The unprecedented changes witnessed globally in the recent past have transformed the way we think, interact, and work. Enterprises across the globe are going through cultural and structural shifts that requires them to reimagine and restructure their business processes. New Age technologies such as AI, ML, cloud, with their ability to connect processes, data, and people are revolutionizing the work culture. In such a scenario, enterprises need to reshape their operating models to accommodate this transition.
Here are the five trends that are impacting the future of work globally.
The shift to skill-based hiring – As the name suggests, skill-based hiring refers to the process of hiring candidates for a job based on certain predetermined competencies and skill sets. Depending on the nature of the job, these can be technical, cognitive, physical, or soft skills. The idea of this kind of hiring is to ensure that a candidate has the skill sets that is required to perform a job, regardless of their educational background. It’s a shift from traditional hiring, where educational qualifications played a major role in the selection or rejection of a candidate.
Equitable access to digital infrastructure – The pandemic has highlighted the significance of having a strong virtual work environment, at the same time, it has pointed out the inequalities and digital divide between those who have high and low access to digital technologies and support. Enterprises are increasingly realizing that making the digital infrastructure accessible to everyone is an imperative to successful digital transformation. Hence, they are focusing on democratizing digital platforms and technologies to facilitate collaboration between people and technology and driving a continuous “change” culture to deliver better customer and employee engagement experience with tangible financial returns.
Cyber resiliency – As digital technologies become central to our life, the threat landscape has grown wider and more perilous. There’s a sharp rise in the number of cyber-attack instances across the globe. According to Cybersecurity Ventures, the global cybercrime cost is expected to grow by 15 percent every year over the next five years, reaching $10.5 trillion USD annually by 2025, up from $3 trillion USD in 2015. To operate in such an environment, enterprises need to make security an integral part of their culture and train their talent extensively in following cybersecurity protocols, guidelines, and best practices.
The training and skilling of talent – Amidst the labor shortage and rising skill gap, enterprises are turning to training and skilling of talent to ensure business continuity. A recent survey by TeamLease Services showed that 75% of the surveyed companies in India faced a skill gap in the industry. The report further stated that by 2026, India will need 30 million digitally skilled professionals, and that about 50% of the current workforce will need to re-skill themselves in emerging technologies. Now, the future of work depends majorly on the employee-company partnership to develop and learn new skills. As per a PwC survey, over 75 percent of the employees surveyed want to learn new skills or reskill completely to stay competitive in the job market. This clearly shows that employees value skilling opportunities, and will favour the employer who invests in their training and development.
The future of work is agile, flexible, and skillsets driven. Hence, enterprises and employees need to work together to identify crucial business growth drivers and build relevant skillsets to stay ahead of the curve.
