Forecasting the Future Workplace
Kim Seeling Smith, Business Futurist, CSP, CVP, VMP
Motivational Keynote Speaker @Kim Seeling Smith | AI, The Future of Work, Leadership, Culture
The Future of Work arrived on Friday the 13th of March when Covid-19 thrust us into our new reality far more quickly than anyone had predicted. So what does the future workplace look like?
It is full of paradoxes. It will be both:
• Reliant on technology as well as human connection
• Defined by high unemployment as well as a critical skills shortage
• Focused on retaining full-time staff as well as using the Gig Economy
• Defined by a smaller but more important office footprint
• Focused on profitability as well as employee wellbeing
Reliant on technology as well as human connection
Covid has accelerated the adoption of technology by many businesses. Some estimates show that businesses are up to 5 years ahead of where they thought they would be by the end of 2020.
The World Economic Forum’s “Future of Jobs” report, released in October 2020, stated that “…by 2025, the time spent on current tasks at work by humans and machines will be equal.”
At the same time, the workplace is becoming more human. Command and control hierarchies and outdated human resources practices have been breaking down over the last 10 - 20 years, and many organizations are opting for people-centric practices - with bottom-line results.
Initially, it was thought that these practices were soft, nice-to-haves within the workplace. But as more data is gathered through The Gallup Organization, Virgin Unite’s 100% Human at Work Initiative, and Eric Moseley’s Workhuman, there is a clear link between people-centric practices and the bottom line.
Defined by high unemployment as well as a critical skills shortage
The market disruption caused by Covid and the increased automation within businesses is causing widespread unemployment.
Any organization trying to fill programmers, data analysts, health care workers, accountants, or engineers will tell you that we are still in a critical skills shortage.
Pre-Covid McKinsey forecasted that by 2030 there would be 85 million more jobs than suitable candidates worldwide - at the same time that they predicted that 20 million people will be unemployed or underemployed.
More recent forecasts suggest this disparity could increase post-Covid.
To solve both of these challenges, businesses must learn how to do 2 things. First, they must reskill their existing employees and take them on the journey as the requirements of their roles change.
Australian based Faethm AI was founded in part to provide data analytics to help companies do this.
The second is that they need to look beyond skills and experience in their recruitment practices and hire for strengths.
Ericsson took this approach to filling their data analytics roles last year. They began to recruit biologists and put them through an extensive training program to teach the biologists how to use Ericsson’s data analytics techniques and technologies. Though the training was expensive, Ericsson found it more cost-effective than letting critical roles go unfilled.
Focused on retaining full-time staff as well as using the Gig Economy
A critical component to taking your staff on the journey with you is being able to retain them.
Companies all over Australia are focusing on enhancing employee experience to help them do this. Examples of this include:
- KPMG has reimagined its HR policies using several avatars that represent their employee cohorts. They now design these policies with the employee instead of the organization in mind.
- Aurecon has redesigned its onboarding process to make the virtual experience as meaningful as the in-person one to help people feel like part of the team.
- Laminex has implemented a Work From Anywhere program where non-operational employees choose where, when and how they work. Employees can choose from a range of ‘collab spaces,’ including co-working offices, cafes, and homes.
At the same time, the Gig Economy is thriving. Technology recruitment firm Talent has gone from strength to strength during the last several months as companies rely more on just-in-time talent.
Recognizing that the gig worker does not enjoy the same benefits as the full-time employee, Talent has created the Talent Engage program, which provides its members with mental, professional, development, social, and physical support.
Defined by a different but more important office footprint
The office footprint is changing. We have proven that work can be done effectively from remote locations. This will enable companies to recruit from far-flung geographies to find the right talent and allow workers to choose a tree or sea change with little or no effect on their employment.
We don’t yet know what the office of the future looks like. Initially, it was assumed that the office footprint would shrink as between 72 - 80% of individuals want to continue to work remotely for a significant portion of their workweek. But after 9 months of remote work, we have found that we miss the collaboration, community, and camaraderie of being in the office.
Some companies are opting for a completely remote workforce. Others are choosing the hub and spoke layout where the main office is in the city center and there are several spokes in the suburbs and regional centers that rely on shared or serviced office space.
This will be one of the most important decisions facing businesses in the coming months and years.
Commercial real estate company, Knight Frank, was one of the first companies to publish an occupancy roadmap globally and the Australian CEO took this one step further and engaged his People and Culture team to develop a 5 step process to reimagine their own office occupancy and return to the workspace.
Require emphasis on profitability and wellbeing
There is no doubt that businesses must emphasize profitability over the coming decade, but unlike times past, there is a growing recognition that profitability can no longer come at the expense of employee wellbeing.
Engineering firm GHD had been discussing employee wellbeing in the year before Covid. However, the challenges they faced when the pandemic arrived quickly brought that focus into clear view. As a result, they have developed a 12-week program that includes education, a Wellbeing Champions Network and the introduction of wellbeing moments to kick-off meetings.
The future workplace is full of paradoxes - just like the years ahead, which will certainly be a paradox of both challenge and opportunity.
Are you ready for the NOW of work? Contact us now to discuss our Now of Work Gap Analysis. [email protected]
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Master storyteller, passionate educator and trend translator, Kim Seeling Smith helps business leaders move from disruptable to indestructible in the post-pandemic world.
Kim is THE Now of Work expert (because the Future of Work arrived on Friday the 13th of March 2020 with Covid-19). She has literally had a seat at the table with Sir Richard Branson, launched her book, Mind Reading for Managers at SXSW, co-wrote a book with mega author Brian Tracy, was named one of the Top 101 Global Influencers on Employee Engagement and was one of the few non-technical presenters to be included in the 2020 Atlassian Summit as Covid forced it to move from live to online.
A recovering, KPMG trained CPA, Kim has run an internationally recognized consulting firm since 2009. Prior to that she managed globally ranked recruitment teams and has personally conducted over 5,000 exit interviews.
You will frequently see Kim on The Today Show, in Forbes, CNBC Online, the Australian Financial Review, the Sydney Morning Herald and many other print and radio media outlets.
We help future-focused organizations hire the right people - and keep them once you have them.
COVID-19 will hopefully be the most significant disruption of this decade, but the futurists, demographers and economists will tell you it certainly won’t be the last.
To not only survive - but to thrive - organizations need 5 things:
Businesses must have:
- A compelling, customer/community-oriented purpose with a strong set of values that are used in hiring, accountability and decision making.
- Collaborative leadership capable of making smart decisions with incomplete information and being able to pivot quickly and effectively when those decisions are proven to be incorrect (and some will).
- Open, honest, transparent communication built on a foundation of mutual trust and respect.
- Managers who prioritize their team over their ‘day job’. Who form deep relationships with staff, studying and meeting their needs (or managing their expectations when they do not) and use a simple framework to set and hold people accountable for great performance.
- The willingness to reimagine old school practices and processes that simply no longer work.
We help you accomplish the above through:
- Our Future/Now of Work Gap Analysis
- Strategic planning and facilitation with C Suites or Boards of Directors
- Our 3 signature programs:
- The SPOT On™ Success Profile: THE KEY to help you hire well the first time and hold staff accountable for great performance.
- The SPOT On™ Hiring System: A step by step framework, training and customizable forms and other assets o help you plan, prepare and conduct an effective and efficient hiring process.
- Mind Reading for Managers: Know yourself, know your team, kick your goals. THE how-to guide for1:1 conversations between manager and direct reports. Based on over 5,000 exit interviews.
Adult Employment and Career Development. Employment Support & Futures Specialist and Researcher, Careers Guidance Professional
3yA growing trend at the coal face indicates that a number of employers are using the pandemic to change a number of work practices, some good, some not so. Worst among these is forcing people in to 'Gig' based employment in order to hold on to some sort of employment. In a number of cases I have recently seen employers have hired on a full time basis, only to tell their new employee there would be changes in how they were to get paid a week before their first pay. This is where the gig environment is introduced by the employer. It seems to be a growing trend of hard-nosed sharp practice that is causing a great deal of stress, particularly those that are most vulnerable. The pandemic has handed us a golden opportunity to right a number of wrongs and improve work environments for all. Unfortunately it is those that blight the workplace with short termism coloured with callous harshness (verging on the illegal if not already actually), that cast shadows across any good works. Also good to read of Ericson and their training program. Enlightened thinking, we need much more of that. A good example of controlling, planning and actioning for the future rather than hoping fully trained personnel are going to come knocking at the door.