There is no doubt that business disruption and digitization are changing the way we think and act about ‘Work’. I consider that we are at a stage of redefining the ‘How’ side of Productivity both at the Corporate and Individual levels, marking a milestone for how we are going to manage people and performance in the near future.
Work is changing in content and context as a result of business disruption. It will no more be safe for businesses not to rethink and adapt their Operating and Governance Models including Strategies, Products, Organization Structures, Functional Roles and Responsibilities, Operational Processes, and most important Individual Jobs. It might sound that some Organizational Functions like HR will have so much on its plate in the coming few years, but the issue is of a larger scale. We are witnessing a comprehensive remodeling of the way we conduct business, triggered by phenomenal technologies that are making the previously ‘not-possible’ possible, and in reality much more convenient.
The above dynamics will bring a lot of change into the way companies handle their Jobs’ inventory, and for those who fail to see this change and adapt to it, I tell them: trouble is on the way. Jobs are changing in ways that were unconceivable only in the past couple of years. The Jobs’ Market is in a state of eruption. Just like a volcano ripping off existing land, creating new one, and changing the face of what’s remaining, this is what Business Disruption and Digitization are doing to Jobs around the World.
With this in mind, it is intriguing to think about what will be the most wanted jobs in the coming 5 to 10 years? I believe Jobs of a new age will fall into one of the following categories:
- Creativity and Innovation: this will include all jobs that will define our wants and needs in the future.
- Social Media: in this category fall the jobs that will entice us to interact with everything around us including business, government, and society.
- Business Intelligence: this category represents the jobs that will monitor, analyze, deduce and report on human behavior and how other businesses are responding to it.
- Technology Development: those are the jobs that will change all of the above into reality.
- Learning and Knowledge Sustainability: in here lies the power of educating a whole new World on how to live and let live, and sustain the freshness of knowledge.
- Entrepreneurial Investment: this category will stand for the Idea Hunters who will fuel the new realities.
- Regulatory & Legal: jobs of this category will be in charge of regulating the Web. Yes, the ‘WWW’ will eventually (and inevitably) be regulated.
To be more specific, I consider those are the most wanted Jobs in the Business World for the coming 5 to 10 years:
| 40 Most Wanted Jobs 2016 – 2020 | |||
| 1. | Social Media Specialists | 21. | People Governance Experts |
| 2. | Internal Entrepreneurs | 22. | Special Education Experts |
| 3. | Digital Branding Consultants | 23. | Compliance Specialists |
| 4. | Programs’ Management (PMO) Experts | 24. | Leadership Developers |
| 5. | Talent Scouts | 25. | Business Intelligence Specialists |
| 6. | Digital Ethics Experts | 26. | Virtual Teams’ Managers |
| 7. | Data Crunchers | 27. | Planning and Performance Experts |
| 8. | Creativity and Disruption Specialists | 28. | Experiential Learning Trainers |
| 9. | Information Sanitizers | 29. | Public Private Partnership Specialists |
| 10. | Innovation Specialists | 30. | Tech-convergence Analysts |
| 11. | Communities’ Business | 31. | Socio-corporate Mediation Specialists |
| 12. | Parenting Experts | 32. | Idea Hunters |
| 13. | Software Developers | 33. | Digital Actuaries |
| 14. | Home Automation Experts | 34. | Workplace Diversity-tolerance Specialists |
| 15. | Digital Media Experts | 35. | E-Government Experts |
| 16. | Job Design & Engineering Specialists | 36. | Workplace Psychologists |
| 17. | Corporate Resilience Analysts | 37. | English Language Teachers |
| 18. | Web Regulation Lawyers | 38. | Healthy Living Engineers |
| 19. | Digital Risk Analysts | 39. | Environmental Engineers |
| 20. | Private Education Professionals | 40. | Green Energy Engineers |
My question here continues to be about ‘Readiness’. How much is our World ready to understand and embrace, or does it have to be the hard way? I specifically have four entities that need to adapt, in mind:
- Governments: how much governments are ready to deal with the high potential of unemployment issues rising from un-adaptive employees – in private and public sectors – who might lose their jobs? Also, how much current laws and regulations are actually capable of governing newly created Jobs (and possibly professions)?
- Educational Institutions (specifically Universities): how much are educational institutions ready in terms of their curriculum and offered fields of specialization to pump into the job market the needed talent with the right set of Academic Competencies?
- Businesses: how aware businesses are about the impact of disruption and digitization on their Strategies and Operating Models (Structures, Products, Jobs’ Design, Workforce Profile, HR Policies, Compensation, Reward, Learning, etc.), and how fast are they adapting to the requirements of this new World?
- Talent and Existing Workforce: is Talent aware of the new frontiers made available by cutting-edge technologies? Are they choosing the right and mostly needed majors? Will the existing Workforce be able to interact with new Generations at work, and continue to be useful and performing?
I believe that the way Jobs’ Markets will change to accommodate the requirements of disruption and digitization will create a global social and economic challenge that I do not see the World ready for. Governments are moving very slowly if any. Educational Institutions continue to anchor mostly on their usual curriculum with the exception of few who are investing in the future. Many businesses are still not aware of Business Disruptions and continue to conduct business as usual, though danger is approaching by the minute. Talent could be more ready in terms of their mindset, but I’m not sure how much the Education and Business Worlds are ready for them.
Bottom line, with all due respect to the evolutionary nature of Life and Business, change is happening at a much faster pace than what ‘Evolution’ is used to! Disruption means change; Change means new ways of work; new ways of Work mean new Jobs; new Jobs means learning. If the World does not see the reason of things and its connection with this value chain, then soon enough Businesses’ Profits and – most important – Sustainability will suffer if not seize to exist.