The evolution of the employee
The constantly changing environment of the past years, paired with the fast-paced development of digital innovations led, and will continue to lead, to a massive transformation in the work environment.
Jacob Morgan, an author on several books about “the future of work” deals a lot on the topic of the evolution of the employee and describes several changes that happened already or will occur sooner or later. Those impacts might make it necessary for entities to rethink their approach on employees, their skills and their behavior as well as the thereof resulting impact on the culture of the organization. Adoption to it and the flexibility of companies in implementing the necessary steps will be the decisive factor on whether a company might still be or become an attractive employer.
The list below on the evolution of the employee [1] is describing the transformation areas and how the employees and their demands and behavior have changed. Although it is a quite comprehensive list, it might be that during the next years some additional changes might arise.
All those shifts do also have a relevance in relation to understanding people behavior in project management roles, especially if analyzing their capabilities in relation
to the goal of the project. A lot of those changes are already reflected in the agile project management approach.
Will machines take over – reconstructing work?[2]
Some say that artificial intelligence threatens to automate away all the work that people do. But what if there's a way to rethink the concept of "work" that not only makes humans essential, but allows them to take fuller advantage of their uniquely human abilities?
WILL pessimistic predictions of the rise of the robots come true? Will humans be made redundant by artificial intelligence (AI) and robots, unable to find work and left to face a future defined by an absence of jobs? Or will the optimists be right? Will historical norms reassert themselves and technology create more jobs than it destroys, resulting in new occupations that require new skills and knowledge and new ways of working?
The debate will undoubtedly continue for some time. But both views have been founded on a traditional conception of work as a collection of specialized tasks and activities performed mostly by humans. As AI becomes more capable and automates an ever-increasing proportion of these tasks, is it now time to consider a third path? Might AI enable work itself to be reconstructed?
It is possible that the most effective use of AI is not simply as a means to automate more tasks, but as an enabler to achieve higher-level goals, to create more value. The advent of AI makes it possible—indeed, desirable—to reconceptualize work, not as a set of discrete tasks laid end to end in a predefined process, but as a collaborative problem-solving effort where humans define the problems, machines help find the solutions, and humans verify the acceptability of those solutions.
Workplaces of the Future: What could the future look like for your office?[3]
In addition to the changing employee behavior of desiring to work anywhere, the potential rise of machine involvement any company have also to consider that the workplaces might be needed to be redesigned. TNT has issued a survey a result on that topic that might be worthwhile to read and Jacob Morgan has commented on e.g. the functionality in it as follows: “If you look at the ways in which most science fiction authors and film creators have portrayed the future office (which is a great place to turn to for ideas!) you will notice that in almost all cases offices still exist; they are just more hi-tech and are largely powered by AI (smart assistants) and technology such as gesture control.”
Sources:
[1] Jacob Morgan, Author, The Future of Work, The Future of Work: Attract New Talent, Build Better Leaders, and Create a Competitive Organization, https://www.thefutureorganization.com
[2] Article on Reconstructing work: Automation, AI and the essential role of humans, Deloitte, https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/deloitte-review/issue-21/artificial-intelligence-and-the-future-of-work.html?icid=dcom_promo_featured|ch;en
[3] TNT Survey results on the “Workplaces of the Future”, https://direct.tnt.co.uk/blog/workplaces-of-the-future-what-could-the-future-look-like-for-your-office
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