A Global Vision for the Future of Work

The future is always ever-present at the World Economic Forum (WEF). Its founder, Klaus Schwab, envisioned a Fourth Industrial Revolution driven by global technological change. This year, the dialogue at Davos is about globalization, the future of business, about worlds of automation, advanced data and the urgency of reskilling workforces. Are we up to the challenge?

The WEF predicts that artificial intelligence will create 58 million net new jobs in the next few years. The future of work is about more than new kinds of jobs, though. It’s about a new worker with a new global ethos, a more flexible lifestyle and income pattern, representing differences in generations, ethnicities, orientations. It’s about bringing different viewpoints and needs to the workforce.

We’re racing toward this new work world. We’re living longer, working longer, and retiring traditional notions of retirement. We’re blending full-time workers with the burgeoning “gig economy” of non-traditional contract workers, while organizations strive to recruit and develop more women and other former minorities, more accurately reflecting the lives and voices of their customers. What have they all in common? Mercer’s Global Talent Trends study tells us that this multifaceted world of individuals seeks work with purpose, caring deeply about the social impact of their organizations.

The spirit of Davos is to synthesize all of the voices, viewpoints and visions that will collaborate on solutions for the future. Optimistically, writes Klaus Schwab, “a new framework for global public-private cooperation has been taking shape. Public-private cooperation is about harnessing the private sector and open markets to drive economic growth for the public good, with environmental sustainability and social inclusiveness always in mind.”

Mercer, its parent company MMC and sister companies Marsh, Oliver Wyman, and Guy Carpenter share a dedication to collaborative solutions, and Davos is always an important forum to showcase what can be done. This week at Davos, Mercer’s emphasis on workforce transformation tracks the challenge of “Industry 4.0”.

On one hand, Mercer’s January 22 event celebrated the fifth anniversary of the When Women Thrive research launched at Davos. This groundbreaking work charted organizations’ failure -- and opportunity -- to bring more women into the workforce and develop their potential for leadership, overcoming managerial bias in hiring and promoting, and to focus on the differentiated health and financial security needs of women.

Workforce security is the through-line of Mercer’s Davos events – and we explored it further today (January 23) in a breakfast session we co-hosted with Salary Finance, focusing on the financial disruptions of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, as the demographics of living and working longer collide with the realities of a transformed workplace. The goal of the session was to emphasize opportunities and solutions rather than dwell on job displacement or disruption.

From my perspective, I’m convinced that the challenges of the future will require collective thinking. Times have taught us that even though technology is a driver of change, people are not going away. There’s a transition from wanting to change to actually taking action, and we’re seeing companies pivot to curating the work environment and providing thoughtful benefits. 

Moderated by the BBC’s James Landale, the panel also included Mercer’s Asia CEO Renee McGowan, Daniel Shakhani, Founder of Salary Finance; Leena Nair, CHRO of Unilever; and Phillip Ullmann, Chief Energiser of Cordant Group. Their observations helped move us toward the heart of this week’s Davos dialogue. As Renee noted, “The term ‘retirement savings’ itself is becoming obsolete, we need to think about lifetime savings.” Leena spoke to Unilever’s strategy of supporting their employees’ journey to retirement security: “We’ve put a suite of tools in place to give people the levers to shape what they save. It’s about working with every employee to understand their needs are different.” If anything, the panelists avoided easy answers, acknowledging that their firms embrace the complexity of facing the future with a multifaceted workforce.

Daniel commented on the nuances of different generations’ savings approaches: “We need to engage differently with each generation. Your greatest test is what your employees will say to potential future employees.” As for the changes being wrought by technology, Phillip observed that it is time to “make jobs good jobs. With AI you can take out the repetitive parts of jobs and make them higher quality roles.” I’m grateful for such thoughtful panelists, to engage our audience and focus us on the challenge of change.

Managing the workforce transformation of Industry 4.0 puts an emphasis on enabling effective workers through reskilling, shifting the traditional concept of work, and creating financial security in a future landscape which looks very different from the past. Much of the dialogue at Davos will explore the means of doing so. Globally, there has been a steady news drumbeat of collaboration and commitment to preparing present and future workers for jobs that are increasingly reliant on technology and data skill sets.

A global fast-food giant has, for example, allocated more than $150 million to help its US employees to earn a high school diploma, defray the cost of college and learn English. A telecommunications leader has committed $1 billion to an initiative that shows its employees all open jobs and their salaries, as well as the skills needed to succeed in those positions, and they can gain those skills through the company’s access to online learning. Companies and governments are creating innovative benefits, adding things like parent care for their baby boomers and portable savings solutions that better fit with a gig workforce.

Settling for the status quo can never be an option for the organizations -- and their private/public partners – that embrace the reality of workforce transformation, the talents and needs of the new worker, and the fact that our longer lifetimes offer opportunity to keep thriving and inspiring each other.

Julio Portalatin is President and CEO of Mercer and serves as a Board Director of DXC Technology.