Future of Work

We are at the beginning of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, one that promises to alter the world of work permanently. Is your organization prepared?

The exponential rise in computing power is transforming work in significant ways, blurring lines between the physical, digital and biological worlds. Breakthroughs in areas such as artificial intelligence and robotics are dramatic compared to those in previous revolutions. They are already disrupting industries globally, having a significant impact on work and jobs. The effects range from significant job creation to job displacement, from heightened labor productivity to a widening skills gap.

In a digitally disrupted workplace, jobs are being deconstructed into discrete tasks that can be allocated to employee and non-employee talent anywhere in the world or shared between humans and machines based on the most effective and productive ways to get the work done.

Meeting the challenges of a new work ecosystem

Our future of work offering helps you manage how, where and by whom work gets done, including by automation. It addresses the requirements for new ways of working, identifying emerging skills and drivers of engagement for all your talent: employees, free agents and contingent workers

We provide approaches and tools that help you tackle critical challenges related to the future of work:

• Reinventing jobs: Achieve the optimal combinations of employees, machines and talent from other sources (gig workers, alliance, etc.) by deconstructing jobs, redeploying tasks and reconstructing new, more human jobs.
• Work strategy: Define how the new work will be done across your organization (e.g., reconstruction of jobs, AI and robotics).
• Work architecture: Develop the core architecture and leveling approach for jobs, work and curation of skills.
• Reskilling pathways: As skills become the currency of the labor market and work is reinvented, ensure clear pathways for the continuous reskilling of talent
• Talent value proposition: Recognize how the purpose and meaning of work and the work environment is changing, and align Total Rewards in order to engage all types of talent, employees and non-employees.
• Contingent workforce management: Define the types of talent required in your organization, the governance and control processes, and work life cycle.
• Flexible work: Design work arrangements to engage and sustain talent as well as to address inclusion and diversity objectives.

New leadership expectations

As technology continues to disrupt the workplace, leaders are expected to manage through times of ambiguity and change without the formal power that comes with managing permanent employees in a traditional organization. And HR plays a critical role collaborating with business leaders and managers to determine the best way to get work done as technology advances and access to different types of labor increase.

We help organizations like yours develop the leadership skills needed to succeed during digital transformation and in this new work ecosystem. And we provide tools and training in areas from talent acquisition to performance management in order to help you attract, engage and retain talent across the entire spectrum of work relationships.

The opportunity

At WTW, we help our clients approach the challenges related to the future of work with a sense of opportunity grounded in fact, proven methods and underpinned by research. Moving beyond alarmist rhetoric about workplace automation, we assist organizations in exploring how human-machine collaboration can deliver a higher level of productivity while often resulting in new, more fulfilling work for humans.

“

WTW Reinventing Jobs solution is an exciting area of work that I am passionate about. It has helped us, in HR, to do our part in moving the organization forward. We’ve re-imagined the work, and are exploring alternative talent sources to get work done – an we will only continue to do more of this in the future.”

Chris Boniface | Head of Total Rewards, Enbridge Inc.