Future of Work post Covid
The past 12 months have been a defining period for most of us. For some, it has been wrought with frustration and loss. For others, it has meant delving deep within themselves to find a deeper purpose or simply reimagining what the future heralds for them. As a psychologist and an HR professional, I cannot help but observe how the past few months have provided most of us an opportunity to straddle the several points on the Kubler-Ross Change curve, Shock – Denial – Frustration – Depression – Experiment – Decision – Integration. It is the latter three that will decide which side the balance of the world tips, whether it is in our personal lives or at the workplace.
The previous year has been challenging to say the least, for organizations around the globe. Supply chains have been adversely impacted. Business activities have borne the brunt of the pandemic. Economies have been hit. People have had to face unprecedented emotional as well as financial crisis.
Yet, there have been glimmerings of light through the proverbial dark clouds. Organizations have been compelled to work within relatively constrained budgets. The online learning industry has boomed. The industry has been pushed to evolve innovative solutions to different problems posed by the pandemic. Work-life balance has become an accepted, nay welcome phrase. Ways of working have changed. Work from home and remote working is no longer limited to certain tech companies but a reality across the board. And guess what? While there might be some concerns around this, by and large organizational systems and processes have adapted to the new paradigm.
In a lot of ways, the Future of the workplace has shifted from what it might have been a year ago. To encapsulate everything in this article may not be possible and I will be sharing more of my thoughts in subsequent writings. However, a few changes that will be visible in the foreseeable future will include the following:
Blend of Hi-Tech and Hi-Touch
While technology and technological changes will form an integral part of the new workplace, this will need to be blended with a significantly high human interface across organizations. Now more than ever, an increased focus on employee engagement will be required. People will tend to migrate towards organizations that provide meaningful employee welfare opportunities. Human Resources teams will require playing a pivotal role in crafting people-first policies. The latter will not only help in attracting the right talent; it will also prevent flight of high value talent from the organization. A design thinking led approach will go a long way in making such policies more relevant and engaging for the workforce. Among other things, such policies might want to relook at health, welfare, working hours, flexible work environment, diversity, inclusion, and cultural nuances. Technology will most likely be used among other things to foster collaborative workspaces that enable employees to be more connected, engaged and empowered.
Skills that will matter
The changing workplace paradigm will necessarily involve the necessity for new skills. As organizations begin to go digital, some of the skills held in high esteem earlier might come down a few notches or worse still, be rendered irrelevant. Newer skills will be in demand. Organizations will need people who either have those skills or who demonstrate the ability to rapidly pick up those skills.
On the organization side, this means investing resources in upskilling and reskilling their employees. This would be helped by industry partnerships with higher education institutions that have a reputation for new-age courses with tangible outcomes. Collaborating with skilling bodies and ecosystems within the country or across geographic boundaries would further aid this transition.
For the individual, irrespective of whether their organization decides to invest time and money in their upskilling and reskilling, the individual will need to proactively look at how they can reinvent themselves to be better prepared for the needs of the industry. Fortunately, MOOC platforms will be a big help inasmuch that their focus is on democratizing learning. Having said that, on-demand courses and pre-recorded lectures per se may not serve the purpose. Most of the new-age skills require immersion in live projects, case work, feedback from instructors, collaborative learning with peers and several other things that the MOOC alone may not be able to offer. The individual will therefore need to make time to research courses that can help them move ahead in their careers and lives. There are various online learning platforms globally that have made this possible. Robust research and focus on which is the right one will assist in making the right choices.
Some of the future skills (and future mindset) that will matter include the following:
· Self-awareness & Self-management
· Mindfulness
· Empathy
· Learning Agility
· Social skills
· Digital literacy
· Analytics
· Ability to manage uncertainty
· Collaboration
I studied at a school that had as its motto, ‘Laborare Est Orare’. Translated from Latin, it loosely means ‘Work is Worship’. Like a lot of other leaders, I interpreted it incorrectly to mean that focus on work was critical and that the outcome was important. That made ‘Work’ less than enjoyable for me and others around me. Perhaps today, I understand that phrase better. It means that you can dissolve yourself in your work as if you were in prayer. Like, leaving a piece of yourself in your work. If organizations expect their people to put their soul, their heart, and their mind in their work, they need to be able to help create an ecosystem that nurtures this. This will foster loyalty and engagement. Performance and Profitability will be the natural outcomes.
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