The future of work: five changes that are on the way

From AI to flexible working, and diversity and inclusion to the gig economy, the world of work is changing fast. Sarah Harrop looks into the business experts’ crystal ball to get a glimpse of work trends and employee experience we can expect in the coming years.

1. Generative AI is inevitable – but it’s not a threat to jobs (yet)

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), of which ChatGPT is a well-known example, is designed to create unique text, image or other data results in response to prompts from the person using it. GenAI is already being used in industries as diverse as healthcare, manufacturing, software development, financial services, media and entertainment, and advertising and marketing.

While some fear that it will make their jobs redundant in the next few years, the more popular view is that it won’t actually replace many job roles, at least for a while – but it will lead to job skill sets being redesigned to incorporate new skills in using GenAI. Workforce upskilling will therefore be essential.

“People who can use AI will replace people who can’t,” as Bernard Marr, an influencer at the intersection of business and technology, rather directly puts it, in a piece for Forbes

Gartner predicts that GenAI will become part of 70% of text- and data-heavy tasks by 2025; an increase from under 10% of tasks in 2023.

“Generative AI tools are quickly evolving to the point where they offer solutions that can increase efficiency in just about any task or line of work. But remember – a big part of becoming a proficient AI-augmented worker is understanding its limitations and knowing where you still need to apply human creativity, compassion and innovation,” adds Marr.

2. Climate change is here, and employees need protection

Storms, floods, extreme heat and wildfires with impacts on air quality for millions: in the past few years, the effects of climate change have become more obvious and are now impacting workforces everywhere. Unfortunately, these extreme weather events will become more common in future as global heating continues. Climate change disaster response plans are rapidly becoming a key trend in benefits packages for employees in the US and beyond.

Gartner’s Emily Rose McRae suggests that these plans could include commitment to offer shelter, energy and provisions when natural disasters strike; financial compensation for those suffering hardship after a climate change-related event; and counselling for their impacts on employees’ mental health.

3. Companies must share the costs of working

Before the pandemic, we didn’t think twice about the time, money and energy we spent on getting to the office each day. But with the shift to remote work or hybrid work models, employees have experienced working without these costs, along with the benefits of better work-life balance and greater wellbeing. Unsurprisingly, they have little appetite to return to the way things were before.

Research by Gartner shows that 60% of employees say the cost of going to the office outweighs the benefits, 67% feel that going to the office requires more effort than it did pre-pandemic, and 73% say it feels more expensive. What’s more, 48% think that companies who demand a return to the office prioritise what managers want over what employees need to do good work.

There’s no statistically significant impact of working location (in-person or remote) on employee performance, Gartner’s research in the US shows. Therefore, if companies are going to attract and keep hold of the best people, they should have both a flexible working strategy and creative benefits that help meet the costs of working.

Some ideas and initiatives suggested by the Harvard Business Review include: housing subsidies to help employees find affordable nearby housing; benefits for employees who care for children or elderly relatives; financial planning and education services to help money go further during the cost of living crisis; and contributing to student debt repayment.

4. Four-day working weeks could become common

We can expect four-day working weeks to become less of a rarity in the near future, as a shortage of available talent in the labour market prompts companies to think about ways to meet employees’ wishes for flexible work arrangements as well as their own career path objectives.

In 2022, the Autonomy Institute carried out the world’s largest four-day working week trial in the UK over six months, involving 61 companies and around 2,900 workers. It was a great success for both employees and employers, with 56 of the companies deciding to continue with the four-day week and 18 of the companies making a permanent change to their policies.

Four day working weeks were shown to have huge benefits for employee wellbeing, with 39% feeling less stressed and 71% reporting less burnout, improvements in anxiety, fatigue, sleep, mental and physical health and ability to balance work and family/social commitments. Retention of staff also improved, with a 57% fall in leavers, and companies’ revenue stayed broadly the same over the trial period, rising by 1.4% on average. What’s more, when compared to a similar period from previous years, organisations reported revenue increases of 35%.

Henley Business School’s Dr Rita Fontinha, author of a Four Day Week white paper, ‘Four Better, Four Worse?’, says: “Businesses need to better understand their employees’ desires and aspirations, to enable them to recruit the best people and to keep those people happier and more productive in the workplace.”

5. We’ll need new skills

A Future of Jobs report by the World Economic Forum in 2023 predicts that 44% of workers’ core skills will change in the next five years because new technology is moving at a faster pace than company training programmes can keep up with. Employee reskilling is going to be needed. In its report, the WEF predicts that the most in-demand skills for employees by 2027 will be:

•   Creative and analytical thinking
•   Technological literacy
•   Curiosity and lifelong learning
•   Resilience, flexibility and agility
•   Systems thinking
•   AI and big data
•   Motivation and self-awareness
•   Talent management.

“There’s more of a focus and an interest in having people with analytical thinking, people with creativity,” says Saadia Zahidi, WEF Managing Director. “But it’s also become very important to have leadership skills and to have social influence, and the ability to work with other people. The traits that make us human, make us able to relate with each other and to get innovative, creative things done in the workplace.”

Analytical thinking is the skill expected to grow the most in importance for employees – by 72% – because reasoning and decision-making are the workplace tasks least likely to be automated via technological advancements and account for just 26% of task automation currently.

Soft skills and competencies such as emotional intelligence and problem-solving will increasingly be needed in our work environments too, says McRae:

“Employee conflict resolution is the next must-have skill for managers. With upcoming elections, geopolitical crises, labour strikes, climate change and pushback to DEI efforts, the environment is ripe for differences of opinion. Managers who manage, rather than silence, interpersonal conflict among employees will have an outsize positive impact on their organisations.”

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