5 Top Meta Trends Revolutionizing the Work Spectrum

The future of work cannot be ascertained without actuaries and market specialists looking at the macro meta trends at play in the larger scheme of things. These macro forces shape the reality and future of the world of work, impacting the steep spectrums of economic, social, and technological forces. Let us look through the kaleidoscope at the varied hues of the future of work.

AI, Automation, and Augmentation

"Leveraging data-driven technology to map out the talent journey for identification, development, and growth planning is the key to evolving to excel in the new world of work," says David Jones, Founder & CEO of The Talent Enterprise.

On the cusp of personalization and automation, the million-dollar questions are: Will we be automated away? Will brick-mortar corporate structures and 9-to-5 job routines still be relevant in the future? Will future autonomous organizations only hire highly skilled, and the remaining work will be automated? The haunting feeling of obsolescence and anxiety of being made irrelevant by AI is taking over humans. Saurabh Dwivedi, Partner, Deloitte, answers a pertinent question about the future of work, "work tech is going to be very important in the future. It is more than HR Tech. It involves a lot more. We foresee an increased workload for managers to brainstorm and figure out how to improve the productivity and efficiency of people."

Many digital workplace technologies have been in the market for a while, and their innovation curves have plateaued. Others are far more recent and will require strategies to determine how to implement them.

Gig Economy Leading to Sharing Economy

The on-demand economy wherein people participate as a primary and secondary source of income is taking the global market by storm. The cornerstone of the gig economy is sharing resources to eliminate waste and avoid paying for downtime or low-usage periods. Workplace streamlining and effectively prioritizing resources are driving shifts away from massive workforces.

While talent pipelining will become increasingly tricky, anticipating and preparing for future skills will be amongst the top agenda for HR in the years to come. D Shivakumar, Operating Partner, Advent International Private Equity, throws light on the changing norms, "Emphasis has shifted from individual learning to organizational learning. Collaborative talent is sought over individual talent." The future will necessitate greater collaboration, as opposed to competition for talent, to ensure high-priority skill needs are met. Genuine global communities will remodel the delivery of service by way of the globally shared workforce.

The Emergence of Truly Global Workplaces

The global skills landscape offers an opportunity for talent and firms to benefit mutually. Distributed talent strategies will mark the industries spurred on by talent shortages and accelerated need to reduce cost and hiring lifecycles.

Many organizations are mushrooming, ready to offer solutions to assist global talent mobility, manage overseas work assignments, facilitate international payments, labor laws, and more. It is likely that platforms will drive innovation in this space and make the global workforce easy to tap into. James Job, Senior Vice President of Hinduja Global Solutions, suggests, "To ensure that your work is in uniformity globally, you will have to start thinking of building uniform systems of work and hyper-automation processes, so it is easier to track uniformity of work across the globe."

In India, with a larger and younger population, millennials dominate the workforce. Diversity goals are encouraging the hiring of ex-pats. Platforms for talent acquisition and hiring professionals will need to ensure that selection procedures are fair, nondiscriminatory, and anti-modern slavery.

Some organizations are strategically locating varied job functions and tasks in other geographic locations to take advantage of the global talent pools.

As talent throughout the world adapts and upskills to meet changing requirements, the workforce will witness frequent career shifts. Enterprises that enable talent mobility by developing flexible workplaces to allow online remote working will be better positioned to attract leading global talent.

Candidate-led Market Leading the End of Traditional Portfolio Career

Organizations are being forced to give talent more clout in order to meet their on-demand personnel needs and mitigate the risk of permanent hiring. It is anticipated that the labor market in the future will be extremely unstable and characterized by pressing hiring needs.

Traditional human tasks and jobs are being displaced at an alarming rate. If the prediction by Dell Technologies is to be believed, about 85% of jobs that will exist in 2030 have yet to be created. With evolving skills, recruitment will be more about finding skills than filling positions.

The core knowledge acquired through traditional employment will need to be replaced as permanent positions become increasingly scarce. The need of the hour will be for online programs, ongoing reskilling and upskilling, and a clearly defined workplace culture that is accessible to both on-site and remote personnel.

Subramanian Viswanathan, Co-founder and CEO of Disprz, advises, "We will have to build internal marketplaces to leverage the internal wealth of resources for projects." The so-called portfolio career path will cease to exist with an increasing emphasis on projects completed and skills available over credentials and previous experience.

Global Recruitment Emerging as a Solution to Deepening Skills Crisis

Global-focused and skill-based hiring as a key factor for recruitment is gradually becoming pertinent in the recruitment industry worldwide.

Digital platforms offering outsized reach and matching candidates' skills perfectly with roles are gradually replacing contemporary recruitment practices. "We learned how to do business in different countries like India and built our technology to support the same. Because when organizations are looking for talent, they want them fast. They also want to find the best talent in a cost-effective and scalable manner. And we needed to provide organizational HR with an agile platform for global hiring," said Rick Hammell, founder and CEO of Atlas.

Specialist recruiting services will become increasingly more successful than generalist firms in sourcing niche expertise and highly specialized abilities. Platforms that can provide on-demand stringent skill assessments or provide methods to authenticate external skill test results that are relevant, up-to-date, and pertinent to the project will become pivotal.

Organizations will need to up their game by being thoughtful and innovative in their approach while designing tech-powered platforms for recruitment. Easy-to-use, customer-friendly interfaces, available in a plethora of languages, tapping into easily searchable global talent pools to self-service their recruitment need is going to be the priority for most enterprises.

Data is going to be the new currency, and analytics, married to technology, will be the differentiating factor. Larger organizations, being at the advantageous end, will be ready to pay premiums to acquire niche talent and intellectual property when needed. 

Closing Thoughts

Traditional HR and redundant practices in a downturn have run their course. Organizations are becoming more and more aware of the fact that they cannot hold all the aces up their sleeves. The trends are pointing towards a globally collaborative work ecosystem where agility, resource sharing, and technology will be the pillars of the global market-a food for thought for organizations to delve into.