The Digital Future Does Not Mean Less People Value

Yes, emerging technologies, growing stores of data, and smarter insights are changing the way people and businesses interact. However, even as automation increases, the most valuable resource is still human capital. But while the robots aren’t taking over the way science fiction has been warning about for decades, we do know that, over the next ten years, at least 10% of jobs will disappear and 100% of jobs will change.

In this new world, one where the skills needed to stay professionally relevant are rapidly evolving, employees and job seekers alike are left to ask themselves, “What skills should I be developing to future-proof my career?”

This, in turn, has a huge impact on employers. In order for businesses to remain attractive to these forward-thinking professionals, the role of managers and leaders also needs to shift, offering support, development and mentorship to their employees.

As globalisation and remote working become more commonplace, the tools companies use to help their employees communicate and collaborate will need to be both user-friendly and intuitive from the front end, and sophisticated and data-driven under the hood.

Digitalisation puts the employee at the centre

“In the future, companies will need to acknowledge, mentor and develop their employees to a greater extent than they do today,” says Avtar S. Jasser, CEO of HR system vendor CatalystOne. “We are entering an era that will see technology and digitalisation play an increasingly important role in the workplace. But this doesn’t mean employees’ value decreases. On the contrary, employees will have even more of a central focus.”

The workplace landscape of the future will be one where routine work processes are supported and managed by technology that minimises the need for manual administration and repetition. These digital solutions will be easier to use and will closely resemble the apps we use in our private lives, feeding into the expectation people are adopting of a self-service-focused daily life.

“I expect well-known CRM, ERP and HR systems to increase in number and become greatly improved. It will be easier to make use of data from the different systems as they really learn to talk to each other,” says Jasser.

"We are entering an era where technology and digitalization plays an increasingly important role in the workplace"

For employees, this kind of digitalisation will bring about major change, which may be daunting to businesses that have not yet taken steps towards digitalisation. But when the changes are well implemented and employees are well supported in acclimating to new workflows and systems, the effect on their daily working lives becomes overwhelmingly positive.

Employees and leaders alike will avoid many boring, repetitive tasks. Instead, their time can be spent on work that creates value for the organisation.

The future means a new, digital landscape

Jasser is not afraid that digitalisation will lead to employees feeling more isolated or having less contact with their peers and managers; rather the opposite.

“We will spend more of our time interacting with other people, although it will be in a different way than we do today. While we currently have many face-to-face meetings with co-located colleagues, the time is upon us when we will more often interact with people in other locations. There will be even more digital channels for dialogue with colleagues, managers, customers and business partners. This will mean, among other things, that effective text chat clients, video dialogue and online feedback functionalities are built into many more systems and solutions, including HR systems.”