Developing a Future of Work Strategy

It is difficult for any leader or employee to make sense of the complexity and uncertainty in the Future of Work. The Future of Work is complex yes. It is made up of several components all working at the same time to change completely the way we work. There are the technological challenges presented by Industry 4.0 (mainly automation, robotics and AI), then there is the Industry 5.0 focus on rebalancing the human aspects with the machines.

Next, COVID-19 has forever changed where we work and how we feel about work and our time. Organisations are grappling with hybrid work arrangements, the impact on collaboration, culture and productivity and concepts like the 4 day week.

ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) has created new requirements for reporting and the S has a great impact on justice and equity in organisations. This cannot be ignored.

Finally, for some time now hierarchical organisations with silo departments and narrow jobs have stopped organisations from being agile and adaptive as their organisational landscape and projects change rapidly. The need for reskilling and upskilling accelerated by Industry 4.0 and the need to leverage all skills in the organisation as well as deploy resources more fluidly to cross organisational teams and projects, necessitates an approach that uses skills not jobs as the currency. This further creates the need for internal and external talent market places and changes the approach to remuneration, careers and training.

Can you afford to NOT give your full attention to this. NO is the clear answer. If you ignore these factors, your organisation will end up having a talent shortage and be unable to attract and retain the right people to deliver great outcomes. You must make sense of this. How can you do this?

MAP TASKS AND CAPABILITIES AND WORK OUT THE HUMAN AND TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENTS AND CHANGES. WORK OUT THE GAP.

• Map all your current tasks and capabilities.
• Ask each area of your business what new technology they will deploy in the next 3-5 years and work out which tasks/capabilities that will replace or augment.
• Ask yourself what future human capabilities you need to deliver your strategy. Where are your gaps?
• Map this all together – what is your plan?
• Are you going to buy the talent (recruit), build the talent (develop) or partner for the talent (have access to the talent).
• Reshape the roles into human tasks working with technology and create more interesting roles for people.

FIGURE OUT HYBRID WORK

• Work with your workforce and understand new ways of working in your industry and experiment with 4 days weeks or flexible hours or hybrid work or shared roles until you find the right blend. Don’t go for the easiest option.
• Get the right technology in place for optimal collaboration, visibility of where people are and get your communication and meeting structure right. Do not let people commute to just sit on zoom calls all day in the office.
• Update your office space to facilitate the new way of working.

FOCUS ON THE S IN ESG (The People impact)

• Are you paying your people fairly?
• Are you investing in their skills?
• Are you truly living diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging?
• Are you taking stands on social topics? 

MOVE TO SKILL BASED TALENT MANAGEEMNT

• To enable agility and maintain competitiveness, organizations must shift from understanding the unit of work in terms of fixed, static jobs to reimaging it in terms of a dynamic landscape of skills that can be agilely deployed to work as it continuously evolves.  (Deloitte)
• Are you prioritizing skills in recruitment, training and development, compensation and benefits, and internal mobility?
• Are you breaking down silo’s and matching people to opportunities?
• Do you have quality, unbiased skills data?
• Do you have the right technology to support this?

Now, develop a 3 year plan which you review every year to tackle the priorities.