries or wages. Value creation will be the key to your future employability. Networking will be your key to your future employment. So, brush up your social skills and get networking in various communities!

The imperative to switch entire workforces of organizations small and large to working from home, sometimes in a matter of days, has given some employees endless to-do lists and rather long hours. CIOs and their teams, who are responsible for leading their company’s technology strategy, have been having a busy few weeks. Although the current crisis is keeping many workers on edge, it is worth noting that employees are also starting to see the benefits of remote working.

How will companies emerge and move forward as the Covid-19 curve flattens? Will there be a new work paradigm, or will we all be back to work as usual? How to learn together and help our culture and businesses transition to the Future of Work? Many organizations have struggled with organizational transformation because of the notion that we need to be physically together to work effectively, but Covid-19 has shocked us into a model of remote work that will likely lead to persistent changes in this respect. 

In a world that could be known as “After-Covid-2019”, we will see technology playing an enhanced role that will shape and reshape business conduct and consumer behavior. The underlying theme of the technological transformation will revolve around creating business models that will survive in a ‘less-contact’ society–a concept that will be etched in the collective memory of our society and would see prominence in the years to come. Technologies and businesses around near-autonomous warehouses, robotics, drone-delivery systems, and 3D/additive manufacturing are going to be in the fast lane to adoption.

We were (are) going to have mass unemployment in the not-so-distant future regardless of a global pandemic, due to the increasing demands of a global marketplace and the disruption it will inevitably bring. Automation and innovation will eliminate many of our current jobs, all in the name of increased efficiency. A silver lining to be found in this pandemic is that it has forced many issues and societal short-comings to the surface in such an abrupt manner that it has spared us our otherwise likely fate.

The ongoing global pandemic is causing deep reflection about what this will mean for how our society functions. In a matter of weeks, we have seen working from home skyrocket to nearly 30% of Americans. Public transportation and traffic in major cities decreased dramatically as offices, factories and schools have shut down. In Europe and China, satellite images are showing lower levels of pollution as a result. If we wanted an experiment to see what the future of work would look like in a truly digital world, this is it.

In a post-Covid world with computing power and human potential as the new economic drivers in the age of information in the 21st century, human progress has further been delinked from mental capacity, what with artificial intelligence (A.I.) and several other tech-assisted mechanisms unleashing a new world. The conception of work is now in for a major change as is being witnessed what with the sharing economy and several other milestone developments alongside a pandemic attack.

If there is something we’ve learned from the past few weeks, it is that these unprecedented times have accelerated what we thought the future of work was going to look like. We’ve learned that we can trust people that they can get their work done from anywhere, and that in-person connection and community is craved. If one thing is clear, it’s that we’re well on our way to a more vibrant, inclusive and connected workplace culture.