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Value creation is the key for the future of work

August 18, 2016 by in News

Future of work 2

The Future of Work Conference was held earlier this week in Brisbane.   It was hosted by the RedEye team who have explored how traditional work environments are being disrupted, and what the Future of Work (FoW) may look like for many of us over the next 10 years.

Key insights

Some of the insights that were shared at the conference revolved around the following:

  1. The ‘Future of Work’ isn’t about work. It’s about value creation.
  2. Workforce and management need to adopt entrepreneurial skills to meet the shifting paradigm of value creation.
  3. Collaborative connectivity within an ‘Internet of Things’ will allow for real time problem solving.
  4. Customers of all industries expect ‘more for less’.
  5. Commodity tasks traditionally performed on a time cost basis should be a focus for automation or ‘systemisation’ with technology as an enabler.

The highlights in each of the main sections of the report are:

We’re being disrupted

  1. Disruption can occur where there is poor customer focus, industry monopolies, technological shifts or globalisation of markets.
  2. Customers of all industries expect ‘more for less’.  Commodity tasks traditionally performed on a time cost
    basis should be a focus for automation or systemisation with technology as an enabler.
  3. When employees are free from commodity tasks, time may be available for value adding functions.
  4. Collaboration can allow companies to beneficially learn and problem solve together within industries.

Workforce trends

  1. Management teams need to adapt to the Future of Work, entrepreneurial and sense making skills will be required through many levels of organisations.  Intrapreneurs will become vital to an organisation’s ability to create value.
  2. Connected workforces allow organisations to reimagine the way tasks are managed and support the ability for businesses to adopt agile practices where workers “pull” their next task.
  3. Workers expect consumer style design and usability in enterprise applications.
  4. Collaboration technologies will require ‘bandwidth’ (e.g. live machine data) to communicate issues or opportunities rather than voice, text and static screenshots.

Technology adoption

  1. Management teams need to adapt to the Future of Work, entrepreneurial and sense making skills will be required through many levels of organisations. Intrapreneurs will become vital to an organisation’s ability to create value.
  2. Connected workforces allow organisations to reimagine the way tasks are managed and support the ability for businesses to adopt agile practices where workers “pull” their next task.
  3. Workers expect consumer style design and usability in enterprise applications.
  4. Collaboration technologies will support require ‘bandwidth’ (e.g. live machine data) to communicate issues or opportunities rather than voice, text and static screenshots.

Big data

  1. Analysis and use of data becomes a key competitive advantage for organisations ready to adopt.
  2. Data is plentiful; however converting data into valuable insights for a business has proven challenging.
  3. Use of analytics and automated data collection from devices and machines will allow for real time context-based decisions.

Emerging technologies and the future of work

  1. Speech recognition is handsfree and may allow for a 400% throughput increase over typing.
  2. Barriers to accessing Immersive Technology including Virtual and Augmented Reality are
    being eroded through innovative technology.
  3. Connectivity of devices through the Internet of Things will massively increase the amount of data being generated and captured, and methods to rapidly analyse this data will be required to convert it into
    insights or actions.
  4. Use of drones may be used to remove workers from danger.
  5. The Future of Work will provide many opportunities for organisations and workers to collaborate, but will also pose challenges in finding balance.

Indigo Gold’s comment

This is interesting reading regarding the changes we may see in the future.  If nothing else, it may help people prioritise what changes they need to make with regard to career and training choices for staff and themselves.  In addition, to those readers who have children, it may give you food for thought when helping them choose subjects, electives and between job experience alternatives.

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