The gig economy is going to shatter many traditional systems. A recent report by McKinsey found that 46% of existing jobs will either partially change or completely fade away by 2021
In the past few years, we have been discussing about the future of work and the role of the rising gig economy in shaping the #NewCodeofWork. This future is going to massively impact HR among other departments, and now is the right time to start educating teams preparing for it.
The gig economy is going to shatter many traditional systems. A recent report by McKinsey found that 46% of existing jobs will either partially change or completely fade away by 2021. While this in no way means that people will lose their current jobs and become unemployed, it implies that a lot of new profiles are going to come up.
The McKinsey report also revealed that 40% of employees will not have traditional employee contracts as we know it now. Permanent employees will be replaced with freelance and contract workers in the next two years.
These facts are a testament to the reality which is the gig economy. The gig economy is going to change the world of work. The six areas of work that will face the maximum impact of these changes are:
1. The world will be much more visible
The internet has made the world a small place. Over the last decade, there have been so many developments that have completely changed the way we communicate with people. The future of work will be one where information is transparent and visible to all as opposed to the opacity that exists now.
Modes of communication will change from transactional to conversational dashboards that are quick and instant. People are used to chatting and interacting in real time and this need will spill over to the workplace as well.
The reliance on machines will increase, and human beings are the ones who will train these machines to make them smarter. We will see an increase in collaboration between humans and machines. And with an opening up of many routes of collaboration, data will be everywhere, which will make ensuring data privacy one of the top concerns for organizations.
2. The individual will be at the center
While the future of work is going to be dominated by networks of teams and collaboration, the individual will be at the center. In the new world of work, one person will be at the core of everything.
While the creation is going to be collective and happen together in collaboration mode in a gig economy, but the recognition will be an individual recognition. This will give rise to a highly collaborative environment, with a lot of ad hoc resources and infrastructures. Collaboration will also be characterized by using various enhancement tools and hacks.
Your employees are like customers and mapping out their journeys from onboarding to exit matter as much as mapping out your customer journeys. What this means is that there will be a lot of ad hoc resources and infrastructures. There will be a lot of people running one project.
3. Diversity
While diversity has been stated as one of the most important HR trends for 2019 and beyond, its definition goes beyond just addressing political elements. Going forward, diversity would also mean how inclusive your workplace is to make everyone bring in their creative best to work every day.
With the number of diverse groups entering the workforce, organizations will have to ensure that group intelligence is harnessed at its best. There will be efforts towards establishing a common language across disciplines to make collaboration smoother. Global teams from diverse backgrounds will be working together on projects and group intelligence will take over individual intelligence.
4. Science at work
The workplace has more neuroscience than it ever did. The science at work, be it in the impact of artificial intelligence or natural language processing (NLP) is one of the chief ways in which the world is moving forward.
Science has already entered recruitment, but it will also soon enter other areas of HR from data to design. This is what can be expected in the immediate future within the next six to eight months.
5. Sustainable enterprise
As the world is progressing and growing at a fast pace, building a sustainable enterprise that gives back to society is going to become more important than ever. There will be better management tools that can make the achievement of diverse sustainable goals visible to everyone. There will also be a deep interest in generating sustainable careers, in a work environment that fosters physical and mental health.
CSR will gain priority and become more visible to the world. While we have the knowledge, sustainability will be about how we take the appropriate action at the right time.
6. Health as a workplace value
Health is going to replace as one of the most needed workplace values. Today, health is still considered as an institutional responsibility. This view will be replaced by turning health into a strategic asset to achieve organizational growth.
Health will also become visible with individual data and personal health records being readily accessible and shareable. Organizations will also invest in the health of their employees by giving them access to resources and expert help at the time of need.
So, these are broadly the categories in which the world of work is going to change with the rise of a gig economy.
This article was published in TimesNow Digital
