FEATURE

## What is the future of work?

### Redefining work, workforces, and workplaces

Jeff Schwartz, Steve Hatfield, Robin Jones, and Siri Anderson


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Forces of change are affecting three major dimensions of work: the work
itself, who does the work, and where work is done. To create value from these
changes, organizations should take a broader perspective.


HE FUTURE OF work: What does this term

really mean? Much discussion has focused

on artificial intelligence and whether or not

# Trobots will take our jobs, but cognitive technologies

are only one aspect of the massive shift that is under

way. To understand what’s going on and, more im­

portantly, what we can do about it, it’s important to

consider multiple converging trends and how they

are already fundamentally changing all aspects of


work—with implications for individuals, businesses,

and society.

We define the future of work as a result of many

forces of change affecting three deeply connected

dimensions of an organization: **work (the what),**

the workforce (the who), and the workplace (the

where) (figure 1).

The new realities created by these forces of

change present us with complex questions to


FIGURE 1
**The future of work encompasses changes in work, the workforce,**
**and the workplace**

Current work options    Future work options

**Workforce**

**Who can do the work?**

##### 2

With new talent platforms and contracts, who can
do the work? How do we leverage the continuum
of talent from full-time, to managed services, to
freelancers, gig workers, and crowds?

Talent category


**3**


**Work** **Workplace**

**Where is the work done?**

##### 1 What work can be automated? 3

With new combinations of collabora
With increasing robotics, cognitive,

tive, teaming, and digital reality

and AI technologies, what work can be

technologies, how are workplaces and

done by—and with—smart machines?

work practices reshaping where and
when work is done?

**1** **2**


Automation level


Physical distance

**Deloitte Insights | deloitte.com/insights**


Source: Deloitte analysis.


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consider—including ethics around human-machine

collaboration, how we plan for 50–60-year careers,[1]

and how we unleash organizations through a con­

tinuum of talent sources. As Thomas Friedman has

observed, “What’s going on is that work is being dis­

connected from jobs, and jobs and work are being

disconnected from companies, which are increas­

ingly becoming platforms.”[2]

In this article, we provide an overview of the

forces of change that are driving the evolution

of work, workforces, and workplaces, and offer a

perspective on how organizations should begin to

respond to the new challenges unfolding. Orga­

nizations today appear to have an unprecedented

window of opportunity to shape what ultimately

becomes the future of work.

###### Work: What will the work look like?

This isn’t the first time that the western society

has completely changed its cultural idea of work. In

the preindustrial economy, work was synonymous

with craftsmanship, the creation of products or

the delivery of complete outcomes. The craftsman

took end-to-end responsibility for delivering the

product or outcome—a cobbler, for instance, would

do everything from measure the customer’s feet to

make final adjustments in the finished pair of shoes.

The industrial revolution changed this conception

of work, as industrialists realized that products

could be manufactured faster and cheaper if end
to-end processes were atomized into repeatable

tasks in which workers (and, later, machines) could

specialize. The notion of a “job” became that of a

collection of tasks, not necessarily related to each

other, rather than an integrated set of actions that

delivered a complete product or outcome.[3]

Now, as we step rapidly into the cognitive revo­

lution, we once again appear to be redefining work

to create valuable human-machine collaborations,


shifting our understanding of work from task com­

pletion to problem-solving and managing human

relationships.[4] Technology has already begun to

change the way we organize tasks into jobs: For

example, robotics and robotic process automation

have transformed manufacturing and warehouses,

and digital reality technologies are helping workers

transcend limitations of distance and who is as­

signed to which task. According to the World

Economic Forum, the division of labor between

people and machines is expected to continue to

shift toward machines, especially for repetitive

and routine tasks.[5] That could eliminate upward of

14 percent and disrupt 32 percent of today’s jobs,

according to the Organization for Economic Coop­

eration and Development (OCED).[6]

However, there is evidence that these tech­

nologies could be used to augment the efforts of the

workforce rather than replace them—in fact, in a

2018 report the World Economic Forum projected

that while nearly 1 million jobs may be lost, another

1.75 million will be gained.[7] The jobs of the future

are expected to be more machine-powered and

data-driven than in the past, but they will also likely

require human skills in areas such as problem
solving, communication, listening, interpretation,

and design. As machines take over repeatable tasks

and the work people do becomes less routine, roles

could be redefined in ways that marry technology

with human skills and advanced expertise in inter­

pretation and service.[8] Techniques such as design

thinking can help organizations define roles that

incorporate the new types of capabilities, skills, ac­

tivities, and practices needed to get the work done.

To make all of this happen successfully, we will

likely need to change the way we conceive of work

and develop the training our workforce needs to

take on these new roles and assignments. Other­

wise, we could find ourselves weighed down trying

to apply legacy concepts and skills onto the new

and quickly emerging world of human-machine

collaboration.


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###### Workforce: Rethinking talent models

Not only have workforce demographics changed

over the last 30 years—collectively making the

workforce older[9] and more diverse[10]—but the very

social contract between employers and employees

has altered dramatically as well.[11] Organizations

now have a broad continuum of options for finding

workers, from hiring traditional full-time em­

ployees to availing themselves of managed services

and outsourcing, independent contractors, gig

workers, and crowdsourcing. These newer work­

force types are available to solve problems, get

work done, and help leaders build more flexible and

nimble organizations (figure 2). Alternative workers

are growing in number; currently, 35 percent of

the US workforce is in supplemental, temporary,

project, or contract-based work.[12] This percentage is

growing as well—for example, freelance workforce

is growing faster than the total workforce, up 8.1

percent compared to 2.6 percent of all employees.[13]

As labor-sourcing options increase, it opens up

the possibility for more efficiency and creativity

in composing an organization’s workforce. But

with more options often comes more complexity.

Employers should not only consider how roles are

crafted when pairing humans with machines, but

also the arrangement of their human workforce


and what type(s) of employment are best suited to

obtain the creativity, passion, and skill sets needed

for the work at hand. Orchestrating this complex

use of different workforce segments might require

new models. It could fundamentally change our

view of the employee life cycle from the traditional

“attract, develop, and retain” model to one where the

key questions are how organizations should access,

**curate, and engage workforces of all types (see**

the sidebar, “Beyond the employee life cycle”).

Organizations have an opportunity to optimize

the organizational benefits of each type of talent

relationship while also providing meaningful and

engaging options for a wide variety of worker needs

and motivations. However, making the most of the

opportunity could require a complete rethinking of

talent models in a way that allows organizations to

carefully match people’s motivations and skills with

the organization’s work needs.

###### Workplace: Rethinking where work gets done

As the “who” and the “what” of work shift, so

does the workplace. Where once physical prox­

imity was required for people to get work done,

the advent of digital communication, collabora­

tion platforms, and digital reality technologies,


FIGURE 2
**The talent market covers a spectrum of worker types and work arrangements**

**Traditional** **Open**
_Best for function-specific work_ _Best for task-specific work_


**Open talent continuum**

Joint venture

Contractors

employees

Managed service
providers


Organization’s
employees

Source: Deloitte analysis.


Gig workers
Crowd

**Deloitte Insights | deloitte.com/insights**


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**BEYOND THE EMPLOYEE LIFE CYCLE**

Organizations have long thought of talent management as how to approach attracting, developing,
and retaining top talent. As new, alternative work arrangements come on the scene, we anticipate
that this model could shift to:

**• Access. How do you tap into capabilities and skills across your enterprise and the broader**

ecosystem? This includes sourcing from internal and external talent marketplaces and leveraging
and mobilizing on- and off-balance sheet talent.

**• Curate. How do you provide employees—ecosystem talent—and teams with the broadest and**

most meaningful range of development? This includes work experiences that are integrated into
the flow of their work, careers, and personal lives.

**• Engage. How do you interact with and support your workforces, business teams, and partners to**

build compelling relationships? This includes multidirectional careers in, across, and outside of the
enterprise; and for business leaders and teams, providing insights to improve productivity and
impact while taking advantage of new ways of teaming and working.

FIGURE 3
**A new model for talent management**

**Access** **Curate**

**Engage**

Source: Deloitte analysis.

**Deloitte Insights | deloitte.com/insights**


along with societal and marketplace changes, have

allowed for and created the opportunity for more

distributed teams.[14] Organizations are now able to

orchestrate a range of options as they reimagine

workplaces, from the more traditional colocated

workplaces to those that are completely distributed

and dependent on virtual interactions (figure 4).

Again, changing the physical workplace should

not be seen simply as an opportunity to increase

efficiency or to reduce real estate costs. Workplace

culture is highly connected to both innovation[15] and

business results,[16] and as teams become more dis­


tributed, organizations might need to rethink how

they foster both culture and team connections.

The importance of these connections should

not be understated. As Yale School of Management

professor Amy Wrzesniewski has observed, “In pre­

vious generations, people would spend decades and

even their entire careers embedded in the same or­

ganization. In those cases, the sense of membership

buoyed both individuals’ identities and their psy­

chological health.”[17] For employers, this implies a

need for more explicit attention to creating connec­

tions and community as workplaces become more

virtual and filled with more contingent workers.


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###### The opportunity: Making
 the future of work more valuable and meaningful

Shifts in work, the workforce, and the workplace

are deeply interrelated. Changes in one dimension

can have important consequences for both workers

and employers that have not had to be considered

before.

What the future of work ultimately looks like

isn’t a foregone conclusion. We seem at a cross­

road in redefining what it means to work, to be an

employer, and to contribute value and talent in new­

found ways. Purpose will bring the future into focus.

We can choose to use advances in technology merely

to drive more efficiency and cost reduction, or we

can consider more deeply the ways to harness these

trends and increase value and meaning across the

board—for businesses, customers, and workers.[18]

Taking too narrow a view could be the big risk.

To succeed, organizations should zoom out[19] and

imagine the possibilities so that they can compose

work, the workforce, and the workplace in a way

that increases both value and meaning while taking

advantage of the opportunities for efficiency we

have at hand. We see three actions for employers to

consider in directing the forces of change:

FIGURE 4
**Workplaces are also shifting**



**• Imagine. Imagine the possibilities of the**

future by leveraging industry-specific data

analytics and insights to define your ambition

and strategy for transforming the workforce for

the future. Set goals for the future of work that

reach beyond cost and efficiency to include value

and meaning.

**• Compose. Analyze and redesign work, work­**

force, and workplace options that take advantage

of the value of automation, alternative talent

sources, and collaborative workplaces.

**• Activate. Align the organization, leadership,**

and workforce development programs to access

skills, curate next-generation experiences, and

engage the workforce of the future in long-term

relationships and business leaders in new ways

of working.

To do these things well, we, as employers, should

activate the workforce and use technology in ways

that generate broad and valuable benefits for our

organizations and for society. We have the opportu­

nity to create a preferred future for meaningful work

for all. It’s ours to shape.


**Colocated** **Distributed**


**Physical proximity**


Physical-physical
interactions

Source: Deloitte analysis.


Physical-virtual
interactions


Virtual-virtual
interactions

**Deloitte Insights | deloitte.com/insights**


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#### Endnotes

1. Dimple Agarwal et al., From careers to experiences: New pathways, Deloitte Insights, March 28, 2018.

2. Tom Friedman (Pulitzer Prize winner), interview with the authors, July 31, 2017.

3. Peter Evans-Greenwood, Harvey Lewis, and Jim Guszcza, “Reconstructing work: Automation, artificial intelligence,
and the essential role of humans,” Deloitte Review 21, July 31, 2017.

4. Ibid.

5. World Economic Forum, The future of jobs report, 2018.

6. Ljubica Nedelkoska and Glenda Quintini, Automation, skills use and training, Organisation for Economic Co-oper­
ation and Development (OECD), March 14, 2018.

7. World Economic Forum, The future of jobs report.

8. Jeff Schwartz et al., The future of work: The augmented workforce, Deloitte University Press, February 28, 2017.

9. Senator Susan M. Collins and Senator Robert P. Casey Jr., America’s aging workforce: Opportunities and challenges,
Special Committee on Aging United States Senate, December 2017.

10. Crosby Burns, Kimberly Barton, and Sophia Kerby, “The state of diversity in today’s workforce,” Center for Ameri­

can Progress, July 12, 2012.

11. Roger Eugene Karnes, “A change in business ethics: The impact on employer–employee relations,” _Journal of_

_Business Ethics 87, no. 2 (2009): pp. 189–197, DOI: 10.1007/s10551-008-9878-x._

12. Upwork, “Freelancing in America 2018: Fifth annual report,” accessed March 5, 2019.

13. Upwork, “Freelancing in America 2017,” accessed March 5, 2019.

14. Gallup, State of the American workplace, October 29, 2018.

15. ScienceDaily, “Corporate culture is most important factor in driving innovation,” November 18, 2008.

16. Anthony S. Boyce et al., “Which comes first, organizational culture or performance? A longitudinal study of

causal priority with automobile dealerships,” Journal of Organizational Behavior 36, no. 3 (2015): pp. 339–59, DOI:
10.1002/job.1985.

17. Dr. Amy Wrzesniewski (Michael H. Jordan professor at Yale School of Management), interview with author, De­

cember 19, 2018.

18. Jeff Schwartz et al., “Reframing the future of work,” MIT Sloan Management Review, February 20, 2019.

19. John Hagel and John Seely Brown, _Zoom out/zoom in: An alternative approach to strategy in a world that defies_

_prediction, Deloitte Insights, May 16, 2018._


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#### About the authors

**JEFF SCHWARTZ, a principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP, is Deloitte’s global leader for Human Capital**

Marketing, Eminence, and Brand, and the US leader for the Future of Work. Schwartz serves as an advisor

to senior business leaders at global organizations, focusing on business transformation, organization,

HR, talent, and leadership. In 2011, Schwartz launched Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends research.

He is based in New York.

**STEVE HATFIELD is a principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP and serves as Deloitte’s global leader for the**

Future of Work. He has over 20 years of experience advising global organizations on issues of strategy,

innovation, organization, people, culture, and change. Hatfield is a regular speaker and author on the

future of work, and is currently on the Deloitte leadership team shaping the research and marketplace

dialogue on future workforce and workplace trends and issues. He has a master’s degree in social

change and development from Johns Hopkins and an MBA from Wharton. He is based in Egremont,

Massachusetts.

**ROBIN JONES is a principal in Deloitte with more than 20 years of organization and workforce**

transformation consulting experience. At Deloitte, Jones leads markets and services for Workforce

Transformation, where she advises senior executives on strategy and execution of large-scale future of

work initiatives as they contemplate how advanced technologies and shifts in society and business are

impacting their work, workforce, and workplace strategies.

**SIRI ANDERSON is a researcher and writer at the Deloitte Center for Integrated Research, specializing**

in developing thought leadership in the areas of future of work and digital reality. Anderson has also

sponsored and contributed content programs for Deloitte Digital. Before joining Deloitte, Anderson

worked in editorial and strategic communications roles in the technology and health care industries.

She is based in Seattle.

#### Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Kelly Monahan for her feedback and guidance in the development of

this piece.


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#### About the Deloitte Center for Integrated Research

Deloitte’s Center for Integrated Research focuses on developing fresh perspectives on critical business
issues that cut across industries and function, from the rapid change of emerging technologies to the
consistent factor of human behavior. We uncover deep, rigorously justified insights and look at transfor­
mative topics in new ways, delivering new thinking in a variety of formats, such as research articles, short
videos, and in-person workshops.

#### Contacts


**Jeff Schwartz**
Principal
Deloitte Consulting LLP
jeffschwartz@deloitte.com

+1 212 653 2532

**Steve Hatfield**
Principal

The Deloitte Global Future of Work leader

Deloitte Consulting LLP
sthatfield@deloitte.com

+1 212 618 4046


**Siri Anderson**
Researcher
Center for Integrated Research
Deloitte Services LP
sianderson@deloitte.com

+1 206 529 7491

**Robin Jones**
Principal
Deloitte Consulting LLP
robijones@deloitte.com

+1 9178870661


Disruption lies ahead. Driven by accelerating connectivity, new talent models, and cognitive tools,
work is changing. As robotics, AI, the gig economy, and crowd-sourcing grow, jobs are being re­
invented, creating the “augmented workforce.” We must reconsider how jobs are designed and
[work to adapt and learn for future growth. Learn more about the future of work on Deloitte.com.](https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/human-capital/topics/future-of-work.html)


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