We are living in an uncertain world. Rate of acceleration fueling turbulence & uncertainty is on the rise due to innumerable variables around us. Most of these factors that drive changes are outside the sphere of influence of individual(s) – yet they are getting impacted by the resultant effects. While these changes are happening across all spheres of life, social – economic – political, the Corporate world is on the forefront of the wave due to the significance it holds in the social architecture.
“The world of work and employment are going through a metamorphosis is every format, size & scale– large, SMEs, organized & otherwise”
Prevalent model of employment (under challenge for its utility) is based on notions & assumptions of distant past. Permanent format of employment in corporates is wedlock model wherein once an individual enters – if nothing goes wrong – (s)he continues till attaining specified biological age. This is akin to common law definition of marriage ‘voluntary union for life of one man with one woman, to the exclusion of all others’. There are striking similarities in form, features & intent between classical marriages & classical employment format. Institution of marriage was established to nurture loyalty, stability & inter-dependence in the society and so was employment relationship. Important features of permanent employment are – two way stability, long term, value for each other, evolving expectations & propositions.
These features were designed, refined, tested & used under a set of conditions viz. sound, tested & fail proof business model, long life of repetitive processes, stable economic cycles, rarity of disruptions in technology, markets or resources. All the conditions & assumptions have already undergone tectonic shift and last remnants are being challenged. Startups & new economy organizations are quick to assimilate the change as part of their workforce design. Considering the economic impact, ideally with change of conditions, the format of employment which is pivotal to the value creation process would have also undergone change faster in large incumbent organizations, but for alignment & collusion of interests of the people responsible to change.
A few powerful trends & phenomena are pressing the world of work to disrupt the existing order in large scale organizations:
A Long Affair With Archaic Design
Excessive reliance on & usage of permanent employment model, in-spite of structural change in basic set of conditions of its invention, is brewing gross Inefficiencies at the workplace. Invariably in such organizations, rigid organization structure depicted through complex boxes & lines (causing silos & turfs), annual performance & rewards cycles (with or without bell-curve) & anti-agile, multi-layered decision hierarchy exist to compliment the archaic model of employment. It would be over optimistic to assume that large organizations (with their love of such instruments & practices) will be able to compete with the wave of startups & other agile formations, challenging the value proposition of products & services of the incumbent organizations. Currently new age organizations are creating value largely in adjacencies but eventually value creation would move to core propositions of the large behemoths. But for their financial prowess & historical control of resources, adverse impact of such inefficiencies would have forced a serious review of its utility and the need for overhaul to more dynamic workforce consisting of fluid & fit for purpose teams.
Technology is Knocking
Technology is changing the world of work silently & decisively. Even if full scale impact of emerging technologies like AI, ML, AR, VR, IOT at the mass workplaces is likely to come in a little later-driven by commercial considerations, new value proposition and ease of adaption of existing technology. Itself is disruptive enough to fundamentally alter the apple cart of established models of skills, competencies, career, learning & earning. Organizations which are quick in understanding long term implications of this trend in their context & adapt it early, are positioned better amongst the peer set to harness the benefits. It requires change management of an unprecedented scale. Most important aspect of this agenda is to work upon & influence the mindset of the workforce so as to minimize the obsolescence, redundancies, economic & human cost of these changes. It requires willingness of the larger ecosystem to accept new paradigm of managing individual careers from prevalent singular track growth to multiple cycles of learning – unlearning – relearning. The demographic balance of India will present opportunities to organizations to make interesting ‘build – buy – remake’ choices. These choices will have profound impact on individuals, careers & livelihood of millions of people, value creation models and other related factors. Technology is likely to change the basic ways of work, methods, employment as also engagement relationships of individual with the organization as its known today. Both the individual & the organization need to participate into this to make the most of it by investing & upgrading their skills and work processes in sync with new realities.
Welcome to Equalizing & Democratic Workplaces
Third powerful trend is increasing democratization of society & workplace. Global connectivity, access to information & combination of several other factors are pushing equalization & democratization at the workplaces. Its natural progression of diversity & inclusion drive. Classical means of command & control in the organization has already given way to facilitative styles. Leaders & Managers unbale to understand and/or re-engineer their set of beliefs and style to new requirement are considered as fossil by the new-gen workforce. In-spite of having know-how & relevant experiences redundancies of managers are being created due to this change as they are unable to drive value. This change is likely to continue pushing boundaries where most important factor of being valued will be sheer ability to create value. Ability to collaborate & work together on complex tasks has emerged as one of the most revered & desirable competencies for individuals. Further, existing efforts of enhancing objectivity in performance evaluation & rewards linkage will be supplemented by technology, reducing the influence of perception over data.
Corporate organizations are mighty entities pursuing long journey of evolution & adaptation. These entities have institutional ability honed over long period to find solutions and move on. Imperatives & impact of these changes for the individuals are more profound. To observe, infer, adapt & evolve in life are basic survival competencies for human beings as opposed to other species like Dinosaurs. Openness to re-orient (or otherwise) is a choice that humans make based on their needs & preferences. For those who choose to remain prisoners of used frameworks (which are devoid of relevance & utility) journey is shorter! For others, there is an exciting future of work & new workplace waiting to be embraced.
