Workplace 2020: 4 defining factors of the future of work

The first few years of every new decade are more like the preceding decade than what eventually becomes its defining element. For example, the 1980s were characterized by the “greed is good” mantra from the movie Wall Street, but until about 1982, much of the world’s economy was in recession. What we now know as the go-go ’80s started showing glimmers in 1983 and didn’t hit full stride until approximately 1985.

It’s that way at work, too.  The features that influence the workplace begin appearing years ahead of the tipping point at which they come to define an era.

The First Industrial Revolution might have begun in 1760, but the real breakthrough in technology didn’t arrive until 1763. That’s when James Watt noticed the inefficiencies in a steam engine that had been invented years earlier by Thomas Newcomen.  Even then, adoption didn’t occur overnight.

What will happen in 2020?

Pick a date in the fall of 2020. Mark it on your calendar with this question: “How has the workplace changed since January 1?”

History suggests that barring a major disruption or catastrophic event, your answer will be, “Not all that much.”

The coming year will, however, move us one step closer to the workplace of 2025 and beyond. The signs are there. The shift is happening.

Here are four factors that will influence how we work in the coming year and set the stage for the future for what eventually becomes the “next new” workplace.

The demographic transition continues The generational story for the past decade has largely focused on the Millennials entering the workforce. That will evolve and change in 2020.

Baby Boomers are still around and likely to be in charge. We have just a few more years to hear about them as a driving force in how the workplace operates. Gen Xers would normally be in line to inherit the senior positions, but there are just too few of them to cover the gap of retiring Boomers.

The conventional reporting is that 75 percent of the workplace will be made up of Millennials in the year 2025.  That’s likely not true, but it is safe to assume that they will be firmly entrenched in positions to change the workplace by then and the door for Millennials to enter leadership roles will open wider in the next five years as organizations work to fill the talent gaps.

Don’t get comfortable, however.  Gen Z is coming. There will be more of them than the Millennials, and they are resolute in their desire to be their own distinct group.

Terry Simpson, Technical Evangelist for global workflow transformation company Nintex, told me that Gen Z will approach 30 percent in the next five years. Unlike the Millennials who came before them, this group is equally comfortable working in groups or alone. They tend to be more competitive, and they will expect you to make yourself attractive to them as an employer.

The Gen Z employees entering your workforce right now also aren’t willing to work with the legacy technology that has always been “good enough,” Simpson says. 

Why should they? They grew up in a world where there is always an app or answer for every question … and it is most likely a video that shows them the solution they seek.

Digital transformation becomes a way of life Why are we still talking about digital transformation as a big thing?  It has dominated the discussion for at least seven years, and, in truth, we’ve been progressively turning workplaces digital for the past 50 years.

We are reaching the point where all business transformation will be digitally based or at least have digital elements that support human experiences.

Implementation challenges continue to exist, but even those will reach the point where we are dealing with the normal challenges of change and execution.

Transformation is the goal. Digital is the tool. Both are essential and constant parts of the business ecosystem going forward.

Distributed, connected, and vulnerable Face-to-face human interaction doesn’t scale in a world of distributed work, says Dan Latendre, CEO of Canada-based SaaS company Igloo Software. He envisions a next generation digital workplace that moves beyond the information sharing and social collaboration tools of today to a platform that enables contextual communication, collaboration, and knowledge transfer. “Where you work is no longer defined by a place you go. The location of work is a digital destination,” he says.

Technology that enables connection when, where and how you want comes with a significant risk, however. Half of all security breaches come from what can loosely be described as mistakes by “some idiot like me,” says David Rabin, vice president of global commercial business for Lenovo. Solving this challenge will be one thing that absolutely makes technology leaders heroes for their organization.

Everything is the experience and the experience is everything A 2018 Gartner study reported that 81 percent of survey respondents expected their company to be competing on the basis of the customer experience by 2020.

While that experience is more likely to be digital in the future, there will be a human element at play. That makes a positive employee experience — driven by human connection — a key element for the workplace of the future.

Research by employee experience company Limeade shows that employees who feel cared about are 10 times more likely to recommend their company to others as a great place to work. They are four times less likely to burn out and nine times more likely to remain with their employer for three years or more.

“Technology is necessary for scale, reach, and big data insights. No technology platform will ever replace human connection, however,” says Limeade CEO Henry Albrecht. “Companies who authentically care for their people will thrive and gain long-term success.”

Paul Pellman, CEO of the HR technology provider Kazoo, agrees. He readily acknowledges that technology allows connection at scale and data allows you to gain critical insights into employee engagement, but “how those insights are applied by managers and leaders to encourage, inspire, and create a great employee experience are still crucial human leadership skills that technology can’t replace.”

The message is clear. The best workplaces of the future will be technology powered and human centric.

What you can do now to prepare

It is doubtful that many people saw the true long-term impact of the steam engine in 1760. The same can be said for Henry Ford’s first assembly line in 1913 or the introduction of microcomputers in the workplace in the mid-1970s. The year after those changes appeared didn’t look dramatically different than the prior year. The long-term impact, however, was revolutionary.

We are at a similar point today. The demographic and technological changes that will set the stage for the future are in place. 2020 is the time to act.

With that in mind, here are four things you should do right now to prepare for what’s next.

Strengthen your culture The culture always wins. A world-class strategy and technology platform with a second-class culture won’t produce the results you need for the future.

O.C. Tanner’s 2020 Global Culture Report suggests that our current thinking about engagement won’t be enough to sustain a culture that can flourish in the future.  Frustration with traditional employer practices and burnout are increasing at an alarming rate.

Limeade’s Albrecht believes that the best workplace cultures in the future will allow employees to bring their real, authentic selves to work. Employees will know and feel that their leaders and organization care about them.

Kazoo’s Pellman emphasizes the importance of trust, transparency, and connection.  He says that, “nurturing your culture into a place where all employees feel like they are helping the company succeed has an impact on both the KPIs you measure and your overall organizational health.”

Pellman, Nintex’s Simpson, and Albrecht are unanimous in their belief that the best organizations will continue to prioritize employee experience and wellbeing even when there is an economic slowdown.  They know that their future success depends on recruiting and retaining the best available people who volunteer their commitment.

Recruit and retain AAA employees Prevailing wisdom is that you want AA employees — those who have both the aptitude to do the job and an attitude that makes them a fit for your culture. That works for jobs requiring incremental change.

Increasingly, though, organizations are recognizing that the profile of an ideal employee includes a third “A” — altitude.

Employees with a high altitude are curious and collaborative. They are creative problem solvers and critical thinkers. Most important, they have the courage to do what’s right especially when it isn’t convenient.

AAA team members at every level of the organization give you the flexibility to anticipate and pursue what’s next.

Think beyond tools to implement solutions Organizations are too often guilty of turning tools into goals. That happened in the 1980s with total quality management, and it has been happening for the past several years as companies focus on the digital tool rather than the business solution.

Stephanie Trunzo, head of transformation and offerings at Oracle put it this way, “Technology is the subplot. The real question is how do you solve customer problems and business challenges?”

Grow leaders who value human connection and judgement Perhaps the most important change you can make to prepare your organization for the future is to grow leaders who value the human connection and have the ability to help others make good decisions.  Baby Boomers and Gen Xers grew up in a world that depended on a network of people — rather than a digital network — for answers. That’s not always the case with Millennials and Gen Zs.

There will come a time when artificial intelligence and robots make many jobs obsolete. It won’t happen to every job, nor will it occur overnight. Human leadership is still important.