I just recently had a very interesting discussion with someone in my network about the #digitalisation and the pros and cons and how it will impact the workforce. Therefore, I wanted to open up the discussion to my network as well to get your thoughts on this topic.

There is no doubt that the digital revolution has created new roles. Such as #SEO managers and #social media managers, new types of organizations such as cloud computing providers and social media agencies, and even new sectors of the economy such as digital security and data science.

The impact of digitalization has also acted as a catalyst for employment growth in the wider economy. According to the #World Economic Forum, it is estimated that in India three to four jobs are created for every job within the business process outsourcing and IT-enabled services sectors. That is huge, isn’t it?

Today, however, the question of whether technology creates or destroys jobs is gaining momentum as well as the negative impacts of digitalisation to us humans. What about social competence, will we lose this over time, not knowing how to properly interact with each other?

The truth is that we know quite little about what is going to happen. What will the economic impact of innovations be in the future? How will humans interact with machines and algorithms? Will we communicate less face to face in the future and what are the impacts of this? What kind of skills do we need and how should we learn? How will all of this impact labour markets?

Future Job categories:

We can at least be sure that there will be three types of jobs.

  • Those that will disappear (lost the race against the machine). Administration and clerk jobs could be at risk for example.
  • Those that are in collaboration with machines/algorithms (run with the machine). For example, those professions that rely on cognitive and social capabilities, such as doctors/surgeons.
  • Those jobs that are completely new or remain largely untouched (running faster than the machine or running a different race). For example, roles in the creative arts are unlikely to be automated, as are new roles that involve managing data and machines.

According to the #World Economic Forum’s analysis digital transformation has the potential to create a significant number of jobs. For example, they found that digitalization could create nearly 6 million jobs in just the electricity and logistics industries by 2025.

But clearly there will be both winners and losers – while the net impact on jobs in the #logistics industry could be positive, many sectors will experience job losses.

Challenges:

Digital technologies fundamentally transform organisations, with the pace of technological change exacerbating the challenge. Organisations must have a coherent strategy that includes a plan to reskill workers. Whereas previous technological revolutions (most notably the industrial revolution) played out over a relatively long period of time, the speed of digital transformation is such that businesses need to move quickly.

For #governments, the challenge is equally pressing. The potential inequality and wage deflation or even social unrest requires urgent action to prepare the workforce for a digital future.