Future of Work
Workplace disruption is here, so why aren’t we acting on it? We have the knowledge to prepare for coming changes to roles and tasks, and there are solutions available to us. Now we need to start doing rather than talking.
While we are drowning in a sea of noise about the ‘future of work’, real solutions to actual workplace questions are thin on the ground. It's time to stop talking about the future of work and start implementing the changes needed to deal with today and tomorrow.
Through comprehensive research carried out with employers and employees across Australia and New Zealand, EY found that change at the organisational level is accelerating through investment in AI, blockchain and machine learning.
In stark contrast, complacency regarding readiness still pervades both upper levels of business and government as well as the broader workforce.
To meet those challenges, EY is calling for government, organisations and education providers to come together and address our immediate need for readiness.
It’s time to define the future, understand it and ensure we don’t sleepwalk into tomorrow.
I think it is really important that the discussion about ‘work of the future’, which technically could be renamed ‘work of the now’, isn’t all doom and gloom. We should view this as an opportunity to introduce and co-design change that benefits people and communities.
We know emerging technologies will create job and task redundancies for employees in Australia and New Zealand. We know we need to change. But the problems, and opportunities, don’t lie somewhere off in the distance. They are here. In shifting the focus and rhetoric from job losses to proactively managing the transition to new ways of working, there is an opportunity to emerge economically stronger, as individuals, as organisations, and as a nation.
Time to stop talking and start doing.
To lead the change, EY is proposing three key recommendations:
1. Government guidance
The Australian and New Zealand departments of education, jobs, business and productivity need to develop reporting, insights and guidance on how jobs will change and what skills are needed to be future-ready. This will form a one-stop shop for all workers, employers and educators who are seeking the crucial, real-time information that is currently lacking.
2. Transition foundations
Organisations need to work quickly to build the transition foundations they need to adapt to changing skills and roles: learning frameworks, career pathways, skills planning and skills uplift.
3. Self-directed learning
The education ecosystem (institutions, organisations, providers) needs to work together to provide agile, adaptable offerings so that continuous, on-demand and self-directed learning becomes the new normal.
