“The Future
of…” Maybe the most overused title in industry events and editorial. However,
it always has the biggest draw. No matter what industry you’re in, or what your
passion is, everyone is interested in what’s creeping around the corner to
disrupt the status quo.
At Contented
Brothers we are focused on creating powerful content to inform, entertain and
inspire - increasingly so for the employer brand space, which comes as no
surprise as marketing has increasingly
become a core competency of talent acquisition. Following the
success of our recent project for L’Oreal’s VR Graduate Assessment Tool, we’ve been
exploring the the new methods of engagement, recruitment and retention
revolutionising the workplace and the candidates of today. Find our insights
paper here: A Brave New World for
Recruitment.
The work
environment is also a subject I feel personally passionate about as an advocate
for wellbeing, diversity and inclusion within the workplace. We spend a third
of our lives at work, or working in some capacity, so this environment and
methods we adopt have a huge impact on our overall wellbeing, health and
output.
Last week I
attended The Drum’s Off Stone Briefing -
The Future Of Work, marking release of The Drum’s 'The Future Of
Work' Issue. The esteemed panel, chaired by The Drum’s Associate Editor, Soono Singh, included Futurist, Consultant, Speaker
(and one of my favourite humans), Amelia Kallman; Commercial Marketing Director at
Microsoft, Helen Tupper; Head
of Slack UK, Stuart Templeton;
and Co-Founder at The Fawnbrake Collective, Sera Miller.
Amelia
kicked off the panel discussion by suggesting that the future of work could
"lead to the decentralisation of cities" as employees can be located
globally rather than everybody required to sit in one office together. Amelia
co-oped the term ‘ruralisation’, as the movement away from city hubs, with
technology allowing people to connect to each other and work more flexibly,
enabling more sustainable, less polluted, less stressful life wherever they
choose to.
However,
desirable as this way of working seems, Helen provides a dose of reality
pointing out that not only technology needs to be in place for this movement to
occur, but the ideologies of managers need to evolve to support this way of
working. Some management teams are potentially threatened by the trend and
desirability of remote working, regardless of the tools available, such as
Slack and Microsoft Teams, as they believe it is a threat not only to the
workforce productivity, but also to the culture of the business.
From a human
perspective, although some people may work harder and are more focused when
remote from a team, the need for socialisation is innate in humans and is
rooted in how society was created. It’s also proven that socialising within a
diverse group of cultural perspectives inspires creativity and
drives innovation. And it’s difficult to deny the effectiveness and
psychological benefits of face-to-face meetings with an experiment conducted
by Harvard Business Review revealed
that face-to-face requests were 34 times more likely to garner positive
responses than the emails.
The
discussion moves to the ‘gig economy’ which seems to be a polarising subject in
future of work conversations. By 2020, gig workers will represent 43% of the workforce.
This way of working is proven to be economical for businesses and freelancers
alike, who are both able to focus on their output, rather than hours. However,
some businesses still question if this increase in gig workers results in a
dilution of company values and a risk to the company’s IP.
Either way,
how the traditional office operates is changing, looking at thriving
organisations such as WeWork, now London’s largest corporate
office occupier, who encourage collaboration between companies and
the sharing of talent and resources. Historically, the thought of sharing
knowledge would made the blood drain out of managers’ faces, but with the move
towards transparency and partnerships, businesses will gain insights from these
gig workers, who will in turn learn principles and skills from each company
they gig for.
This shift
in what a ‘job’ looks like for people working today and in the future, has led
to the increase in ‘plural careers’ or ‘slashies’ which is a term I’m fond of
to describe people who how more than one career, such as Graphic Designer /
Yoga Teacher… hence slashy. (There’s much debate around the origin of the word
slashy… but I choose to believe that it was coined by the original actor
‘slash’ model Fabio Lanzoni in Zoolander. Feel free to reference this as fact!)
This way of working enables people to think laterally, merge their talents and
increase their network and skill set.
Helen
believes that the key to capitalising from this new world of working which is
being driven by the changing cultures of employees, is strategically managing
and reaping the benefits of this new lifestyle. She professes that this is key
to businesses moving forward and not only accepting flexible working and plural
careers, but celebrating it.
The big A.I.
It’s the elephant in the room when discussing the future of work: “Will robots
steal my job!?” Maybe, is the honest answer. However, while Deloitte said that
47% of jobs are at risk of being automated, Stuart
believes that while this happens "human skills will be more and more
important for success" and he sees the human role being augmented by
technology, rather than replaced. Amelia reinforces this hypothesis with an
example from US financial services giant, Goldman Sachs, who
sent the Wall Street press wild in 2017 by automating their hedge fund
management systems using AI, leading to the loss of 600 equity trader jobs.
This headline worthy stat went viral, however this switch to automated trading
led to the creation of over 200 new computer engineer roles to support the new
systems. So, yes, technology, automation, artificial intelligence is changing
the workplace, but not destroying it by any means.
In terms of
learning and training at work, even in initial recruitment, we see technology
as a key factor in democratising the process. From software such as Headstart which
helps to remove bias out of the hiring process, to virtual reality situational
workplace training (eg. L’Oreal’s Graduate Assessment
Platform), new technologies are leveling the playing field for
candidates. These experiences provide unbiased, identical experiences for each
user, agnostic to their demographics - which is unlikely to happen in real life
(sorry, it’s true!). Sera reinforces this important point stating that these
new methods of non-traditional attraction, engagement, development and
retention of employees opens the world of work up to individuals who may
otherwise be isolated from the process, by location, demographic or otherwise.
Each panellist provided me with a light bulb moment throughout the mornings session, so here are my key takeaways on the future of work… and when I say future, I mean today!
- Amelia - Technology as an equalizer. Technology enables new opportunities for people in the world of work by decentralising the ‘office’ and by creating training tools for all, not just for the privileged few.
- Helen - This future of work is full of opportunities but management have to be ready to invest in the teams skills and requirements or the workforce and business landscape will move forward without you.
- Stuart - Technology is ‘augmenting’ the workplace, not revolutionising it. The use of channel based comms is overtaking email in most environments, resulting in more streamlined, effective communication.
- Some people find written communication easier, than face-to-face or phone, especially those who may not be a traditional communicators and may ordinarily opt-out of face-to-face communications.
- Interestingly, Slack recently posted a blog post titled ‘Creating a strong ‘office’ culture for remote workers’ which highlights the intrinsic trouble with remote working in that nonverbal communication provides limited opportunities to build rapport and trust with colleagues. “You don’t have the opportunities to sit down to lunch together or go out for happy hour with people.”
- Sera - the ‘White Mirror’. Rather than looking at future as a fear of the unknown, Sera presents the idea that technology, flexibility and the right skills will allow choice, freedom and creativity. Redefining how worklife influences personal identity and society.
Vanessa Whiteside is marketing manager at Contented Brothers
Join Contented Brothers for our inaugural #ContentedConversations evening event 'A Brave New World for Recruitment', taking place on Wednesday 12th September, 6.00pm - 8.00pm. Register your interest by clicking below using the password 'ContentedGuest'.
