Research shows that 71% of workers at sustainable workplaces affirm that their workplace culture enhances how engaged they are with their work.
So what if the future of work takes away this workplace?
Simply put, the future of work emphasizes how work, workers and workplaces will evolve in coming years, and innovators have projected that over half of the world’s population could become unemployable through no fault of theirs.
Yes! The future of work is sustainable to drive a strong economy globally, but how do humans remain relevant in this process?
Workplaces are now being redefined by automation and technology and this is not changing anytime soon. More than ever before, the gig economy has increased remote jobs; the amount of people that sit from 9 to 5 in an office has reduced drastically, while the number of employees demanding autonomy over their work schedules and locations keeps increasing.
Artificial Intelligence has gone as far as diagnosing diseases, providing legal advice, etc, machines are gradually outperforming humans at almost any task. Fields such as loan officers, accounting, insurance claims and other similar tasks will be at risk of automation. The impact of this golden age of AI on our economy is over 5 times greater than traditional manufacturing jobs of the past.
This trend clearly shows that productivity is increasing dramatically but the input of human labour is becoming less relevant. You can get an engineer, a doctor, an accountant, and others for cheaper than you could a 100 years ago.
We now have accounting software replacing an entire accounting department and a lot of these traditional professions are under dramatic market equity compression. The value of these professions is being reduced.
We need to remain relevant
Everyone has to realize that we are heading into the most difficult career management moment in the history of civilization.
In the next 10 to 15 years, we are going to witness the most difficult job market ever and this is being masked because companies are making more money and more profit. Stock markets make it known that the economy is doing great for countries like the US and unemployment is at an all-time low. Contrary to this, there are lots of homeless and jobless people still flooding the streets and the daily loss of jobs is not reducing.
This further emphasizes that productivity is increasing, but the input of human labour is becoming less relevant and wages are decreasing.
Future Workforce
The future workforce needs to exhibit human intuition traits to stay relevant and be prepared for the changes to come. This lies in proving our abilities to solve problems, communicate and develop creative ideas as well as solutions, proving our worth in the future of a robotic workforce.
Just as the technologies of the workforce are changing, so are the attitudes of employees and employers changing as well. Today, an increasing number of people prefer working for companies that promote a good work/life balance, offer flexible hours, operate remotely, and pay rates enough to meet their needs.
Most youths are not interested in climbing the corporate ladder at all, but seek businesses and adventure that are value-driven and enable them to have more control over what they do.
The importance of value-driven business
Entrepreneurs who start businesses with the sole purpose of making money will get lost really quickly. Alternatives to traditional works are attractive because they allow us to be more value-driven.
Capitalism has created weird systems that serve the grid rather than people. Large companies quickly lose sight of their values to serve capitalism and its grid. Idealists and individuals want to create alternatives to the status quo and what better way to do it than individually, on a small scale with lean businesses?
Ultimately, no one wants to work for a company that doesn’t recognize its workers’ rights, humanity, or desire to fight problems like racism and climate change. In this regard, youths are making other alternatives and this starts with the idea that you can do more.
One person could have several skills these days and you can use YouTube to learn anything. What teams did ten years ago are being done by a single person now. The barriers of entry to getting started in a creative online business are low these days . It’s cheap and you can reach a worldwide audience almost immediately.
The likes of TikTok, Snapchat, and others enable people to send out content everyday with interesting payments attached.
But how can you remain relevant? This is the big question that should be reiterated in the minds of everyone.
Without further ado, we need to accelerate focus on our careers. We need to move out of the 60th percentile, leave the middle to the highest quarter.
The average paying jobs and those below are seeing a salary compression, just those jobs in the top 1 to 5% will continually see salary increases. They include positions such as chief executive officers, chief marketing officers, chief information officers, chief security officers, and several others.
These jobs will see over a 100% possible growth because these companies are now global entities that channels distribution. They have complex means of running, enabling the high skill jobs receive very high growth.
Also, programmers, who ensure the continuous and adequate running of these technologies will experience salary increase unlike other regular jobs and those at the bottom end of the economy will most probably get wiped out.
How prepared are you to manage this changing work environment? Or to what extent have you prepared so far?
A self-sustaining community, which includes access to information and talent. How do we leverage this opportunity and carry out this obligation as business and community leaders, to ensure our continuous relevance? Would we accept the status quo and embrace change or shape a work culture where we would be a part of?
