The Future Of Work And The Evolving Nature Of Employment

In Covid year, we all have seen what has happened and in fact everyone had something to take away from it in form of adapting various changes like how we work, study, shop, learn or communicate with each other. We know we are living through a fundamental transformation in the way we work which probably will set the tone of may be next 20 years. If we talk about upcoming trends in jobs, most surveys believe that Automation and ‘thinking machines’ are going to be big trends which probably will replicating human tasks & jobs and may change the skills that organizations are looking for in their people.

These momentous changes raise huge organizational, talent and HR challenges – at a time when business leaders are already wrestling with unprecedented risks to their business, their business models are changing so fast which are not easy to comprehend, disruption to their supply chains across world and political and social upheaval, where all countries are rethinking how they want to establish themselves in new emerging world order.

To rephrase, its extremely fast pace which we hadn’t anticipated, and important fact is you can’t afford to miss running with it. This isn’t a time to sit back and wait for events to unfold for any of the business leader.

Basically to prepare for the future, one first must understand it. Lets look at the forces which are shaping the future !!

The forces shaping the future

Future of work or those forces shaping the future asks us to consider the biggest questions of our age. And the question is what influence will the continuing advancement of technology, automation and artificial intelligence have on where we work and how we work? What is our place in an automated world? Many industry experts focus on technology and the role that automation is predicted to have on jobs and the workplace. It is believed that real story is far more complicated.

 The fact is that this is less about technological innovation and more about the manner in which humans decide to use that technology. The shape that the future of work takes will be the result of complex, changing and competing forces.

Some of these forces are certain, but the speed at which they unfold like I earlier said these can be hard to predict. Regulations and laws, the governments that impose them, broad trends in consumer, citizen and worker sentiment will all influence the transition toward an automated workplace. The outcome of this battle will determine the future of work for next couple of decades may be.

 When so many complex forces are at play, linear predictions are too simplistic. In fact entire last year predictions were getting less and less true.

How Digital and AI are changing work

Pwc says the potential for digital platforms and AI to grow the world of work is unbounded. They already play an essential role in the development of new businesses, matching skills to employer, capital to investor and consumer to supplier.

This platform layer brings a digital value chain and commoditization and automation of the back office – but comes with warnings. While it can create a thriving marketplace, it can grow to take over the entire economic system. And with platform becoming widely use, there comes vulnerability to cyber‑attacks or wide‑scale manipulation.

And off course AI: the digital assistants, chatbots, and machine learning, that understand, learn, and then act based on that information. It’s useful to think of three levels of AI:

 Assisted intelligence, which is widely available today, it improves what people and organizations are already doing. A simple example, prevalent in cars today, is the GPS navigation programme that offers directions to drivers and adjusts to road conditions.

 Augmented intelligence, which is emerging and we see signs of its arrival today, basically developed to enhance human intelligence rather than operate independently or outright replace it. It helps people and organizations to do things they couldn’t otherwise do. It's designed to do so by improving human decision-making.

Autonomous intelligence is being developed for the future, which establishes machines or automated structure that act on their own. An example of this will be self‑driving vehicles, when they come into widespread use.

So to summarize, some people believe AI could create a world where human abilities are amplified as machines help everyone in improving  process, analyze, and evaluate the abundance of data that creates today’s world and in turn allow humans to spend more time engaged in high‑level thinking, creativity, and decision-making.

Changing Nature of Jobs

It is imperative that the old command-centre management of efficiency can hardly be expected to succeed in today’s world, when everything else around us has changed irrevocably.

For Employees or students, we must embrace all the opportunities that can help make the most of unstable situations. Corporates and employers have an equal responsibility in design the organization, business operations, job roles and responsibilities in a manner that enables employees to do meaningful work.

Given the current circumstances and massive layoffs, however, there would be a trade-of between the benefits of well-being and operational expediency for organization. From HR perspective, evolving nature of employment in this challenging social and business landscape is one of the most talked about subject recently.

Independent research shows that workers with “active” jobs – characterized by a heathy balance of demand for skills and competencies, and the level of control an employee has over the tasks – are more likely to showcase better coping strategies, in an environment of uncertainty and stress.

On the other hand, a “relaxed” job, which entails low demands of their skills and higher level of control over their tasks, does not provide employees with such basic motivation.

Likewise, “high strain” jobs that involve high demands and low control, are likely to overwhelm employees and encourage a form of helplessness that can undermine employees’ sense of mastery over their jobs and dissuade them from optimizing current skills or developing new ones.

Finally, a “passive” job, which combine low demands on skills with low control over tasks, does not encourage skill development and instead, can result in employee helplessness.

The evidence is that higher levels of job control are associated with increases in job satisfaction and decreased depression, whereas higher demands of skills and competencies, independent of adequate control tend to be correlated with increased anxiety.

In times of crisis and in the long term, what is being felt across is that given that an increasing number of jobs in the future will tend to be “active-high-strain” ones, how can roles be designed for optimal effectiveness? Role load (work that is challenging yet manageable), translating directly into workload is likely to increase substantially as downsizing will come into effect which obviously be part of business recovery, and second, since many businesses will be in a frenzy of activity, to make good their losses.

Many organizations are also expanding remote training to address challenges - such as effective leadership of remote teams (which is a new skill set for most managers) and building personal acumen in challenging circumstances. The fact to note here is that the slow pace of corporate bureaucracy has been replaced by clear goals, focused teams, and rapid decision making.

So what should we summarize for us ? In my view that to stay ahead, we need to focus on our ability to continuously adapt, engage with others in that process, and most importantly retain our core sense of identity and values. For students, it’s not just about acquiring knowledge, but about how to learn. For the rest of us, we need to remember that intellectual complacency is not our friend and that learning – not just new things but new ways of thinking – is a life-long endeavor.”