WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

The post-pandemic workplace continues to shift and requires collaboration between remote workers and office workers. Digital transformation has accelerated across every organization and CIOs must maneuver to keep pace. Customer expectations have shifted, and spending habits are moving away from in-person activities to online. IT must improve its maturity in key capabilities to maintain relevance in the organization.

Successful companies are meeting this challenge by taking a “customer-back” perspective. Based on a clear understanding of the skills, behaviors, and mindsets the organization requires, these companies identify capability gaps and improvement opportunities across their workforce. Then, instead of offering “one size fits all” training, they design their capability programs based on detailed analysis of the needs of individual learners—while instilling a culture that fosters learning throughout the organization. That involves the application of a few powerful principles.

Put this all together and what do you get? If you are an optimist, the office of the future will be a spacious, collaborative environment that makes the commute worth it. If you are a pessimist, it will be a building full of heavily surveilled drunkards. In reality, pragmatic considerations—how much time is left on the lease, the physical constraints of a building’s layout, uncertainty about the path of the pandemic—will determine the pace of change. Whatever happens, the office won't be what it was.

With this update, you can indicate how you plan to join a meeting - in the meeting room, or virtually. 

Organizations are clear that postpandemic working will be hybrid. After that, the details get hazy.

We surveyed more than 3,000 CEOs around the world to learn how they are positioning their organizations for success after COVID-19. Five key factors set outperforming CEOs apart.

In March 2020, some of our McKinsey colleagues argued that the COVID-19 crisis could be the “imperative of our time.” A month later, we noted that it could bring a “dramatic restructuring of the economic and social order.” We stand by those assertions. The COVID-19 pandemic has been an economic and human catastrophe, and it’s far from over. But with vaccines beginning to roll out, it’s possible to be cautiously optimistic that the next normal will emerge this year or next.
And we believe that, in some ways, that normal could be better. With good leadership, from both business and governments, the changes we described—in productivity, green growth, medical innovation, and resiliency—could provide an enduring foundation for the long term.

Accenture notes that technology has reframed our relationships with work, working hours & workspaces for years, with this shift accelerating in 2020. 

We estimate that globally, there will be 86,000 authors pre-publishing fundamental and applied AI research papers on arXiv in all of 2020; and that there are approximately 478,000 people globally with the specialized AI technical skills needed for building an AI product. You can read the full report with further breakdowns of the data here. Below I share why understanding the talent pool can help explain the friction in getting AI to work.

Best practices for all-remote organizations

Responses to a McKinsey global survey of 800 executives suggest a disruptive period of workplace changes lies ahead due to acceleration of automation, digitization, and other trends.

Remote work has been the norm at Buffer for many years now; we ditched our office in 2015 and have been hiring remote teammates since 2011. Here's our take on remote work.

Together, these forces will revolutionize the way that work gets done in companies and will compel leaders to rethink even the most basic assumptions about how their organizations function. They will need to discover new ways of organizing, performing, and leading, along with new approaches to recruiting, developing, and engaging employees. All this in organizations with limitless data, open boundaries, employees and machines working side by side, and rapidly evolving employee value propositions.

The grocer, along with Walmart, is giving $150 to all part-time employees and $300 to full-time staff, while Target is offering bonuses to all of its hourly store team leads ranging from $250 to $1,500.

1. Productivity Tools - Pre-built integrations with productivity suites like G-Suite and O365 from within Box avoid interrupting your pace of work
2. Collaboration Workspaces - Deep integrations with key collaboration workspaces - like Slack, Microsoft Teams and Hangouts - helps connect teams and conversations to content
3. Video Communication - With the latest Zoom integration, users can share files directly from your Box account into a Zoom Meeting using the screen sharing function - without ever leaving the Zoom app
4. Line of Business Apps - Support front and back-office departments with key e-signature integrations with Docusign and Adobe Sign and critical line of business applications like Salesforce, NetSuite, AutoCAD and more
5. Security - apps like Okta, onelogin, Azure Active Directory and others not only support single sign-on, but mobile device management and cloud security as well

Get a copy of the playbook Leading Upskilling Initiatives in Data Science & Machine Learning, compliments of Dataiku.

Maybe you didn't grow up dreaming of being an "augmented reality journey builder" or "master of edge computing" or a "cyber calamity forecaster." But someone will. Jobs of the future will be heavy on the use of algorithms, automation and AI; customer experience; environment; fitness and wellness; health care; legal and financial services; transport; and work culture.

Must-do's in order for your hires to reach their full potential you need to put a structure in place that encourages and nurtures their growth, both technically and as managers and leaders.

As the war for digital talent intensifies, what must your organization do to future proof your workforce?

Robots are joining the workforce around the world. And their impact on jobs is inevitable.

The predictions can sound apocalyptic: millions and millions of jobs destroyed by automation, an entire working generation replaced at a stroke. But the actual number of jobs affected—while alarming—shouldn’t really be the entire focus of the conversation. The debate needs to shift. Yes, we know the robots are coming—so what are we going to do about it?

Learn how people like Bill Nye, Shaun White, and Charli Marie have built memorable, effective personal brands.

All jobs below C-suite level are to be reclassified. All those impacted will no longer be employees of IIM. Instead you will work for IIM on a contract basis. This change sounds scarier than it really is. It holds great benefits both for you and for IIM. The company will be able to respond more nimbly to a rapidly changing marketplace. We hope that you will continue to perform services for IIM on a contract basis, but you will also have the opportunity to work and earn elsewhere. If you have any questions, please ask Irma, our human-resources chatbot.

These are the top 10 skills you will need in the workplace in 2020.

It may come as no surprise that technology-centric roles stole the show among emerging jobs in the United States, but the prevalence of machine learning and data science roles and skills indicate a shift in the types of technology we can expect to be using in the near future, as well as what professionals should be preparing themselves for.

Having an academic background and a comprehensive suite of skills were also strong trends, especially among professionals who are now machine learning engineers and data scientists. Both of these roles are also often held by professionals with 10 years or more of professional experience, so for those just starting out and having trouble landing one of these titles, don’t be discouraged!

It’s always a good reminder that soft skills will always be important, no matter the profession. The ability to collaborate, be a leader, and learn from colleagues will stand out in interviews, and even more once starting a job.

The technical potential for automation differs dramatically across sectors and activities.