TRANSFORMING THE FUTURE OF WORK IN POST COVID TIMES

Oct 2021

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Many companies and individuals are thinking about the future of work post Covid-19. How will jobs be affected? What different skills will be needed in the future? How can companies and individuals best prepare?

This post-pandemic world isn't necessarily a bad one. It's just different. The jobs that are eliminated will be replaced by others. We'll all have to change the way we think about work and how it connects to the rest of our lives. With the future of work being so uncertain, the best any of us can do is start anticipating what may come and begin strategically planning our next move.

This article will look at three main aspects of organizational change; Hybrid working model, automation and digitalization, and workforce reskilling.

Hybrid WFH Office Model

Most experts believe in a "hybrid" type of office for remote work in the post-pandemic days. Different from a normal office, this hybrid space will be multi purpose - it'll serve as a meeting point and collaborative workspace where employees come together few days a week. They then work remote the rest of the time, be it at home or anywhere geographically that offers employee’s flexibility and freedom.

Employees will not have dedicated office but co-working spaces or shared spaces known as “hot desking.” Individual contributors that do not require collaboration can be done remote. McKinsey Global Institute estimated conservatively that about 20-25% of the workforce in developed countries could end up working remotely between three and five days a week. This shift is aided by technology and a change in cultural expectations post-pandemic. Companies need to make arrangement to provide employees with a safe and secured place for working from home. They also need to be able to complete the same services they would normally do when in the office (e.g., attend video conferences, collaborate on projects, make product presentations to clients etc). KPMG reported that 76 per cent of CEOs in Singapore plan to continue to build on the use of digital collaboration and communication tools to enable employees to work remotely.

In such hybrid environment, organizations should have clear, written expectations on where employees can work – and when. Setting clear expectations for employees working remotely is key to maintaining consistency of practices across all levels in order to be equitable and to avoid discrimination. Organizations must use the power of data to assess employees' capabilities, their physical and emotional well-being, and how new working techniques are supporting the company's culture.

Automation and Digitalization

While some businesses were already preparing for a digital-first future by using AI, analytics, mobile connectivity, cloud, and other cognitive platforms, the epidemic has hastened their adoption. The necessity of this digital transformation is being accelerated not merely to maintain operational continuity in the short term, but also to prepare for an uncertain future and prosper in the new normal.

Leaders must design new ways of working as firms adopt a hybrid workplace model to ensure that employees are productive whether they are working from the office or from a remote location. This demands the adoption of digital workplace technologies that facilitate communication, collaboration, project management, information retrieval, and knowledge sharing. Collaboration elements such as blogs, communities, project management tools, group conferencing, social networking platforms, and discussion forums serve to support successful organizational learning and communication between relevant stakeholders. A community of practice intranet, for example, gives personalized content recommendations based on employees' profiles, locations, and interests, as well as a place to hold informal discussions about ideas and remain up to date on the latest news.

Through AI, the crisis has also demonstrated how humans and machines work synergistically together. Manufacturing, healthcare, education, and the transportation of crucial supplies are just a few examples of how human-machine collaboration can be effectively deployed in times of a crisis. AI technology is able to better manage remote workers, improve crisis communications, resolve operational and supply chain interruptions, allocate resources, and modify marketing campaigns to adapt to constantly changing consumer tastes, preferences and behaviours. Businesses can, for example, use AI-based data analytics to quickly analyse multiple internal and external sources of data, such as point of sale, online search, competitor data, and local pandemic variables, to gain a detailed understanding of how demand will shape up during and after a pandemic and manage supply chain disruptions.

According to a Boston Consulting Group study, 14 percent of businesses were able to improve both sales revenues and profits during the four previous economic downturns. Businesses who have already implemented AI in various capacities will have a competitive advantage that other businesses will need to play catch-up quickly.

Workforce Reskilling

According to MIT, 40% of US workers can work from home, and the majority of them are in the more educated quartile. The most pressing issue we have in the workplace is what will happen to the remaining 60% of workers who are unable to work from home. The drop in everyday commuters and business travel has repercussions for those who support and assist these individuals and businesses.

Transportation, food service, cleaning and maintenance, retail, and personal care employ one-fourth of the workforce. These low-paying jobs, which are generally concentrated in cities, are disappearing or at risk of disappearing in the near future. We need to strengthen the social safety net and invest in reskilling to improve the most vulnerable workers.

Reskilling is defined as the development of additional skills and new capabilities to help one move to a new role, whereas upskilling is defined as the training that enables one to become better at a job they already perform.

Few companies can forecast what the market will require in months, much alone years, so reskilling personnel to match changing new tasks and roles will always be a continual process of investment. Many individuals will need to learn new skills in order to stay employed, and employers should prioritize reskilling these workers. With the likely changes in how business is conducted, leaders may reskill and upskill their employees to deliver new business models in the post pandemic period. Organizations should pivot their development focus from individual roles to organizational-wide abilities to better prepare for the VUCA period.

HR can facilitate this shift by motivating employees to think outside their role and traditional career paths. A new working model may allow employees to flow between projects in accordance with their abilities as opposed to their title or organization. Companies should consider critical skills as those that will be useful no matter how an employee’s role may evolve, such as digital, higher cognitive, social and emotional, and adaptability and resilience. For example, consumer banks needed to increase employee cross-training in specific services as demand for mortgage-refinance applications surged. Banks also had to train employees in empathy as they helped distressed clients use digital tools and new products and services. In healthcare, Tan Tock Seng Hospital launched a programme for non-nursing staff like therapy assistants to be trained in carrying out less specialised skill but essential nursing tasks like bedside care such as moving patients in and out of bed and feeding them. This allows the over-worked nurses to concentrate on clinical care of patients.

Mckinsey has advised that companies should not cut their employee-training budget but rather to use the training budget to make skill building a key strategic lever for adapting to the next normal. This is a crucial time where we need to look inward at our organization and audit the talent that we do have, especially if we’re still dealing with layoffs and hiring freezes.

We can maximize the ROI on each person contribution by analysing their current skill sets and identifying transferable skills. For example, if you’re on a hiring freeze but still need business development reps, what’s to stop you from transitioning your junior recruiters over to business development for the time being? It requires some reskilling and workplace coaching and mentoring, but you can redeploy talent to new roles to suit the business’ needs. If you can identify roles that share similar skill sets, you can then identify how to upskill your existing workforce to enable their adaptability for the new business model and their career progression as well. Companies survive and compete in times like these solely with a workforce that is flexible, agile, and ready to learn.

By upskilling and reskilling your workforce with personalized and collaborative learning opportunities, easily accessible cross-training, and mobile learning, you can still achieve ambitious goals with a lower headcount. Learning and development opportunities such as these will identify your most agile and devout learners who you will want to keep around after COVID-19. It is critical for businesses to nurture their innovation strategy to drive immediate benefits as well as to build a resilient workforce for the future.

Leaders can rest assured that putting people first and humanizing the workplace will continue to pay off. Companies can’t be resilient if their people aren’t. The culture created by focusing on people and their needs will produce long-term gains in productivity, improved market perception and branding. Reskilling your workforce competencies now is the first step towards ensuring the success of your organization’s revised business model.

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