leadership matters
A More Intelligent
World of Work
WE ARE UNDERGOING A PARADIGM SHIFT
IN THE WORKPLACE – AND PREPARATION
IS THE KEY TO KEEPING PACE By Karen Stone, CHRE
It’s often been said that change is the
only constant – and when it comes to
our economic models and this concept
we call “work,” the pace of change is accelerating
more rapidly than ever before.
The traditional employment model is no
longer the default. Technological advancement
and automation have proven to be
such disruptive forces to the labour landscape
that entirely new forms of work are
emerging. We have seen it before, and we’ll
see it again – the work economy is a living
organism, and stasis is not its style.
In this, our special conference issue, we
would opine that HR professionals currently
have front-row seats to yet another
epoch – a paradigm shift in the way we
socially conduct, consider and construct
“work.” And unlike the oft-cited Industrial
Revolution, this shift is not manufactured
on gears and machinery. Instead, it is being
intuited through intellect.
It’s the Intelligence Revolution.
Advancements in technology have
resulted in many tasks and functions becoming
automated, causing jobs that were
once integral to become obsolete. Key disruptors
– including artificial intelligence
and machine learning, robotics, the gig
economy and job polarization as well as
work-life balance/integration and younger
generational cohorts – are all converging
upon the workplace simultaneously.
Entire cohorts in the workforce are
working without “jobs.” Shifting employment
models mean the very ideas of
“employee” and “employer” are increasingly
more fluid – creating unforeseen practical
implications for pension decisions,
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8 ❚ CONFERENCE ISSUE 2018 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL