Ways of Working: Employment, Work & Learning Models - Cathy Doyle
In setting out to discuss the Future of Work (FOW), Ways of Working and Humanised Workforce, it is essential to address how work is to be organised, offered, designed and packaged and how your skills and talents and capabilities that are needed in life and an organisation will be engaged.
The digitisation of our lives and work
Technology is covered in depth in the previous chapter – what we do know is that the shifts in technology over time have shifted our ways of working. People and technology go hand in hand and have done over the ages. In the industrial age, we all needed to go to the factory to do our work – bots, and machines have replaced those roles in many advanced countries like Australia – not so much so in other countries where labour is less expensive and the population engaging in low paying work is needed for economic and political stability and well-being.
In Australia, too with the recent COVID impacts having devastating comorbidity – Health and financial. The social aspect of work and employment, particularly for our mental health, is finally getting the attention it deserves. There is a direct correlation with emotional stability and well being for those in meaningful work.
All work paid and not paid is to be respected. The intersection of all different styles and types of workers – volunteers, interns, interim, specialists, freelancers, full time, part-time, GIG employees is here now and will increase. What I wanted from a job at 22 is very different from my sons’ desires. Having a job and doing something is the one thing we have in common – the things I was after at that age such as a place close to home, a good boss, reasonable pay is not in his top 3 as they are a given. He also wants autonomy, access to the people and resources he needs and a future where he backs himself and knows he is responsible for his career. The globalisation of the world and hence work means you can opt-in for roles anywhere – however, human touch and connection is still vital for collaboration and building a culture or fabric of the feeling of an organisation. Let the bots do the repetitive work, and the humans do the humanised work. That is ‘play to your strengths’. Develop and embrace the human side of you – empathy, listening, forgiveness, curiosity. The education sector needs to embrace and drive this.
(Quote from APAC HR leader and CEO NFP and VP IT)
Do you want the GIG?
When I was growing up in Newcastle NSW – are you going to the Gig referred to a night of fun and entertainment. A Gig Job is one that lasts a certain period – for a project or as long as the organisation has that specific need. One of the things certain to rise is that people will be hired on a contract or Gig basis to work in and alongside functional or scrum teams. To add and supplement critical skills and to get things completed at speed. Not all Gig workers will make great full-time staff and vice versa – the challenges for leaders and HR teams is to get the balance right and invest in the recruitment process for all types of work.
GIG economy is growing
(quote from Watermark study coming)
Agile practices and lean principles – terms that are invading the hierarchical and vertical or functional organisation of work. Embrace it – According to a scrum master whom I have worked with the agile methodology provides many small frequent versions of a product starting with a minimum viable product to review rather than waiting for full production. The product you think you want you may not end up with as you continually ask the customer – does this work for you?
The lean method says that every process should be continuously mapped and inspected and improved. That is waste removed – duplicate processes deleted or processes that do not add value.
Both require social skills of curiosity, questioning, agility, change is embraced, you start/end with the customer, continuous improvement becomes the norm, intense teamwork and individual contributions are required, cadence/speed is necessary, and the end goal can shift – just like life.
Some terms from the scrum master you need to know and understand:
Meetings are Stand ups – sprint reviews, consulting, reporting. No sitting down at a table anymore. They are short and sharp, and the good old post-it note is incredible!
Individuals manage careers, not organisations – know your craft and contribution and play to it and learn the skill you need to do what you want.
Lifelong learning is here to stay.
Embrace change.
So, do we need leaders at work?
Anyone who loves authentic leadership via personal storytelling is a Brene Brown fan! She talks about the human side of experiences that bring meaning to our world – courage, vulnerability, love, belonging, shame and empathy. She challenges everything about creating belonging – in society, communities, organisations and culture. True belonging requires us to be who we are. Future leaders will assist/support others to that end goal. Embrace your true authentic self. In my experience leaders shy away from developing others reach their unique potential – an unconscious bias towards recreating who you are means that leaders prefer comfort over discomfort – that is also a very human trait. So if you want to be the next generation of leader do some soul searching about how to be comfortable with discomfort, how to support those whom you may not understand but need and finally how to give back at work and life – put someone else’s requirements above your own.
In 2010 in her book, The Gifts of imperfection belonging were defined as the innate human desire to be part of something larger than us. Because this yearning is so great, we often try to fit in by seeking approval. I also tried that early on in my career and was not good at it – I have learnt to be brave and back myself even if sometimes it means you stand alone.
True belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world; our sense of belonging can never be more significant than our sense of self-acceptance.
How to stay relevant and competitive in the Future of Work
Andrea Clarke, in her book Future Fit, argues that talent is just as important a technology if not more so.
Again, she also talks about social skills and why they are the foundations for individuals. She has coined eight specific social skills:
Reputation capital, communication, adaptability, creativity, networking, leadership, problem-solving, continuous learning.
So, see the theme here – bots cannot do this work or feeling – humans do. IQ and EQ often are needed together, but under the future of work, EQ may be more critical. A Chairman of an organisation who has served in leadership positions over the last 30 years left that very impression on me as I sat on a Board with him.
We still need to do stuff
Deloitte Study 2019 – future of Work identified the following:
Future Skills: problem-solving, critical thinking, innovation and creativity, ability to deal with ambiguity, communication. Trade skills (carpentry, plumbing, welding, machinery). Guess what tradies – you need to be able to communicate and build things, and problem solve on the job not wait to be told what to do. The future generations of these workers are the future of our economy. We are living that now under COVID. Successive State Governments are talking about precincts and construction to kick start our economy. Health workers are looking at very different future ways of working
Trends
Trends for organisations: HR technologist future of work 2019:
Learning to learn and unlearn will be a skill.
Employee experience matters
Talent mobility – gets a rethink
Evolution of leadership – the future needs emotion
According to John Lawrence of the Australian Transformation and Turnaround Association, the work we will be doing in 5 to 10 years from now does not exist today. Therefore, the role you are doing now may not exist in 5 – 10 years. The prospect of constant change is both a challenge and an opportunity. The digital age and COVID have shown us that work can be done from anywhere – online and outside of offices.
Life balance is still crucial – work fits into and around those aspirations of falling in love, building a life, having a family, getting emotionally and financially secure,
Self-care and health – mental and physical are critical. If the workplace is now everywhere and at any time does our current WH& S and IR system cater for that? Mmm reading the legislation not sure it does – we have so much work to do in this space.