Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom

Key Findings from the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Survey (Part I)

What is the future of jobs? The answer to that question depends on who you ask, and in what context. The World Economic Forum has its point of view, which it explored in The 2018 Future of Jobs Survey. This original research set out to represent the current strategies, projections and estimates of global business, with a focus on large multinational companies and more localized companies of significance due to their employee or revenue size.

The survey was distributed to relevant companies through extensive collaboration between the World Economic Forum and its constituents, amplified by regional survey partners. The survey collection process was conducted via an online questionnaire, with data collection spanning a nine-month period in 2018. In total, the report’s data set contains 313 unique responses by global companies, collectively representing more than 15 million employees in 12 industry clusters and 20 economies. This makes it one of the broadest reaching studies of its kind.

Some of the more compelling findings included:

• Drivers of change: Four specific technological advances—ubiquitous high-speed mobile internet; artificial intelligence; widespread adoption of big data analytics; and cloud technology—are set to dominate the 2018–2022 period as drivers positively affecting business growth. They are flanked by a range of socio-economic trends driving business opportunities in tandem with the spread of new technologies, such as national economic growth trajectories; expansion of education and the middle classes, in particular in developing economies; and the move towards a greener global economy through advances in new energy technologies.
• Accelerated technology adoption: By 2022, according to the stated investment intentions of companies surveyed for this report, 85% of respondents are likely or very likely to have expanded their adoption of user and entity big data analytics. Similarly, large proportions of companies are likely or very likely to have expanded their adoption of technologies such as the internet of things and app- and web-enabled markets, and to make extensive use of cloud computing. Machine learning and augmented and virtual reality are poised to likewise receive considerable business investment.
• Trends in robotization: While estimated use cases for humanoid robots appear to remain somewhat more limited over the 2018–2022 period under consideration in this report, collectively, a broader range of recent robotics technologies at or near commercialization—including stationary robots, non-humanoid land robots and fully automated aerial drones, in addition to machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence—are attracting significant business interest in adoption. Robot adoption rates diverge significantly across sectors, with 37% to 23% of companies planning this investment, depending on industry
• Changing geography of production, distribution and value chains: By 2022, 59% of employers surveyed for this report expect that they will have significantly modified how they produce and distribute by changing the composition of their value chain and nearly half expect to have modified their geographical base of operations. When determining job location decisions, companies overwhelmingly prioritize the availability of skilled local talent as their foremost consideration, with 74% of respondents providing this factor as their key consideration.
• Changing employment types: Nearly 50% of companies expect that automation will lead to some reduction in their full-time workforce by 2022, based on the job profiles of their employee base today. However, 38% of businesses surveyed expect to extend their workforce to new productivity-enhancing roles, and more than a quarter expect automation to lead to the creation of new roles in their In addition, businesses are set to expand their use of contractors doing task-specialized work, with many respondents highlighting their intention to engage workers in a more flexible manner, utilizing remote staffing beyond physical offices and decentralization of operations.
• A new human-machine frontier within existing tasks: Companies expect a significant shift on the frontier between humans and machines when it comes to existing work tasks between 2018 and In 2018, an average of 71% of total task hours across the 12 industries covered in the report are performed by humans, compared to 29% by machines. By 2022 this average is expected to have shifted to 58% task hours performed by humans and 42% by machines. In 2018, in terms of total working hours, no work task was yet estimated to be predominantly performed by a machine or an algorithm.
• A net positive outlook for jobs: About half of today’s core jobs—making up the bulk of employment across industries—will remain stable in the period up to One set of estimates indicates that 75 million jobs may be displaced by a shift in the division of labor between humans and machines, while 133 million new roles may emerge that are more adapted to the new division of labor between humans, machines and algorithms. These estimates represent two parallel and interconnected fronts of change in workforce transformations: 1) large-scale decline in some roles as tasks within these roles become automated or redundant, and 2) large-scale growth in new products and services—and associated new tasks and jobs— generated by the adoption of new technologies and other socio-economic developments such as the rise of middle classes in emerging economies and demographic shifts.

Stay tuned for more highlights next week. In the meantime, want to learn more about how you can prepare for the future of work? Check out the new book, Humanity Works: Merging Technologies and People for the Workforce of the Future.

 

Are You Strategic About Military Hiring?

Many organizations have prioritized the hiring of military veterans in recent years. This is commendable, as military hiring requires a different strategy than civilian hiring because veterans do not have exactly the same needs as traditional hires. For instance, they are often attracted by different things during the recruitment process, and sometimes respond better to alternative training and development approaches.

The Talent Activation, the Employee Experience, and Skill Development survey, conducted online within the United States by DeVry University on behalf of the Career Advisory Board in August 2018 examined how organizations are currently designing and executing specific employee experiences at the recruitment, onboarding, learning and development, and performance evaluation stages.

Survey respondents included 505 US-based individuals (53 percent male, 47 percent female) with full-time positions at the supervisor level or above, in companies with more than 500 employees (mean company size was large at 15,000). Our respondents’ primary job responsibilities include the hiring, development, and management of employees.

In parts of the survey, we looked specifically at military hiring and development practices. Specifically, we asked our respondents how much they agreed or disagreed with the following statement: My company has implemented a successful military veteran hiring strategy. Sixty-four percent agreed, confirming that not only do such strategies exist, but also that they have been honed in a majority of organizations.

 We also asked the participants how much they agreed or disagreed with this statement: My company has implemented a comprehensive talent development program that capitalizes on the professional strengths military veterans bring to the workplace. Refreshingly, 67 percent agreed.  And, according to our respondents’ verbatim responses, material is often customized to resonate with veterans’ unique perspectives.

On the subject of the verbatim responses, the survey inquired about where respondents were focusing their thoughts and energies with respect to military veteran hiring and onboarding. Some of the initiatives they cited in the verbatims included:

• Hiring talent acquisition staff with military backgrounds
• Matching current employee veterans with new hires
• Engaging with Military Transition Centers
• Using regional military outplacement centers effectively
• Performing outreach to veteran groups in relevant locations
• Maintaining strong relationships with local VAs
• Holding veteran-specific job fairs
• Partnering with military recruiters
• Sourcing talent from military leaders who have commanded troops
• Participating in military-sponsored job events
• Offering interview and hiring preference to veteran candidates
• Creating onsite affinity groups for military
• Providing tuition assistance and educational incentives
• Emphasizing how military experience translates to work experience
• Understanding and communicating about PTSD and other symptoms veterans experience
• Placing veterans into supervisory or leadership jobs
• Developing veteran-specific onboarding programs to ease the transition to civilian work

For more survey results, check out the DeVry WORKS website.

Why You Probably Need More Training, Not Less

In my work as a business and workforce consultant, I’ve observed that in times of change and uncertainty, some organizations stop spending money – and especially money that goes to employee training and development. However, given the future work trends of cross-functional teaming, workforce-wide digital fluency, and an emphasis on uniquely human skills, this may be a short-sighted approach. Let’s look at these one by one.

Cross-Functional Teaming

I’ve noticed that employees are starting to move around organizations with greater speed, and so they may need to know more skills than were required in the past. Even if they received a solid university education, employees might well be moved to a role in which nothing they learned in their degree program applies. For instance, it’s not unusual for someone trained in finance to end up in marketing, and vice versa. And, even those schooled and working in marketing often find it beneficial to have cross-functional expertise in finance.

My hunch is that employer training might not be able to keep up with the reskilling and upskilling requirements of cross functional teams, and this is why there are gaps. And, in the Career Advisory Board’s 2018 survey, Talent Activation, the Employee Experience, and Skill Development, 77 percent of respondents agreed with the statement: In my organization as a whole, I am concerned about employee skills gaps.

In the study, the greatest skills gaps were observed in the areas of technology/digital fluency (cited by 62 percent of respondents), communication (56 percent), business acumen (48 percent), diversity and cultural awareness (46 percent), and customer service (42 percent), and skills gaps affect employees at all levels. And, when asked about barriers to closing skills gaps, our respondents cited a too-small training budget most frequently.

If anything, it’s my opinion that cross-functional teaming requires larger training budgets, not smaller ones.

Workforce-Wide Digital Fluency

In the Career Advisory Board’s 2017 Job Preparedness Indicator survey, we defined an applied technology skill as a skill that is needed by employees to leverage the right technology to do their jobs. It’s another way to talk about digital fluency, and the research indicated that a majority of employers is now looking for these skills in new and existing employees.

Training existing employees in applied technology skills is a major challenge, in part because current professionals did not receive this type of instruction via traditional education paths. In response, many survey respondents are ensuring that their workforces continuously train and retrain on applied technology skills through the development of internal courses (40 percent), internal trainings (38 percent), tuition reimbursement (35 percent), and external trainings (31 percent). Only one-fourth said their organizations are taking no actions to develop this skillset.

As discussed above, however, developing skillsets can be expensive – especially when one round of training isn’t enough. So, in my recommendation, employers should have a specific and ongoing budget set aside for applied technology skills alone – in addition to other training requirements.

For more where this came from, check out the DeVry WORKS website.

 

Leading a Team in the Future Workplace

 

 

When writing my brand new book Humanity Works: Merging People and Technology for the Workforce of the Future, I found a business world in the process of rapid transformation. I learned that one way to have a sustainable competitive advantage in a constantly evolving, virtual, global and automated environment is to master how to lead a team. Leaders who do this may well find that running their organizations at this time in history will be rewarding and full of opportunity.

But what exactly will the future look like? In order to be in a good position to take advantage of pending developments, owners may want to understand what's coming and master how to lead a team.

I asked Jeff Epstein, owner of referral software company Ambassador Software and Nathan Klarer, founder and chief operating officer at IT talent provider Datyra to weigh in on a few of the more pervasive trends and how leaders can go beyond them to cope successfully with the coming changes.

Flexible and Distributed Workplaces

The average employee in the 2030s probably won't be work in a single physical environment, but where and when it's most convenient and impactful.

 

“The idea of offices is already changing, with a switch to more 'WeWork-style' workplaces," says Epstein. “Shorter-term teams will be assembled to solve specific business problems, and will operate virtually."

Epstein is referring to what is known as a distributed workforce, which reaches beyond the restrictions of a traditional office environment and is often dispersed geographically over a wide area.“Teams are becoming more multi-disciplinary as distributed workplaces allow for talent to specialize," says Klarer.

In considering how to lead a team in the future, owners may have to account for changes in workplace dynamics.

“The most fundamental change is that real-time communication is commonplace," says Epstein. "Today, with a litany of communication tools, teams have access to information—and people—immediately, and people expect to chat with team members at any time."

This means that leaders will need to open their literal and metaphorical doors and devise ways to be more accessible to team members, providing guidance and direction outside the confines of traditional business hours without losing their own sense of balance and privacy.

For the rest of the piece, check out the AMEX OpenForum.

Secrets for Driving Culture in Business Today

Driving culture involves reinforcing beliefs and behaviors that determine how that organization's leaders and employees interact internally and externally.

Is there a formula for it?

Not exactly.

There are, however, certain best practices that I've learned along the way as an entrepreneur, and also by consulting two fellow business owners: Jacqueline Marrano, owner of accounting firm Marrano Solutions and Reuben Yonatan, founder and CEO of customer relationship software company GetCRM.

 1. Focus on recruitment and onboarding.

Driving culture starts with your people. And if you are clear about your mission, vision and values, you can attract potential employees with similar sensibilities.“We position our culture at the forefront within all our hiring materials and spend lots of time searching for the most motivated and driven individuals to join our company, because the quality of our employees has a direct impact on customer satisfaction, product output and brand reputation," says Yonatan.“And, when new hires come aboard," he continues, "we make very clear what's expected of them and how their role is meaningful not just in the office, but meaningful in the real world, so they can be proud of where they work and what they do."

2. Foster a meaningful employee experience.

Employees now expect an experience at work that is comparable to the experience they have at home via services like Netflix and Amazon. You choose what you want to do when you want to do it, and interactions are easy and convenient.

Your unique employee experience should cover all facets of the employment lifecycle, including recruitment, onboarding, learning, performance and transition. This involves understanding and promoting the activities employees undertake at each stage that can help immerse them in the culture while also reaching maximum productivity and potential.

Yonatan believes he has created a culture for his employees to thrive, be themselves, have fun and do their best on every project.

“Our team members stay with us because we offer a flexible experience that develops and captivates them," he says. "We provide an exciting in-house culture with a lot of perks, but we also share how employees' roles are meaningful in the real world, and how they can do them from home, for example."

It's important to realize, however, that customized experiences are key: a one-size-fits-all approach may not be effective in driving culture, even for employees in the same location and role.

For the rest of the piece, head over to the AMEX OpenForum.

The Future of Agile Business

Considering the pace of change in today's world, agile business—the process of making quick decisions based on the information you have and the willingness to adopt new strategies as you go along—has gone from being a competitive advantage to a necessity for many organizations. 

I was curious about how modern business owners view the future of agile business, so I talked with Adelaida Diaz-Roa, co-founder of social travel network Nomo FOMO and Aaron Michel, partner at venture capital firm 1984 Ventures.

Both Diaz-Roa and Michel support agile business in their own enterprises. Diaz-Roa defines it as “having a work culture built around trust, speed, flexibility and transparency. It's about empowering everyone on the team to take risks to achieve the company's mission, knowing that their manager will support them if they fail." 

“Agile business enables a company to be more nimble, eliminate waste and reduce lead times," Michel adds.

Where Is Agile Business Headed?

Agile business got its start in the tech playgrounds of Silicon Valley, but it's becoming increasingly common in large corporations around the world. 

 

“Agile organizations are becoming flatter, trusting employees to act as business owners," says Diaz-Roa. “People operations are more important, leading to an increased focus on individual accomplishments."

For more thoughts of the future of agile business, visit the AMEX OpenForum.

How to Create an Agile Process

Many organizations pride themselves on having predictable policies and procedures that drive performance and growth. However, given the rate of change in today's business world, sometimes being inflexible can be a problem rather than a solution. Having an agile process can help.

Agile processes are plans that involve advance planning and organization but also allow you to quickly change course if needed. To learn how business owners create agile processes in the real world, I consulted Mary Ellen Slayter, CEO of Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based B2B content marketing agency Rep Cap and Matt Weinberg, president of interactive digital agency Vector Media Group in New York City.

Why Use An Agile Process?

An agile process can be advantageous because it mandates a close consideration of your business goals, but can also be adjusted as you gain more information or as circumstances evolve.

 

“The agile framework forces owners to make decisions quickly and communicate frequently," says Slayter. “The emphasis on testing frees you from best practices so you can pursue the surprising insights that are unique to your business. In the end, the risk is actually lower because you're making fewer big bets."

It's also important to realize what agile is—and what it isn't.

“Just because you're agile doesn't mean you don't have process," Slayter points out. “Agile is not about flying by the seat of your pants—it's dynamically deciding how to deploy your resources to achieve your goals."

For the rest, check out the AMEX OpenForum.

Essential Basics of Cash Flow Management

Cash-flow management involves close monitoring of cash flow, which is the amount of cash being transferred into and out of a business. 

If your organization has positive cash flow, it means that the amount of cash available at the beginning of a period (opening balance) is less than the amount at the end of that period (closing balance). In order to remain in business over an extended period of time, an organization must maintain positive cash flow.

I talked to two experienced owners—Brandon Harris, president of content marketing agency NUMedia and Christine Yaged, chief product officer of finance information portal FinanceBuzz —to share their most critical cash-flow management tips.

1. Stay within your means.

Even if your business is growing rapidly, if you don't practice healthy cash-flow management, you can dig a deep hole from which it's difficult to emerge.

"It's easy to find yourself in credit trouble, missing payroll, taking on expensive loans that further your debt and, eventually, declaring bankruptcy," says Harris.

 

 

“It's your job to make sure you can cover your bills so that all stakeholders are satisfied and things are running smoothly," says Yaged. “Otherwise, you'll severely disrupt business operations and spiral from there."

2. Avoid scaling too quickly.

Sustaining positive cash-flow management can mean being patient with your organization's growth, holding off on expansion plans and tempering your excitement about the business's potential.

“Be careful not to overextend with too many early hires and a bunch of credit card debt," says Harris. “Build your war chest organically, and you'll thank yourself in the long term. I've tried the fast, hard money route, and the stress on your business and your life is simply not worth it."

For more where this came from, head over to the AMEX OpenForum.

Securing a Business Loan for Your Established Organization

There is a great deal of advice for securing a business loan for a company that's just getting off the ground. But what's less frequently discussed is what an owner should do for financial help long after the initial setup.

For many owners, a business loan might mean the difference between surviving and having to abandon the organization. To get to the bottom of this issue, I spoke to Duran Inci, co-founder of marketing agency Optimum7, and Dan Robbins, chief operating officer of skincare company OC Facial Care Center

Applying When Your Business Is Doing Well

Inci and Robbins both have business loan experience. Inci obtained a Small Business Administration loan as well as a separate credit line for his consulting business.

“I wanted to have options in terms of growth, additional marketing, hiring and scalability," he explains. "I believe that businesses should start looking for loans not when things are going bad, but when things are going great."

 

With the common saying “Banks lend when you don't need it, and don't lend when you do" in mind, Robbins applied for a loan while his business was in good shape.

“We'd been paying in cash for store expansion, inventory and all other business aspects," he says. “But last year, I heard [a judge on Shark Tank] suggest taking out loans while holding cash so you can protect your ability to pay interest and keep the the loan afloat, and I immediately changed my way of thinking. I realized that if something bad was to happen and I had no cash, it could destroy our business."

Convincing Banks to Take a Chance

As a result of the recent financial crisis, many banks have gotten stricter about how and when they lend. “You're much better working with a local or smaller bank with which you already have a relationship," says Robbins.

Many lenders will want to review your business model.

“Banks want to be sure you have the ability to pay back or you have collateral," adds Inci. “They are very specific about the terms as well. At the same time, if you have good revenue and decent financials, it's not hard to get a business loan."

If an owner decides to pursue a business loan, what should they be prepared to do to convince financiers? Both Inci and Robbins say that demonstrating transparency to the lender, with the help of a good accountant or bookkeeper, can help.

“Your cash flow and the profitability of the business should look good," says Inci. “Furthermore, the debt to income ratio should not be alarming. If you feel like the terms and/or interest rates are high with private lending, SBA loans are better in this respect. However, you should expect higher initial fees."

On the whole, business loan interest rates are comparatively low.

“If you can take out a loan now and save your cash flow and profit, it's better," says Inci. “Additionally, building that lending relationship today will be more impactful later when you might actually need the loan."

For the rest of the piece, head over to the AMEX OpenForum.

4 Must Have Strategies to Retain Your Best New Talent

According to a 2017 CareerBuilder survey of 2,250 U.S. hiring managers and HR professionals survey, companies lost an average of $14,900 on every “bad hire” in the last year, and it's a common mistake — nearly three in four employers (74 percent) say they've hired the wrong person for a position and that half of these bad hires have quit within the first six months of employment.

When asked how a bad hire affected their business in the last year, employers cited less productivity (37 percent), lost time to recruit and train another worker (32 percent) and compromised quality of work (31 percent).

The survey also illustrated that while the cost of hiring the wrong person can be high, the cost of letting a good worker go is even higher. CareerBuilder’s survey respondents cited the average cost of losing a good hire as $29,600. As a workforce and HR consultant who has worked on retention strategies with dozens of organizations, I’d like to share five recommendations for keeping your best people.

Acclimate Them to Your Culture Early

The moment an offer letter is extended, the new hire experience starts. However, some organizations fail to communicate with candidates between offer acceptance and start date, and this is a retention mistake. Based on 15 years of working with employees, and especially younger ones, I’ve learned that the most important thing organizations must do to retain new hires is to get them involved in the culture immediately.

If an employee starts a new job and feels lost, they may feel like they didn’t make the right decision, and keep interviewing. If a better opportunity arises, a new hire that doesn’t get a positive first impression right away may not wait around. For this reason, I advise organizations to launch a comprehensive onboarding initiative that starts the minute the offer is extended and mixes face-to-face and virtual components to connect new employees to the company they’ve joined.

For the rest of the piece, check out the DeVryWORKS site.