In collaboration with Mercer Resetting the Future of Work Agenda: Disruption and Renewal in a Post-COVID World WHITE PAPER OCTOBER 2020 Cover: by Getty Images Contents 3 Introduction 6 1 Resetting the future of work agenda 7 1.1 Transform organization design and work design 7 a Empower an agile and distributed workforce 8 b Explore hybrid working options 10 c Pivot to remote working 11 d Redesign the workspace 12 1.2 Align new technology and skills 12 a Embrace technology for business transformation 13 b Integrate reskilling and upskilling 15 1.3 Cultivate health and well-being 15 a Safeguard physical and mental health 16 b Consider total well-being 17 c Enable safe return to the office 19 1.4 Build human-centric leadership culture 19 a Empower local leaders and improve communication 20 b Enhance employee listening and enable human connection 21 c Re-emphasize diversity, equity and inclusion 22 1.5 Embrace stakeholder capitalism 22 a Protect workers 23 b Reimagine lay-offs 24 c Responsibly integrate gig workforce 25 Conclusion: A call to action 26 Acknowledgements 30 Endnotes © 2020 World Economic Forum. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system. Resetting the Future of Work Agenda 2 October 2020 Resetting the Future of Work Agenda: Disruption and Renewal in a Post-COVID World Introduction Over the past 10 years, the discussion on the from the Forum’s network of Preparing for the future of work has predominantly been linked to Future of Work Industry Accelerators,3 comprising job automation. However, while this trend and its more than 200 senior HR leaders, education ramifications will undoubtedly remain a relevant technology and learning providers, academia and strand of the discussion, the rapidly evolving nature government stakeholders in nine industries. of our economies and societies – accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis – has brought about a broader Furthermore, this report is intended to complement range of shifts in how and where we work, the ways the Forum’s existing set of actionable research in which work, workplaces and workforces are and guidance on the future of work, including its organized, and the employee-employer relationship. Workforce Principles for the COVID-19 Pandemic: Stakeholder Capitalism in a Time of Crisis,4 white The COVID-19 pandemic will have profound, papers on HR4.0: Shaping People Strategies in the long-term consequences for our economies and Fourth Industrial Revolution5 and Towards a Reskilling societies, including for the future of work.1 As Revolution: Industry-Led Action for the Future of part of The Great Reset needed to support the Work,6 and bi-annual Future of Jobs Report. transition to a fairer, more sustainable post-COVID world, companies have a responsibility, and a rare Building on this wealth of insights and experience opportunity, to rethink their organizational and from the Forum’s broader industry community, this workplace structures to invest in their workforces report is intended as a call to action for companies as core drivers of long-term resilience and future and organizations globally to update and reset success. Having recognized the COVID-19 crisis as their future of work preparedness agendas for a a defining leadership and transformation moment,2 more relevant and inclusive post-pandemic “new” chief people officers and other human resources future of work for all. Importantly, these are not (HR) and business leaders are now called on to build just questions for after the crisis. Forward-thinking on what they have learned from the immediate crisis CHROs point to a need to consider early on how response to reset their organizations’ future of work work, the workplace and the workforce will look agendas and lead the way towards better and more in the medium to long term to begin making the human-centric work, workplaces and workforces. necessary investments today. This report, developed in collaboration with Mercer, The workforce and workplace impact of brings together key insights and lessons from the COVID-19 crisis COVID-19 crisis response of the World Economic As of mid-2020, 93% of the world’s workers Forum’s broader industry community to imagine resided in countries with some form of workplace and set out an updated future of work company closure measure in place to prevent the spread action agenda for a post-COVID world. In particular, of coronavirus.7 Businesses providing essential the report brings together the perspectives on services, such as healthcare, logistics, food and COVID-19 workforce-related best practices of retail, continued to operate with new health and more than 60 chief human resources officers safety measures in place. Where jobs could be (CHROs) from leading global employers as well as performed remotely, companies pivoted rapidly a broad range of insights into how organizations to the largest experiment in mass remote-working are preparing for the post-pandemic shape of work in history, comprising 39% of workers in OECD Resetting the Future of Work Agenda 3 countries on average.8 Businesses deemed non- and supported to carry out their duties. While essential and those impossible to perform remotely, prior to the pandemic organizations were already including in industries such as travel and tourism, undertaking initiatives to support and equip their were suspended during lockdowns, leading to workforce with the right types of skills, jobs and millions of workers being furloughed or laid off. tools, many were doing so at a pace not aligned to the accelerated speed of change brought about Moreover, according to the Forum’s Future of Jobs by the Fourth Industrial Revolution and other global Report 2020, more than 50% of global businesses trends.10 As a result, a window of opportunity now have accelerated the automation of tasks in exists for companies and organizations to reassess response to the crisis – with more than 30% also the impact of the pandemic, review the changes accelerating the implementation of reskilling and imposed and reset and rejuvenate their approach to upskilling programmes (Figure 1).9 With the arrival of work, the workplace and their workforce to create the pandemic, companies changed their operating new meaningful employment opportunities while practices essentially overnight, prompting many to ensuring workers are adequately prepared for the re-examine how well their employees were prepared new shape of work. FIGURE 1 Planned business measures in response to COVID-19 0 20 40 60 80 100 Accelerate the digitization of work processes (e.g. use of digital tools, video-conferencing) 84 Provide more opportunities to work remotely 83 Accelerate automation of tasks 50 Accelerate the digitization of upskilling / reskilling (e.g. education technology providers) 42 Accelerate the implementation of upskilling / reskilling programmes 35 Accelerate ongoing organizational transformations (e.g. restructuring) 34 Temporarily reassign workers to different tasks 30 Temporarily reduce workforce 28 Permanently reduce workforce 13 Temporarily increase workforce 5 No specific measures implemented 4 Share of employers (%) Source: World Economic Permanently increase workforce Forum, The Future of Jobs 1 Report 2020 Resetting the Future of Work Agenda 4 Challenges and opportunities for HR leaders, However, the challenge and opportunity of the boards and executives current moment goes beyond either managing As the pandemic is fundamentally a crisis with disruption or returning to some “old” or “new” immediate and direct impacts on workforces and normal. For HR, there is a real opportunity to workplaces, CHROs and other senior HR leaders move away from prescriptive and standardized have been at the heart of companies’ responses.11 approaches to become more relevant to each Organizations have had to learn to think and act employee. More broadly, for company boards fast. In doing so, insights and experiences from and senior leaders there is the potential for across the Forum’s CHRO and future of work considerations on well-being, purpose and new industry communities highlight that addressing ways of working to come together to create a “new employee health and safety has been a primary deal” for what being a worker in the organization focus, along with ensuring business continuity means, and to reshape work, workplaces and and managing the shift to remote working. Having workforces for ongoing success in the future. adapted quickly to the crisis, companies have now increasingly begun assessing what good practices Based on insights and lessons learned from the need to be institutionalized and what approaches Forum’s broader future of work industry community, need to be adapted for disruptions that are likely to we identify five imperatives for resetting the future of persist for months if not years – “a marathon, not a work agenda (Figure 2). sprint”, as one CHRO put it. FIGURE 2 Five Imperatives for resetting the future of work agenda Transform Organization Align New Technology Design and Work Design and Skills Transition into a more simple Embrace the necessary and agile structure, moving Wo integration of technology and k away from traditional multi- r skills to transform the rke layered organizations Wo workplace Embrace rs Stakeholder Capitalism Create a socially responsible and sustainable ecosystem by ensuring equitable sharing of risks and rewards between employees and Cultivate Health