New Ways to Work

The employment landscape is in flux, impacted by forces that are transforming the workplace and introducing new ways to work. Disruption comes from every angle: technologies like automation, robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI); the API economy and hyper-connectivity on a global scale; and the next generation workforce.

We are at a tipping point where in the next three to five years, the workforce will be predominantly made up of Millennials and Gen Z.

Together, these demographics are the “digital elite.”

The average Gen Zer has the attention span of about eight seconds. I’ll let that sink in (for a few more seconds). They are causing a seismic shift in the workplace through new technologies, values, work ethic and expectations. They are creating new ways to work—a geography of jobs that calls for entirely new skill sets, approaches and management styles.

Forces Transforming the Employment Landscape

These generations march to the beat of a different drum and the Intelligent and Connected Enterprise will have to embrace their work habits.

Gen Zers multitask across at least five screens a day and spend 41% of their free time on computers or mobile devices. They expect to use the same tools in the office that they use in their leisure time, like social media, mobile connectivity, gesture-based interfaces and wearable devices. Mobility and flexibility guide this workforce.

Gen Zers are attracted to organizations that are entrepreneurial in nature or function like a startup with more freedom and much less control. Organizations will need to support diversity and equality to stimulate productivity, as well as a highly evolving and inclusive workforce.

The new workplace infrastructure will be fluid, dynamic, global and diverse. Hierarchies will flatten, organizational structures will decentralize and the work environment will be collaborative and highly social.

Critical roles new roles are emerging, including the Digital Nomad, the Data Officer, the Data Scientist and the Developer. Enterprise Information Management (EIM) gives these roles the tools they need.

Emerging Roles in the New Workplace

The Digital Nomad—championed by Millennials and Gen Z—expects easy and open access, from anywhere, to information, knowledge and expertise. Through EIM Content Services, the Digital Nomad can collaborate effectively within and outside of the organization. Teams have access to a central platform that makes content easy to find, share and update securely regardless of their location, device or application. As workloads and data move to the cloud, people will follow. In what has been referred to as the “human cloud,” sites like Amazon’s Mechanical Turk are matching freelancers with employees to complete projects and tasks. The demand for these kinds of workers is growing. McKinsey estimates that by 2025, there will be 540 million workers in the human cloud.

Large volumes of data require greater oversight and governance. The Data Officer is a dedicated role whose focus is the security, privacy and compliance of information. With information centralized in a secure and intelligent hub, the Data Officer can enforce compliance policies, manage identities and access, and protect against threats. 

To use information to its fullest potential, the enterprise—and the Data Scientist—needs unparalleled access to business insights. Our AI platform, Magellan, augments the work of the Data Scientist by helping make sense of rich data lakes through visualizations, machine-learning algorithms and predictive suggestions. As AI becomes more advanced, many routine, repetitive and even white-collar administrative tasks will be replaced by computers and robots. AI-driven robots (called Co-bots) will work alongside humans, allowing people to program machines to do the tasks they do not want to do. People will engage with each other and machines to innovate in ways not previously possible or even imaginable.

The Developer is central to the new API economy and the development of secure-from-day-1 applications. OpenText AppWorks enables the Developer through a next generation, mobile-first platform for process automation, case management and low-code application development.

HR practices will also transform to support recruitment and retention of top talent. The entire hiring process will become digitized from end to end. Video resumes will feature prominently while interviews, onboarding and training will occur via video conferencing.

Managing the next generation workforce, new job functions and the new skillsets they bring will also require new leadership qualities with flexible approaches and attitudes. Gen Z values transparency with clear expectations on performance, strategy and accountability. They want to be set up for success, not failure, and will respect strong leaders who mentor, coach and direct them successfully, each step of the way.

The Intelligent and Connected Enterprise will embrace the forces transforming the workplace and create an infrastructure that supports connectivity, collaboration and compliance.

If you like this series, I encourage you to download my recent book, The Intelligent and Connected Enterprise.

What workplaces changes can you see on the horizon? Have you already felt the impact of these forces?