What is The Future of Work?

The Future of Work

I was once in a board room. With stern looking men in suit and tie. And a lady. I was interviewing for a GM position. I wore no tie. They asked tuff questions. I answered. They then asked do you have some questions for us? I threw in a couple. Before me there was a guy the age of my father and after me, a lady who’d be say; my mum’s playmate Long story short, I merited but I was dismissed on age! Like they chose to punish me for being young. Hey young man why weren’t you born in time? So apparently some positions need you to be old enough for the job and there’s nothing you can do about that”

Someone once said; if people really truly liked work, we would be tilling land with oxen pulled ploughs and ferrying farm produce on our backs just as our fore fathers only knew best. Do we really love work that much? Work has gotten transformed over the years. As I wrote in a previous article, let us observe this case study;

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In a nut shell, let’s demonstrate the journey to the Experience economy using a simple Coffee example. Come to think about it in the ancient days coffee for example was grown on farms, the beans were plucked, dried and ground with stone for use in homes. The production was basically subsistence. In this scenario coffee is a commodity. Then came a point in time and machinery were invented to manufacture coffee beans into coffee (the powder) and thus here coffee is a product or good upon which consumers bought it off the shelves and used it in their homes. Along the way entrepreneurs seeing a niche need for ready to drink coffee got into the business of preparing and serving coffee to customers at cafes, fast food joints and restaurants. This is a service and customers are charged for the service. The entrepreneur while deciding his price looks at the cost of acquiring coffee and the capital investment that he put in to serve the customer. Fast forward and there came the concept of serving coffee in sophisticated tastes under serene surroundings with rider benefits such as Wi-Fi connectivity, order as per taste in the advent of the Experience economy. Such brands such as the Starbucks coffee house and The Java of this town stands out serving coffee wrapped in state of the art hospitality. What customers thus pay for is no longer just coffee rather the experience of being served coffee with state of the art hospitality. As you might notice at every stage of commodity, product, service then experience there are variations in taste, preferences and thus price and overall pricing model. It is prudent to notice the progression of the value chain. For instance, a farmer sells a kilo of coffee beans (commodity) from the farm to the manufacturer at less than a dollar and on the other hand a mug of coffee served at say Starbuck or Java in this case costs $3.50.

What is my point thus, work is anchored on the factors of production; Money, Land, Machinery, Man (labour) and Entrepreneurship. And as expressed in our case study above, at every level of economical transformational and advancement, there comes an equally proportionate shift in work and work dynamics surrounding the needs at hand. Interestingly all the major advancements in the sphere of work are centered on both the work and the worker. There is always the unforeseen need to make work more efficient and the worker primarily effective and more fullfilled thus the work, more fulfilling. There is what work was in the Precambrian times. What work is right now and what work is poised to become in the ongoing, near and hindsight future

Future of Work Strategy

Bottom-line, The Future of Work Strategy revolves around four key areas; how is the work done, who does the work, where is the work done and when is the work done.

How the work is done

As brought out above, people always want to work efficiently. Like if you compare how our fore fathers worked against how we work now in projection to how we are poised to work in Future, you realize automation is taken a center stage. Way of doing work is destined to get simplified against time.

Who does the work?

Mostly the goal is to get the work done. The Future of Work tends to lean more on delegation and task simplification. Thus the worker does the work through aided support such as Applications, Software and machinery.

Where is the work done?

Especially post Covid-19, the location of work has become central to the Future of Work. Future workforce is yearning for flexibility. Younger generations are considering options such as Flexi-working. Jobs are giving workers options to work;

ü? Remotely

ü? Onsite

ü? Hybrid

When is the work done?

Work pipeline management is shifting with the advancement in technology and diminishing Geographical boundaries, 9-5 work model is fading gradually as people are able to work anywhere anytime.

What are -The Future of Work -Shifts?

Technological Shifts

a.????? Robotics

b.????? AI

c.?????? Chat GPT

d.????? Google’s Gemina

Technology has taken a center stage when it comes to Future of Work Conversations. Just as expressed above Technology has helped disrupt the 9-5 model giving workers the option to work remotely across borders not limited by time zones.

For a long time now Giga factories across the globe have explored computer aided Robotics to enhance Logistics and its working out just well. Most recently there has been abuzz about AI replacing human force for instance. Some are for the idea AI will compete for jobs, whereas a good majority feel that all that AI does is to enhance how work is done.

In Digital Marketing, most industry professionals have shifted to Chat GPT to generate digital assets for online ad campaigns. Google initially taking a behind the scene watchful eye when Chat GPT ruled the airwaves, has just drifted into this space with Gemina. Let’s just say the technological shifts in the Future of Work is poised to get interesting.

Generational Shifts

Fast forward generations have shifted as;

?? Boomers

?? Gen X

?? Millennials

?? Gen Z

?? The Alpha

Across the generations work was defined differently. From the Pre-boomers days where for their parents, work was a basic source of livelihood and children would provide labor on farms for subsistence farming. Fast forward to the modern day Gen Z who prioritize working flexibility in terms of flexi hours over pay consideration.

This generational shifts will obviously affect the workforce. As employers seek to integrate cross generational workforces, they will be at cross roads of tweaking culture (way of doing things) to accommodate younger workforce.

Social shifts

Demographics

The Workforce was predominantly male dominated. There is huge shift from this phenomena. Governments, civil societies and parties of vested interests have been on the forefront calling for gender balance in the workforce. Naturally, there has been a cultural shift from the concept of gender roles resulting to more women in the work force just as the male gender. In this century, like never before we’ve seen the biggest number of women occupying c-suite corner offices.

Age

The workforce is getting younger more vibrant and restless. Gen Z for instance have integrated faster into the workforce as compared to the Millennials for example. The future Workforce could be the youngest.

Spread

The workforce is more spread and it’s poised to get more porous. Workers are thus creating friendship ties across borders. There is the concept of cross border work teams. Comparatively socialization among such teams also changes.

Work Life Balance

But hey, excuse me there, I prefer to call it Work-Life Rhythm. I know you are already asking me why?

I have always doubted the concept of anyone achieving Work-Life balance absolutely. What we end up with mostly is Work- Life Rhythm where we can co-exist favorably between work and routine living. Work is dynamic and it’s poised to get more demanding. The balance is thus elusive.

Which are the Newer-Age Careers with More Focus?

i.??????????????????? New energy

ii.???????????????? Smart cities

iii.?????????????? Digital trainformation

iv.??????????????? Climate/Carbon foot print

v.????????????????? Big data

vi.??????????????? IOT (Internet Of Things)

vii.???????????? Cybersecurity

viii.?????????? Biotechnology

ix.??????????????? Covid- Risk

What Global Conversations have affected The Future of Work?

MDG _ Millennium Development Goals

With the dawn of the new millennium, global governments set to make declarations and set out deadlines for goals to achieve in improving the lives of citizens. Work is a big input in changing people’s fortunes in life. The goal is more meaningful jobs for populations.

Vision 2030

Kenya crafted vision 2030 under the steermanship of the late President Mwai Kibaki. Kenya Vision 2030 is a road map to having a fully industrialized economy by the year 2030. Industrialization proportionately affects work.

SDGs _ Sustainable Development Goals

Christened as The SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals touch heavily on scaling down wide spread poverty and global unemployment by securing meaningful work and income to populations across the globe.

Vision 2060

Initially OAU (Organization of African Unity) and having transformed to AU (African Union) Crafted the Vision 2060 that seeks to integrate the African Continent economically, socially and politically. This progression affects The Future of Work.

The modern trends in hiring

ATS compliant CV

Applicant Tracking System is a software that sieves through magnitudes of job applicants CV to determine fit before Shortlisting.

Remote. Onsite. Hybrid.

Post Covid, most employers have stuck with working remotely. With a good number shifting back to working physically on site. There has been cases of some companies balancing off with working Hybrid (partly remote and partly Onsite)

The place of AI.

As discussed above, most recently there has been abuzz about AI replacing human force for instance. Some are for the idea AI will compete for jobs, whereas a good majority feel that all that AI does is to enhance how work is done.

Lay offs

With breaking geographical barriers aided by advancement in technology, there’s constant workforce restructuring to meet the dynamic cost and labor demands. This has resulted in constant layoffs and loss of security of tenure.

Contract vs. permanent.

Workers will always make a comparison between Contract and permanent work contract options. The dynamism of the workforce pushes people to tend to choose contract over permanent.

Global work forces

Work pipeline management is shifting with the advancement in technology and diminishing Geographical boundaries, 9-5 work model is fading gradually as people are able to work anywhere anytime. This is resulting to global work forces.

Longer Probation periods.

Initially probation period would last 3 months. Lately probation period stretch towards 6 to 9 months. There is also more demands on employees on probation with an equivalent lesser chances of being retained post probation period. Legal representation tends to incline more to employers as compared to employees on probation.

Over employed Employees.

With advent of remote working option, some employees have self-reported as working at two to three jobs at the same time remotely. In some cases the employers are aware of this engagements whereas to some everything is shrouded in mystery. This new shift is primarily fueled by rising cost of living across cities.

Quiet Hire.

With rising cost of labor and the dire need to cut costs, wanting to keep up with an updated workforce, employers are choosing to Quiet Hire. (In essence, having done employee skills SWOT, Employers re-assign job roles to existing talents resulting to changed job descriptions at same pay grade)

Quiet Quitting

Employees while continuing to show up and work for their employers choose to put in just bare minimum to their job description. This would be exhibited with; choosing not to speak at meetings, zero volunteering for tasks, refusing to work overtime and so on. It could be triggered by among other reasons, a toxic work environment, poor or lack of a recognition and reward system just to mention.

Freelancing

Unemployment rates notwithstanding and cost of living skyrocketing, people are choosing freelancing either as an alternative to work or as an addition to work to supplement their income.

Future workforce tend to gravitate towards Freelancing because of the working flexibility, higher earning potential presented and the integration of hobby into work.

Fractional CMO/Professionals.

Initially originating and being dominant within Marketing christened as Fractional CMOs (Chief Marketing Officer); the practice has spread to other players lately referred as Fractional Professionals. A fractional Chief Marketing Officer is a marketing professional who offers Brand growth services to a cluster of firms over some time. Unlike freelancing, it’s more committing with longer term engagements.

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Soft skills Vs. Hard skills

The job market has drifted to wanting a combination of more of the soft skills just as the hard skills in a hire. A combination of both would give an individual a relative competitive advantage.

???????????????????????????? Top Soft Skills:?

i.??????????????????? Leadership

ii.???????????????? Communication

iii.?????????????? Problem Solving

iv.??????????????? Management

v.????????????????? Time Resourcefulness

vi.??????????????? Strategy

??????????????????????????? ?Top Hard Skills

i.??????????????????? Customer Service

ii.???????????????? Sales

iii.?????????????? Digital Marketing

iv.??????????????? Social media

v.????????????????? Business development

vi.??????????????? Accounting

Humourbragging

My CV is bulk. I have been to many places in a very short time. So they thought it’s a threat. One of the panelists joked “looks like you’re a nomad. What exactly does it take to tame you?” So I went “If you’ve been in a management class, there’s the glass with water analogy; so the glass ought to be half full. It speaks to how you and I define loyalty. To me loyalty has nothing with staying with the same company forever but rather giving my best while it lasts!”

I came across an interesting Concept most recently in the world of hiring called Humourbragging. Humourbragging is basically when embrace and employ humor to self-promote yourself during an interview. It gives you an edge and causes you to score higher on likeability.

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