Over the next two decades, millions of workers will be required to change their career focus on average nearly every five years, says research conducted by McKinsey[1]. Some jobs will disappear entirely due to automation and AI. Others will shift profoundly and require wholesale adaptation.

Instead of reducing opportunities, this actually opens up new possibilities for employees, believes Chris Butt, CEO of predictive people analytics company Cognisess. “Talent will have the upper hand as workers with highly desirable and transferable skills will be able to follow opportunities which align with their life and career aspirations. In turn, less competitive companies will have to invest harder to uncover and nurture talent.”

New skills and capabilities, which we have yet to envision, will need to be developed. These drivers will require businesses to harness agile organisational design, with a highly adaptable and engaged workforce.

These dynamics mean that people analytics will become a critical tool for managing talent and potential throughout the entire life cycle: encompassing education, apprenticeships and graduate schemes, along the career development and management journey.

“But unlike our current environment, this data will not be the sole preserve of the enterprise,” says Chris Butt. “In stark contrast to today, the access to these technologies will equally be in the hands of the employee. This will forge new work / employment relationships with workers as they take greater control of their own career pathways and progression.”

Predictions on future employment

  • There will be exponential growth in digital, data and analytical skills
  • There will be a shift towards people-centric computing and networking, using cognitive heuristics and human machine interfaces
  • People and their personal devices will be active elements of the Internet and the systems at their disposal – not simply end users of applications
  • Users will have unprecedented access to tools and data to acquire greater knowledge, connectivity and insight around their talent, potential and contribution

Dr Boris Altemeyer, Chief Science Officer at Cognisess, says that because of the increasingly rapid and regular recruitment cycle, IT platform solutions will need to make the process smooth for job seekers and employees alike. “This newly enabled workforce will take active responsibility in maximising their career planning and performance outputs, aligned to organisational needs and goals through a series of direct-to-device dashboards and interfaces. This will lead to new forms of employment contracts, retention and reward arrangements, which will be underpinned by science, analytics and technology.”