In today’s workplaces, organisations seek the innovative potential of people working together. Participants may be in different locations, but the emphasis has moved on from mere telecommuting – that trend has reversed, the influencers observed.
“The biggest tech companies are building the largest campuses,” says Abhijit Bhaduri, India-based author and management consultant. “They are deliberately bringing their people back into the workspace because innovation actually needs people to bounce off each other in terms of ideation,” Bhaduri says.
Fragmented experience
As organisations look for bottom line benefits from technology and, in particular automation, they should be mindful of the experience they are creating for employees.
Modern working life is an experience that is increasingly becoming fragmented, according to Sarah Caine, associate professor at University of Technology, Sydney.
Organisations that are splitting out the mundane and repetitive tasks may well be exacerbating the fragmentation already being felt by workers, especially those who are on short-term contracts or working on a project-by-project basis.
The ‘gig economy’, where workers bid for tasks via online marketplaces has been both applauded and decried. On one hand, it increases competition and opens up work opportunities for those who might not otherwise have them. On the other hand, workers are effectively bidding to be paid the least for their efforts, with limited support for their rights.
“It’s this idea that we can hire from anywhere at any time in very short engagements,” explains IBRS’ Dr Joseph Sweeney. “And what's surprising me is I'm now taking inquiries from very traditional companies and government organisations saying, how do we utilise these lower cost workers—and it's explicitly around cost,” he says.
Beyond financial implications, a fragmented experience of work can have a deep impact on the wellbeing of workers. Jobs may be divided into components, some being automated, some being outsourced, and what’s left will be increasingly abstract.
The workers most likely to adapt will need an “interdisciplinary perspective”, Caine says, otherwise they will lose sight of their purpose.
“Work is getting more fragmented. So you can take little bits and pieces of work, which technology allows you to farm out in multiple places, and because of this shift, what you have is people don't find meaning,” Caine says.
The value of meaning and doing meaningful work is especially relevant in APAC, where in many cultures, a person’s job is part of their identity.
“So the issue is also about how do we create meaning for people who are doing those kinds of jobs.”
If employee experience drives customer experience, businesses must invest in tools that support team collaboration. Adobe is supporting organisations to shape the way they work now and for the future. Find out how
Adobe Experience Cloud is helping teams to connect and get the job done.