The Future of Work – more human than you may have thought!

A fantastic article titled The Future of Work: You Might Be Thinking About the Future of Work All Wrong, published in HRM (Australia) recently caught my eye. It offers thought-provoking insights that are definitely worth reading. I find myself in agreement with many of its key points, which I’ll summarise below. Additionally, I’d like to share some of our own research and offer my personal perspective, particularly given our hands-on experience working in this space at Steople.

One of the first key messages in the article is that total jobs will not be lost, leading to mass unemployment, however there will be mass redeployment because tasks will be automated rather than entire jobs lost. A 2023 McKinsey report estimates that half of today’s work activities could become automated between 2030 and 2060.?To cope with these changes, we need to spend time and money learning transferable ?skills and capabilities to enable us the flexibility to adapt to the future of work.

A related point is that employees will need a plan for their career path and employers will need to proactively provide more opportunities. This is not necessarily about climbing the ladder and will more often be about horizontal opportunities where they can develop skills. A review of more recent research has shown that the top skills needed for future jobs (many of which do not exist today) will include: creativity and innovation; analytical thinking and complex judgement; technology design; emotional intelligence; empathy and listening; and leadership and influence. Organisations will need to invest in learning and development programs in the coming years that deliberately and specifically build these types of capabilities.

Since the pandemic, there have been increased incidences of isolation, loneliness and burnout (amongst other mental health and wellbeing issues). The HRM article states that for every dollar spent on wellbeing by organisations, there is a $2.40 return on the bottom line. At Steople, we’ve seen a massive increase in the demand for our wellbeing services over the last 18 months.? Whilst we have been offering various preventative wellbeing services for over 10 years now, the demand for this service has sky-rocketed globally. The best employers are listening to their employees and are investing in helping them to cope with health and wellbeing issues.? Some of them are doing this just because it is the right thing to do. Others also know that they will receive a significant return on investment over the long-term.

In 2019, Dr Sean Gallagher from Swinburne Centre for New Workforces argued that “the more digital our workplaces become, the more human we need to be”.? Building on this theme, Nemat Shafik, Director of London School of Economics and Political Science, in 2018, stated that “in the past jobs were about muscles, now they’re about brains, but in the future, they’ll be about the heart”. Both of these comments, from extremely well-respected individuals, strongly suggest that the future of work will be (or at least will need to be) more human.? Since these comments were made, we’ve all experienced the changes associated with the rise of artificial intelligence and automation. This only increases the need for more human connectedness, however it is likely to be in different ways to the past. Prior to the global pandemic, we had a lot more incidental and unplanned conversations with people and social interactions just happened.??Now, with the increase in remote work, Zoom and virtual work environments, we must be more intentional about how, when, and where we connect. It’s important to proactively schedule time for casual interactions, non-work-related discussions, and social engagement to maintain meaningful connections.

In relation to leadership, Dr Brene Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston who has attained a cult-like following over recent years for her work in the area of vulnerability, argued that we need to create more human leaders. To do this we need to be courageous.? It requires leaders who are willing to take risks, embrace their vulnerabilities and show up as imperfect, real people. I agree with Brene Brown and add that this is exactly the type of leadership that we need now, and in the future, to create great work cultures and effective workforces in the future. No longer can we separate out work from home.? On Zoom or Teams calls we can now see into people’s homes.? We can see their rooms, their cats and dogs, their children….and I like this new norm.? We get to see real people.? This is already becoming more crucial to work cultures across the planet and will only increase in the future.

Read the full HRM Article here

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