The Future Of Work Is Here

The most successful companies will be the ones focussing on improving the employee experience

Covid-19 has accelerated changes in almost every aspect of our daily lives.  This is especially true for the world of work, where we are in the midst of a sea change, with forward-thinking organizations breaking through decades-old paradigms to meet the demands of a more fluid and frictionless world of work. 

Today, all companies are trying to navigate these uncertain times – figuring out how to be more resilient and agile. The most successful companies of tomorrow will be the ones that are focused today on improving the employee experience, which drives engagement, loyalty, and retention.  

According to the Ceridian Pulse of Talent Report, 68 percent of the Canadian workforce is looking for new job opportunities or would consider moving jobs if approached by another company. About 87 percent of workers under the age of 30 are the most likely to be on the move.

As we look ahead, we see the future of work as borderless and fluid. We believe leading organizations will wholeheartedly embrace fundamental changes that reflect a more intelligent mode of working. 

In every other aspect of our lives, we expect everything on-demand.  Whether it is ordering a burger and fries to your door through Uber or renting a movie through Apple, we expect instant delivery.  This is now becoming the same expectation for our work life.  Employees expect job searching, hiring, onboarding, scheduling, and pay all to be available on-demand.  

In particular, we believe the notion of a fixed pay period will soon disappear as employees want to see exactly how much they’ve earned at the end of each day and want on-demand access to those earned wages.  By enabling workers to access their wages as they earn and need them, employees will be less likely to rely on high-interest loan options and, therefore, less stressed at work as they no longer oscillate between being cash-rich on payday and cash poor as they near their next payday. 

We see a much more elastic workforce emerging, where people will work whenever and wherever they want. For employees, this means they will be able to work from anywhere, for anyone, and at any time they want to.  They may have a primary workplace – at home or a traditional office – or they may prefer a hybrid approach where they split time between a home office and their employer’s office.  They may have one employer, or they may want to earn extra income through secondary employment channels. Multiple companies, multiple locations – wherever a person’s skills allow them to add value.  

We see this happening already in pockets of the retail and hospitality industries. Employees will be able to go to any workplace, identify themselves, verify their right to work, validate their skills and backgrounds, and get paid as soon as the work is done. Who a person works for, and when and where they work, will be driven by a person’s happiness, productivity, and financial wellbeing, rather than by some fading 20th-century notion of employment exclusivity.  Free agency is the new norm for workers.  

The “rise of the worker” is here. Employees are demanding and driving a more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and empowering workplace culture.  Whereas a positive employee experience was once relegated to a “nice-to-have” workplace perk, it is now a “must-have” inextricably tied to the basic resilience and sustainable growth of our businesses. 

For employers, predictive intelligence can guide better human resource decisions. By harnessing the power of data, employers can match people and work in a much more intelligent way.  Intelligence empowers managers to make smarter decisions that put the physical, mental, and financial wellness of their people first.  The new normal also means access to an on-demand workforce with lower overhead and liability.

This is the future of work. It presents both opportunities and challenges for employers and employees.  Businesses that modernize quickly will be at a distinct competitive advantage.  The winners will be the forward-thinking businesses that seek to improve the employee experience by embracing this new on-demand, employee-led workplace. And employees will be winners too as the way they want to work and the way they want to live finally come together.