The Future of Work and Our Responsibilities as Employers

When I was a child, I was often asked “what do you want to be when you grow up?”. You’ve probably asked this same question of the young children in your life.

In today’s environment it is a much more loaded question than it was when I was growing up, and one that highlights the uncertainty facing our young generation as they enter our education system and workforce. How could the parents of 20 years ago have possibly known to prepare their children for roles such as Search Engine Evaluators or a Social Media Managers? And the roles that are available today are not going to be the roles that are available in 20 years’ time.

So what are our responsibilities as employers when it comes to developing the skills our young people will need to be successful, contributing and fulfilled members of our workforce and society in the future?  

I believe our young people, as a result of so many factors outside of their control, face some very specific challenges as they join the workforce. Much has been written about their need to feel like they are having an impact; their need to be constantly be connected; and their need for constant recognition and instant gratification.   

As Simon Sinek says “they see the summit but not the mountain” meaning they want the rewards without recognising the hard work that is required to reap those rewards. In New Zealand, this is overlaid by some extremely concerning statistics such as the fact that we have one of the highest youth suicide rates in the world.

As Esko Kilpi has said in his article “Rethinking Skills and Responsibilities”, previously our models have been based on individual knowledge and individual education, in the future they will be based on inter-dependent individuals and groups, sharing their different perspectives and contexts to get answers to complex, inter-connected problems. 

The skills and attributes we need to be successful in this world are many, however I believe two of the most important are Creative Critical Thinking and Collaboration supported by the attribute of Epistemic Curiosity. 

Creative Critical Thinking: we know that future problems will be increasingly complex and inter-connected in nature. We need to move beyond “problem-solving” to being more effective at creative “problem-finding” and “problem-framing”.  We will need to have people working together to explore problems; making sense of the wealth of information, crafting new approaches and new opportunities, and applying creative critical thinking skills to co-design new and innovative solutions. We will need to develop these skills in our workforce along with ensuring we have appropriate spaces and technologies to support their utilisation.

Collaboration: How many of us spend our free minutes waiting for a meeting to start or eating in the lunch room connected to our smartphones? This prevents us from getting to know our colleagues, yet to be effective in our inter-dependent groups or teams we need to have strong relationships and be comfortable debating and challenging ideas in a healthy and respectful manner. We need to develop strong interpersonal skills in our young workforce so they are able to demonstrate sincere empathy; value others’ opinions; learn how to ask open-ended questions to understanding other points of view; and have open and respectful dialogue as they debate and challenge those different views.

Epistemic Curiosity: This is defined as “the desire for knowledge that motivates individuals to learn new ideas, eliminate information gaps and solve intellectual problems”.  As Alvin Toffler said “the future belongs to those who can unlearn and relearn”. We all know that the pace of change is accelerating, so too is the pace with which we need to pick up new skills and new ways of doing things. Every new person hired needs to be recruited on their epistemic curiosity, without it we will never keep pace with the changes required to prepare for the future.

Within this frame I believe we, as employers, have a clear responsibility to support the young people in our workplaces so they are successful today and prepared for the tomorrow. This means developing their abilities and providing the platform and opportunities for them; to co-design creative solutions to complex problems; to feel the joy that comes with “climbing the mountain rather than merely arriving at the summit “; and to understand the importance of kindness, trust and empathy in our relationships.