As we now fully enter into the 2020s, smart businesses are preparing for the workforce of the future. With automation potentially threatening jobs, but providing benefits in terms of productivity, and economic growth uncertain due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, what does the future hold for work?
The two sides of the jobs coin are, of course, employers and employees. Employees, of course, will want to be able to find work that suits them and enables stability as well as professional development. Employers, on the other hand, will want to make sure that they have productive staff members that enable economic growth for the company.
As we enter 2021, many forces are shaping the future of jobs in America. While things are still quite uncertain because of fluctuating COVID-19 lockdowns, long-term prospects for businesses aren’t that much different than from before the coronavirus pandemic. Automation and digital transformation were major trends before COVID-19, and these trends have only been accelerating since the global coronavirus pandemic led to international lockdowns and business closures.
The future of the workforce will balance human initiative and technologic innovation. While automation is superior when it comes to streamlining workflows and processes, it is not so great when it comes to creativity, brainstorming, and thinking out of the box. Technological innovation can only happen through human initiative.
While we can envision an eventual future where artificial intelligence (AI) becomes so smart that it can mimic humans in thought and perhaps even creativity, that future is not here now. It’s probably not going to be here for a while yet – perhaps a decade for more – so the good news for employees is that many don’t have to worry about being totally replaced (just yet).
In the future, you will see more of an emphasis on training workers already in the workforce for new positions, as opposed to hiring new outside staff.
This is a great way to leverage the knowledge and talent already inside your organization. The good news is, studies have shown that 74 percent of employees are willing and able to learn the new skills they need to stay in their jobs.
Investing in proper training of your team is always a good bet. Start out by assessing your current team’s strengths and weaknesses. You might also take a survey and find out what interests and aptitudes your team members have. Using a skills or personality inventory such as DiSC can also help in professional development. DiSC stands for Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. These personality profiles can help identify who might thrive in future leadership roles and who might be better suited to creative tasks.
Automation in many industries will lead to a rise in the importance of soft skills like communication and other personal skills. Of course, soft skills have already been critically important for many people-centric jobs. For example, you can’t be a good real estate agent without good soft skills like relationship building.
But even jobs where communication skills weren’t that high on the priority list may require more communication and collaboration. Take IT. The days of a lone computer programmer working in an isolated silo are long gone, for the most part. As artificial intelligence and machine learning improve, basic coding won’t be done by humans anymore – it will be the AIs doing the basic programming while software engineers work on a higher level to plan, direct, and strategize IT projects.
This means that software engineers will need more soft skills as collaboration and leadership skills will become even more important. Conversely, people who previously did not need much in the way of technology skills will be required to become more comfortable with IT. For example, AI writers will eventually replace many journalists, and the future job of a writer or editor will be to curate and edit copy created by machines.
These changes are born out by a recent study from McKinsey, showing a workforce shift away from physical or manual skills and basic cognitive skills towards higher cognitive skills, social and emotional skills, and technology skills.
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Edwards Business Systems helps companies and organizations with smart workflow automation. Contact us today for a quote.