With the approach of May Day – Labor Day, this year, more than other years, some reflections arise spontaneously about the changes taking place in the world, which also involve the labor market.
The world of work is constantly evolving, and legislation is struggling to adapt to these changes. Fortunately, today the web allows us to stay up to date quickly with free resources such as this guide to the worker’s rights online. You can find a lot of essential and updated information on the laws governing employment contracts.
New professions and intelligent work
The main changes that we are all witnessing and will probably continue to accompany us for a long time concern:
- The birth of new professions
- A new conception of physical spaces
- A new way of understanding the concept of productivity
As we highlighted in a previous article, the workers are now aware of the presence of numerous companies that have almost all staff in intelligent work and are aware of the cultural, organizational, and structural obstacles present in Italy.
The latter still makes it difficult in the Bel Paese to adopt remote work, especially for SMEs operating in the manufacturing sector.
Except for companies that, for obvious reasons, cannot adopt innovative work, there are numerous sectors that, on the contrary, are undergoing innumerable transformations.
The changes and transformations are taking place to promise essential consequences in the world of work.
Due to the aspects mentioned above, the labor market is undergoing a change on a global scale: on the one hand, we are witnessing the birth of new professions. On the other hand, many of these are disappearing or becoming obsolete.
Therefore, the new worker must keep up with the times by acquiring specific skills and becoming familiar with transversal skills or soft skills such as empathy, problem-solving, and emotional intelligence.
Among the specific skills and most requested by companies are:
- Ability to analyze data – the data scientist profession seems to have a bright future ahead of it.
- IT experience and competence – particularly cybersecurity – is a branch towards which industry experts should specialize.
- Skills in automation and consequently in artificial intelligence.
If these professions are far from their competencies or sector of competencies, one can think of deepening the new opportunities the circular economy offers.
The growing need to optimize production processes for companies increasingly oriented towards zero consumption and reuse of resources leads organizations to look with interest at professionals specializing in these issues.
The analysis shows that those who already carry out a digital profession benefit from a particular advantage belonging to a macro-sector with ample and unpredictable growth margins.
There is still good news for those who have training in the health and social sector for those distant from the digital industry.
Thanks to the pandemic and the increase in the average age, from the socio-health manager, through the nurse and up to those who take care of assisting people at home, are all professions that are meeting the changes taking place in the world of work and which presumably will be required in the future.
What changes in 2021?
Staying on the subject of work but reducing the time frame, let’s try to understand what changes await us in 2021, changes that will affect our everyday lives and have an essential impact on the labor market.
In an article on ansa. One of the most significant changes will be the presence of the 5G network throughout the territory.
2021 is, therefore, the year of the Internet of Everything. The new, high-speed connections will allow companies to take a further step towards the future and complete the digitization processes that have been underway for years.
Also, in 2021, projects such as Oculus Rift and Facebook’s Infinite Office will probably begin to spread. Thanks to VR technology (augmented reality), projects promise to recreate a real virtual office, which will make remote work and digital connections between even more realistic people.
A new concept of productivity
There is also growing attention to the concept of productivity.
The issue of productivity is called into question because the growing ability brought by automation to perform almost any type of task is leading companies to ask themselves: how can humans be productive compared to artificial intelligence, which is faster and more efficient?
In the future, therefore, we will see an attempt to revise the concept of productivity. Today, companies already have a clear goal: to enhance skills such as the spirit of initiative, creativity, and emotional intelligence. These are, at least for now, the most difficult for a machine to replicate.
It can be said, as a consequence of what has been highlighted so far, that the work in the future will see more and more experienced and specialized workers able to work side by side with artificial intelligence.
This explains the change present in many schools: CIS GLOBAL in Seville, Learn Life in Barcelona, or The Mabin School in Toronto, to give some examples, which have changed the educational paradigm by focusing it on a human-centric context, aimed precisely at enhancing those transversal skills, the real strength of man compared to the machine.
Work and well-being
To enhance transversal skills and make the worker suitable to face changes, one last aspect towards which companies are moving is the well-being of workers.
Employers and numerous researches on the subject highlight how there is a correlation between productivity and worker well-being.
As highlighted by the Health and Wellbeing at Work report, the challenge to increased productivity can only be met if employees feel good and are motivated in their work.
For this reason, complicit factors of muscular stress: from the pandemic to the consequent change in working habits, in the future, it is expected that companies will tend to reward, reward, and protect their talents more.