What We’ve Learned About the Future of Work From the Pandemic

In the wake of the pandemic we have an opportunity to take the lessons we’ve learned and use them to improve the way we work and live.

In my role as the Director of the Office of the Future of Work, I have worked with my colleagues and partners to analyze where these opportunities may lie and how they can be brought to fruition to the benefit of workers, employers, and communities; below, you’ll find the insights we’ve gleaned from our own research as well as that of others.

Employers are prioritizing employee well being

Before the pandemic, a large number of employers understood that when workers have the tools and support they need to take care of themselves, productivity and employee morale and engagement improve.?

The pandemic’s effects on employee well being proved them right. As employers adapted to rapidly changing circumstances during the pandemic, many started to provide a wider range of benefits. Citi, Chobani, MailChimp, and Mastercard are just a few major employers who, in the wake of the pandemic, instituted expanded employee benefits including assistance with childcare, more accessible mental health services, and better time off policies. Employers and workers are redefining what a quality job looks like, and exploring new ways to support the whole worker in the workplace.

The Office of the Future of Work has recognized the importance of benefits to employee well being since its creation in 2019; that’s why one of our areas of exploration is modernizing worker protections and benefits to address the changing nature of work and to support the people most vulnerable to disruption. The Colorado Workforce Development Council (CWDC) released the Job Quality Framework in July to outline features of a quality job and lay out practical steps local communities, employers, and leaders can take to improve job quality in Colorado.

Increasing access to upskilling and reskilling opportunities will be critical to long-term economic prosperity

A report from McKinsey & Company found that as many as 25 percent more workers may need to switch occupations than before the pandemic, emphasizing the need to provide workers with as many opportunities as possible to upskill or reskill.

The finding underlines the importance of lifelong learning, a major future-of-work trend. In-demand skills will change over time, and workers will need as many opportunities as possible to gain these skills.?

Ongoing efforts are promising. The number of new apprentices has grown by 70 percent since 2011, for instance, as a result of collaboration between government, education, and business. Every day, Colorado’s public workforce centers provide countless workers with no-cost services that include connecting them to upskilling and reskilling opportunities. And many educational institutions are adjusting their curricula so they better match the labor market’s needs; they’re also investing in remote learning programs both for their students and the general population.?

Employers are also making significant investments in workforce development. Before the pandemic, some employers were already offering employees training opportunities: for example, in 2018, after discovering that nearly half of its 250,000 employees didn’t have the skills the company needed in order to remain competitive, AT&T announced that it would be dedicating $1 billion to a multi-year effort to retrain its workforce. The effort includes offering employees tools they can use to understand what jobs are available, the skills these jobs require, the potential salary range, and whether the job is projected to grow or shrink in the future. Employees can then take advantage of free online courses the company provides to advance their career goals.

In an interview with CNBC, Bill Blase, AT&T’s senior executive vice president of human resources, explained their reasoning behind the decision: “We could go out and try to hire all these software and engineering people and probably pay through the nose to get them, but even that wouldn’t have been adequate...Or we could try to reskill our existing workforce so they could be competent in the technology and the skills required to run the business going forward.” .?

AT&T’s efforts are mirrored by other large employers, including Amazon, which, in 2019, announced that it would be dedicating $1.2 billion to provide 300,000 employees with access to free training programs, including college tuition for their front-line workers. Programs include a coding bootcamp, a 90-day program for warehouse workers to train them for IT support roles, apprenticeship programs, and more.The company continues to keep the future of its workforce in mind: it recently announced it will offer tuition-free college as an employment benefit.?

As the skills gap grows in many sectors, we expect that more employers will also increase their investments in workforce development programs. A December 2020 report from the World Economic Forum found that 44.1% of employers plan to accelerate implementation of upskilling and reskilling programs

In August, CDLE announced that the OFOW will oversee Colorado’s State Apprenticeship Agency and efforts to expand registered apprenticeship programs, playing a direct role in ensuring more Coloradan workers and businesses have access to high-quality training to create future-ready workers.?

Remote working arrangements are here to stay?

The pandemic resulted in the widespread adoption of remote work. The Pew Research Center found that 71% of people whose job responsibilities can mainly be done from home said they work remotely all or most of the time. And more than half say, given a choice, they would want to keep working from home even after the pandemic.

A report from McKinsey & Company predicts that many will be able to do so. They estimate that “20 to 25 percent of the workforces in advanced economies could work from home between three and five days a week, four to five times more remote work than before the pandemic.” They, along with the Office of the Future of Work, predict that remote work will transform the geography of work, as individuals and companies shift out of large cities into suburbs and smaller cities.

Some cities and states have launched promising programs aimed at encouraging remote workers to move to their community. For instance, West Virginia, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Grand Junction, Colorado offer new remote workers grants, coworking spaces, curated apartment listings, and connections to the community.

This is why the OFOW partnered with CWDC, Office of Economic Development and International Trade, and others to launch the Remote Work Initiative to prepare individuals, employers, and communities to leverage location neutral employment?

Most workers need to gain digital skills to remain competitive in the labor market

Digital literacy and access to the internet are a major influence on peoples’ quality of life. Daily tasks, from scheduling doctors appointments to paying for parking to applying for jobs, increasingly require internet access and digital skills.?

The same is true of the workplace. For the nearly one-third of U.S. workers who lack digital skills, the future looks uncertain. If we are to future-proof our workforce, these workers will need support in gaining both foundational digital literacy skills (the baseline skillset that workers need to have regardless of industry) and occupational digital skills, (the technology-related skills needed for a particular job or occupation).?

Conversations around digital literacy and inclusion often focus on access to high-speed internet, which makes sense. But effective solutions to the digital divide will require an approach that takes into account other factors: internet access needs to be affordable, people need devices to meet their goals, and people will need digital skills to take advantage of the benefits afforded by internet access.?

That’s why the OFOW created its Digital Literacy and Inclusion Initiative to ensure that Colorado is a state in which all individuals and communities have the information technology capacity needed for full participation in our society, democracy and economy. This effort includes the Subcommittee on Digital Literacy and Inclusion as part of the Colorado Broadband Office’s Broadband Advisory Board.

Workers will need continued support to successfully transition to new jobs

The pandemic has prompted many workers to reassess their professional trajectories: in a survey conducted by Prudential Financial, half of respondents said that the pandemic has made them reevaluate their career goals; 48 percent said they are rethinking the type of job they want moving forward; and 53 percent said they would retrain for a career in a different field or industry if they had the opportunity. These findings come as no surprise: times of crisis often lead to reflection and redirection.

As workers put serious thought into their long-term career plans, they will need support in realizing these plans. Career coaches, increased investment by employers and governments alike, and better collaboration between stakeholders, can help workers navigate the changing workforce landscape.?