Dynamic Marketing Communiqué

Watch out for these top 5 trends in the future of work! Know more about them here. [Fridays: Mindfulness by Miles]

January 14, 2022

Miles Everson’s Business Builder Daily speaks to the heart of what great marketers, business leaders, and other professionals need to succeed in advertising, communications, managing their investments, career strategy, and more. 

A Note from Miles Everson

Recently, I had the pleasure to talk to Phil La Duke from Authority Magazine. 

During the interview, we talked about how businesses and companies should prepare for the future of work as well as the ongoing changes in the business landscape, which has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Do you want to know more about the topics that we discussed in relation to the current workforce in America?   

Check out my full interview here: Preparing For The Future Of Work: Miles Everson of MBO Partners On The Top Five Trends To Watch In The Future Of Work

In today’s newsletter, I’ll be highlighting the top 5 trends that organizations need to watch out for in the future of work. I hope you find this topic insightful and beneficial to your career.  

Miles Everson
CEO, MBO Partners
Chairman of the Advisory Board, The I Institute

Mindfulness by Miles 

In the State of the Independence in America studies, MBO Partners has always mentioned that there are major disruptions that promise to change the very nature of work. 

From the ongoing shifts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to other possible disruptions to the status quo, many wonder what the future holds in terms of employment. 

For example: A report by the McKinsey Global Institute estimated that automation will eliminate around 73 million jobs by 2030.

That’s quite alarming, right? Whether you’re a full-time employee, an independent professional, or a business leader, you have to prepare for what the future of work looks like. 

In a one-on-one interview with Phil La Duke from Authority Magazine, Miles Everson, CEO of MBO Partners, discussed some of the major disruptions for employers in the next 10 to 15 years. These are: 

  1. The rate of change is accelerating. 

Changes in the business landscape are accelerating. These result in more innovations occurring at an increasingly rapid pace. 

… and when innovations converge, Everson says you’ll see a demonstrable impact on societal issues and opportunities. He states, 

“As changes accelerate and innovations converge, work and the workforce will need to evolve faster than ever before.”

  1. Progress is deflationary. 

With the rate of change accelerating, many businesses will see deflation as an ongoing societal impact. Converging innovations will not only change societal norms but also often disrupt existing industry value chains. 

Everson believes innovative companies can beat well-established incumbents faster by improving their quality, speed, and/or price. They can also stand out from the rest of the competition by taking advantage of the changes in the supply and distribution chain.

  1. A shift from knowledge stocks to knowledge flows. 

Traditionally, companies have been built on knowledge stocks―meaning, they develop a proprietary product or idea then defend that innovative advantage against all rivals. 

In today’s business climate, Everson says the value of breakthroughs has shifted to rapid innovation and unbridled power that comes from instant access to the best ideas and talent. 

Some modern businesses measure competitiveness, not by the number of employees on their payroll, but by the degree of access to a global talent pool—knowledge flows, instead of knowledge stocks. 

Everson believes this shift is good because moving from knowledge stocks to knowledge flows helps the business industry innovate more quickly and creatively to create new products and outcomes.

  1. The fractionalization of everything. 

When you fractionalize assets, you make it possible and easier for more people to use a particular asset or take advantage of it. 

… and for Everson, the most significant asset to be fractionalized is the most valuable asset of any company―its workforce. He says nowadays, companies will fractionalize their workforce to get the right people with the right skills at the right time and the right price. 

Workers can also take advantage of this. With fractionalization, they can bring liquidity to how work gets done, effectively reducing what was historically a significant barrier to the relationship between the worker and the employer.

Aside from these major disruptions in the workplace, Everson also highlighted the top 5 trends that businesses and individuals need to watch out for in the future of work. Let’s take a look at them one by one: 

  1. In the future of work, a larger portion of the professional workforce will be made up of independent professionals vs. full-time employees. 

In the last 12 months, the number of independent professionals in the US workforce grew by 34%. 68% of this population are millennials and Gen Z’s and 55% are women. 

As the number of independent professionals continues to grow, companies will be forced to adapt a new business model that welcomes outsourcing of these kinds of workers.

  1. Companies will increasingly utilize project-based outcome arrangements over full-time hourly rates. 

The reasons for this are manifold, including the increasing need to tap into specialized deep skills vs. generic skill sets and the need to accomplish work in quicker sprints. 

If you look at the current extended workforce, including consulting, BPO, talent platforms, and more, this work arrangement is growing at a rate of more than 12% per annum―significantly faster than GDP (Gross Domestic Product).

  1. We are in a talent shortage, not a talent surplus. 

More than 3 million Baby Boomers exited the workforce in 2020―a trend that’s dubbed as an upcoming sansdemic, or a world with too much work but too little workers. 

To prevent this trend from worsening, Everson says broader recruitment strategies, targeted and ongoing skills training, and better plans for talent retention should be implemented. These will keep companies fresh and free from so-called “talent droughts.”

  1. Global wage scales are normalizing for white-collar jobs. 

The reason for this is that the same job and function can now be accomplished remotely and done by people operating in locations with lower costs of living. The balance of power can be more evident as businesses grow used to having both a remote and more transient workforce.

  1. Politicians will continue to pursue protectionist policies until shown otherwise. 

Everson says this is a negative thing because some laws or policies tend to treat every member of society as if they are the same. 

People choose to work in the way they want to work and they will, regardless of the policies. It’s detrimental for both the economy and society to regulate human desire. Until forced otherwise, political pressures will push towards homogeneity in the workforce and continue to challenge this new workforce model.

According to Everson, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the social acceptance of working remotely by probably a decade. He believes that while there will be more back-to-work arrangements and it won’t be completely remote, the business landscape will see a hybrid model in the future of work. 

Everson’s advice to employers is to embrace change. He said, 

“Do not choose to be a protectionist around protecting the old traditional methods and approaches—rarely does protectionism work. It doesn’t mean that you need to eliminate the physical presence and human connection in a company, but it does mean that your culture needs to be activated in ways that don’t rely solely on physical presence.”

The most valuable capability an individual can have is an enhanced learning capability, and that can only be achieved by welcoming change with an optimistic outlook.

Everson states if you are good at learning and you practice a learning discipline, you will easily adapt to changing skills, changing careers, and changing jobs. If you know how to learn, you’ll continue to pick up new skills and capabilities. 

So, make sure you welcome opportunities to learn something new and leverage your skills! 

As Everson highlighted in his interview, the most successful and satisfied individuals, whether an employer or employee, pursue a path of becoming constant and continual learners. 

Use these insights to help you prepare and look forward to the future of work! 

(This article is from The Business Builder Daily, a newsletter by The I Institute in collaboration with MBO Partners.) 

About The Dynamic Marketing Communiqué’s
“Fridays: Mindfulness by Miles”

High-performance businesses are run by people who think and act differently. 

In other words, these are people who are high-performing individuals

Companies and individuals of this kind have found ways to escape the grind of commoditization and competition by focusing on the RIGHT goals. 

High-performing businesses and individuals are also “return driven” businesses and “career driven” individuals. They conscientiously develop unique capabilities and resources that allow them to deliver offerings in ways no other firm or individual can. 

Every Friday, we’ll publish tips and insights from MBO Partners and The I Institute’s “The Business Builder Daily” newsletter. 

These will help you gain knowledge on the things that Miles Everson, the CEO of MBO Partners, often talks about regarding the future of the workforce. 

We’ll also highlight other mindfulness tips and advice on how you can be a high-performing individual both in your career and personal life.

Hope you’ve found this week’s insight interesting and helpful.

Stay tuned for next Friday’s “Mindfulness by Miles!”

Cheers,

Kyle Yu 
Head of Marketing 
Valens Dynamic Marketing Capabilities
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