What does the future of work look like? The future is here – remote, or location independent, work is not only here to stay, but it continues to grow and shift. Along with that expansion is the need to manage an ever-increasing remote workforce. Workplaces are more dynamic and flexible than ever. Let’s look at some key accelerants and components that are shaping how we work today.

The Changing Landscape and Horizon

Location Independence

A location independent workforce – whether full-time or contracted – is growing more toward a long-term corporate strategy, not just a handful of companies offering short-term benefits.

The benefits of location independence – including the ability for workers to direct their own careers and choose their home based on economic and family factors – continue to demonstrate their effectiveness.

These benefits extend to employers who gain from having a much more expansive talent pool and can provide a wider range of perks.

Talent Intelligence and Management

As non-office work continues to grow, those who manage those workforces need to be able to shift and scale their workforce management practices.

More often than not, leadership entails the ability to manage the ever-changing workforce, however large or small it is, by demonstrating an interest in each contributor’s wellness and what each is dealing with in life.

One challenge with location independence is handling the fast-moving processes of onboarding and offboarding. Not only is the usual task challenging, but the rise of deepfakes used by job candidates creates the need for companies to perform increased due diligence for certain positions.

Recruiting and hiring managers not only need to adapt to modern practices (which can be daunting), but also realize that the tools for these practices are available (which can bring hope).

Technology

The factors above would not be possible without the technology that is available. Newer technologies – particularly AI-enabled technologies – are changing how everyone works. It’s no longer just conveniences like web conferencing and instant messaging. Platforms that were previously nice-to-have have become essential by enabling elements such as international collaboration with voice and video capabilities, mobile apps, and secure file sharing & storage.

Chatbots, with which about 70% of white-collar workers interact with each year, are of such value that Gartner predicts that by 2027 about a quarter of businesses will use them as the primary customer service channel. (I can embed this link somewhere in the sentence.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA), with its ability to handle high volume repetitive software tasks such as data extraction and payroll processing, frees people to do more important activities such as logical and critical thinking. McKinsey predicts that the economic impact will be from $5-$7 trillion by 2025 by freeing up the time of about 230 million knowledge workers.

AI has also enabled an almost mind-bending speed and amount of information exchange, such as IBM Watson assisting doctors worldwide in making medical diagnoses, AlphaSense’s data-driven and automated financial data analysis, and Motional’s self-driving technology.

Intelligent Automation – the combination of AI, RPA, and other technologies such as Natural Language Processing (NLP) and computer vision – continues to expand. It became of tremendous importance during the pandemic by enabling the work-from-anywhere workforce to use intelligent document processing (IDP) to further digital transformation.

Processes are automated, people work faster and produce better, companies make decisions more efficiently and effectively, and organizations solve problems through real-time data and trend analysis.

Technological changes allow for better staffing automation, scalable rapid and reliable visibility intelligence, and companies to be digital enterprises.

The Future of Work Is Accelerating

These changes present opportunities to create new systems. It’s time to think about work as dynamic, moving beyond the idea of having employees sit at desks all day doing the same thing repeatedly. We need to create environments – wherever teams work – where people feel inspired to learn new skills, take on new responsibilities and tackle problems in different ways, and where people are heard and valued for their contributions.

The Future is Bright

As the gig economy becomes more of the default instead of the exception, it’s clear that properly implementing and managing processes and technologies are both necessary and have the potential to revolutionize the workforce.

Contact C.Solutions for help finding the right talent and for guidance in properly leading and managing your contingent workforce.