Work and personal lives to blur
The boundaries between work and personal life may disappear as companies assume greater responsibility for the social
welfare of their employees, according to PwC’s report, The future of work: A journey to 2022.
This is just one outcome that may evolve in the workplace of the future, driven by radical changes in technology and
social and demographics of the workforce within the next eight years.
PwC Partner and HR transformation specialist Debbie Francis says, “New technologies, data analytics and social networks
are having a huge impact on how people communicate, collaborate and work. Many of the jobs oftomorrow haven’t even been
created.
“Workforces will become more diverse as generations collide, with people working longer in their careers and traditional
career paths set to become a thing of the past.
“Organisations are already grappling with skill shortages, managing people through change and creating an effective
workforce and creating more sophisticated people management techniques, increasing the importance of social drivers and
relationships as crucial to business success, are other key issues that companies will face,” Mrs Francis says.
“HR is at a crossroads. Once perceived as service-oriented and only reactive to business needs, the demands of
tomorrow’s workplace and business environment are going to force major change and it’s not just HR that will need to
act, business leaders will need to lead their organisations through these seismic shifts.
“The HR function will go one of three ways: they will take on a wider people remit incorporating and influencing other
aspects of the business, become the driver of the corporate social responsibility agenda within the organisation or be
seen as transactional and almost entirely outsourced.”
The report identifies three future ‘worlds’ workers of today want to be a part of which provides a lens through which to
examine how organisations may operate in the future.
“The characteristics of these ‘worlds’ will be shaped by the coming changes in recruitment, reward and employee
engagement strategies as they evolve over time.
“While things will happen that we cannot predict, we can still be prepared and plan ahead for long-term viability.
Organisations will need to prepare to undertake new learnings and adapt to these coming challenges to succeed. Whatever
path you follow, work is going to look very different for everyone in 2022,” concludes Mrs Francis.
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