•Social and organizational reconfiguration: Increased democratization of work creates a shift away from hierarchy in favor of more power-balanced organizations and communities that are less employment-based and more project-based. Talent will increasingly “join” based on aligned purpose.
•All-inclusive global talent market: Work is seamlessly distributed around the globe with 24/7 operations enabled by new corporate and social policies. Extreme longevity allows mature talent to stay in the workforce longer, while women and nonwhite ethnicities become talent-market majorities.
•A truly connected world: The world is progressively connected through mobile devices that allow work to be done from anywhere by a network of freelancers. New media enable global and real-time communications to speed up ideation, product development and go-to-market strategies.
•Exponential pattern of technology change: Technological breakthroughs increasingly disrupt markets and businesses. The rapid adoption of robots, autonomous vehicles, commoditized sensors, artificial intelligence and global collaboration will renew the rethinking of work.
•Human-machine collaboration: Advances in analytics, algorithms and automation continue to make improvements in productivity and decision-making. Smarter computing increasingly automates and abolishes mundane tasks previously performed by humans.17
Figure 2.2 Five Forces of Change
CHREATE, 2018, http://chreate.wpengine.com/2018/02/15/tools/.: //chreate.wpengine.com /2018/02/15/tools/.
The first three forces of change speak to the theme of democratization of work, where a new vision of the future is characterized by new “employment” relationships that are shorter in duration and place into balance the needs of the individual and the needs of the company. A shift toward a more agile and responsive view of work will deliver results by activating purpose-built networks such as teams that work on common goals.
The last two forces speak to technological empowerment, where technology is transforming the way we live and work. Machine learning, 3D printing, mobile, wearables and algorithmic analytics are some of the many technologies that promise to empower individuals. New technologies allow people to work from anywhere at any time, and, within the scope of privacy laws and company regulations, provide greater insights into the workforce.
These forces of change in the workplace make it obvious that companies must dispense with talent operating models where the power in employment relationships is centralized and employees are boxed into narrowly prescribed roles. Given the proliferation of on-demand talent platforms—such as Topcoder, Toptal, Figure Eight, InnoCentive, Upwork, and Guru—there is no longer a necessity to create a “job” for every need an organization has at the moment. Because a significant amount of work can be broken down into discrete tasks or projects, companies can access the specific skills required now and let the individuals involved then move on to other projects where they can put their skills to the best use.
While this can be done with external or on-demand talent, the process can also be implemented internally to provide employees with new, challenging projects that keep them interested and engaged. It also simultaneously contributes to their development by offering different work assignments with different people in the company, while exposing them to new skills of growing importance to the firm. This choice to decide what work fuels their passions and interests is the new consumer experience that employees want today. Giving employees a technological solution that makes choosing work assignments as easy as ordering from Amazon brings the dynamic of today’s consumer experience into the workplace.
The New Employment Contract: Continuous Learning
Before we address the research supporting an employee’s desire to learn and grow, let’s consider the issue from a company’s perspective. Skills, not jobs, will become the new currency of the labor market.18 We’ve already seen that in today’s rapidly changing business environment the half-life of skills is less than five years. This means we all have to embrace a lifetime of learning rather than continue with the old mindset where we spend the first part of our lives learning, the next phase working and the last stage in retirement. Such a transformation is particularly needed because we are living longer and are likely to experience several different careers in the course of a lifetime.
A study by McKinsey & Company in late 2017 found that 66 percent of top executives said retraining and upskilling their employees were urgent business priorities.19 More than 8 out of 10 global managers view learning as an important or very important issue for organizations today.20 However, companies are aware that they aren’t keeping up with the demand for personalized, dynamic, continuous learning opportunities. As a result, they’re shifting to self-directed practices that enable people to develop themselves: on-the-job learning, access to massive online open courses (MOOCs) or other online content curated for their experiences. Cementing the importance of continuous learning for organizations, recent Glassdoor data reveal that the “ability to learn and progress” is now the key driver of a company’s employment brand.21 So, in today’s highly competitive talent market, continuous learning is a business priority. Furthermore, LinkedIn’s 2018 Workforce Learning Report indicates 93 percent of employees would stay at a company longer if the company invested in their careers.22
Studies of the attitudes of new college graduates in the United States and United Kingdom found some alarming results.23 When new college graduates enter the workforce, they report being eager, prepared, passionate and committed, but one or two years later, those same graduates feel disillusioned, underemployed and undervalued. These individuals are looking for a more personalized experience at work, where their passions will be acknowledged and their career paths or work experiences are customized to their interests.
By creating an Inside Gig experience, companies can offer employees a better learning experience, improved variety in career development, and the possibility of keeping them engaged in corporate strategy, all of which will help them utilize their skills and not feel underemployed. According to a 2019 Mercer report, 51 percent of employees are willing to take an internal gig to gain experience, up from 38 percent in 2018.24
Through a series of interviews with companies experimenting with project-based opportunity platforms, we have learned that innovative companies are trying to help employees identify prospects for real-time learning. While almost all of these organizations provided these learning experiences on top of employees’ regular work responsibilities, the opportunities offered employees the ability to leverage skill sets in new contexts or grow skill sets by applying them in a larger or different manner than they were able to do in the past. Connecting employees to the learning possibilities they desire is perceived to be highly valuable to both employees and employers. Learning has become an important commodity for employees in a constantly evolving business environment where skills can quickly become obsolete if learning isn’t continuous.
The New Employment Contract: Meeting Changing Expectations
As organizations build people practices, they need to consider what employees or managers want or expect. To attract new employees to a company, the research is clear: career advancement, challenging work and opportunities to learn new skills are essential.25 So providing employees with a diverse set of experiences in which they can craft their own path will help organizations entice the best talent in the marketplace.
Most companies that have experimented with internal talent networks have done so for the same reason—they’re trying to retain their best talent. It is often said that it is much easier to get a job in a different company than it is to transfer to a different department within the same firm. Employees today want new and different experiences.