Does the Future of Work Mean Work Without Jobs?
The labour market has evolved. In just the last few years, due to the pandemic, social unrest and eruption of remote work, there has become empowerment of the workforce. The way we perform everyday work has changed as well. Employees have an increased desire for flexibility, collaboration, learning opportunities and wellbeing that they are not just asking for but demanding. One direction companies are taking in response to the changes is by re-evaluating what jobs and work mean to all the involved parties and bringing about a new way for work to get done.
How is the Future of Work and Jobs Evolving?
Some of the frustration employers are contending with is the current mean for finding the right skill sets they need to get work done. The job description they have doesn't fit their needs anymore. With automation on the rise, people are crafting their work in ways that don't fit the norms of the job.
As John Boudreau, a long-time resident in the field of human capital and human resources strategies, said in a recent episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast:
"I realised that jobs were sometimes getting in the way and that it was this almost implicit assumption that we needed to end up with jobs, or we needed to start and keep these jobs and then be agile. So agile was both a motivator and also becoming agile is a facilitator of this sort of thing."
Because of this, there is the deconstruction of work to increase the agility of organisations so they can weather labour market changes such as the great resignation and emergence of remote work. The notion here is to see workers as a whole person by their learning qualifications vs degrees, giving people more freedom.
Many companies are rethinking work by asking questions such as, what is the strategic value of this job and what if we source talent in ways that are not just regular full-time employment like freelance workers or gig workers.
How to Rethink New Work Operating Systems
Shifting to a new work operating system (or work OS) is no task as it can greatly impact your business operations. The process should first focus on four core principles behind a skills based process to make the change easier.
Starting With the Work
Since the whole strategy is about getting work done, the first principle is to assign tasks that need to be done to improve business processes and not so much on titles.
Achieving the Optimal Combinations of Humans and Workflow Automation
This gives the understanding of where specific types of automation that can substitute certain types of human endeavour while assisting the individual and team performance.
Reinventing the Job
Instead of companies limiting themselves to organising a job around the remaining tasks, consider the full array of human work engagement, such as is employment the best way of getting work done or can a job marketplace fill in the gaps.
Allowing Talent Freedom to Enable Work
Instead of limiting people to traditional fixed jobs, agility is increased with how they get work done and with which talent connects to the work.
This all assists with the increasing inability of the current work operation system with its indexing and legacy of jobs and the core foundation of employment being the building blocks of work.
How Can You Get Started With Adopting This New Way of Working?
Many companies, like Unilever, Genentech, and DHL, have already begun to move toward this future system. They realise the benefit of a more flexible way of work and how it helps employers get the job done, tracking progress and offering people more options to utilise their skills.
Once the main principle becomes a centre stage, it is easier to follow a change process. Identify the high-value trigger for creating a prototype that will illustrate the new work system's power and value, such as looking at a bottleneck in a process or talent pipeline. Then make a change in priorities.
Then launch the program, considering several key features that drive success:
Deconstructing work
Optimising task-level combinations of human and workflow automation.
Notion of work arrangements and project planning, across multiple projects
Seeing workers as the whole person with an array of deconstructed capabilities and skills
The reinvention of tasks and task management, project combinations and work arrangements that steps away from traditional employment
Project management and work conditions become collaborative hubs of teams and projects aligned around a central purpose and mission
Considering the social implications that follow social values, including voice, equality, and inclusion
Many companies have already started to move towards this future system. They realise the benefit of a more flexible platform of work and how it helps not only employers get work done but offers people more options to utilise their skills
Genentech used this first element and deconstructed job titles and their appearance during the pandemic. From there, they created opportunities for flexibility in all jobs, finding the right ones based on a detailed understanding of the work itself.
DHL utilised the second element when they incorporated robotics in their distribution facilities, and the people optimised production for the specific nature of the work.
A great example of overall project management and work conditions becoming a collaborative hub was when Unilever developed a framework for the future of work at their organisation and built it on their broader purpose and enterprise and their mission towards the consumers and all their various stakeholders.
When getting started with a new work system, the final step companies should take is to ensure that the matrices are in place. Collect the data required to continually evaluate the process's success and where changes are needed.
The Impact of Moving to a New Work Operating System
For individuals, this will provide a better means to grow in their career as they take on new challenges vs looking for a new job that may or may not provide them with all the challenges they seek. There may be some concern for security and exploration, but they will own their skills and have portability.
Business leaders will find that the current struggle to find candidates to fill roles can be alleviated due to the growing options that become available with the new systems. Innovation and technology cannot only accomplish work more quickly and efficiently, but they can also serve those that work for them a better experience and room for growth.
Reframing the HR Role in Tracking Progress
The reframing of jobs will also include a reframing of the HR role. HR professionals, HRBP, CHRO and people analytics, will go from being an employment steward to a work steward. Because of this, they will be required to study and understand the total cost of work and different work options by taking a skills-based approach to workforce planning.
Also, the responsibility will fall on HR. They will be required to prepare and monitor the systems that track tasks and manage projects, follow the team's capabilities or skills, and put them together. While also stepping up, they should act as a coach, utilising team collaboration and teach others how to think better and make a better decisions about people, showing people their options.
Key Takeaway
Will the future of work mean work without jobs? Maybe. But to prepare for the future, HR leaders want to ensure that today they can deliver business value by taking a business-focused, data-driven, and experience-led focus to restructuring work. By exploring the new approach to work and how things get done, HR professionals and business leaders can open doors to opportunities they never fathomed before.
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