The Future of Work – Again

by Chris Reardon

While business leaders everywhere are asking what will be the future of work in a post-COVID world, one workplace expert maintains we have been through this before and simply need to adapt as we have in the past. Bhushan Sethi, global head of people and organization for PwC, recently spoke about the future of work and what it will look like after the pandemic passes at a virtual forum hosted by the chamber.

Sethi told the audience businesses were asking about the future of work in 2000 when going through the dot.com bubble, the explosion of Internet commerce and the introduction of integrated ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems. In 2008 it was the financial crisis that raised the question of the future of work while in 2010 it was an overreaction to automation and urbanization. Next came the issues of data privacy, disinformation, ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) and geopolitical tension in 2016 while 2020 brought the global pandemic, social justice and health and wellbeing.
 
“It’s important to understand the historical context of how we handle business change,” he said. “Some of the really basic concepts of business have not really changed.”
 
To prepare for the latest “new” work environment, Sethi recommended business learn to ADAPT, which in his presentation stood for asymmetry, disruption, age, polarization and trust. Of these, perhaps disruption is the most important to manage, he added.
 
“Disruption is great if it’s going to improve people’s work habits (but) really bad is it’s not properly managed,” he said, adding business leaders need to manage both the known, such as a changing workforce in terms of age and technology, but also the unknowns.
 
Sethi said businesses have to plan for various scenarios. To do this, they need to take a closer look at today’s workforce priorities from both the perspective of businesses and workers. These include total rewards, health and wellbeing, re-skilling, diversity and inclusion, HR tools and insights, good jobs, workplace, purpose and culture, remote/hybrid working and contingent workforce.
 
“These are not necessarily new,” he said. “They’ve just taken on new lenses in the pandemic.”
 
According to Sethi, the biggest challenge for businesses going forward is going to be finding talent and they must be creative, such as importing skilled labor, retraining workers – employees of all ages are showing willingness to re-skill – and bringing back the 3 million women who have left the workforce. Leaders must develop a more personalized approach to managing employees, an area where they think they have made better progress than their employees think.
 
Sethi said businesses must establish a plan and think about different possibilities and decide what their growth plan is – does it revolve around products and services, technology, their workforce?
 
“The future of work starts with what is the future of my business,” he said.
 
In the question and answer period, Sethi was asked what employees will want from the future of work and told the audience 30 percent of workers would sacrifice future earnings for more time to volunteer in the community. He also noted while some have embraced remote working others want to commute each day to place of business.
 
“If businesses want to get good talent, they have to plan for all of these,” he said.
 
Sethi said PwC has a Workforce Strategy Diagnostic tool available to any business and encouraged the audience to avail themselves of it. Visit https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/services/people-organisation/workforce-strategy-diagnostic.html