Navigating the new world of work...

How would it feel to travel in a time machine and move forward to 2050? What would your life look like? Human colony in Mars, Hyperloop bridging large distances in minutes, travelling in driverless cars to offices….wait, will there be any offices at all or just virtual workspaces? What will the workplace of the future look like?

With virtual meetings becoming more real through augmented reality, a watch on the wrist serving as an extension of an individual’s digital entity enabling work from anywhere, and perhaps Siri & Alexa making their way into the workplace as next-gen assistants, the workplace of the future will definitely not be what we are used to. With robots working alongside us, the work itself that humans do will evolve to be more creative, disruptive...in short more right-brained, leaving 9-5 mechanical jobs to machines.

This is a ‘distant future’ scenario but not entirely inconceivable. The fundamental transitions are already taking place, and at an accelerated pace. Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, MOSAIC, Digital First thinking – these are no longer jargons by progressive thinkers but the very basics that are shaping our reality. News is first consumed on social media, machines are replacing traditional labour intensive jobs and I fairly doubt most millennials are even familiar with the concept of Gratuity and Superannuation let alone care for it. 

The megatrends that are re-shaping the world of work are non-linear. Economic & technological shifts are redistributing power, wealth and opportunities around the world while disrupting industries. So, in such a dynamic world, how will companies keep up with equally fast evolving workforce?

I believe, there are four key tenets of succeeding in this digital & agile economy, which would start by completely re-imaging people processes, rather than looking at merely making some incremental changes to traditional programmes. 

a)   Investment in continuous, agile skill development...

I often hear that AI will wipe out jobs and make employees redundant. This couldn’t be further away from the truth. The number of employees in non-standard, complex jobs is going to increase, while less complex work is going to be increasingly automated.

The time it takes for people’s skills to become irrelevant will also shrink. Therefore, the need to continuously upgrade skills of employees will become more relevant than ever. A multi disciplinary, diverse workforce with rapid disruption and problem solving abilities will define competitive edge in the future. This has already started to happen in technology functions, and soon will be visible across even the traditional ones such as Marketing, HR, Finance, Supply chain etc.

Organizations need to invest in lifelong learning models that can continuously map employee needs for requisite trainings & skill upgrades using predictive technologies. For instance, the process can be completely automated by using AI based tools that identify gaps in an employee’s knowledge base or what skill enhancement is required for her/his next level and automatically assign trainings to them.

Another important aspect would be to understand millennial behavior and index on self learning with inventive delivery mechanisms to keep choice at the center of a person’s learning and career. As an example, Myntra-Jabong has partnered with Safari and Udacity to allow employees to self nominate, learn and earn micro degrees even on emerging technologies and rare skills that would be relevant in the future.

b)   Embrace the automated world

MOSAIC (mobility, social media, analytics, IoT & cloud) has to become an integral part of people practices to keep pace with changing practices and employee behaviours. HR can no longer design traditional programmes and then automate them. Automation has to be at the core to drive efficiencies and make people processes agile & intuitive. As larger proportions of the workforce become desk less, even the delivery mechanism and touch points with employees have to change.

At Myntra-Jabong, we have automated most HR processes and aggregated them either on the desktop or on a hand held device to ensure ease of use. We now measure employee sentiment in real time using a AI enabled chatbot which triggers basis employee tenure and critical events and adapts to a employee's conversation style to engage in a dialogue. This further enables us to address their needs & challenges with immediacy and literally eliminates the need to even predict attrition by proactively attacking critical attrition risks by reading smart signals. Our hiring mechanism is also automated to match people to right roles more accurately taking into account their behavioural attributes, talent & experience.

a)   Accept change as the constant

It’s a gig economy where employees are quick to move on to new experiences. In this environment, an employee should be able to plug in & plug out very quickly & in order to do so, they need to understand the business context faster.

Our HR construct focuses on experientially engaging employees to not only deploy their skills but to understand & engage in other aspects of the business fairly quickly.

At Myntra-Jabong, a techie is no longer restricted just to technology, rather works with product and design teams to build exceptional customer experiences. They learn how different departments operate and how their work impacts the upstream or downstream of the entire business value chain. Our employee rewards are also therefore flexible & dynamic so that people get their dues as per their convenience and with great rapidity .

Which brings me to another key point. The roles & structures in the org. need to be people agnostic. Enough enablers need to be built in to help people move across roles and start delivering quickly.

c)   Craft experiences for employees

I cannot stress the importance of crafting experiences for employees that engage them not only on functional but emotional levels as well. Diversity in the workforce is a growing reality (and i don't mean just gender). To engage a multi discipline diverse workforce who represent different genders, skills, cultures and even ethnicities, it is imperative that experiences are customised and instill freedom and fun at work. At Myntra-Jabong, we take care that our employees come to a lively and vibrant work atmosphere with world class amenities & enjoy a beautiful basket of experiences right from the time they join us.

Research has shown that an engaged workforce generates better business results and to the millennial workforce experiences drive engagement. Gone are the those days when money/cash rewards was the only way to engage, retain and perform. World over, organisations are now realising the benefit of building people practices around experiences, be it developing new skills, deploying their skills, inducting them into the system, rewarding them or even enabling them to move out smoothly...and all of this using the currency of technology.

The question we however need to ask ourselves is can we build enough experiences within the system for employees to enjoy various gigs here rather than looking elsewhere?

Can we offer them new roles, skill upgrades and offer a clear sense of purpose to not merely attract them but keep them engaged? Most importantly, build processes to understand their fast evolving needs & addressing them and thinking as much here & now as we do long term.