B U I L D , B U Y, B O R R O W , O R B O T
2 in 5
Despite discussions around AI and automation enabling jobs to be deconstructed into individual tasks, or the move away from role structures to skill taxonomies, the fact is there will always be “jobs to be done.” Optimizing for the new world of work requires understanding: What tasks are repetitive, strategic, necessary year-round, or project-based? How can jobs be more clearly defined to reflect team roles and still give employees freedom to contribute? By freeing up resources, organizations can rethink how they deploy people accordingly, especially because the jobs that remain will likely require different levels of labor intensity and cognitive maturity.5 Executives in high-performing companies are twice as likely to say that job redesign makes a sizable difference to business performance.6
Workforce planning that simply puts new types of workers into old job boxes is insufficient. A fresh take on jobs — based on an analysis of where tasks overlap, which activities are future-critical, and which will become obsolete — is vital to aligning work to future value. Leading companies are evaluating automation opportunity in various jobs, typically starting with those that directly impact customers, those with significant optimization potential, and those that build future skills. The trick is working out the magnitude of change for a given role or job family and deciding the organization’s appetite for that change.
R E D E F I N I N G T H E “J O B S T O B E D O N E ”
While HR leaders continue to focus on building talent
from within, automation also figures heavily in their
plans this year (Figure 6) — especially in Brazil,
India, and Japan, where over 70% of companies
intend to increase automation. Yet only one-third
of companies currently use talent analytics to
determine the impact of build, buy, borrow, or bot
decisions on performance outcomes. Across the
board, the challenge for organizations is to derive
the talent insights they need from the data available. 65%#1
Executives believe the highest
ROI on talent investment will
come from redesigning jobs to
better deliver value. The majority of employees across all regions and industries want a clearly defined job description.But only 43% of HR leaders are redesigning jobs to prepare for the future of work. 5
Build
Buy Borrow Automate
44%53%60%84%F I G U R E 6. T H R E E I N F I V E COMPAN I ES PLAN T O A U T O M AT E M O R E I N 2019In 2019, we will increase our spending in (7)
A L I G N I N G W O R K T O F U T U R E V A L U E