In a stunningly short period of time, the world realised the true value of many lower-paid jobs. Front-line health workers, drivers, warehouse operatives, child-carers, shop-workers, along with public safety and utility workers, and many others, all kept us safe, comfortable and connected as the crisis unfolded.
Even before the pandemic, work has been tough for many.
For some, not much has really changed between the factories of old and the drudgery and routine they experience today. A desire for security makes work a necessity for most, but the changing nature of work makes that security seem less and less tangible. A job for life and the stability that it provided has long gone.
Accelerating change - and the many subsequent reorganisations - can be stressful and exhausting. And, though there might be a feeling that work dominates our lives, there’s also a nagging doubt that much of what we do lacks meaning.
Sometimes we touch on what’s possible – when we do something that makes us feel challenged or whole, when we can access our talent and make a contribution in a way that feels worthwhile. Many experienced these feelings as they shifted their energies to producing urgently required personal protective equipment, ventilators and anti-bacterial gel.
Sadly, in business-as-usual, these moments can be rare. So, instead, many naturally work to maximise their income when they can and postpone their joy for hobbies and pastimes.
Things are changing though.
Deloitte’s human capital trend surveys
Their 2019 report identified 3 key trends in the future of the workforce, organisations and HR.
The workforce
According to the survey, the alternative workforce is now becoming mainstream. Freelancers, Contractors and Gig-workers will make up an increasing proportion of a company’s workforce. This means that businesses will become porous and ‘internal’ fulltime employees will need to integrate seamlessly with a range of other more transient team members.
Organisations
Another key finding is that work must connect with the wider human experience. This means that:
– Meaning and purpose
– Ethics and fairness
– Personal growth and individual passions
– Transparency and openness
are no longer nice-to-haves but are instead core requirements for workers.
Performance is also expected to be more of a team sport – with a focus on collaboration and relationships becoming essential.
Human Resources
For HR, accessing and mobilising talent – from wherever possible, not just internally – is key. Learning will become increasingly personalised, focused on the longer term and more integrated with real work. On the technological front, the report suggests that cloud-based systems will become even more prevalent and that there will be an increasing application of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
The recently published 2020 report calls upon organisations to embrace three attributes—purpose, potential, and perspective—that characterise what it means to fuse people and technology to perform as a social enterprise at work. They suggest that organisations:
– don’t just talk about purpose, but embed meaning into everyday work
– are designed to maximise the capability of humans in a technological world
– embrace a future orientation where choices are framed by a change in perspective: a shift from asking ‘could we’ to asking ‘how should we’ when approaching new ethical questions including compensation, transparency and value-creation.
Remote working
Remote working was touched on in the surveys in terms of work re-design, cloud services and alternative workforces, but the Covid-19 pandemic brought a sharp focus on out-of-office working. Every individual with whom we have spoken since the pandemic who has any choice in the matter, has told us that they intend to go into the office less often now. Necessity has led to familiarity with and a trust in the remote working tools available. It remains to be seen how embedded this shift will become in long-term work patterns.
The impact
How we define our organisations, how we design them, how we populate, manage and develop them needs to change. Businesses that do not pay attention to these trends may find themselves stagnating. Limited access to talent will stifle innovation and agility, and high potential people will vote with their feet and look to join organisations that treat them as a whole person.
The future
We believe the future of work can be different. Rather than continuing to experience the obstacles of the past, there is another pathway to an alternative future where organisations can be designed to access, nurture and develop all of the talent, knowledge and passion available to fulfil a noble purpose.
Simply expressed this means that organisations genuinely shift their leadership and culture to embed Meaning, Autonomy, Connectivity, Collaboration, Flexibility, Wellbeing and Learning into everyday work.
In our next blog we’ll explore the opportunities for developing these practices and describe some concrete examples from a variety of industry sectors including: healthcare, utilities, engineering, technology and manufacturing.