We are experiencing a different way of doing business as we are rapidly moving into a “cognitive revolution.” Technology has been changing the way we organise work; re-defining work gives us the opportunity for more distributed teams. The future involves not only modifying the work, but the workforce, and the workplace as well.
As an example, we are watching how robotics and robotic process automation have changed manufacturing and warehouses, and also, how digital reality technologies are facilitating employers to go beyond boundaries to designate who is right for each task.
To build up beneficial human-machine collaboration, managers have to shift their particular interpretation of work, from task achievement to problem-solving, whilst managing human relationships. The division of labour among people and machines continues changing towards learning machines, especially for repetitive and routine tasks.
Millions and millions of workforces around the world lost their employments and are claiming for unemployment benefits or payment protection loans from governments. These new circumstances arise complicated questions to ponder – including ethics around human/machine collaboration, how we plan for 50-60-year careers, and how we delivery organisations through the preservation of talent sources.
Thomas Friedman declared: "What is going on is that work is being disconnected from jobs, and jobs and work are being disconnected from companies, which are increasingly becoming platforms."
What will the work look?
Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence devices support the struggle of the workforce rather than substituting them. The jobs of the future are projected to be more data-driven and machine-powered than before, requiring for soft skills in topics like communication, design, problem-solving, listening and interpretation.
As machines take charge of repeatable tasks, and the work people do is no longer routinely, jobs could be redesigned into approaches which match better individual skills with technology, advanced expertise in services and interpretation. Procedures such as design thinking can support organisations outline roles that encompass the new sort of competencies, tasks and practices indispensable to get the work done.
Who can do the job?
You may ask, with increasing robotics, cognitive, and AI what work can be done and who is efficient enough to up-dating its skills to match the advanced-technology range required from such talent, and be ready for different forms of working?
We will need to develop the training our workforce must grasp to cope with these new responsibilities and projects. Otherwise, we could be always struggling to put into operation skills and legacy concepts in the fast-developing world of human-machine collaboration.
With new platforms and contracts intended to match the range of talent required, workforce demand for rethinking current talent models. The talent spectrum of worker and work arrangements span from a traditional worker reliable to perform specific work, to open-workers who are best for particular tasks.
Workforce demographics keep changing, becoming more diverse and older and modifying social contracts among employers and employees radically. Enterprises now have a broad range of choices for hiring workers.
The variety goes from:
- Organisation employees.
- Joint-venture employees.
- Full-time workers.
- Managed service (is a practice of outsourcing the responsibility for maintaining, and anticipating the need for a range of processes/functions to improve operations and cut expenses.)
- A gig worker (a contractor/freelancer who works for different companies on a fee-based project, with ample access to the worldwide market.)
- Time-based and substitute workers.
The materialisation of digital communication, collaboration platforms, and digital reality technologies, along with social and marketplace changes, have created the opportunity for more distributed teams. Substitute workers are escalating nowadays, in temporary and project or contract-based work; for instance, the freelance workforce is extending faster than the whole workforce.
Changing workplaces
Enterprises can now synchronise an assortment of possibilities when re-engineering workplaces, from the more conventional one to those that are completely dispersed and depending on virtual communications. For employers, this involves a demand for more precise links and sense of community, as workplaces become more virtual and remote, filled up with more contingent workers. Work can be done now on unconventional workplaces!
Workplace culture is decidedly linked to both improvement and corporate results; as teams grow into more distributed jobs, companies might require to reconsider how they promote both culture and team networks.
The per cent of the workforce in “alternative” working activities or collaborative teaming and digital reality technologies are reshaping where and when work is done; this sort of innovative workforce is on hand to get the job done, get to the bottom of problems, and support managers build up more flexible and agile businesses, where ever they are located.
Final comments: as labour-sourcing options increase, it opens up the possibility for a more efficient-creative-organised workforce.
Orchestrating this sophisticated use of different workforce segments and workplaces must require a complete rethinking of talent models in a way that allows organisations to carefully match people motivations and skills with the organisation work needs. Is your company ready to match human and machine collaborative jobs?
Dave Food
Prophetic Technology
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