The world of work is transforming at an unprecedented pace. Driven by technology advancements, economic volatility, and population shifts, change is unavoidable. This unrelenting upheaval gives the HR department a rare opportunity. As the status quo evolves, HR can act as an architect of the future, shaping everything from workplace processes to the very meaning of work.
This potential can feel overwhelming, especially considering the vast number of paths HR teams could pursue. As such, it’s essential to have a clear view of what could take shape, including the pros and cons of the most likely possibilities. That’s exactly what SAP SuccessFactors’ new report, The Road Ahead: Predictions and Possibilities for the Future of Work, provides. The report’s predictions are based on a review of 357 business press and secondary research articles, structured foresight techniques, and empirical validation — a global survey of 8,058 employees.
In the article below, we briefly explore the three pillars of the report, outlining a total of 10 predictions.
Pillar one: The future of working
The first pillar of the research explores how AI will redefine the essence of jobs and tasks. It examines how the technology will disrupt and redesign roles and how employee thinking and collaboration will shift.
Predictions
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AI impact approaches: Organizations are already using AI to boost efficiency. In the future, they may use AI to upgrade productivity through established workflows, or they may leverage AI to create transformative solutions and alternative outputs.
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Work redesigned: AI is already shifting the way work gets done. Some employers will attempt to maximize what AI can do, making the technology’s potential their top priority. Others will operate based on a principle called strategic symbiosis, using AI to focus employees’ efforts on work that matters most to them and the business.
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Digital hearts, human needs: Employers must define the relationship between humans and AI at work. Employers may treat AI as one of the team. Alternatively, they may position the technology as a distinct collaborator.
- The great cognitive shift: As humans rely more on AI, the technology will shape how employees think. This change could trigger an “offload effect,” where employees revert to using AI for demanding work. On the other hand, organizations could position AI as a tool to catalyse human thinking, rather than replace it.
How people analytics will help
To support the future of working, organizations must understand how the business is operating so they can track progression, measure impact, forecast outcomes, and enact effective decision changes. People analytics gives organizations insight into their current people and processes. Task intelligence, for example, will help HR grasp current workflows, including how employees are already using AI. Tools like organizational modeling will also allow organizations to forecast the outcomes of redesign and manage change effectively.
Pillar two: The future of the workforce
The next pillar of the report probes the future of the workforce itself. It investigates who will perform this next-generation work, highlighting demographic shifts, the evolving idea of success in the workplace, and disruption-prone workforce segments and roles.
Predictions
- Early talent in peril: As AI takes on routine tasks, entry-level opportunities will fade. Rather than build their skills within organizations, employees may begin their careers through the gig economy. Employers may avoid that future by carving out a place for early-career workers and bringing them up through a tailored pipeline.
- People leaders at a crossroads: Today’s managers are overwhelmed and underrepresented. AI may take on a coaching role, or managers could leverage AI to reduce their operational and administrative workload, allowing them to focus more on mentorship.
- The third career act: As the workforce ages, organizations may tap into older employees’ expertise through projects and short-term assignments. Alternatively, employers may treat senior workers as strategic consultants who can offer crucial historical context that AI can be trained on.
How people analytics will help
Employers will need to reevaluate their expectations and goals for talent across career phases as the workforce of the future emerges. They’ll need to devise strategies to enable new capabilities, even as career arcs shift entirely. Skills intelligence technology will assess for internal skill gaps and identify external skill availability with labor market data. This technology will play an important role in pinpointing, anticipating and solving shortages.
Pillar three: The future of work practices
The final pillar of the research studies how HR practices will need to transform in the coming years. The arrival and implementation of AI will change the way talent is identified, managed, evaluated, and rewarded, which means that HR will need to adapt its practices and protocols accordingly.
Predictions
- Recruiting reinvented: Recruiters were an early adopter of AI, but candidates are taking advantage of the technology now, too. This could result in an AI arms race, where each party automates every element of the hiring process, ultimately leading to agent-to-agent exchanges. However, the recruiting process could also evolve into a more predictive system, where both candidates and employers leverage AI to determine best-fit roles.
- Performance redefined: Today’s performance management is based on rigid, annual cycles, and it often fails to measure an employee’s contributions. Organizations may use AI to adopt a more detailed, minute approach to performance management, or they may tap the technology to create a multidimensional view of contributions.
- Pay reimagined: An employee’s compensation usually reflects their role and tenure — not their contributions. In the future, rewards could reflect contributions in real time. Alternatively, employers could instead take a longer-term approach, designing rewards that reflect employees’ contributions and their enduring impact.
How people analytics will help
To adjust HR practices, organizations need a deeper, more accurate understanding of employees: their contributions, their impact and how they should be rewarded. To comprehend these elements holistically, accurate data is a must. HR needs information that shows what tasks employees are working on and with whom they’re collaborating.
Task intelligence and organizational network analysis are key to this effort. Using data to map and analyze formal and informal relationships, as well as communication flows, they will provide HR with a data-driven portrait of workplace dynamics that traditional organizational charts miss. This information will allow for more informed decisions on talent, collaboration and organizational health.
Take charge of the future of work
HR doesn’t need to wait for the future of work to take shape. With the right tools and reliable data, it can create a future that benefits both employers and employees. To learn more about the possibilities that lie ahead and how to realize them, download SAP’s full report.
This article is part of a series covering people analytics. Check out the first, second, third, fourth and fifth articles.