Work-from-home, remote work, and hybrid work have all exploded into popular discussion in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic was declared. Now, we’re still having these discussions when it comes to organizations and workers alike trying to determine the best ways forward — i.e. the ‘future of work.’
And while it can seem like a fairly simple discussion, when you zoom out a bit more, as Boston Consulting Group has done with a new survey, it becomes a discussion that encompasses leadership, culture, customers, talent, learning, reskilling, etc.
After surveying executives and leaders (more than a third from the C-suite) from approximately 350 companies, across a variety of industries, and from 47 countries, BCG has learned more about the importance of 12 ‘future of work’ dimensions. These are grouped in four broad categories:
- How we work (eg. customer relationships)
- How we lead (eg. purpose-driven culture)
- How we organize (eg. adaptive organization)
- What we need (eg. tools and technology)
As they found, when looking at the bigger picture and these more fleshed-out metrics, many companies are still early in their future-of-work improvements, and have a ways to go.
As BCG’s global leader for the future of work and report coauthor Debbie Lovich explained, “our survey shows the importance of making sure future of work initiatives are on the CEO agenda.”
“The survey results make it clear: when these initiatives are on the CEO agenda, companies are five times as likely to become future of work leaders.”
According to the results, only one in five companies consider themselves “industry leading” with respect to the aforementioned dimensions. While just about all respondents said future of work dimensions like leadership, “always-on learning” and new talent models are important, less than 20% named these as priority on the agenda of their CEOs. While 93% consider leadership as “important for a better future of work,” they also cite inadequate support for making leadership success happen.
One broad point the survey shows, is that companies have placed a greater focus on office-based workers, i.e. those who can work remotely. “Deskless workers” — or those working in factories, hospitals, shows, hotels, and restaurant —. typically can’t work from home, and actually make up more than three-quarters of the world’s workforce. Of the executives surveyed, only 8% said that amplifying support for this group of workers is a priority. To that end, a BCG survey from earlier this year found that 37% of deskless talent were “at risk of leaving their jobs in the next six months for reasons such as lack of flexibility, opportunities for career advancement, and compensation.”
As the authors of the current report point out, “the survey results are a stark reminder that deskless employees who continued to work on site during the pandemic risk losing out on the benefits of future-of-work innovations.”
