Preparing organizations for the fourth industrial revolution workforce

Introduction The world is beginning to experience industrial revolution for the fourth time. These changed are evidenced in a range of developments including artificial intelligence, genetics, 3D printing, biotechnology, robotics, and nanotechnology among others. These fields are evolving and expanding by the day in an interactive, cross-discipline fashion. The emergence of smart systems is set to ring the first bells of this revolution. These systems will be employed tackle an array of issues; from supply chain systems to climate change management. Monetizing every household commodity will be the norm (Global Challenge Insight Report, 2016). Like in any revolution, the fourth industrial revolution will also leave behind a trail. There will be losers and winners. Both individuals and organizations will be shaken by the change. It is expected that the changes will cause disruptions in some sectors to the extent that there might be social unrest (Shook and Knickrehm, n.d). Every responsible organization must be proactive by creating a future workforce. The highest echelons of management in organizations must recognize both the opportunity and challenge posed by the impending changes. Finding the way to the future workforce involves engaging the management in asking and finding answers to tough questions. The questions, among others, should touch on how to attract and develop fresh talent, how to accelerate change, how to secure the correct amount and investment type among people to prepare them and how those already with the organization will keep up with the pace (Shook and Knickrehm, n.d). Notably, the fast-changing demographic patterns are a great indicator of the workforce in future. The workforce of tomorrow will not be entirely different. Some of the today’s challenges will still confront them. It is critical that government leaders and business managers need to understand these changes and trends (Buckley and Bachman, 2017). The technological revolution is occurring concurrently with a host of geopolitical, socioeconomic and demographic driving factors of change. These elements interact variously and intensify each other. Even as industries adjust entirely, radical transformation is being observed in multiple other sectors. It’s a myriad of changes. Some sectors have to cut down staff because of redundancy. Others, experience rapid growth in the same breath and need to employ more. Current jobs are also undergoing skill-set changes (Global Challenge Insight Report, 2016). It is now apparent that we are slated to witness an overhauled workforce; different from the traditional one as we know it. The revolution is further being fanned by new technologies including mobile connectivity, proliferation of social channels of contact and the ever-increasing number and type of devices (Futurist Insights to 2025 and Beyond, 2015) Workers of the Future Figures show that currently, 47% of the workforce was born after 1980. It is also projected that by the year 2025, two-thirds of the workforce will consist of millennials. These developments will drive change even faster than anticipated. It should be mentioned, nevertheless, that a millennial is far more than just when one was born. One has to have undergone a shift in their mindset (Futurist Insights to 2025 and Beyond, 2015). Long-term changes in the workforce are not new. Employers have been trying to adjust for years now. These changes have a truly significant impact on planning for the workforce and diversity efforts. These include (Buckley and Bachman, 2017): i. The workforce in the US is growing old. Low birth rates contribute to this phenomenon but the fact that people keep working for many years of their life, even past their 70s. This trend is likely to continue for several years to come. ii. The entrance of more women into the workforce and the changing immigration patterns ignited these changes way back in the 60s. It is likely that the future workforce will be more diverse than today’s about religion, gender, age, ethnicity, culture among other factors iii. The American population continues to become more educated, although it is less apparent to the employers; owing to the slow rate of change. These employers are the ones coping with fast-changing trends in the world of technology. It has been projected that the traditional blue collar jobs are bound to grow at a slower than average pace. Approximately, a quarter of the total job growth is projected to happen in the healthcare sector. The growth in this sector is projected to grow at 20 percent over a ten year period. Some important details of this trend are not as well known as the trend itself may be (Buckley and Bachman, 2017). The US and its neighbors such as Mexico and Canada are likely to continue experiencing a shrinking labor force, compared to the rest of the world. The figure shows that the present 5 percent global labor force share by North America will shrink to 4 percent in the next 20 years. It has also been projected that the labor force in Asia will also reduce. It is likely that most of the future workforce will come from Africa. The global workforce percentage is projected to grow by six percentage points (Buckley and Bachman, 2017) Future outlook for work organizations People will need to re-plan the way they face and deal with their careers, education and family life to accommodate the changing demography. It is likely that people will be forced by circumstances to work way beyond 65 years to raise sufficient resources for their retirement. The matter of pursuing multiple careers will be a common one. People are likely to pursue learning opportunities more, in preparation for occupational change. Consequently, organizations will become more flexible and re-mold their career paths to absorb the new type of labor force (Future work skills 2020, 2011) Changing demographic patterns point to some important potential implications and courses of action to think through (Buckley and Bachman, 2017) • Make use of data for planning the workforce and identifying the changes in demographics • Create diverse channels that cut across generations. Diversifying leadership pipelines could be beneficial in ensuring that populations are represented well in future. According to the research by Global Human Capital Trends, many executives (from a 10,400-surveyed sample), reported weak program capabilities with percentages in relation 1. Millennial leaders (45%) 2. Women leaders (43%) 3. Diverse leaders (31%) • Create strategies for talent for the various segments of the workforce across the age spectrum and at the various career stages • Provide a conducive environment and opportunity for continuous learning and re-equipping with skill Talent is more concerned with how the workforce makes their contribution. People are constantly leveraging social and digital technologies and building their communities and brands at the personal level. More millennials take up management duties and meet the demand for flexibility. Stringent patterns are brought to a halt (Futurist Insights to 2025 and Beyond, 2015). Mr. Shawn Murphy, the CEO, and co-founder of Switch and Shift opines that shortly, the design of the workplace will reflect a tendency to be more focused on the individual. He further points out that such employees will not just interrogate what they gain from the work place, but also how they are making their contribution to the growth of the company (Futurist Insights to 2025 and Beyond, 2015). The high performing employees today are inspired to work for the right course as opposed to working for the stakeholders alone as is traditionally the case. They seek to make the world around them better than they were found it. Studies show that 70% of millennials consider community engagement by companies as a factor that will influence their decision to join such an organization (Futurist Insights to 2025 and Beyond, 2015). Elsewhere, Janine Truitt, the head of innovations section at Talent Think Innovations says that the current figures are remarkably high about those who are not happy at their places of work. Recently, a study showed that only 19% of the workforce is happy with what they do. According to Truitt, people will assume more entrepreneurial roles because they will be in control of their careers. Globally, 70% of the future leaders of tomorrow might refuse to acknowledge what traditionally organized business offers. They, will, instead, prefer to pursue independent work commitments digitally in the long term (The Deloitte Millennial Survey, 2014). People will no longer rely on companies to enhance their careers. It is likely that they will engage social channels instead, as is already the case in many places. It has been observed that 96 percent of the population online is part of at least one social network (Futurist Insights to 2025 and Beyond, 2015). Employment patterns will change. Employees will operate in smaller clusters of as low as sic people. Such a phenomenon is a total shift from the old mindset n which one yearned t work with a company of thousands of people to feel that they have a significant role in the world(Futurist Insights to 2025 and Beyond, 2015). Thanks to technology, the world has become a smaller place. The changing developments demand innovation by companies to remain relevant. What they will need to devise ways of capturing talent from across the globe (workforce 2025: the future of the world of work, 2016). The organizational order as we know it is being changed. Organizations such as PatientsLikeMe and Curetogether are changing the order of operations in the health sector already. They allow individuals to aggregate their health data to enable clinical trials and the rise of experts beyond the traditional lab and the office of the physician. Elsewhere, science-based games such as Foldit and Galaxy Zoo are entertaining thousands to solve issues that organizations could not manage in the past. Education forums have made it possible for anyone willing to learn to do so. New organizational ideas are emerging from nontraditional sources such as neuroscience, game design, and psychology of happiness. New training paradigms and tools are being developed and shaped because of these changes (Future work skills 2020, 2011). The working world is being shaped through agility By 2025, 75% of the workforce globally will be made up of millennials. They are leaders in technology and a host of other industries already. They will prefer to work for companies that encourage innovation, keen on building their skills so that they, millennials can contribute positively to the wider society (The Deloitte Millennial Survey, 2014). The research demonstrates that millennials hold the belief that organizations are not making sufficient effort to enhance their skills in leadership. Therefore, they have recognized the need to develop their future leaders and do not have to wait for such companies to create leadership positions for them (The Deloitte Millennial Survey, 2014). According to Kevin Wheeler, the chief of Future talent institute, more companies including Zappos have already done away with the whole hierarchical organizational leadership structure. They have adopted one called Holacracy. It is a radical model that has shifted the organizational alignments, how decisions are arrived at, and how power is spread across the company. This structure will see companies become smaller. They will consequently leverage better technology in communications. People will be empowered to work more on their own and be accountable for their assignments with little oversight (Futurist Insights to 2025 and Beyond, 2015). More and more organizations are prepared to build a workforce that is variable in the next five years to make them more flexible and adaptable. 85 percent expect that being committed to a workforce that is agile will increase by a big margin by 2025. Such companies with an eye trained on the future hold the view that it is through agility and flexibility that customer responsiveness will be enhanced. They also see it as a way to make their organizations immune against recession and political changes (workforce 2025: the future of the world of work, 2016). A large proportion of employers(4 out of ten) testify that their organizations are building a workforce that is different from the traditional template in the coming five years so that they can allow more flexibility(workforce 2025: the future of the world of work, 2016). It is likely that by 2025, companies will have no choice but to hire an agile workforce that will meet the demand for talent. Prospective workers and those already in the systems know it already. Many of them have changed to non-traditional employment forms, while others are planning to follow suit (workforce 2025: the future of the world of work, 2016). Communication in the Future Workforce 74% of decision-makers in social business enterprise recognize that that social technology is at the heart of social business. It is used to enhance cooperation among members such as employees, customers, and partners. Only 20percent of those interviewed thought that their companies were true social outfits (Futurist Insights to 2025 and Beyond, 2015). In addition to these trends, the culture of working from home is on the rise. It has been observed that telecommuting has increased by 79% between the 2005 and the year 2012(Futurist Insights to 2025 and Beyond, 2015). A new language, a vernacular for communication is building around the areas of digital animation, reality, video production, gaming, reality and media editing. These are becoming ever more sophisticated (Future work skills 2020, 2011). Education for the Future Workforce From the 80s, training beyond high school became the new threshold for American citizens to earn a livelihood and move to the middle-class lifestyle. Only 28% of jobs in the US needed education qualifications beyond high school level in 1973. Conversely, by 2025, nearly two out of three employment opportunities will ask for some post-secondary training (Carnevale et al., 2015). Digitization of the Future Workforce The mindset of the millennial is digitally conscious and is always prepared to exploit the available social technology to network in new ways (Futurist Insights to 2025 and Beyond, 2015). A major transformation is going on in the way we relate to our tools. There is a likelihood that new machines that are smart will be used in our offices and factories in the magnitude that was never anticipated. They will be a core part of many operations including teaching, medicine, security, medicine and every other imaginable life undertaking. The impact of these machines may not be overt. However, their presence in our places of work and living will make us deal with important questions arising (Future work skills 2020, 2011). We are bound to answer questions such as what humans are good at uniquely, what human role would be alongside the machines, what the comparative advantage of humans would be vis a vis the machines. This means that we will inevitably think of new work processes (Future work skills 2020, 2011). It is necessary for us to think through the three levels of artificial intelligence(AI) (Stubbings and Williams, 2017): i. Assisted intelligence is commonly accessible today and enhances what organizations and people are doing. The GPS navigation system in today’s cars is a typical example. ii. Augmented intelligence has emerged and helped organizations and people achieve beyond what they could do in the past. Such companies as Uber would not thrive without the use of a host of technologies iii. Autonomous intelligence is being created for future use is creating independently acting machines. Self-driving vehicles being developed are examples. Economic influence of the Future Workforce The number of those paying taxes, compared to pensioners in the developed world will drop. Currently, the ratio stands at 4:1 in the majority of industrialized countries. It has been projected that in 50 years, the ration will drop to 2:1 or lower in some instances. To reverse the trend, there is a need for revising the laws governing retirement or increasing immigration dramatically (long-term global demographic trends reshaping the geopolitical landscape, 2001). • OECD projection that the effect of an aging population on GDP will be a decrease of 0-5% in Europe, 1.5% in the US and 0.6% in Japan between 2025 and 2050. • Projections by OECD also show that the public pensions and healthcare average bill in Japan and Europe will grow by between 9 and 16 percent of GDP in the next 30 years. Lack of sufficient opportunity for economic growth (long-term global demographic trends reshaping the geopolitical landscape, 2001), reduced opportunity in the face of increasing expectations in such places as India and the Middle East with a significant number of unemployed youth, leads to an intrinsic push to join groups wishing to build formidable dissent. It is a qualitative way of measuring the ability of individuals to better their own lives as opposed to the older rural-urban life. It is anchored on a rate of growth matrix, education expenditures per capita, cost of housing compared to income and poverty line estimates available. Homeland Security Workforce in 2025 The scientific community has signaled doom. Disasters such as hurricanes and are bound to become more commonplace as a result of global warming trends. Homeland Security faces both natural and anthropogenic threats which call for proper contingency planning. To determine how the leadership is responding to the threats (Air and Marine Operations Vision 2025, 2016) Education and Agility: It is necessary to continue hiring and training employees with high skills and leaders. These employees must be empowered with a sense of ownership and mission even as they are encouraged to innovate. Remaining on the edge of technology is not a choice but a requirement. These must happen simultaneously with embracing law enforcement culture and roots (Air and Marine Operations Vision 2025, 2016). AMO will develop a strong team of leaders through developing the workforce, session planning, and performance management. We shall encourage an environment in which frontline employees practice leadership across the organization (Air and Marine Operations Vision 2025, 2016). Communications and Digitization: Adapting our TTPs in unpredictable ways will be necessary for the face of advancing technology and changing threats. Our core competencies of investigation, interdiction, domain awareness and task assignments at the national level are enduring. To advance and maintain such competencies (Air and Marine Operations Vision 2025, 2016) There is a need for new capabilities to deal with evolving threats. We must maintain leadership in innovation as disruptive technologies emerge. AMO is committed to pursuing technologies that have an import on law enforcement. It will do it in partnership with organizations such as DHS Science and Technology and independently. Remotely operated aircraft and maritime areas including sensors such as imaging technologies that are space-based communication, mission integration, and data exploitation mechanisms are examples of these approaches (Air and Marine Operations Vision 2025, 2016). Conclusion The demographic evolution that shapes many characteristics of the labor force occurs slowly. They happen, nevertheless. These slow changes build up to a huge difference that is already evident (Buckley and Bachman, 2017). It is suicidal to fail to address the concerns highlighted above because such businesses that fail to take hid are likely to lose valued skilled personnel in future. Most members of the millennial generation will opt out for self-employment or to work independently as opposed to pursuing a career in the traditional organizations. Losing these millennials is more severely felt in emerging markets. Studies show that 52 percent of the millennials in existing organizations hope or plan to work independently at some point. Emerging markets depict a grimmer picture at 82 percent (The Deloitte Millennial Survey, 2014).