A NEW EMPLOYER A L MAN AC

Forecasting the
Future of Work
for Tomorrow’s
Employers

Custom content for Strategic Education Inc. by

HR Dive's Brand Studio
The adoption of artificial intelligence,
the impending automation of job
categories, the fierce competition across
industries and the permanent ripple
effect of the coronavirus pandemic — this
is the volatile background against which
HR executives must plan and deploy their
talent strategies.

But different organizations experience different realities. While

some companies have hemorrhaged hard-won talent in droves
from layoffs, others have struggled to recruit the numbers they
need to fill their labor demand. Which leaves HR and operations
leaders to wonder whether it’s realistic to create a talent strategy
amid so much uncertainty.

While every twist and turn of today’s reactive economic

environment inspires dire warnings about the disruption of the
global labor market and the pressure facing organizations to
compete aggressively or fade away, the future of work is still
hopeful. It’s possible for employers to weather the current
crises, identify critical skills and infuse them into the talent
they need, and emerge thriving — but only by going above
and beyond core operations to provide the following
opportunities to employees and communities.

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Relevant and
The relevance and timeliness of education are top of mind for
employees today. While traditional degreed programs can take years

timely education
to complete, skill-building digital courses and flexible certificate or
degree programs allow employees to identify, pursue and master a
skill in a much shorter period of time. Both employee and employer
see short- and long-term benefits from these rapid professional-
development experiences.

“There’s strong evidence that employees who take advantage of

education benefits outperform their peers,” said Taylor Chapman,
principal at SEI Ventures. “In fact, results from LinkedIn’s 2018
“More than ever, workers are likely Workplace Learning Report show that talent developers, executives

to be juggling many obligations, and people managers agree that providing resources to enable

such as child care, community

talent is crucial to the business. There is a consensus that
learning and development programs are a necessary benefit
involvement, elder care, second or to employees.”

third jobs, and more. Being able

to meet learners where they
Relevant and timely professional development isn’t limited to hard
skills, such as a programming language or technical competency. It
are — ideally in a digital- and is also an effective way to upskill employees in essential skills — once

mobile-friendly format — is critical.” known as “soft” — such as communication and customer service,
which will only become more important in the future of work.

“While the current climate will likely have a permanent impact on

industries like retail, hospitality and travel, that doesn’t mean the
TAYLOR CHAPMAN
skills required in those roles will fall out of demand,” Chapman
Principal at SEI Ventures
said. “Quite the opposite — the rise in automation of more
physical and clerical labor actually means that an ever-greater
proportion of human workers will be working in roles that require
these critical skills like customer service, empathy, persuasion
and communication.”
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Benefits that focus on

wellness and quality of life
According to the 2020 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends report,
“Integrating well-being into the design of work itself can strengthen the link
between worker well-being and organizational outcomes, supporting well-being
not just for individuals but for teams and for the organization at large.” So much
so, Deloitte projects that the global corporate well-being market will
increase from $53.6 billion to $90.7 billion between 2018 and 2026.

This is a strong indicator of how critical it is for employers to continue to care

about and have a positive effect on an employee’s quality of life. But in the
future of work, employers will need to adjust employee wellness benefits
for workers who increasingly work from home or other remote locations.
Organizations must find a way to maintain flexibility while ensuring
productivity, providing both the tools and resources needed to avoid
burnout and remain productive as well as the performance management
oversight to verify that productivity.

“Talent-development leaders who want to embrace the benefits of the future

will need to be thinking about creating a holistic employee experience,” said
Nicole Jones, vice president of talent development at Strategic Education, Inc.
“It comes back to the fact that employees are looking for a place of belonging
— an environment that is caring, flexible and committed to investing in who they
are and who they want to become, regardless of how the work changes in the
future. Employers and employees will need to come together to identify how
technology can assist in supporting a more sustainable work-life balance.”

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“Any market is a market in which
employees are selectively choosing where
they will invest their energy and time and
looking for an employer who will invest in
their whole self and well-being.”

NICOLE JONES
Vice President of Talent Development at Strategic Education, Inc

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Local partnerships
Collaborating with local governments and higher education to
drive partnerships that support the good of the community at the
local scale is another critical way employers can cement their role

between businesses in the future of work. While on the surface this might appear to
be a step back from a global company’s big-picture view, it can

and educational
deliver a powerful boost to an organization’s employer brand,
recruiting efforts and overall impact. This is especially true when
local and regional universities nimbly match programs to the

institutions needs of local labor markets by speeding up the cycle of retiring

and developing programs.

“A strong alignment between employers and institutions will

help both entities thrive in the face of increased competition,
closures and consolidation,” said Terry McDonough, senior vice
president and managing director at Strategic Education, Inc. “In
“Education, especially in the the case of a partnership with a university or local community

context of partnerships between college, approaching students as prospective employees and

local employers and the

building a strong local brand will allow employers to nurture the
talent they need to succeed.”
government, is the single greatest
lever we can pull to open up
opportunity to more Americans
and level the playing field.”

TAYLOR CHAPMAN
Principal at SEI Ventures

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4
Long before the events of 2020, equality and equity were a pivotal

A universal piece of the discussion of diversity and inclusion.

prioritization of As employers move forward with more transparent — and sometimes

more painful — conversations and actions about systemic racism

equality and equity

and injustice in the workplace, we can expect these themes to mature
and have a more powerful influence on the future of work.

A strong desire for greater equity will inspire efforts to reskill and
retrain talent to transition skills from one industry to another,
following the example of anti-crisis programs in Europe after the
financial crisis of 2008. These programs may include but are not
limited to the following:

• Private employer-sponsored opportunities to reskill

“Strategic optimism doesn’t ignore

and retrain in technical areas, such as coding and
software development.
the issues we have — it keeps
organizations open to possibilities • Shortened training experiences and “boot camps” to reskill

even as those issues are navigated.”

talent from one area, such as hospitality, to another area,
such as customer service and experience.

“Organizations must be very intentional to not ignore the challenges

and tragedies we’re experiencing today,” Jones said. “Instead, we
NICOLE JONES
can live in that moment, empathizing with and supporting our people.
Vice President of Talent Development at
When we operate from a space of possibility and hope, it allows
Strategic Education, Inc.
us to acknowledge difficult situations while also building resilience
alongside our teams.”

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5

A seat at the table

for employees
In 2019, 181 CEOs in the Business Roundtable updated the long-held
perspective of shareholder primacy to include customers and employees
and “affirm the essential role corporations can play in improving our society.”
This represents a significant shift in how organizations make decisions,
increasing pressure to think about how decisions affect employees, not just
shareholders and profits.

This accelerates the trend of building a “consumer grade” employee

experience that prioritizes engagement and productivity and really puts
the employee experience first. In practice, this might look like incorporating
employees or employee representatives into the decision-making, or simply
making decisions that truly put employees first.

“In the last 12 months, many businesses came out in support of workers and
put more humane policies in place,” McDonough said. “The current crisis
puts those promises to the test and may end up uncovering hypocritical
stances of companies that don’t choose the employees — will
employers protect margins or sacrifice them to keep more of
the workforce employed? Organizations that do all they can to
continue to support employees — such as continuing health,
retirement and education benefits through layoffs — will
find themselves gaining a lot of long-term respect from
the public.”

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 Navigating the The future of work is about more than artificial
intelligence, automation and disruption — it’s

Unfolding Future also about how those advancements will affect

the talent organizations need to succeed.
of Work The five prominent themes explored here
address much of what employers can expect
to see develop more fully over the next few
years. And employers that can focus on these
themes and fulfill their promises to employees,
“This is an opportune time for HR communities and customers are the ones
and talent teams to lead and help that will secure a prominent position in the
organizations reimagine what is most economy to come.
important, creating the narrative as
organizations want it to be. What do you
want employees and customers to say
about you, before and after the crisis
you’re weathering today?”

NICOLE JONES
Vice President of Talent Development at
Strategic Education, Inc.

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Strategic Education, Inc. is dedicated to enabling economic
mobility through education. We serve students through a range
of educational opportunities that include: Strayer University and
Capella University (separate institutions that are each regionally
accredited), which collectively offer flexible and affordable
associate, certificate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs;
a Top 25 Princeton Review-ranked online MBA program through
the Jack Welch Management Institute; self-paced college-level,
general education courses through Sophia; customized degrees
for corporations through Degrees@Work; and non-degree
web and mobile application development courses through
DevMountain, Generation Code, Hackbright Academy, and The
New York Code + Design Academy. These programs help our
students prepare for success in today’s jobs and find a path to
bettering their lives.

LEARN MORE
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