The driving forces that determine the future of work
It’s now becoming a challenge to find work as well as to keep your career. With so many changes that have affected employment, even formidable professionals such as accountants and lawyers find it hard to secure permanent positions in a company. In the blink of an eye, you might even find your job outsourced to a cheaper worker overseas. There is no doubt about it; the future of work is scary. In fact, a recent report said that around 95% of jobs that will be available in 15-years time have not been invented yet! So how do you make sure that your job will still be available in the future? Is there a way to find job security in any kind of career at all?
Don’t be afraid of the digital era
Remember the time you could only purchase music from a record outlet or from a record bar? And who could forget renting movie VCDs or CDs? These businesses are slowly being eaten away by digital disruption. There’s nothing wrong with purchasing music from iTunes but what about millions of redundant jobs that resulted from this change? Ultimately most present jobs will become redundant due to digital innovation. Librarians, curators and numerous blue-collar jobs will soon be extinct. You can’t fight the digital revolution; the key is embracing this change and trying to innovate with your own skills, knowledge and talents to be part of it.
Be indispensable: innovate yourself
As your company embraces globalization, you might find your long-term position being stolen by some off-shore worker who can work for half the pay you are getting. An entire department, say the procurement, accounts or IT department, can completely vanish and be outsourced in the blink of an eye. However you can save yourself from becoming redundant by undergoing training, exploring new skill sets, getting continuous education to eventually get promoted and so on. Disruption can happen to any industry or business at any moment so you’ve got to prove you’re indispensable by taking these measures soon.
Accept change
There is no other way to be ready for the future of work than to embrace the change. Change is healthy in business; change allows businesses to develop a competitive edge and to produce products and services that will also be indispensable in the future. You can either be the change or fade away in to the night. Accept the future and start prepping your career for the next century.
