What is the future of work?

Selected analytical information

What is the future of work?

The world of work is constantly evolving, and the future of work requires businesses and organizations to take an informed approach. They need to be aware of possible changes in the workplace, given digitalization and other current trends. Particular attention should be paid to preparing the workforce and workplaces for these changes. Artificial intelligence and automation play a significant role in this process, similar to mechanization in the past.

When we look at the future of work, we see that it will be different than it is today. Offices may become more flexible and adaptive, with a greater bias toward using technology and working remotely. Robots and automation may play an increasingly important role in production processes, freeing people from routine tasks and allowing them to focus on the more creative and strategic aspects of work. New types of work may emerge that involve the development and implementation of new technologies. The future of work will require flexibility, continuous learning, and adaptation to changing conditions.

It is important to be prepared for these changes and actively seek out new opportunities and approaches in the world of work.

As part of our analysis, we consider the potential demand for labor and the mix of occupations and skills needed for those jobs. We consider eight countries: China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These countries represent different economic and labor market models, which together account for nearly half of the world’s population and more than 60 percent of its GDP. Studying these countries allows us to get a comprehensive picture of labor market trends and assess their impact on the future of the field of work.

Here are some of the key findings of the latest report on the future of work:

By year 16, one in every 2030 workers may have to change careers. That’s more than 100 million workers in the eight countries studied, and the pandemic has accelerated the expected transition of the workforce.
Job growth will be more concentrated in high-skilled jobs (such as health care or science, technology, engineering, and math [STEM] jobs), while medium- and low-skilled jobs (such as catering, manufacturing jobs, or office support roles) will decline.
Some occupational categories may see more growth than others. The growth of e-commerce has created demand for warehouse workers; investment in the green economy may increase the need for wind turbine technicians; aging populations in many advanced economies will increase demand for nurses, home care aides and hearing aid specialists; and teachers and training instructors will also continue to find jobs in the coming decade.
But other types of jobs may be at risk: as grocery stores increasingly install self-service cash registers, for example, there may be a need for fewer clerks, and robotics used to handle routine paperwork may reduce demand for some office workers.
Flexibility and adaptability will be key skills for workers. In the future of the workplace, change will be rapid and unpredictable. Workers who have the ability to adapt quickly to new technologies, work methods, and market demands will be in high demand. Flexibility in thinking, the ability to learn new skills and adapt to different situations will be necessary competencies for a successful career in the future.

Overall, the future of the workplace will depend on various factors, such as technological innovations, changes in societal needs, and demographic changes. Workers and organizations must be prepared to adapt and continually learn in order to successfully cope with these changes and find new opportunities in the future field of work.

“The Future of Work: Accelerating Pandemic Transformation and Three Key Trends”:

Remote work and virtual encounters are likely to continue, though less intensely than at the peak of the pandemic.
E-commerce has skyrocketed, increasing two to five times its pre-CoVID-19 numbers, and other types of virtual transactions, such as telemedicine, online banking and streaming entertainment, have taken off. And the move to digital transactions has also contributed to growth in shipping, transportation, and warehousing jobs.
Digital Technology, including automation and artificial intelligence. Companies have used them to control costs or mitigate uncertainty; They have also deployed these technologies in warehouses, grocery stores, call centers, and manufacturing sites to either reduce job density or cope with the growing demand for goods.
Understanding these macroeconomic trends in the global economy is vital to planning for what lies ahead.

Exhibit 1

Generation C (COVID) will have their own characteristics and experiences with the global pandemic. They will witness significant changes in health care, education, technology and social interaction.

For example, Generation Alpha is the first generation that did not catch the “pre-Internet” era

Predicting specific occupations

Predicting specific occupations that will be popular in the future is a difficult task because it depends on many factors, including technological breakthroughs, social trends, and economic changes. However, there are some industries that are likely to have an increased demand for professionals in the future. Here are a few such industries:

Information Technology: Advances in technology, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, cybersecurity and big data will drive increased demand for professionals in programming, application development, data analytics and cybersecurity.

Health and Medicine: With an increasing aging population and the development of new treatments, the demand for doctors, medical professionals, nurses and pharmacists is expected to last a long time.

Energy and renewable energy: With a growing awareness of environmental issues and the need to transition to cleaner energy sources, the demand for renewable energy engineers and sustainability experts could increase significantly.

Engineering and Robotics: Advances in automation, artificial intelligence and robotics will create new opportunities in engineering, robotics and process automation.

Cryptocurrencies and blockchain:

With the development of digital currencies and blockchain technology, there may be a demand for cryptocurrency experts, blockchain developers and cybersecurity specialists.

These are just some of the possible popular professions in the future. However, it should be noted that the rapidly changing nature of technology and the job market may lead to new professions that do not yet exist today, so it is important to be flexible and teachable in order to successfully adapt to change.

What is the future of remote work? What about hybrid ones?

The future of remote work seems promising and has the potential to develop significantly.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many companies and employers to move to a remote work format, and it has allowed many people to see the benefits and opportunities it offers. Here are some aspects of the future of remote work:

Flexibility: Remote work offers flexibility in choosing where to work. Employees can perform their tasks from home, a co-working space, or any other location that fits their needs. It also allows employees to better balance work and personal life.

Expanded access to talents: Remote work opens up opportunities for companies to attract and hire talent from different geographic areas. They can work with highly skilled professionals who are located in other cities, countries or even continents.

Productivity increase: Some studies show that working remotely can improve productivity. Lack of long commute times, more opportunities for focused work, and flexible time management contribute to more efficient work.

As for hybrid work formats, they can be a compromise between fully remote and traditional office work. A hybrid model offers the ability to combine office work and remote work in a certain proportion. This allows employees to enjoy the benefits of personal interaction and collaboration in the office, as well as the flexibility and comfort of working remotely. It should be noted, however, that not all job types and companies are equally suited to remote or hybrid work. Each organization must adapt its work model to its unique needs, business processes and team dynamics.

Overall, remote work and hybrid formats represent an evolution in the field of work and open up new opportunities for employees and companies. They may become more common and standard in the future, but the end results and impact on labor relations and the labor market will depend on many factors, including advances in technology, business practices, and employee preferences.

What is the future of remote work? What about hybrid ones?

It is worth noting that more than half of the workforce has little or no remote work capability. For example, jobs that require on-site work or specialized equipment, such as performing CT scans, must be done in person. Many of these jobs are low-wage and at risk because of broader trends toward automation and digitalization.

Moreover, not all work that can be done remotely should be; For example, negotiating, brainstorming, and providing confidential feedback are activities that may be less effective when done remotely.

Thus, the prospects for remote work depend on the work environment, the job, and the tasks at hand.

Hybrid work schemes, in which some of the work is done on-site and some remotely is likely to persist. And organizations will need to refine their operating models in response. To ensure sustainable productivity and health in a hybrid world, organizations can strengthen their position in five areas:

Expand executives’ focus on strategic clarity, coaching, and empathy. The leading factor in productivity and performance is not compensation or stretch goals, but rather the sense of purpose that work gives employees. Be more attentive to interactions, especially those that happen in person.
Promote results-oriented management of small cross-functional teams. This is more human and more effective as performance management techniques move from controlling employee performance to empowering teams and people to work.
Increase the speed of talent development, especially through retraining. The ability to staff teams across organizational units is a hallmark of agile models. Moving in this direction for talent management could entail developing internal talent markets or talent redeployment centers that make it easier for people to find potential projects. It would also involve retraining and upgrading people more quickly than in the past, relying on formal training as well as apprenticeships and mentoring.
Find new low-cost and optional ways to work together. This can help define a model to increase your organization’s rate of discovery and adoption of more effective ways of working together, both physical and digital. Do workers need an informal, confidential conduit for banter or recommendations for making hybrid meetings more effective? Be intentional about designing these interactions and communicating expectations and work norms.
Increase the speed of technology adoption. It’s critical for companies to look for new technologies and use data to achieve optimal results and make better decisions.

What elements are important to understanding the future of the workplace?

Organizations exploring the future of work after COVID-19, economic upheaval, and where the military will need to adapt their approach to their unique context. Balancing the three symbiotic elements can provide a holistic understanding of the forces shaping the future of work:

The nature of the work. Organizations must be able to clearly answer two big questions. One: How do we make money? The second: How does the work get done? Linking the answers to these two questions to dollar value can provide a clear set of organizational priorities and enablers for the strategic vision.
Future Workforce. People are an organization’s most valuable asset, and preparing for the future will involve understanding the workers you have (supply) as well as those you need (demand). Clarifying both can identify skill pools where you have either long or insufficient talent and allow you to take action before the talent gap becomes a competitive liability.
The workplace of the future. The combination of physical location and organizational norms and ways of working make up the workplace. And while companies in the past attracted people to work in, say, large factories or industrial centers, technological advances in recent decades may be influencing a shift that shifts work to people, such as in more flexible long-term remote or hybrid models.

What is the role of HR in the future of work?

Although HR was once considered a boring support function, it is now poised to serve as a strategic partner to the business, as critical to success as research and development, sales, or manufacturing. But fulfilling this role will require nothing less than a transformation of HR itself.

Here’s what Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs) in Europe and the U.S., as well as around the world, expect from the future operational model of HR:

Digitalization will raise HR, for example, by automating routine processes, but also by collecting employee data and acting on it to make more informed decisions.
HR can help an organization become more agile and flexible by breaking the traditional three-part HR model and instead directing talent more quickly to the issues that matter most to the business, or by introducing agile tribes and squads.
Business Partners HR are refocused on advising senior management instead of dealing with routine administrative tasks that can be automated or implemented through self-service platforms.
Creating HR practice groups can address specific strategic, cross-functional HR priorities from start to finish (e.g., by creating a team dedicated to hiring digital talent at scale, rather than delegating that task to recruiting).
HR will prioritize and organize work around the employee experience, focusing on what matters most to employees, especially at critical times, such as recruitment and onboarding.
Centers of Excellence and Centers of competencies can be virtualized, giving HR business partners a dual role supporting specific areas of the business, as well as creating a functional specialization spanning HR and the organization.
HR can put the business in the driver’s seat by shifting responsibility for some traditional HR tasks to line managers.

Another area in which HR has an opportunity to continue to evolve is in the area of human resources analytics. Most companies have a lot of data about their talent, but is it used effectively to improve productivity? Not always. HR analytics can help organizations separate the signal from the noise, for example, by understanding whether a given company has a churn problem, and if so, in certain families of positions, locations or for certain types of employees. The ingredients for success in HR analytics typically fall into three broad categories: data and data management, analytics capabilities and operational models.

Application. 1

What is the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the future of the workplace?

Addressing social and economic inequality will be critical to sustainable, inclusive growth. And at work, ensuring that employees from all walks of life can work and thrive often requires a deliberate effort to improve diversity, equity and inclusion.

While research shows that companies that put more effort into diversity, equity, and inclusion are doing better, challenges remain. Job losses during the pandemic disproportionately affected diverse populations, and some women have given up their jobs because of school closures, lack of childcare options, or other factors.

Different populations will have different needs, and understanding the issues of Black Americans, Latinos in America, Asian Americans, and LGBTQ+ and transgender employees (to take just a few examples) can help develop plans to increase equity and inclusion in organizations. The concept of intersectionality is also critical: while many companies focus diversity efforts on broad groups (e.g., women), if they do not consider other identities that people in these groups have, their efforts may not reach their full potential.

While there are significant nuances to any discussion of diversity, equity, and inclusion, organizations discussing the future of the workplace can take three broad actions to keep these issues in perspective:

Make diversity a priority; It’s good business, and it shouldn’t come at the expense of financial results.
Challenge preconceptions to increase fairness, especially questioning assumptions about the knowledge, skills, qualities, and experience needed to succeed.
Improve inclusiveness, or the degree to which employees feel accepted and empowered to make meaningful contributions.

Is the work developing in a way that supports people?

The future of work is evolving in real time as organizations undergo profound changes in a compressed time frame. Companies are experiencing supply chain stress, security threats, inflation, mixed economic signals and changing customer expectations amid a tight talent market.

These accelerated transformations put more pressure on a workforce that has been living and working in unprecedented times for more than two years. Mental health is being tested. Exhaustion and burnout have become commonplace as people experience changes in their values and priorities.

”It’s critical to understand what’s important to your employees, because 9 times out of 10 your employee is also your customer. ”

The onsite focus is not aligned with worker preference ‘. Our study found that 83% of global workers think the hybrid model ( sometimes working remotely and sometimes on-site ) is ideal, but more workers are on-site today than before ( 36% vs. 25% ).

How can organizations compete in today’s all-out war for talent when workers are not getting access to the support they need to succeed at work (, wherever they work)

Physical offices will not disappear in the future

Many employees around the world have spent the last four months working remotely at least part of the time. As teams have adapted to the new reality, people have begun to wonder if physical offices will disappear in the future. Our research shows that the usual work schedule is likely to combine face-to-face and remote collaboration.

For example, 82% of executive respondents confirmed that they began practicing a more flexible approach to working from home after the pandemic. Taking a broader context, 71% of employees and executives reported a desire to continue working from home at least in part. Participants in our focus groups expressed a similar sentiment.

“It used to be that when the boss didn’t see you, it meant to him that you weren’t working… But if you’re successful at your tasks, it shouldn’t matter where you do it,” the business executive.

Nevertheless, our research revealed several problems associated with working from home. About 60% of study participants are more likely to feel insufficiently included in the life of the company, working remotely. For China, the figure was as high as 70%.

In addition, only 35% respondents of one study have a dedicated home office. And only 5 percent of study respondents live alone. Therefore, it is not surprising that distractions, communication problems and lack of ergonomic work tools were highlighted in our study as the main pain points of working remotely. This shows that although in the future people will start to work remotely much more than before, the physical office space with its advantages in the form of ergonomic workstations connected to the Internet, opportunities for communication with colleagues and teamwork will probably remain a key component of the work sphere.

“Working from home, I sit at my dining room table. In the office I had a keyboard, two monitors, and a comfortable chair,” IT specialist.

“There were definitely some difficulties because I had several people working remotely at home at the same time, and there were problems with Wi-Fi,” IT specialist.

Four questions

The future of work evolves every day. Where businesses go depends on the choices made now. The approaches that worked in the past were based on outdated ideas about people and business. Leaders need to rethink a new model that focuses on people and how, where and why they work. Business leaders can begin to change the current trajectory and shape the future of work that benefits both employees and the business. These questions are a good place to start:

Purpose has been used to attract new talent, not to help existing employees feel that they are contributing to something greater than themselves. Leaders can make purpose part of the culture by embedding it into many interactions, during recruitment and career development.

52% say purpose is more of a talent branding tool than a real catalyst for change

Supportive leadership, organizational flexibility, and autonomous work have increased, but they are not distributed equitably across the workforce. When leaders shed command-and-control models and lead with intention, they give people the autonomy to choose their own way of doing business.  

53% of leaders still prioritize productivity over people’s well-being.

Leaders have invested in improving the workplace, not the resources that help workers be “productive anywhere. The best work experience depends on omnichannel cultures where people are connected and feel like they belong, regardless of physical location.

being omni-bound is 59% of one’s intent остаться в компании.

Digital skills have declined, especially among key workforce groups. To create digital fluency and contribute to innovation and better customer service, people need continuous learning, and digital tools need to be at the center of how people connect, work, and grow.

Only 31% of workers believe their skills will be relevant in five years

What will you decide? 

The future of work requires efforts on the part of organizations and managers to create a supportive environment for workers. Understanding the importance of supporting basic human needs, such as physical and emotional well-being, the satisfaction of social connections, and the need for development, is a key element for a successful future.

Creating a flexible and inclusive work environment where workers can work from multiple locations and have access to the resources they need to develop professionally will become increasingly important. Technology plays a significant role in providing this flexibility and supporting remote working.

In addition, managers and organizations must continually update their skills and knowledge to effectively manage change and innovate in the work environment. This will help create an environment in which workers can achieve optimal productivity and well-being.

Overall, the future of work requires constant learning, flexibility, and attention to the needs of workers. Managers and organizations that can successfully adapt and create a supportive work environment will be better positioned to thrive in an era of change.

Transforming Talent in a World of Uncertainty

Organizations are coping with an energy crisis, supply chain stress, inflation, a tight talent market, and a widening skills gap. Workforce transformation is a strategic evolution of skills, capabilities, and organizational structure to unlock growth in the face of disruption.

Have you heard of «quiet output» and Great Retirement, but employees are not the only ones going through a period of change. Leaders also have the opportunity to reject the 20th-century model of “command and control” in favor of a flexible, responsible and connected leadership style that produces tangible results on the go.

Modernizing your approach is especially important in times of uncertainty and compressed transformation. Take these six steps to break down silos, empower employees and develop a culture that drives innovation, productivity and retention.

Today, businesses and community organizations are expected to work with purpose, delivering financial results along with social and environmental impact. However, Marrbery research says that 43% of the world’s largest organizations do not have the ability to deliver multidimensional value as expected.

Ability to address gender gaps

The evolution of the world of work presents an opportunity to remove structural barriers to gender equality and eliminate inequalities in the workplace and society.

Women around the world make up the vast majority of those in unpaid care and household work, and this often prevents them from participating in economic activities.

That’s why the formalization of care work offers a great opportunity to help many women formally enter the workforce. To make this happen, the ILO is working in 80 countries.

In parallel, the ILO runs a number of other projects that help women get quality education and training and thus increase their chances of decent employment.

The future we aspire to

Bottom Line: The Future of Work,

The field we strive for is a dynamic and inspiring one in which innovation and technological advances are combined with human potential and well-being. Work is becoming not only a means of earning a living, but also a source of personal development and satisfaction.

In this future, managers and organizations view employees as a valuable resource and strive to create an environment that fosters their growth and prosperity. They recognize the importance of physical and emotional well-being, maintaining a healthy work environment and work/life balance.

Flexibility and mobility become key characteristics of work, allowing employees to choose where and when they work, based on their individual needs and preferences. Technology acts as a catalyst for this flexibility, providing real-time means of communication and collaboration, regardless of geographic distance.

In the future of work, the ability to adapt and learn new skills becomes integral to success. Employees are actively developing their professional competencies and are prepared for the changes that are inevitable in a rapidly changing world.

And ultimately, the future of work to which we aspire reflects the harmonious interplay between technology, people and values that give meaning to our work. It is a future where every employee can reach his or her potential, reach the heights of professional growth and contribute to the progress and prosperity of society.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(AH)

Konovalov Alexey – partner at Marrbery, where Natalya Shevchenko – consultant; Marina Krivosheya – senior expert; and Maria Zankovetskaya – consultant.

The authors would like to thank the following individuals:

Galina Kovalenko, Kirill Snitko, Vasily Litvinenko, Anna Grigorenko, Alexander Melnik, Olesa Savchenko, Oleg Koval, Denis Gordienko, Bogdan Timchuk, Lilia Kravka and others who helped in the process.

Selected analytical information