Two hundred million new offices opened in 2020, when pandemic-related policies suddenly sent workers around the world home to quarantine. The issues and opportunities that were created with that sudden transition are still with us today in the form of an employee population that wants to control where and how they work, and a pre-pandemic physical infrastructure that needs to operate seamlessly as a hybrid digital workplace.
Enterprises have made headlines with their sometimes wildly divergent stances on how they plan to implement the workplace of the future, and now, society demands we define both the future workplace—how the place you work will look, function, and operate, and the future of work itself— how work will work and what needs to be done.
The future workplace
Defining the future workplace is much simpler, because it will be entirely focused on delivering the best customer and employee experience possible.
A physical, digital, and human workplace that enables the organization to enhance their customer experience usually revolves around deploying technology that gives front-line employees options, flexibility, and the power to choose where and how they want to work. Employee experience is a real issue—approximately 40% of workers are still considering leaving or changing jobs.
Employers are split when it comes to hybrid work. Many have provided the ability, the technology, and the capacity for employees to work where and when they want, but many have also put guardrails on hybrid work policies. Operating on a spectrum of zero to five days a week in office, many employers have settled at two or three days per week in the office, with employees free to choose where to work the other days.
Some outlier workers have stayed either fully hybrid or have fully returned to the office. Employees voted with their feet after one organization mandated a five-day return to office, spiking attrition to 35% within eight weeks. Once a trend like that takes hold, it isn’t easy to reverse. Employees leave for a variety of reasons, including:
- Lack of career development, a feeling of being stuck in the same job, or of being ignored if they’re not back in the office.
- Uninspiring leaders or bosses who don’t care about home life or who still believe the old-school rule that if they can’t see you, you aren’t working.
- Lack of meaningful work where process and experiences are not equal to being in an office.
- Unsustainable work patterns that do not accommodate or acknowledge employee needs. The average workday has extended from 6.4 to 9.5 hours in some countries as technology has allowed us to be constantly “on” and reachable which quickly leads to burnout.
- Unsupportive colleagues or unreliability in the remote workforce.
Defining the future of work
Defining the future of work itself is a question of what jobs need to exist in the future and who is going to do them. Work is assessed according to where the employee can work—either on site or anywhere, and the level of customer interaction—either standalone right up to fully hands-on:
- Highly hands-on, on-site workers include emergency services, early education, travel and hospitality, and transport roles that can only be performed in person. It is unlikely that these roles can be automated, outsourced or made hybrid.
- Highly hands-on, anywhere workers are the true hybrid workers of the future and include sales, analysts, consultants, and higher education. In this arena, the customer can come to the subject matter expert or the center of excellence. The future of university education will mostly involve students listening to a global expert via Teams or VR rather than going hundreds or thousands of miles to a place of learning. The expansion of learning will not be limited by geography.
- Standalone, on-site workers include banking clerks, retail, manufacturing, processing, and food prep jobs and are classic candidates for automation or simplification and outsourcing.
- Standalone, anywhere workers whose roles can truly be globalized and done anywhere due to the minimal contact needed with the end or internal customer. This includes developers, tech, finance, accounting, and back-office jobs.
The future of work is hurtling toward automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML). When the U.K. Office of National Statistics, the World Economic Forum, and other organizations assess nations and their workforces, a clear set of trends identifies the emergence of roles in areas such as AI/ML specialists, data science, IoT, digital transformation, process automation, security specialists, and social/digital marketing. Traditional back-office roles like accounting, finance, data entry, assembly, machine operators, and HR are becoming redundant.
ISG research shows the following jobs are increasingly being added to the design of new business models:
- AI and coding ethicists. Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and other tech giants are already employing people to make sure AI is ethical. An automotive self-driving ethics experiment for a university asked participants, “If the vehicle crashes, does the car kill the elderly granny or the mother and child?” In that scenario, the self-driving automation makes a choice and ethicists are responsible for programming it to make the right one.
- AI psychologists. AI will eventually need a therapist. This is to ensure that the AI and algorithms remain “friendly” to society and code is checked regularly.
- AR journey builders. This role works with CX and EX designers to build the best experience into an augmented or virtual environment. Companies like IKEA and many global systems integrators are already investing in this role.
- Human technology integration specialists already exist in almost all schools in Australia, where they ensure technology is seamless and students get the maximum benefit.
- Digital health resource managers are the future of HR, looking after mental and physical health with digital technology.
Plans for transitioning to these new roles vary by country. In the U.S., the majority of employers have chosen to retrain existing employees or employees have organically picked up new skills and assumed new roles. Fewer employers are choosing to hire new staff or freelancers or to outsource, placing the onus on the already stretched workforce to pick up more work despite lack of support, unrelenting work, and lack of pay. This is a dangerous cycle.
In a world where conscientious consumerism is increasingly important, the culture and support provided for employees is critical for maintaining a brand. Looking after people and the success of their transition from the roles of today to those of tomorrow comes down to how training and change is managed. The enterprises that manage this process thoughtfully will flourish and be sought-after employers for the estimated 361 million people who will change jobs this year. Employers that force or demand change will likely suffer in terms of revenue and profitability, not to mention brand image or customer experience.
The future of work is coming. Get your workplace in order now to accommodate the type of workers you will need in the coming years.
Iain Fisher leads the ISG Future of Work, Customer Experience, and ESG solutions.
