Future of Work: Recreating work and Workplace

This 21st century is the age of data and machines. Changes are part of life. Ancient people had different ways of lifestyles. It gets modified and updated according to the demand of the time. We travelled a very long distance in our work styles, methods and work cultures. From writing on the leaves and stones to machine language, From handwritten records to Digital reports, From barter system, Hundi to NEFT and IMPS, From Bull work in the farms to the machine in the farms, From Ashram learning to online examination and from homemade remedies to the telemedicine. We adopted it accordingly in our work lives and balanced it according to the demand.

The Future of work and work-life is somewhat dependent on the machine and oriented toward man-made, artificial trained machine employed for the solutions of mankind. Pandemic locked the people in their homes with everything shut. People are compelled to adopt digital solutions. Online education, home delivery, telemedicine, work from home, all are novel ways of working. With some bottlenecks now the people are somewhat adopted themselves.

Artificial Intelligence, Robots, Machine learning, the Internet of things, Cloud computing and making everything digital will be the leading factors that shape the work culture of the 21st century.

Going Digital

With the advent of the pandemic when people have no access to physical space due to lockdown across the countries people looked towards digital solutions. It is not a new concept as such but people are not preferring it over the physical space. In the common working style, people prefer one to one conversation, handshakes and personal relations. These were some driving actors of healthy business relations. 

Imagining education without a classroom, teacher stick, the blackboard was very hard before the onset of the pandemic. Now with more than a year schools across the country are on online platforms. From taking lessons, tests, presentations over the screen and taking exams from home. It is now accepted and only left means to continue learning.

Work from home ( where ever possible) is now accepted. People were buying over the internet, Doctors are available over calls. Filling ITRs and GST return online, Paying fees and fines to the government electronically, these all created ease of working to the people in tough times.

The digital world brings a lot to the table. It helps in addressing the gap created by the restrictions. It brings transparency and reduces the chances of corruption in public services, like in Income tax filling and assessment and no physical contact between income assessor and assessee. It is also the green solutions as it reduces the carbon footprint due to less paperwork. The reach and accessibility have increased with the digital solutions. Cost per unit of service is minimised with a larger audience. Cost of the employees, as well as employer, got reduced due to the saving in the transportation cost, office expenses, office infrastructure cost etc. 

These offer a great opportunity to set up the business over digital means. But the hindrances are also many. As we look over the reach we must look into the connections of the internet. As per the National Survey Data 2018, only 6% of the rural and 25% of the urban population have a computer. Access to the internet is also not universal, 17% of rural and 45% of urban have internet. Surely with the growth of smartphones lead to some improvement but the majority of the population have no access. So when the business is exclusively on the internet it has very few customers. In the pandemic, NGOs and people start helping out people over the internet but the people who need help are not over the internet. Exclusion errors, Data privacy, Data leaks all are possible consequences. For example, the benefits that are provided with Aadhar data have serious exclusions. Vaccine registration is in full swing now but the problem is that to get yourself registered you should know-how of the internet, know English and have an Aadhar or mobile connection but the large population has no access to the same. They are eligible but due to technology, they are left out.

Playing with Machines

Hey! Alexa, Can you switch on the fan?  This is just an example of how machines enter our lives and make it easier for us. Machines are trained in such a way that they perform the work by themselves by learning. Robots are into manual work. Artificial intelligence and machine learning will provide great solutions to the future. Machines communicate with each other and help to create a favourable environment for a great experience. The future of work is in the machine and machine-oriented works. 

Blend of Machines and Humans.

Yes, life will be surrounded by machines in the future. But to create a machine and to train the machines we need human minds. The job of humans does not end there machines need overhaul and continues learning. It is the job of humans. Humans should look wisely toward machines and bring them as the best solution for humanity. Machines left without control have a disastrous impact. 

Work and work culture.

Every job would go some or more changes in coming future. Some jobs would be completely replaced but at the same time, new opportunities would knock on the door. With improvement in the literacy level across the globe, further integration of the world and cut-throat competition would shape the work.

Workplaces would not just be 9 to 5 jobs and space to sit. Workplaces would go through the overhaul. The workplace would enter into the house. The workplace would have women and disabled supported infrastructure, Demand for Refreshment activities and recreation would grow.

It is often seen that unemployment rates are high and at the same time industry complains about talent shortages. It is due to the academia and industry demand gap. The Indian education system is based on theoretical education more and has no direct linkages to the work. The industry would try to integrate the demand of the market into education. There would be more campus training and industry-academia linkages would grow.

Every new day will offer a new challenge. To meet this challenge new solution would be required. The need for continuous learning and updating your skill would be higher. Skill redundancy would be at a higher level. The person who is always ready to swim in the hard water would float on the water others would sink.

Way Forward

This is the myth that machines would replace humans and eat all the jobs. Yes, there is some impact but at the same time, those people will engage in different work.  

If one takes the bird’s eye view they will found a plethora of jobs some are labour intensive, some are highly mechanised. What one needs is just to get itself properly trained and keep updating according to the demand.

Pandemic pushed the world into a different order which has all new challenges. The job of the future would be to decode it and find the solutions that help humanity.

We as a team would be working not just for the handful of people who have internet and computer access but also for the population who have no idea of gadgets. Finding solutions for them and working for the betterment of the lower strata of the population would be a great job. Bringing them into the mainstream by educating them, technology solutions would offer a very big market.

Changes are part of life, those who adopt them would survive. The larger thing is that work and the workplace should work towards the betterment of people, the planet and growth in the economy.

Integration of the global world would offer challenges and opportunities at the same time. The industry would have to decide what to choose. 

To err is human; to edit, divine. It would be the mantra for the future.

Learn, practice, reskill and repeat.

Divyanshu Singh

(Views expressed are personal)