5 Emerging Trends - Shaping the Future of Work

Work

Anh Vu 21 September, 2022 6 min read

What is Future of Work? While the world has begun to recover from two years of Covid pandemic, there is an uncertain economic outlook in parallel with a shifting change in the labor market. According to World Economy Forum reports in recent years, as looking at the Future of the Work, it is increasing demand for millions of new jobs, with vast new opportunities for fulling human’ potentials and aspirations.

Moreover, it is necessary to get a deeper insight into new job creation, the shifting focus on the workforce and employment in the future, what emerging work trends are and the reasons behind them, and how we can improve to leverage those opportunities in a sense of adapting and thriving in the consistently changing world.   

In this article, we explain 5 main future work trends that are shaping the future of the workforce and employment.

Future of Work - Automatically and Technological Adoption

Over the past decade, since the start of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, there is an increase in the adoption of automation and technology in many kinds of industries, which embarked on a reorientation of many businesses’ strategic directions.

According to The Future of Job Report 2020, It is estimated that the capabilities of machinery and algorithms will be more widely employed than in previous periods, and the working hours performed by automatic machines will match the time spent working by human beings by 2025. Thus, the time spent on current tasks at work by humans and machines will be equal to the forecasted time.  

In addition, according to a recent business survey, 43% of respondents, plan to introduce further automation while reducing their workforce, and 43% aim to expand their use of contractors for task-specialized work, as opposed to 34% of respondents who plan to broaden their workforce due to the technology integration.

The rapid rise of automation applications will have a strong impact on how businesses operate and workers are forced to learn new skills to work alongside them.

Future of Work - AI in Human Resource

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a novel term in every sector of the economy and of life, which has gained considerable attention and excitement in recent years. It is raising the question of whether AI can completely replace human beings, especially in the field of Human resources and development.

Many companies have applied this advancement to almost every stage of the HR life cycle including Identifying and Attracting, Acquiring, Deploying, Developing, Retaining, and Separation. This toolkit is designed to speed up basic tasks such as resume reviewing and interviewing scheduling, maximizing employee performance and engagement, assessing new job candidates for their right position, and even predicting turnover and customizing individual career path development…

However, there are existing drawbacks of AI-based HR systems as they may unintentionally create biases and eliminate qualified, diverse candidates with biased variables input.

Future of Work - The Remote and Hybrid Workforce

In the Covid-19 context, employee flexibility has been a sustainable model for many organizations, as the promotion of remote working and new hybrid working. A highly flexible workplace will continue to remain as a cornerstone of the future of work even during post-pandemic despite controversial and uncertain outcomes.

However, many remote-capable employees believe that hybrid work can balance the benefits of being in the office and from home. It is estimated that as many as 70% of firms from small-scale companies to massive multinationals like Apple, Google, Citi, and HSBC plan to implement some form of hybrid working arrangements for their employees.

Many pieces of research represent remote work can make companies more productive and profitable, nevertheless, the employees and leaders also have to adapt new management tools to ensure their workforces remain engaged and truly inclusive.

Future of Work? The Top 5 trends
Future of Work? The Top 5 trends

Future of Work - 7 Professional Clusters in Focus

Conducted by the World Economic Forum, the Future of Job Reports in 2018 and 2020 indicated that 85 million jobs may be displaced by a shift in the division of labor between humans and machines while 97 million new positions may emerge across the 15 industries and 26 economies.

In particular, the leading roles in growing demand belong to the emerging professional clusters that accounted for 6.1 million job opportunities globally from 2020-2022 including 37% in Care Economy, 17% in Sales, Marketing, and Content, 16% in Data and AI, 12% in Engineering and Cloud Computing, 8% in People and Culture and 6% in Product Development. However, it is Data and AI, Green Economy and Engineering, and Cloud Computing professional clusters with the highest annual growth rates of 41%, 35%, and 34%, respectively.

Future of Work - Demand for Reskilling and Upskilling to Survive and Thrive

As mentioned before, technology adoption has broadened the skills gaps in the labor market both locally and internationally. Skills shortages are more acute in these emerging professionals. On average, companies estimate that around 40% of workers will require reskilling of six months or less and 94% of business leaders report that they suppose employees to pick up new skills on the job, a sharp uptake from 65% in 2018. Increasing demand for high-growth occupations has further driven the value of numerous distinguishing skill sets that belong to these seven professional clusters and their promise of thriving and prosperity in the new economy.

Here are listed top 15 skills for 2025

  1. Analytical thinking and innovation
  2. Active learning and learning strategies
  3. Complex problem-solving
  4. Critical thinking and analysis
  5. Creativity, originality, and initiative
  6. Leadership and social influence
  7. Technology use, monitoring, and control
  8. Technology design and programming
  9. Resilience, stress tolerance, and flexibility
  10. Reasoning, problem-solving, and ideation
  11. Emotional intelligence
  12. Troubleshooting and user experience
  13. Service orientation
  14. Systems analysis and evaluation
  15. Persuasion and negotiation

Top cross-cutting, specialized skills of the future by 2025

  1. Product Marketing
  2. Digital Marketing
  3. Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
  4. Business Management
  5. Advertising
  6. Human-Computer Interaction
  7. Development Tools
  8. Data Storage Technologies
  9. Computer Networking
  10. Web Development
  11. Management Consulting
  12. Entrepreneurship
  13. Artificial Intelligence
  14. Data Science
  15. Retail Sales
  16. Technical Support
  17. Social Media
  18. Graphic Design
  19. Information Management

Indeed, technological-related skills are always in high-demand specialized skills for many kinds of work. Practice these basic skills with AhaSlides to improve your quality of work and earn more profitable incomes alongside with your employers' recognition.

Future of Work
Future of Work

What Helps with the Future of Work

It is undeniable that the aspiration of employees to work in remote and hybrid workplaces is increasing which leads to the possibility of lacking employee engagement, well-being, and quality of work. The question is how to control and encourage employees to commit to organizations for the long term without pressure. It becomes easy with just a click on AhaSlide solutions. We have designed engagement activities and incentives to raise employee performance.

Improve your technical skills by learning more about AhaSlides.

Ref: SHRM