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The Future of Work is Changing Business Services Operations

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How is the Future Of Work changing the way Business Services operate

The world of work is changing. Digitalisation, new technologies and globalisation have been the determining factors in this change. More recently, the pandemic caused by COVID-19 has accelerated this transition in a totally unpredictable way. This year, around 50% of companies expect automation to be responsible for upskilling over half of their teams, so it is safe to say that the Future has arrived.

The Future of Work consists of a set of trends and measures that organisations have come to understand and adopt to adapt to emerging technologies and globalisation. These two powerful forces will continue to change the way employees work and how organisations manage human capital and operating models.

Even before the pandemic, the innate flexibility of Business Services led to the early adoption of some measures contemplated in the Future of Work, for example, opening the possibility of remote working or advancing with the automation of parts of time-consuming and bureaucratic processes. However, the adoption of these measures has typically been fragmented and without a thread that would allow an aggregated vision of all the dimensions of this trend.

The current context has accelerated some of these changes and demonstrated the main difficulties in their implementation: paper-based processes that are difficult to digitise, cybersecurity concerns, difficulties in measuring productivity in remote work, the complexity of selecting the best digital tools for the organisation or even the development of community spirit and remote employee engagement.

In Business Services, the Future of Work is no longer an academic exercise or a corporate ambition. It is now the best way to guarantee an efficient operating model, capable of adapting and thriving at a time when agility and resilience are key in responding to growing pressures from business units to reduce costs and ensure service levels. For this, it is essential to ensure a holistic model of approach to the Future of Work that comprises all the essential dimensions for a true organisational transformation:

Digital work efficiency

The first step is to create a programme to eliminate waste and simplify critical processes, followed by the implementation of technologies that will enable the creation of fully digital, automated, and touchless processes. The aim of these measures is to eliminate paper to enable remote work and eliminate unnecessary tasks, freeing up the teams’ time for higher value-added tasks.

Human capital management

Globalisation allows the use of more diverse sources of talent, such as gig workers[1] or crowdsourcing[2]. Transforming the talent acquisition model implies rethinking the way processes such as recruitment, onboarding and managing the performance and careers of employees take place.

Work flexibility

The adoption of time and location flexibility is possible by guaranteeing the platforms, hardware and software, so that remote work truly fulfils one of its purposes: enabling a better Work-Life Balance. Remote work implies using planning strategies based on smart objectives and frequent and structured communication among the whole team. Flexible hours bring benefits to the employee, namely a better work-life balance, and to the company, by allowing capacity to adapt to the demand curve. To overcome the challenges of flexible working hours, it is essential to create synchronous work periods among the team to ensure efficiency and motivation.

Employee experience

Keeping the organisational culture, community spirit and sense of solidarity alive was one of the main challenges for Business Services at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. In fact, this transformation forces organisations to understand how not only the recognition and rewarding of work, but also the way in which company values and culture are developed and maintained must change. Increasingly virtual and automated work increases the challenge of maintaining and improving employee experience.

The journey to achieve the integration of all these dimensions of the Future of Work requires the design of an innovative vision, the definition of success metrics, the building of a disruptive team and the implementation of transformation initiatives.

At the origin of Business Services lies the innovative concept of these services leveraging the performance and operations of the business areas. Today, more than ever, this is the spirit that guarantees the resilience and longevity of organisations. The Future of Work is here to stay and, without a doubt, will change for the better the way we see and experience our Work.

[1] Gig work refers to a form of independent work, typically associated with online platforms where the worker performs tasks on demand.

[2] Crowdsourcing refers to a method of obtaining services through the contribution of a large group of people, typically through online communities.

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