AI TAKING OVER YOUR JOB?

When us humans talk about the Future of the Work place, usually the conversation ends up revolving about technology, AI and robotics, etc.,. With the advancements in automation and AI rapidly entering the workplace, the potential of AI taking a human jobs the future has not seemed more unclear for some industries and their employees, with the future of jobs in question, with a massive skills gap on the horizon, and with more people defining their identity by their work, organizations have to find a way to put meaning back into the workplace.

Business, government, education, and the public at large, have expressed the expectation that the role of organizations should be broader than purely economic and that their purpose should go beyond revenue growth and profit-making. Social enterprises take on this leadership role by actively tackling big issues and driving positive change for their stakeholders and for society.

The social enterprise

On the latest research, it shows that the role of the social enterprise is more important than ever and is growing very fast. Today, 44 percent of survey respondents in our 2019 Global Human Capital Trends report (nearly 10,000 leaders across 119 countries) said social enterprise issues are more important to their organization than they were three years ago ( doesn’t seem like that long but that’s a massive change)  56 percent expect to be even more drastic three years from now. Survey respondents also noted a positive link between leading the social enterprise and an organization’s financial performance. In fact, 73 percent of industry-leading social enterprises expect stronger business growth in 2019 than in 2018, compared to only 55 percent of those where the social enterprise is not a priority.

…but it’s shifting, too.

As us humans face the new/updated Future of Work, organizations have stepped up with purpose-driven initiatives aimed at achieving the goal of being social enterprises. Because serving a “purpose” isn’t going far enough now a days. Intensifying technological, economic, social, and political disruption has created a need for organizations to focus their expanded efforts on the workers themselves. It is the worker who is searching not for purpose, but for meaning in what they do every day in the workplace ( who im I living for, are we just surviving or are you living. To be able to achieve this, organizations need to both reimagine the way that work gets done today and reinvent the core processes, programs and policies that support it because more than ever workers are living their workplace to focus on what makes them want to wake up every morning 

Meaning is found in the human experience

Organizations have been working to improve the “employee experience,” which research from Bersin^TM, Deloitte Consulting LLP found to be largely focused on things like perks, rewards, and work-life balance.[ii] These are important, but don’t really address the need for meaning. We see an opportunity to reframe and elevate the employee experience toward a higher, “human experience” that gets at that innate desire we have as humans to make a difference.

For example, if organizations embed learning not only into the flow of work, but in the flow of life, it will help workers keep up to date on the latest skills and enable them to have a better sense of esteem and be their best. Organizations that reinvent their rewards programs to better meet the needs of their workforce can motivate them in a way that provides more meaning through individualization of the programs. And organizations that operate in a team-based model help workers to create stronger, more meaningful connections, allowing for improved innovation and creativity.

The ability to make a difference and to have meaning in our work will be critical for the future. Many have defined the Future of Work with the fear that the growing dominance of technology will overshadow or even replace the human element of work. It’s a process of reinvention, bringing humans’ need for meaning and ever-evolving technology together to create opportunities for continuous learning, accelerated development, and professional and personal growth.

so only time will tell what really is going to happen, but just remember there is always a benefit of being present!