Thriving in the Future Workforce

1
This survey was undertaken during July 2017.
There were over 500 Organizations that responded and 250 Professional
Independent Consultants
The Survey explored 3 themes:
 Trends – existing and emerging
 Technology – and its impact
 Organizations Readiness – for the future workforce
To ensure practical insights, within these themes the survey focused on the
blended workforce which is the mix of:
 Traditional workforce – full time employees
 Flexible Talent – experienced independent professional consultants
Survey Overview

2
Survey Summary Takeaways across the 3 themes
Trends
 Diversity - Respondents are confident that the impact of gender is near complete. Future
diversity impact will derive from people staying in the workforce longer (multi generational
teams) and working globally (cross cultural teams)
 Skills - Social intelligence, cross cultural, virtual collaboration are dominant skills alongside
critical and novel thinking will be critical for the Future of Work
 Motivation - Confirmation that work “flexibility” and “purpose” will be the motivators and this
was consistent across generations, nationality & gender
Organizational Readiness
 Flexible Talent - In 5 years, one third of organizations will have 50% of their workforce as
flexible talent
 Talent Sourcing – Platforms will outpace all other sources for flexible talent acquisition
 Organizational Management – Organizations have much work to do to be ready to
manage flexible talent
Technology
 AI & Big Data – will have the most impact between now and 2030; cloud & mobile tech will
be old news in 2030.
 HR Blindspot - HR profession under estimates the impact of technology on the future
workforce
 India likes AI - India professionals are very supportive of Artificial Intelligence especially
compared to Britain

4
Survey Respondents
India USA
Australia Europe
Southeast Asia Others
Respondents by Location
Survey Respondents
Indian Consultants
Indian Organisations

5
Respondents by Organization Type
Large consulting
Boutique consulting/advisory
firm
Not-for-profit organisation
Government/Public Sector
Others
Large Corporate/MNC
Startup

6
Seniority of respondents
< 5 Years
5 - 10
Years
11 – 15
Years
16 - 20
Years
> 20
Years
< 5 Years 5 - 10 Years 11 - 15 Years
16 - 20 Years > 20 Years
Junior
Managers
Managers
Senior
Managers
C-Suite
Organizations
Junior Managers Managers
Senior Managers C-Suite

7
Survey Respondents
General Management/Leadership
Strategy and Business Development
Manufacturing/Operations
Finance
Human Resources
Sales and Marketing
Information Technology
Other
Government Relations/Advocacy
Legal
Research and Academia
Respondents by Specialization

9
Trends for thriving in the future workforce were very
consistent across demographics
Diversity –
 Respondents are confident that the impact of gender on diversity is near complete.
Gender rated very low (<10%) as an impact on diversity in 5 years. This remained
consistent across gender, age, geography and professions.
 Diversity impacts will be driven by:
 People staying in the workforce longer - multi generational teams
 Global teams working across cultures
Skills –
 Somewhat consistent with the future impacts on diversity, key skills for thriving in the future
centered on soft skills:
 Social intelligence
 Cross cultural competencies
 Virtual collaboration
 These soft (EQ) skills also need to be coupled with interpretative (IQ) skills for a complex
world, such as:
 Critical thinking and sense making
 Novel and Adaptive thinking
Motivation –
 Consistent with other public surveys, the main motivators in the future will be:
 Work flexibility
 Purpose Organizations and meaningful work
 This remained consistent across age, geography and gender

10
WORKFORCE DIVERSITY in the next 5 Years, will be driven by cross
border teams and an older workforce, gender’s impact has passed
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Multi Generational
(older population remain
working)
Gender Culture - Cross Border /
Global Teams
Increasing Immigration Workforce will become
less diverse
Over the next 5 years, what will be the biggest driver of
Workforce Diversity?
Organizations Independent Consultants

11
Social intelligence, cross cultural, virtual collaboration are dominant
skills alongside critical and novel thinking for the Future of Work
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Cognitive Load Management
New Media Literacy
Computational Thinking
Trans-Disciplinarity
Design Mindset
Virtual Collaboration
Cross-Cultural Competency
Novel and Adaptive Thinking
Social Intelligence
Critical Thinking/Sense-Making
Respondents picked 3 skills which are needed to thrive in
tomorrow's workplace

12
Overwhelmingly PURPOSE & FLEXIBILITY will drive the Future of
Work. This remained constant across gender, age and nationality.
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Remuneration Progression up the
ladder
Workforce flexibility Purposeful Organisation Job Security
What will be the key motivator for professionals over the next
decade?

13
Flexible workforces will grow rapidly but organisations
need to do much work to be ready for this requirement
Flexible Talent
There will be considerable growth in flexible talent (manager level workers engaged on a
project by project basis) over the next 5 years:
 One third of organizations will have 50% of their workforce as flexible talent (tripling today)
 Half of organizations will have more than 30% of their workforce as flexible talent (doubling)
Talent Sourcing
As Flexible talent grows, there will be a shift in how organizations source that flexible talent:
 Away from large consulting companies and relationship networks
 Towards platforms
Organizational Management
Organizations and Independent Consultants think organizations have much work to do to be
ready for future flexible work and do not yet have ready:
 Performance management systems to provide feedback to flexible talent
 Frictionless Onboarding systems for seamless contracting, payment, integration into the
workplace
 Leadership capabilities to manage a collegiate blended team environment

14
In the next 5 Years, the number of Organizations with >50% Flexible
Talent will increase THREEFOLD
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
TODAY AFTER 5 YEARS
Organizations that will have >30% and >50% Flexible Talent after
5 years
More than 30% More than 50%

15
In the next 10 years the increase in the use of Platforms would
outpace Large Consulting firms as the source of Flexible Talent
Ex-employees
(Alumni)
Relationship
network
Large consulting
firms
Small consulting
firms
Platforms Temporary
staffing firms
Other
What is the factor change in the use of the following Flexible
Talent Sources over a period of 10 Years?

16
ORGANIZATIONS have much work to do to be ready for Flexible
Talent(Performance Disciplines and Frictionless Onboarding)
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Performance Disciplines Frictionless Onboarding
Rating of low and very low readiness of organisations
Organisations

17
Survey Summary Takeaways across the 3 themes
Artificial Intelligence & Big Data
• Cloud and mobile internet are having an impact today, but will be old news in a
decade.
• Big Data is a growing trend today, but by 2030, respondents feel that the impact
of artificial intelligence will be almost the same
• Whereas Biotechnology, which was quite a buzz a decade ago, will not have a
meaningful impact until beyond 2030.
HR Blindspot to technology
Most professions believe artificial intelligence will have a material impact on the
general workforce
• The HR profession (and to a lesser extent academia) seems to significantly
underestimate the impact of artificial intelligence technology on the future
workforce
India likes Artificial Intelligence
• Indian professionals are very supportive of Artificial Intelligence especially
compared to Britain

18
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Today 2030 Later Limited Impact
Select in which period over the next 50 years, each of the
following technologies will have the most impact on the way we
work?
Mobile and cloud technology
Big Data
Arificial Intelligence
Biotechnology

19
HR Professionals surprisingly have a blindspot in their belief that Artificial
Intelligence will not replace material portions of the workforce
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45
HR
Academia
Finance
Manufacturing
Marketing
BD
Legal
IT
Sales
Supply Mangement
Different professions perspective on likelihood of material
impact of AI on general workforce

20 British Data Reference: “An Intelligent Future?”-Future Advocacy
80% of Indians support ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE whereas in Britain
it’s less than 40%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
British Indian
As a professional, how do you look at the concept of Artificial
Intelligence?
Men Women

22
INDIAN and INTERNATIONAL Respondents think quite similar when it
comes to the Key Motivator for professionals.
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
ladder (CXO)
Workforce flexibility –
Work/Life Balance
Purposeful Organisation
with Meaningful work
Job Security
decade?
India International

23
JOB SECURITY drives INDIAN GOVERNMENT Employees, whereas
PRIVATE SECTOR are much more driven by PURPOSE and FLEXIBILITY
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
ladder
Workforce flexibility Purposeful Organisation Job Security
decade?
Indian Government/Public Sector Professionals Other Professionals

24
Millennials seem much less concerned about REMUNERATION as
their MOTIVATOR
0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16%
<5 Years
5-10 Years
11-15 Years
16-20 Years
>20 Years
ExperienceLevels
Breakdown of professionals who rated REMUNERATION as a
motivator?

25
11%
24%
5%
0%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
HR IT MARKETING SALES
Breakdown of professionals
that nominated remuneration
as a motivator
Percentage Respondents
HR and IT Professionals value REMUNERATION as a MOTIVATOR
much higher than MARKETING and SALES Professionals.
8% 8%
33%
40%
10%
12%
4%
36%
46%
4%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
What will be the key motivator
for professionals over the next
decade?

26
STARTUPS still see GENDER as a more important DRIVER of
Workforce Diversity, rather than MULTI-GENERATIONAL
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Gender Multi-Generational
Over the next 5 years, what will be the biggest driver of Workforce Diversity?
Other Firms Startups

27
Respondents share a different world view to Mr. Trump
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
More global and remote More national focused but still
remote
More localized No change
Complete the sentence:In the next 5 years work will become
____________

28
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
Organisations Independent Consultants
Rating high or very high, managers’ skill and experience to
assemble, inspire and effectively lead a collegiate Blended
Workforce Team?
Management seems to lack the leadership skills for Blended Teams

29
0.00%
20.00%
40.00%
60.00%
80.00%
100.00%
120.00%
Over the next 10 Years, how impactful will the use of Artificial
Intelligence in the following areas be? (Organizations)
No Impact
Limited Impact
High Impact

31
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Australian freelancers Indian freelancers ROW freelancers
Rating "Purposeful Organisation" as the key motivator over the
next decade
Australian Independent Consultants were particularly motivated by
meaningful work (57%)

32
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
Australian Indian ROW
Rating "Multi Generational" as the biggest driver of workforce
diversity over the next 5 years
Australians were materially more likely to nominate multigenerational
teams as the biggest impact on future workforce diversity

33
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Today Next 5 years
Australian Organizations that will have
>30% and >50% Flexible Talent after 5
years
>30% >50%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Today Next 5 years
ROW organisations that will have >30%
and >50% Flexible Talent after 5 years
>30% >50%
The projected growth in flexible talent will similarly occur in Australia

34
Ex-employees
(Alumni)
Relationship
network
Large
consulting
firms
Small
consulting
firms
Platforms Temporary
staffing firms
Other
Factor change in the use of Flexible Talent Sources over a
period of 10 Years?
Australia
ROW
Australia will outpace the world in its transition to platforms as a
source of flexible talent acquisition, large consulting will slow in growth

35
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Performance disciplines Reduce Friction
Rating of low and very low readiness of organisations
Australia
ROW
Australian respondents were more likely to rate their organisations or
clients as ‘not ready’

36
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
Australia ROW
Rating high or very high, managers’ skill and experience to
assemble, inspire and effectively lead a collegiate Blended
Workforce Team?
Australian rated leaders poorly at managing a blended team

38
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
ladder
Workforce flexibility Purposeful
Organisation
Job Security
decade?

39
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Multi Generational
(older population
remain working)
Gender Culture - Cross Border /
Global Teams
Increasing Immigration Workforce will become
less diverse
Over the next 5 years, what will be the biggest driver of
Workforce Diversity?

40
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
More global and remote More national focused but still
remote
More localized No change
Complete the sentence: In the next 5 years work will become
____________

41
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Less rigid forms of work
Job-hopping
Innovative ways of recruitment
Meaningful work
Leadership style
Flatter organizational structures
Continuous Learning
Changing appraisal
Co-Working
Pick 3 trends that will have the biggest impact on the Future of
Work
Independent Consultants Organizations

42
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Critical Thinking
Computational Thinking
Social Intelligence
Trans-Disciplinarity
Design Mindset
Novel Thinking
New Media Literacy
Virtual Collaboration
Cross-Cultural Competency
Cognitive Load Management
Pick 3 skills which are needed to thrive in tomorrow's workplace
Independent Consultants Organizations

43
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
Less than 2% Up to 10% Up to 20% Up to 30% Up to 40% Up to 50% More than
50%
More than
75%
What percentage of your existing workforce is Flexible Talent?

44
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
Less than 2% Up to 10% Up to 20% Up to 30% Up to 40% Up to 50% More than
50%
More than
75%
In 5 years,what percentage of your workforce do you expect to
be Flexible Talent?

45
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
1 2 3 4 5
Has your organization put in place the performance disciplines
necessary for blended teams?
(Rate on a scale of 5)

46
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
1 2 3 4 5
Has your organization put processes in place to reduce the
friction of Flexible Talent Acquisition?

47
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
1 2 3 4 5
Does the organization culture reinforce teamwork and mutual
respect between internal staff and Flexible Talent?

48
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
1 2 3 4 5
Do managers have the skill and experience to assemble, inspire
and effectively lead a collegiate Blended Workforce Team?

49
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
1 2 3 4 5
Is your organization's Flexible Talent strategy aligned to the
business needs?

50
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
Very Likely Fairly Likely Not Very Likely Not At All Likely Don’t Know Not Applicable
To what extent do you think Artificial Intelligence could replace
a material portion of your organization's existing workforce?

51
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Strongly Support Tend to Support Tend to Oppose Strongly Oppose Don’t Know
As an individual, how do you look upon the concept of Artificial
Intelligence?

52
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Today 2030 Later Limited Impact
Select in which period over the next 50 years, each of the
following technologies will have the most impact on the way we
work?
Mobile and cloud technology
Big Data
Arificial Intelligence
Biotechnology

53
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
WildlifeLife…
Creating Art
Journalism
Legal Advice
Agriculture
Water Management
Health
Virtual Assistants
Purchase Prediction
Military Usage
Search Engines
Intelligence in the following areas be?
(Organizations)
High Impact
Limited Impact
No Impact

54
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Creating Art
WildlifeLife…
Journalism
Legal Advice
Agriculture
Water Management
Health
Purchase Prediction
Virtual Assistants
Military Usage
Search Engines
Intelligence in the following areas be?
(Independent Consultants)
High Impact
Limited
Impact
No Impact

56
Survey Respondents
Organisations
Type of Respondents

57
Legal
Finance
Sales and Marketing
Human Resources
Others

58
Organizations
Legal
Government Relations/Advocacy
Sales and Marketing
Human Resources
Other
Finance

59
Respondents by Location
Organisations
India
USA
Australia
Europe
Southeast Asia
Others

60
India
Male Female
International
Male Female Other
Respondents by Gender

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