Powerful new forms of automation and tech advances in numerous sectors are fundamentally reshaping our world, including HR.
With the Fourth Industrial Revolution advancing, the topic of the day among organisations, business owners, professionals and employees, is: ‘What is the future of work really all about?’
The reality is that the future of work is fluid. Changes in the way people are taking on the challenges of their jobs and responsibilities, are happening at a very fast pace and HR is having to catch up on this. Insights gleaned from the World Economic Forum Report (2018) indicate that all the aforementioned stakeholders asking this question are actually crucial in creating inherent opportunities for economic prosperity, societal progress and individual flourishing in this new world of work.
Powerful new forms of automation and tech advances in numerous sectors are fundamentally reshaping our world. The question is what will happen to jobs with the ever-increasing introduction of robotics, computer algorithms and artificial intelligence, which are evidently increasing productivity and improving lives.
McKinsey Global Institute Research estimates that up to 30 per cent of the hours worked globally could be automated by 2030 depending on the speed of adoption. This will result in a decline in traditional roles such as operating machinery, preparing fast food, collecting and processing data. On the other hand, jobs that involve managing people, care work, applying expertise, require empathy and so forth will increase as these are harder to automate. In addition to this, McKinsey also estimate that globally, healthcare-related jobs such as doctors, nurses and health care technicians could grow to a maximum of 85 million by 2030. The reason for this is that the ageing population of economically active people aged 65 and over is projected to increase by one third (UKCES)
Research conducted by the Institute for the Future (IFTF) points out that these technologies enabled by significant advances in software, will underpin the formation of an era of new human-machine partnerships in 2030. This partnership, as explained by IFTF will result in employees becoming digital conductors who are required to absorb new information and apply it as fast as possible (in-the-moment learning) and whose work will consist of a set of discrete tasks rather than specific job roles. The future careers will not be about climbing up the ladder but about developing a wide range of skills across various job-related fields.
The workforce skills model developed by McKinsey Global Institute, categorises five skill sets namely: physical and manual skills; basic cognitive skills; higher cognitive skills; social and economic skills; and technological skills. The latter will see a substantial growth in demand as organisations deploy technologies with time spent on advanced technological skills forecasted to increase by 50 per cent in the US and by 41 per cent in Europe by 2030
Concurrently we will also see a rise in the demand for social and economic skills with the demand for entrepreneurship and initiative taking to be the fastest growing with a 33 per cent increase in the US and a 32 per cent rise in Europe. The demand for cognitive skills in 2030 will also see a shift from basic to higher ones such as creativity, critical thinking, decision making and complex information processing. All of this will result in fierce competition for talent bringing higher wages and benefits for the highly skilled, whilst wages for other cohorts may decline or stagnate.
Taking into consideration the research conducted by McKinsey and IFTF one can conclude that while enough new work can be generated for everyone there are serious challenges in how HR professionals will manage this transition and in so doing ensure that they step up their effort to train and retrain, redeploy, hire and contract employees in the skills required for the future. Furthermore, the onus is also shifting onto employees who need to acknowledge that it is crucial to keep on learning, re-skilling and be self-motivated to keep learning.
The challenge is not only specific for HR practitioners, but also to other stakeholders such as educational institutions, industry associations, employment agencies and government policy makers, who all must play their part to help overcome the potential skills mismatch of the future.
FHRD was set up in 1990 to spearhead the evolution of people management and development practices as well as the human resources profession in Malta. FHRD is an autonomous, private, independent body. FHRD works in partnership with its corporate members, the professional conglomerate of HR practitioners and service providers, leaders of the industry, and other key local players in the field of human resources management and development. Throughout the year, FHRD offers its own set of professional accredited training programmes and organises a number of events related to the world of HR. The Foundation also offers a set of academic programmes in the field of management and psychology in partnership with the University of Leicester. FHRD is a member of the European Association of Personnel Management (EAPM) and the World Federation of Personnel Management Associations (WFPMA).