Forecasting the Future of Work for Tomorrow’s Employers

To weather the current crises and ensure employees have critical skills for success, organizations should go above and beyond core operations to provide five opportunities to their workforces and communities.

While some companies have hemorrhaged hard-won talent in droves from layoffs during the Coronavirus pandemic, others have struggled to recruit the numbers they need to fill their labor demand. This leaves HR and operations leaders to wonder whether it’s realistic to create a talent strategy amid so much continuing uncertainty.

While every twist and turn of today’s reactive economic environment can inspire dire warnings about the disruption of the global labor market and the pressure facing organizations to compete aggressively or fade away, the future of work is still hopeful. As we note in our latest white paper, A New Employer Almanac: Forecasting the Future of Work for Tomorrow’s Employers, it’s possible for employers to weather the current crises, identify critical skills and infuse them into the talent they need, and emerge thriving—but only by going above and beyond core operations to provide the following opportunities to employees and communities:

  • Relevant and timely education
  • Benefits that focus on wellness and quality of life
  • Local partnerships between businesses and educational institutions
  • A universal prioritization of equality and equity
  • A seat at the table for employees

“Talent development leaders who want to embrace the benefits of the future will need to be thinking about creating a holistic employee experience,” notes Nicole Jones, vice president of Talent Development at Strategic Education, Inc. “It comes back to the fact that employees are looking for a place of belonging—an environment that is caring, flexible, and committed to investing in who they are and who they want to become, regardless of how the work changes in the future. Employers and employees will need to come together to identify how technology can assist in supporting a more sustainable work-life balance.”

Adds SEI Ventures Principal Taylor Chapman, “More than ever, workers are likely to be juggling many obligations, such as child care, community involvement, elder care, second or third jobs, and more. Being able to meet learners where they are—ideally in a digital- and mobile-friendly format—is critical.”

Navigating the Unfolding Future of Work

The future of work is about more than artificial intelligence, automation, and disruption—it’s also about how those advancements will affect the talent organizations need to succeed.

The five prominent themes mentioned above address much of what employers can expect to see develop more fully over the next few years. And employers that can focus on these themes and fulfill their promises to employees, communities, and customers are the ones that will secure a prominent position in the economy to come.

“This is an opportune time for HR and talent teams to lead and help organizations reimagine what is most important, creating the narrative as organizations want it to be,” Jones says. “What do you want employees and customers to say about you, before and after the crisis you’re weathering today?”

Click here to download the full white paper.

Strategic Education, Inc., is dedicated to enabling economic mobility through education. It serves students through a range of educational opportunities that include: Strayer University and Capella University, which collectively offer flexible and affordable associate, certificate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs; a Top 25 Princeton Review-ranked online MBA program through the Jack Welch Management Institute; self-paced college-level, general education courses through Sophia; customized degrees for corporations through Degrees@Work; and non-degree web and mobile application development courses through DevMountain, Generation Code, Hackbright Academy, and The New York Code + Design Academy. Learn more at: strategiceducation.com/employers