The elusive path to getting The Work We Want

Earlier this year, my colleagues in the Gi Group Holding team published our annual Sustainable Work Report which provides a summary of the progress that our company and its divisions have made in meeting a number of goals we have set as part of our CSR activities. These activities are informed primarily by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) where we focus on issues such as combatting poverty; promoting inclusive and equitable training and education; working to achieve gender equality; pushing for sustainable, inclusive economic growth; reducing between-country inequality; and helping to revitalise global partnerships for sustainable development.

This is no small feat that we have set out to accomplish through our Sustainable Work programmes but with our 25 years+ of experience helping place skilled, qualified talent in roles across various global labour markets, we know and understand the benefits that come from having dignified, respectable and fulfilling work. We see this every day in the lives we change by helping match businesses with skilled workers they need and by helping candidates find employment where they can actively contribute and grow in their knowledge and proficiencies.

Sustainable employment = More than Work

Looking at our company report, it brought to mind, in particular, the last SDG we are working to fulfil by supporting partnerships for global development. Through my own work in the World Employment Confederation (WEC) – Europe, I have noted that the value of satisfying, meaningful work is increasingly multi-layered. In our modern world, we have thankfully, in many countries, moved beyond just looking at employment as a means of subsistence. When businesses, governments and third sector actors come together, our work roles become vehicles for continued learning, for contributing to society, and for giving back to our communities. In WEC materials addressing The Work We Want, labour market experts highlight that our most imperative challenge centres on skilling and making sure job candidates have the knowledge and tools they need to thrive in an evolving economy. This is a matter of urgency, because many businesses report difficulties in hiring skilled workers for roles for the next half-year, let alone for completely new skill sets their teams will need 2-3 years down the line. In fact, many companies and educational organisations do not yet know what exactly those "in demand" skills will be. On top of that, the HOW of finding and retaining talent has grown more complex: 80% of senior executives say talent planning has never been more difficult; 82% say traditional talent attraction approaches are no longer fit-to-purpose; and 83% say candidates/employees now value flexibility about when and where to work as much as they do compensation. That’s why some HR industry sources call younger age cohorts like Gen Z the life-work balance generation. But interestingly employees wanting greater balance and career agility don’t come solely from the ranks of Gen Z. This desire pervades all age groups.

What work are we actually looking for?

Here, it seems that flexibility is the word du jour. With rapid labour market evolution, employees themselves have embarked on their own personal journeys when it comes to job search and career planning. Today, for work to be sustainable, it has to offer employees the opportunity to grow and deliver a focus on career-long learning. WEC research shows that the era of a single job/profession is a thing of the past and many workers will straddle multiple roles in future work structures and adapt their work tasks as tech tools like AI and robotics become more prevalent in workspaces. Interestingly though, the flexibility concept is an "ask" not only of job candidates and employees, but also one that employers are finding more attractive and convenient as they work through industry transformations and various market disruptions. Forbes Magazine recently wrote about a Gig Economy 2.0 and this may prove to be a concept that gets increased testing as industries like tech and cyber security, healthcare, etc. move to more project-based work models. This latter shift (i.e., toward the gigs) will also have an impact on the when/where factor related to work. With some businesses already mandating "back-to-the-office 5 days a week", future intense debates lie ahead for employees and company HR departments on the when/where of working. Some companies surveyed by the WEC already report an 80:20 split of employees back-in-office vs. those working remotely. And further experimentation with the length of the traditional work week is to be expected. In the UK, for instance, 89% of employers who test-drove the 4-day work week still had it in place a year later.

So where do all these developments and changes leave us in our quest for Sustainable Work structures. Ideally, in a state of compromise and continued experimentation. In our current age of reskilling, upskilling and more complex hiring and job-matching, the flexibility mantra now regularly used by job-seekers is one that more job-creators will likely want, or have, to adopt. Respecting and adapting to the consistently mutable nature of current and future work roles will go a long way in pushing labour markets toward greater work sustainability.