What you should do about the changing workplace

We are all familiar with the colossal changes to our lives that were brought about by Covid-19. What has not perhaps sunk in yet is the extent to which the world of work has permanently changed for employers and employees.

Let’s start with the most obvious transition. Global consultancy McKinsey & Company predicts that 20 percent of the global workforce could work from home three to five days a week in the future, while large employers such as Twitter and Facebook have already announced ‘forever’ remote-work plans.

This shift has hastened the increased automation of labour, almost under our noses. Cashier-less transactions are rapidly increasing in retail and fast-food jobs worldwide. Businesses and educational organizations have dramatically increased the use of learning management systems (LMS) to provide e-learning and training activities to remote workers and students, with the global LMS market size expected to grow from $13.4 billion in 2020 to $25.7 billion by 2025. Even in more normal times, blended learning is set to be a permanent feature of the classroom. And e-commerce in the GCC alone is expected to become an almost $50 billion market by 2025, up from $5.3 billion in 2015, according to Kearney Middle East.

The World Economic Forum had already predicted that one-half of all work tasks will be handled by machines by 2025, displacing an estimated 85 million jobs – and Covid-19 has sped up this transition.

It is also vital to consider the personal changes that the global workforce has undergone. Remote working measures forced employees to prioritize their work and think more independently. It led to greater online interactions, new reflections on work-life balance, commute times, and childcare demands.

All of this means business models need to change to accommodate this new reality.

Taking control

Natasha D’Souza wrote in Harvard Business Review that your career is your “enterprise” and as captain of your career trajectory, it is up to you how you choose to steer your ship during this crisis. This is the moment to learn a new skill, get back in touch with your curiosity, and ensure you don’t fall behind.

There are many routes to this destination. Executive education is expensive but is a tried and trusted method that gives access to a valuable network. Small companies and individuals can tap into MOOCs (massive open online courses) along with upskilling entities provided by their governments – for example, Dubai Futures Foundations is open to the public – or free resources such as LinkedIn Learning.

And then there is your role in context and how you do things. For example, one of the most prized assets moving forward is going to be the ability to focus, which has to do with mindfulness and being present. There is also self-care – if we are to work in greater solitude, with blurred boundaries between work and personal life, and increasing digital overload, how do we learn cognitive load management? How do we sleep better, and learn to relax as well as focus?

It is also helpful to think of this process as being less about your career and more about enriching your life. Socrates said, “the unexamined life is not worth living” and for those of us lucky enough to ask the question, now is the time to seek answers.

This is a long-term project, and for many it is a subtle journey. The writer Ian Leslie describes these layers of extra experience and insights as an augmented reality through which we see the world. What has been augmented in our own lives during this time?

Our new world also requires organizations to say what they’ve learned and how they’re making changes to keep pace. New KPIs need to be developed that reflect this reality. How do companies maintain the same output while providing enhanced education and training? Can they provide day care? Can they reorganise the working day so the employee is rewarded for creativity and efficiency, rather than holding to the clock-in-clock-out culture?

No turning back

Amid these challenges, I’m broadly optimistic that people can adapt, and that new jobs will be created that we don’t know about yet. A recent survey of manufacturers with annual growth rates of over 10 percent revealed that 45 percent said employment amid technology investment would stay the same; 28 percent said there’d be an increase in jobs.

I would stress one major caveat to all this. We must remember that most people are already burnt out from the pandemic, so organisations must think strategically to protect their workers. We all need to take stock, as individuals and organizations so that we can handle what’s coming our way.

The UAE is well positioned to make this leap. It has a young, digitally savvy workforce and a government with a clear, long-term vision. It can leverage the post-Covid-19, post-vaccine world to speed up its 2071 Centennial goals, building on the unprecedented achievements of its first 50 years, being celebrated this year. This process requires a well-structured collaboration between the government, industry, and the education sector, which is a big challenge – but there is a pathway to success.

Much like the UAE dreamed big with its Mars Hope probe, we as employees and employers can have our own ‘moon-shot’ moment. It’s time to escape our default settings and forge a more rewarding future.