On the 4th of December 2018, DCU Business School held their 2nd of 3 conferences for our 1st Year module DICE.
The conference was titled “Get Digital”. This conference was based on 3 main concepts: The Future of Work, Digital Transformation & Privacy, Trust and Governance.
There was a wide range of speakers in attendance and many panel discussions. Each were experts in various fields of work relating to the main topic they were chosen to discuss.
Although 3 main concepts were discussed at the conference, the topic I have chosen to write about in this blog is “The Future of Work”.
The guest speakers for this part of the conference include:
- Siobhan O Shea – Client Services Director of the CPL Future of Work Institute
- Mark Little – CEO of Magnet Networks
The panel discussion was chaired by Edel Conway and speakers included:
- Siobhan O Shea
- Andrea Wade – CEO of Opening.io
- Esther Valle – IBM Digital Sales Dublin
The Future of Work is a huge and worrying topic now a days, coming up in almost every conversation amongst students, CEOs and workers.
The truth is we are unsure of what the future holds in terms of work and employment.
It is not a simple discussion as it has many aspects to it and there are many different views and opinions on the matter.
When this topic is brought up in conversation there are 4 main issues surrounding it.
Firstly, there are the questions and the discussion surrounding AI, automation and robotics and whether these will take and replace our jobs in the future.
The 2nd aspect is the structure of work. Remotely working and the emergence of the gig economy introduces us to freedom and flexibility, but people are curious as to whether this model will exist into the future and whether it is truly effective and efficient.
The third issue addressed when talking on this topic is the impact on wages and jobs in the future. With the introduction of automation into the workplace people worry wages will be reduced or jobs cut entirely as machines carry out jobs more efficiently. People worry if they will still be able to make a living.
The last and least talked about aspect is how our workplaces will physically look in a few years time. Will offices still exist, will we be working alongside robots or will it all be done remotely?
There are lots of questions and discussion around this topic, so I was interested to hear the guest speakers’ opinions on it. As experts in their field they are currently dealing with such changes in the work place and I was interested to hear how they felt it would all pan out in a few years time.
Mark Little
The first speaker on this topic was Mark Little, a former accountant, who is now the CEO of Magnet Networks, an Irish telecommunications company which provide television and broadband coverage to homes and business not only here in Ireland but worldwide.
Mark’s vision for the company is to be the best telecommunications company in the world. This fit nicely with Mark’s idea on the future of work as he believes that in order to have ideas/ innovations succeed in the future you must think globally and outside of Ireland. Mark is already successful in implementing this idea as he has smart cities set up worldwide in London and the Middle East. With developments in technology recently it makes it easy for businesses to go global and expand markets worldwide.
Mark also believes careers and jobs are constantly changing. Having studied as an accountant himself Mark believes there are no life long careers anymore.
Mark also talked about how employees should consider working in different countries to build an international portfolio. He believes in future international experience and that global knowledge will be essential to be successful as a business person. Ireland’s market is too small to be successful and he feels links with abroad are the only way for business to work in the future. This will allow them to adapt different work methods, transform the way of thinking and also keep up to date with technological developments.
Mark believes the only way to keep up with the change is to be a part of it globally.
Siobhan O Shea
The 2nd speaker was Siobhan O Shea, the Client Services Director in CPL one of Irelands largest recruitment companies. Her role as brand ambassador for CPLs future of work institute on trends and the future had me looking forward to hearing her thoughts on the subject.
Siobhan started by explaining how jobs are constantly changing and new jobs, are being created which is true given the likes of Uber did not exist 10 years ago. Siobhan believes jobs are moving away from traditional roles and are becoming more IT based. According to Siobhan 65% of todays children after they graduate will be working in jobs that don’t exist today. This is as a result of the 4th industrial revolution.
Siobhan then spoke on different trends occurring in the work place today. The first trend is how people are working later in life and Siobhan believes retirement age will increase over the coming decades.
The 2nd trend Siobhan touched on was remote working, stating that all you need is Wi-Fi. Advances in technology have made it possible and easy to work remotely from home. Flexibility in the workplace has become common and acceptable. According to my research firms believe it saves them money to have staff remotely working as this cuts costs of the physical office space. Studies have also proven that workers are more productive if they have the freedom and flexibility to create their own hours.
Siobhan also touches on the newly found Gig Economy which allows its workers the same freedom and flexibility offered by remotely working. The Gig Economy has grown massively in recent years with the emergence of companies such as Uber, Airbnb and Deliveroo. This is a trend which has been brought in from abroad. This is a new way of working, however still has a few cons. People feel it is not a stable career as they are not seen as employees and called “riders” etc, and don’t receive the same benefits as an employee such as sick pay, holidays and insurance cover. However with over 30% of the working population using services such as these it is a very lucrative business model. Statistics show that 72% of millennials want to be their own boss and I believe the gig economy is an attractive way for them to do that, resulting in growth in this sector in the years to come.
Siobhan then moved onto the topic of robots and automation in the work place and if they will replace our jobs or not. Siobhan believes they will not replace our jobs but instead create more opportunities in the work place. However according to McKinsey it looks like that by 2030 half of the jobs available to be automated will be. It will be a slow transformation moving occupation to occupation and will only occur in advanced economies due to the high costs associated. It is predicted that Japan will be the only highly automated country by that time.
Certain jobs are believed to never experience automation. These jobs need creativity, complexity, dexterity, empathy and compassion including jobs such as research jobs, teachers/nurses, plumbers and strategy and management teams.
Siobhan encouraged us at the end of her speech to be open to this change, be agile, engage in life long learning and constantly be willing to upskill and or move between careers. She believes it is the only way to adapt and move forward with successful careers.
Panel
The last and final part of this section of the conference was the panel discussion, where they mainly discussed AI in the future workplace.
For centuries people have been worried about machines taking over the work place however now with recent advances in technology they fear it will actually replace jobs. In the last 5-8 years there has more development into technology than there has been over the last 50 years. Previously people felt machines were only assisting with work such as manual labour and packaging. However, now they feel robots have become so advanced they could possibly replace people in the workplace.
There are both pros and cons to this type of AI technology. It reduces errors, creates better predictions, ability to discover new solutions, and improves productivity of the work. These benefits are hard to disregard. However, there are also cons such as the loss of jobs as many can be replaced by this technology. Another are the huge costs involved in creating and using this technology. I feel it will take years before jobs are lost to such technology.
The overall message I took from this particular part of the conference is being open to the idea of change, keeping updated and constantly trying to upskill.
References
The Rise and Rise of the Gig Economy
2018. https://www.rte.ie/eile/brainstorm/2018/0530/967082-the-rise-and-rise-of-the-gig-economy/, accessed December 29, 2018.
What Is the Future of Work?
2018. https://www.rte.ie/eile/brainstorm/2018/0202/937910-what-is-the-future-of-work/, accessed December 29, 2018.
Forbes.com. (2018). Three Trends On The Future Of Work. [online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinessdevelopmentcouncil/2018/08/13/three-trends-on-the-future-of-work/ [Accessed 29 Dec. 2018].
McKinsey & Company. (2018). What is the future of work?. [online] Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/what-is-the-future-of-work [Accessed 29 Dec. 2018].
Darmody, J. (2018). Why flexibility is the key to the future of work. [online] Silicon Republic. Available at: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/careers/future-of-work-flexibility-inspirefest [Accessed 29 Dec. 2018].
McKinsey & Company. (2018). Technology, jobs, and the future of work. [online] Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/employment-and-growth/technology-jobs-and-the-future-of-work [Accessed 29 Dec. 2018].
D.I.C.E 18/19 