Future of Work (Post COVID 19)
We are going through a major transformation in the Human Capital Management space — all the buzzwords and hype about remote work and outcome-based work is on an accelerated path. Few trends post COVID 19.
Remote Working
Prior to COVID-19 remote working was prevalent in the IT industry with the rest of the industries lagging behind. Overall, the industry average was 22% (Bureau of Labor Statistics) with the number growing slowly year after year. Post-COVID this number is expected to reach up to 50% of the working population in the knowledge economy. The primary driver for this is the pervasive nature of video communication (Zoom, BlueJeans, WebEx, Skype, Etc.) and management getting comfortable with using these video chat tools.
This has several implications and the traditional model of employee management is going to be re-evaluated and even redundant in some cases. For example, how do you enforce data security, enable audit and measure performance — all of these areas need new thinking and a new set of tools to make sure it is safe, secure and follow best practices and corporate policies.
Benefits for remote working far outweigh the negatives as remote working can help attract talent without geographic limitations while giving employees the flexibility to manage themselves. In a study done by Buffer.com about the state of remote work in 2020, 70% U.S. employees say that working remotely with a flexible schedule is the biggest benefit and 30% says that collaboration and loneliness have become the biggest struggle and they prefer to return to their workplace, as they did before the crisis.
The CEO of Distribute Consulting and Founder of the Remote Work Association Laurel Farrer believes that collaboration/communication is just the beginning of the impact that remote work can have, she says that working remotely benefits are much bigger than just convenience and work-life balance.
Outcome-based Work instead of 9 to 5 (Performance Measurement)
Research says that both the COVID-19 pandemic and growing technology will eliminate the need for 9 to 5 work for significant part of the working population. We are moving from a 9 to 5 model to be an outcome-based model. It’s now far easier to work from anywhere. Being in the workplace is no longer a proxy for being productive as the same tools that the workers are used to in the workplace are now available via the cloud.
Remote working leads to a new question — how do you measure performance when you can’t see the person every day? The traditional model of 9 to 5 work while working remotely will be different from 9 to 5 in the office. Work is going to be outcome-based where the managers need to define the outcome of a specific task, manage dependencies and overall vision much more clearly allowing the employee to understand his/her task as well as the role in the broader scope of the project. This would lead to a definition of work looking more like internal SOW (Statement of Work) compared to project tasks communicated in a group meeting.
Talent Acquisition
Hiring will move from fixed cost to variable costs. Outsourcing of work to a 3rd party firm is not new in most organizations. Companies will need to build processes to hire consultants directly from the marketplace for a specific task. Organizations are already moving into this space with new talent marketplaces, Accenture has started People + Work in partnership with Lincoln Financial Group and Verizon, Work Market from Deloitte and independent marketplaces such as Catalant and BlueHippo.io is changing the game. All of these platforms are facilitating new ways of hiring and these tools manage the entire lifecycle from defining SOW, acquiring talent and settling payments.
Analytics
No doubt that “Analytics” will help to shape the future of work. To stay competitive in the modern and complex business landscape, having the deep analytics and real-time data insights will allow you to make evidence-based decisions that can demonstrate true value and bottom-line impact, said by Olly Britnell the head of Global Workforce Analytics and HR Strategy. With employees using digital tools more than ever, the new behavior also opens up opportunities of leads with better Analytics and better performance management. Age-old questions of Level of Effort and how many hours was spent to complete a task or how much time was spent on email can be measured and feedback and recommendations can be provided in real-time.
Employee self-service dashboard to manage tasks and know their own performance would allow for transparency, self-management and visibility into workloads and performance.
Conclusion
Exciting times ahead, we are moving to a new phase in the industrial revolution with a significant shift in the power dynamics and relationship between the employee and the employer. This allows for more freedom and work-life balance for the employee while staying productive. The employers benefit by being able to access the best talent across geographies. This new dynamic leads to more innovation and better outcomes for both parties. The companies need to figure out how to develop SOW’s for a task that can be outsourced and build processes to vet and onboard new consultants using new methodologies.
Competitive advantage is evolving, businesses that will harness analytics and geo agnostic talent is setting themselves to be in a privileged position of keeping their costs low and setting up the right incentives to get access to highly skilled labor.
About Jay
Jay is the Head of Analytics Practice at Bowery Data, Founder of BlueHippo.io and is the Prof. at NYU. Jay spends his time developing analytics and productivity tools for HR and Marketing functions.