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The future of work: A journey to 2022 by PwC

I. Journey to 2022

II. Three worlds of work

III. The Worlds

IV: Summary

I. Journey to 2022

We’ve been having a digital revolution in the workplace that has been flying under the radar for us all. This is exciting, on one hand, we are making technological breakthrough, on the other, millions of workers are going to be displaced. Let’s go through a timeline 👇

2006 - Launch of Twitter

2007 - Apple Launches the iPhone

2008 - Recession

2009 - Urban Dwellers World

2010 - China is the largest manufacture

2013- Mobile Devices + Connections surpasses # of people on planet

2017 - Vietnamese Workers start wearing sensors to gauge concentration, work rate, and mood

2019 - Doctor carries out remote surgery on patient in Ghana

2021 - Liceses for driverless cars

2022 - Fully Automated Robo-Hotel

There has been a ton of change from the moment that both the iPhone & Twitter have been launched. Ranging from socio-economic to geo-economic to technological innovations to resource scarcity to new business models, all of these had an impact on the worker. Shifting from Blue-Collar to White Collar, hands-on to automated, and relationship based to data based. Workers are looking for a way to find their place in the world.

II. Three Worlds of Work

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Three Concepts bring about the rise of a world that is broken up into three different s scenarios stemming from values help by workers in the world.

To summarize easily - a push-and-pull of individualism vs. collectivism and corporate integration versus business fragmentation.

Large corporates turning into mini-states and taking on a prominent role in society.

Specialization creating the rise of collaborative networks.

The social and environmental agenda forcing fundamental changes to business strategy.

Most orgs are likely to be a mix of all three worlds of work. Yet these challenges leave a ton of issues for businesses and HR departments to figure out:

The need to create ever more sophisticated people measurement techniques to monitor and control performance and productivity.

Increasing importance of social capital and relationships as the drivers of business success.

The boundary between work and personal life disappearing as companies assume greater responsibility for the social welfare of their employees.

You can imagine that this will then change the way that HR works, and will go in three ways:

Driver for corporate social responsibility within the organization

Transactional and Outsources

Shift focus to business strategy and begin to influence other parts of the business.

III. The Worlds (explained)

So you’ve noticed the the chart above graphing these worlds. You’re curious to learn but also see what these are all about in the real world for employees.

Blue World - Corporate is King

Big company capitalism reigns supreme

Driving Goal : profit, growth, and market leadership

How to compete : scale is the crucial differentiator. it allows these mega-corporations to reach out across the globe and compete for talent and resources- constantly innovating and keeping pace with customer demands.

Employee Value Proposition: Job security and long-term service with an organization in return for employee commitment and flexibility.

Questions to Consider

How can you develop the more sophisticated human capital metrics needed to constantly improve performance?

How do you develop a broader resource optimization and human beings work side by side?

Where is the line between performance monitoring and personal space and how can you make sure the organization stays within it?

Learnings

Metrics and data are used to drive business performance through complex staff segmentation strategies which identify thousands of skills sets.

The challenges include how to integrate talent from different markets into the overall corporate culture, Consumer preferences, speed to market, and dominating other entrants.

HR convinces employees that the ‘price’ of data release and close monitoring is worth paying. This includes developing the right balance between the benefits and productivity gains of this personal data. (44% of employees around the world hold JOB SECURITY as dear to them)

The Green World - companies care

Where consumers and employees force change

Driving Goal : Positive social and environmental impact

How to compete : A social and environmental conscience is demanded by customers and staff right through the organization and its supply chain. The organization must get it right in order to compete and survive.

Employee Value Proposition: Ethical values and work - life balance in return for loyalty towards an organization that does right by its employees.

Questions to Consider

How can you turn your values into a compelling element of your employer brand?

Is your function set up to work with people who want a greater say in designing their working responsibilities and rewards?

How can you monitor the desired ethics and behavior most effectively?

Learnings

Green Firms practice co-creation – engaging with customers, partners, external agents and the local community to create new product and services that benefit the customer, the company and the broader community

Organizations in the Green World will embrace and embed Sustainability, understand and manage their total impact, and drive opportunities that reflect good growth ie. growth that’s responsible, real, lasting and inclusive.

The CEO drives the people strategy for the organization, believing that the people in the organization and their behaviors and role in society have a direct link to the organization’s success or failure.

The Orange World - small is beautiful

Where big is bad, for business, for people and for the environment

Driving Goal : Maximizing flexibility while minimizing fixed costs

How to compete : Embracing the rise of the portfolio career, hiring a diverse mix or people on an affordable, ad hoc basis.

Employee Value Proposition: Flexibility, autonomy, and varied challenges in return for working on a short-term contractual basis

Questions to Consider

How can you identify and attract the contract staff needed to meet different objectives?

How can you verify the authenticity of the data being used to select staff and associates?

How do you effectively manage non-owned resource?

Learnings

Efficient systems and processes are the key to success of Orange companies. Maximum operational flexibility, lean staffing models, collaborative partnerships and minimal m/e.

Workers are categorized and rewarded for having specialist expertise, which will create increased demand for people to have a personal stake in the organization’s or project’s success

Orange pioneers will give a new lease of life to professional guilds, associations and trade bodies – relying on them for training, development and innovation.

IV: Summary & Problems found

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Blue World Problems

Measuring employee performance

Data Aggregator Platform

Training modules to upskill poor performing employees

Green World Problems

Co-Creation tool for Customers plus community for impact on company mission

Volunteer and ExtraCurricular tool for HR

What problems does wendy have?

Orange World Problems

Reward Management Tools & Systems for Workers or 1099s

Training and Development Guilds for xyz roles

Remote Talent Selection (how to get the right person)

The Future of Work by Deloitte plus Future of Work in Technology

Table of Contents

I. The-Worker- Employer Relationship

II. Future of Work in Technology

I. The-Worker- Employer Relationship

Summary

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We’re not family, so what are we?

One of the dangers of a digital world is the constant involvement and seemingly intertwined relationship with work. To cope, many companies take on the mantra, “we’re a family”.

What if we told you... that’s changing? Here are the reasons:

COVID-19: Testing the limits of the worker-employer relationship

Talent supply & government impact

Talent supply can influence whether companies need to reskill, lean on technology to automate, or make changes.

Government was one of the most influential external factors. Their effectiveness in social change affects workers and the resources are set toe provide for them.

We increasingly find that talent supply and governmental impact are shaping up what the world/ work-employer relationship will pan out to be:

Works as Fashion

War between Talent

Work is Work

Purpose Unleashed

Organization will likely find themselves in some combination of the futures depending on the needs and expectations of their workforce, their industry, their regions, and communties where they operate. [see the figure below ]

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Work as Fashion

The worker-employer relationship is REACTIVE: Employers feel compelled to respond in the moment to workers’ expressed preferences, and to competitor moves, without connecting those actions to a sustainable workforce strategy.

Signals of Work as Fashion

Increased employer reliance on worker surveys and other listening tools.

Increased employer activity in measuring themselves against competitor and industry benchmarks, and of adjusting practices to align to benchmarks.

Low government impact can also help create the conditions for this future

Continuous changing and rollout of worker programs and policies.

Increased external marketing of worker incentives.

New levels of social activism from employers.

How to navigate the future for organizations ?

The instinctive response

What matters first may trump what matters most - if employers treat meaning and purpose mainly as attraction and retention tools, they may overlook that what workers are actually looking for is consistency and a more sustained commitment.

Diverse voices re drowned out - Many people hold unconscious biases that reinforce prevailing but discriminatory social values, and this may affect the way they develop and execute organizational workforce strategies. In many organizations, diverse individuals are underrepresented to begin with. Listening efforts may not be designed to adequately capture their view

Listening becomes surveillance - Using technology to understand the workforce may cross the line into worker surveillance, raising potential risks around data privacy

Differentiation gets lost in competition - Worker loyalty may last only until someone else offers them incrementally more compensation, training, or other incentives that have come to be commodities.

The survive strategy

Dig Deeper - Ask nuanced questions that get at more basic issues of concern to the workforce than their desires in the moment

Walk the talk - Leaders should be prepared to highlight the organization’s actions in areas that have been identified for changes, clearly communicating what the priorities are and how the organization is addressing them now

Focuse empowerment where it matters most - Most workers want to be empowered where it matters most, which is in the work they do and how to advance their careers. By providing internal mobility via opportunity marketplaces, employers may be able to satisfy workers’ desire for empowerment by putting them in control of their careers

The thrive differentiator

Being thoughtful and selective in responding to worker needs is necessary, but it’s not sufficient to thrive in this future.

employers need to build a sustainable and differentiated worker-employer relationship built around a core set of ideals that are important to both the worker and the employer

A sustainable, differentiated relationship is only partly about benefits, policies, and programs. Rather, it extends the consideration of worker needs to the broader workforce experience. Everything from well-being, personal and professional growth, and meaningful work is on the table.

War Between Talent

The worker-employer relationship is IMPERSONAL: Employers view workers as interchangeable and easily replaceable, and workers are more concerned with competing with each other for jobs than with the quality of their relationship with their employer.

Signal of War Between Talent

Organizations put limited investment into developing their talent.

The amount of gig and fractional work, including ghost work, is growing.

Organizations’ AI and automation initiatives focus on using technology to replace workers.

Organizations increase their use of offshoring.

The proportion of people funding education out of their personal resources is increasing.

Navigating the war between talent future

The instinctive response

Fungibility & Utility

Innovation is stifled at the source

Certain roles go from hard to fill to impossible to fill

Social divide becomes a social chasm

Stakeholders question the organization investement

The survive strategy

Onboard with expediency - Workers who can get up to speed quickly on organizational culture and workflows will be more productive sooner, whether they are entirely new or being moved to new roles.

Invest where talent is scarce - Using this insight effectively means employers should be prepared to make investments in identifying, attracting, developing, and retaining top talent in these areas.

Mitigate turnover costs - No matter how easy it is to replace workers, employers will still incur the cost of bringing those replacements up to speed, creating an incentive to retain workers who are hard to find and to train

The thrive differentiator

One way to enhance worker performance through investment is to create a “good jobs” environment in which job quality is high, workers have a voice, and the employer offers training and skill development.

The motive is not altruism: Research shows that employers where “good jobs” prevail—jobs with higher wages, better hours, more predictable schedules—reap financial gains that put them ahead of competitors with less “good” jobs.

Work is work

The worker-employer relationship is PROFESSIONAL: Each depends on the other to fulfill work-related needs, but both expect that workers will find meaning and purpose largely outside of work.

Purpose unleashed

The worker-employer relationship is COMMUNAL: Both workers and employers see shared purpose as the foundation of their relationship, viewing it as the most important tie that binds them together.

Signals that the future could be headed toward “purpose unleashed

Workers, customers, regulators, and interest groups are requesting or mandating new purpose-aligned measures from employers.

Purpose is showing up in job descriptions, hiring practices, and performance metrics.

Organizations are taking stances, internally and externally, on issues they otherwise may have stayed silent about in response to growing demands from workers and customers.

Strengthening both purpose and business is a stated criterion for leadership positions and driving key executive promotion/succession decisions.

Increased depth and transparency of reporting on purpose-driven outcomes.

Navigating the purpose unleashed future

The instinctive response

Suspicions of greenwashing become the order of the day. Employers may assume that delivering a loud message around purpose is enough to satisfy workers’ expectations. But if that message is overstated

Public statements may have unintended consequences. When communication and visibility are top priorities, leaders may not take the time to think carefully about the implications of what they’re communicating

Some workers are pushed to the fringes. Over-communicating one’s response to social or political issues could isolate workers who do not agree with it.

The survive strategy

Incorporate purpose into core talent programs. Make sure purpose is reflected in the organization’s core talent programs: benefits and policies, measurement and performance management, recruitment and retention, and learning and development.

Clearly communicate real, tangible progress. Backing up statements of purpose with action is a powerful force in solidifying the worker-employer relationship. But action only helps an organization’s relationship with workers when workers know about it.

Model commitment to purpose. Workers look to their leaders for clarity and expect them to model commitment to purpose.

The thrive differentiator

Organizations that engage their workers as co-creators of their purpose will be positioned to go beyond surviving to thriving.

Co-creation goes beyond merely soliciting workers’ input; rather, it’s about workers having influence and decision rights over what the organization stands for, what outcomes it wants to achieve, and what actions it takes to pursue those outcomes

Leaders must understand that being vocal about their purpose is not enough, and that advancing purpose through external action is only half the battle.

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Ideas and Problems for People to Jam On

Lack of Co-Creation Tools between Management & their Direct Reports leading to over communication and loss of enthusiasm or purpose from the staff

Archaic Onboarding Content, Moduling, and Reporting which leads to a need for reskilling, refreshing of training,

Referrals & Contracting Ecosystem

Analyzing Business Waste

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Every entrepreneur will encounter the point that eliminating waste and trimming the fat from their baby is the only way to keep it alive - to make it easy; check out the EB Framework.

1. Find P&L Waste

2. What's your Unit Economics?

3. Is there a less painful way to run this Business?

4. Look at Customers / can you decrease CAC, increase LTV?

5. Analyze

6. Replace/ Hire bodies based on your analysis

This six-step framework should allow you to narrow your scope on strategy and dedicate energy to hiring, customers, and Unit Economics.

Raising Venture Capital

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You've made it - you're on Sand Hill Rd. or found yourself chatting it up with an Angel Investor. Congratulations!

So get ready for the feedback of your life; you'll either feel like an absolute winner or a complete f****ing loser.

Let's make sure you're the former over the latter.

When you're pitching your idea or presenting your pitch deck, you should keep these questions in mind that the Investor is thinking, 'Okay, that's super cool, but how will I make money and return my fund?'

You will need your TAM - What is it? How big is the market? Where is the Potential for me as an Investor?

So, cool, TAM makes sense, but what's your PAM? (People Addressable Market)

Or, in other words- Where are people spending money on products that are similar to yours? How do you plan to get that 1% of the TAM? That is PAM.

You're almost done.

Tell me more about how you're going to going to get people to spend money on you? What's your business model, and what's your competitive advantage? CAC - tell me everything. Focus on how you'll decrease CAC, increase LTV, and increase customers.

Only after these points are you able to detail the problem, technology, traction, etc.

Your job when you're pitching is to dance not how you want to dance but How this investor will make their money. More importantly, at a 10x multiple.

Overcoming Challenges as a Founder

Life is a funny thing that brings individuals situations that seems unbearable and out of one's control at an immediate level. This feeling and urgency stunts many individuals from taking steps in the direction they find most 'correct.' To mitigate this, it's essential to understand the different types of challenges that we may face -

Personal Obstacles - Personal obstacles relate to our psychology and state of mind. They include unhealthy emotions, paralyzing fears, and limiting beliefs.

Social Obstacles - Social obstacles are related to people who either do not cooperate with you, sabotage you, or are incompetent and unable to fulfill the responsibilities assigned to them.

Environmental Obstacles - Environmental obstacles are often unexpected conditions and circumstances that you typically have very little control over.

Question the problem:

What are the indications that this is a problem for you?

Identify the details of the problem:

How did it happen? How did it get here?

Take control of your behavior:

What aspects of this problem can you control? What facets of this problem can’t you control?

Gain proper perspective on the situation:

How are your assumptions contributing to the problem? What is another perspective you haven’t considered?

Expand your options:

What could you do differently? What are your criteria for success?

How do you live in the moment when it feels like your world is falling apart?

Step Back Emotionally

Acquire a Different Perspective

Breathe, Take Control, and Take Action

Assess Your Obstacles

Crash Course on Employee Resource Groups

Employee Resource Group(s)

Goal of Document

Create a framework on ‘how to start an ERG’ within a company and use best industry practices to create a starting point for clients to personalize.

Overview of ERGs

These are the types of ERGs that are common:

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