What is Future of Work?
‘Future of Work’ is the most widely searched keyword on Google since 2017. ‘Future of work’, explained in simple terms is the change in nature and the way of working which is experienced across the globe due to advent and adoption of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, automation, machine learning, robotics and cloud computing.
Remote working is preferred by the Gen Z and even Millennials
These technological changes are supported by fast Internet allowing telecommuting or work from home possible.
Stephen Forte, the co-founder and managing partner at Fresco, had spoken about The Workplace in 2025 during TiE Pune Interactive Breakfast Session in October 2018. Steve talked about the concept of “the future of work” and the role of 5 key trends, which are
- Demographic profiles of the cities and countries shaping the nature of jobs
- Augmented reality converting unskilled workers into skilled workers
- Automation tools replacing the need for human involvement
- Artificial Intelligence lowering the cost of prediction
- BOTs communicating with BOTs for doing B-commerce
The Gen Z, people born after 1997, grew up with the Internet and technological advancement. Even the Millennials, born between 1981 to 1996, quickly learnt the latest technologies to keep them competitive. This population is the big influencer of the ‘future of work’ and they are keen on seeking the ‘work-life balance’ and fulfilling their dreams.
Is Remote Working a win-win situation for both workers and employers?
In many cases, this arrangement of working remotely from homes or away from the corporate office location works well for both the employers and the employees.
In fact, this has also given rise to another format of hiring workers. Companies are offering flexible, contractual work or famously called ‘Gigs’ to highly qualified individuals. There is an emerging trend of the global workforce preferring these freelance or contractual gigs as compared to the typical 9 to 5 full-time jobs.
The benefit of this gig economy is that of offers flexibility and work-life balance opportunity to the workers, and it gives access to the qualified talent at economical prices for the employers. It also offers the further benefit of saving costs incurred on the mandatory employee medical and welfare expenses and paid leaves. Though these cost advantages may not be sustainable according to a recent news Vox Media to cut hundreds of freelance jobs ahead of changes in California gig economy laws
The remote workforce economy
The concept of working from remote locations and managing effective team collaboration was made possible due to advancement in communication and collaboration technology. Tools facilitating video conferencing such as Google Meet, Zoom and team collaboration such as Slack, MS Team and G-suite are at the backbone of the remote workforce management.
These tools are available at negligible costs and are quite effective.
The new way of working has created an economy around the concept of a remote and flexible global workforce. Some companies are formed as remote working companies with no physical headquarters, others came into the business to support the remote gig economy. Here are a few examples –
There are companies like Zapier, a workflow automation company based in California, employs a workforce of 250 employees spread across the United States and in 23 other countries, who work remotely.
Remote Year is a company that facilitates travel and accommodations for people working remotely.
Toptal is a global remote company that provides a freelancing platform that connects businesses with software engineers, designers, and business consultants. The company has no headquarters.
Indian companies like Flexing It™ (www.flexingit.com) is a curated platform that helps organisations access and work with high-quality independent consultants, and project-based resources efficiently and at scale.
Hubstaff is a remote company that provides staff monitoring solution using a time-tracking software. The company was founded after its co-founders wanted a better way to manage their team of freelancers.
Whizible has an automation tool in place to do governance for outsourced contractual project work.
Remote Gigs Economy in 2020
There might be a new regulatory framework to monitor the company policies and tax incidents for the workers. So some correction in the healthcare and employee protection benefits might be seen in 2020.
With abundant availability of online training courses, reskilling and upskilling at an affordable price looks feasible for the workers who want to compete for the contractual gigs by keeping them technologically advanced.
Overall, managing through a remote workforce and contractual gigs seems to flourish in the year 2020.
