THE FUTURE OF WORK

An extensive number of research have been emerging out about the future of work in recent times. Employers across the globe are trying to predict how the future of work may look like and how they can adopt it.

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However, despite the popularity of the topic, there is still no universally accepted definition of the future of work.

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According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the Future of Work is a projection of how work, workers and the workplace will evolve in the years ahead.

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While much focus is placed on technology in future-of-work discussions, other factors, such as remote employment and the gig economy, play a large role in not only how work will be done, but who will be doing it and from where. So, therefore, it is pivotal for HR professionals and managers to be knowledgeable about how the future of work will impact their workplace.

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Several models and components have emerged to explaining the future of work, agreed on these three basic elements :?how the work is done, who does the work, and where and when work is done.

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A)??How the work is done: This element focuses on employees collaborating with automation and artificial intelligence to get work done efficiently and?effectively. Tools can range from analytic software and chat-bots?to robotics.

B)?Who does the work: The future of work encompasses the need for traditional full?and?part-time workers alongside crowd-sourced?contributors. The movement of workers into, within and out of an organization due to changing skills requirements caused by advances in technology.?

?Employers must prepare for new jobs and career paths through advanced training and re-skilling of the domestic workforce, and utilizing foreign labor where applicable.?Impact sourcing will also provide new talent with desired skills while helping to improve the economic status of communities.

C)?Where and When is the work done: The workforce will likely grow more dispersed as geographic and technological boundaries diminish. If work is done anywhere in the world, it will also be done at any time, transforming the remote-enabled workforce from the standard workday to a more fluid design.

However, other school of thought consider the Future of work to be happening now. They came out with some factors to justify their?reasoning which include:

1-?Remote work as the normal way of working:?At the beginning of the covid-19?crisis, many organizations thought that remote work was impossible for them to handle as?Talent Management practices have been completely disrupted. However, this is not the case as many of them are considering keeping remote work options even after this pandemic.

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2-?Accelerated digital Transformation: The rise and growth of digitizing?both internal and external processes today is essential for businesses to keep running as smoothly as possible.

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3-?The changing role of leadership: Earlier, not many organizations may have considered leadership as an important topic of the future of work. We were mostly focused on how AI and other technology will replace some human jobs. Now however, we can see that the role of leadership in creating healthier workplaces is extremely important?in building trust in work place and keep employees Aline to business goals.

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4-?Constant change management, agility and innovation: Not being able to adapt to change quickly and make fast decisions may seriously hurt your organization’ and employees’ productivity. Moreover, in order to be more agile, many employers have also started giving more empowerment to their employees hoping to drive the sense?of entrepreneurship.

Conclusion:

In a null shell, every employers need to build an infrastructure that supports the future of work now. Some of the ways include, creating a culture of transparency and open communications, make work more meaningful for employees,implement technologies and make your work place more flexible and agile. For “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”?– Abraham Lincoln.

References

https://haiilo.com/blog/the-future-of-work/

https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/hr-qa/pages/what-is-meant-by-the-future-of-work.aspx

https://www.oecd.org/future-of-work/#what-is-the-future-of-work

https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work