Technological Disruption and the Future of Work

I wish all of my clients were this forward thinking. But then again, they’ve been forced to be by the federal government who mandated that the industry in which they operate go completely digital. Up until recently the way they do much of what they do has been a very manual process - but that’s changing rapidly.

My client now has to look at how this mandate is going to change the nature of jobs, the people they hire for those jobs and how they manage outputs and the people who produce them. 

THAT’s disruption.

And this is all happening against a backdrop of a labor market where demand outstrips supply and the empowered and increasingly vocal workforce want flexibility, balance and career growth above all else. 

How automation will affect the workforce

I’m finding that when companies talk about automation they mostly talk about robots replacing humans. Out go the humans, in come the robots (be they physical or virtual such as AI ChatBots).

But in fact, the future is much more complex than that. 

While Gartner says that 30% of all jobs will be automated by 2025, many experts contend that the augmenting what humans do with technology will be far more common than completely replacing human endeavors. Indeed Oxford University says that 47% of all jobs will be significantly changed by automation and in their “Four Fundamentals of Workplace Automation” report, McKinsey says that "According to our analysis, fewer than 5% of occupations can be entirely automated using current technology. However, about 60% of occupations could have 30% or more of their constituent activities automated.”

If you are currently looking at what to automate and when I can recommend Gartner’s excellent Maverick Research report titled, “To Avoid Working for Robots, Make Robots Work for Your Organization”.

By the way, if you’re not currently looking at that you should be. Even if the government is not mandating this for your industry at least one of your competitors is (or will be in the very near future). 

Decisions to be made as a result of automation

Once the decision of what, when and how to automate is made you then need to ask yourself:

• How do we structure our new roles so that humans and machines each do what they do best?
• What type of talent do we need to successfully achieve the above?
• How do we determine who, within our existing workforce, we can take on the journey as we automate or augment their role? And how do we take them on this journey? What will they need to learn and how will we teach them? 
• If we need to hire them in, how do we find them?
• How do we lead a workforce from whom we require agility, innovation and problem solving and who demands flexibility, growth, balance and a collaborative, non-hierarchical management style?
• How will we manage through this change?

My client is choosing to address these questions head on through a simulation that my team and I are designing for them. 

How will you do this?

First steps

A great first step is for the executive team or the board to schedule 2 - 4 hours to begin to look at these challenges. I suggest an offsite where you can really focus on these issues.

The time to do so is now. New York Times bestselling author and columnist Thomas Friedman once said (and I’m paraphrasing here as I heard him say this at a conference) that the inability to understand, embrace and effectively deal with the changes ushered in by technology and globalization (made possible by technology) will mean ‘lights out’ for many companies over the next decade.

And that’s the biggest disruptor of them all!

If you would like help leading this discussion with your board or exec team let me know. I’m happy to discuss.

About Kim Seeling Smith

Kim Seeling Smith is the CEO of Ignite Global whose mission is to help you win the war for talent today, tomorrow and beyond. Kim has reverse engineered over 5,000 exit interviews and conducted extensive research into employee experience to help you understand and embrace the new paradigms needed to source, select, motivate and retain a high performing workforce. 

Her frameworks are practical and her sessions are highly interactive and fun.

Kim has judged 4 international HR awards and is the author of Mind Reading for Managers: 5 FOCUSed Conversations for Greater Employee Engagement and Productivity and the co-author of "101 Great Ways to Enhance Your Career" (with personal development guru and mega-author Brian Tracy). 

Kim has participated in two invitation-only gatherings with Richard Branson and his Virgin Unite group based on the innovative work Ignite Global does in the people space. She is a founding member of Virgin Unite’s 100% Human at Work Initiative in Australia.