10 Must-Read Future of Work Stories from 2020 to Help Envision the Post-Pandemic Workforce
February 17, 2021
What will work look like when the pandemic is over? It’s a question we’ve all been asking since the beginning of 2020. We’ve seen some jobs lost and many others created, but almost all of them will change. Artificial intelligence, software robots, and automation have played a large role in this shift as businesses around the world have started to prioritize digital transformation initiatives. While no one can accurately predict what will happen after the pandemic, we know there will continue to be a disruptive period of workplace changes due to the acceleration of new technologies and trends.
Here are 10 of our favorite future of work stories from 2020 that can help you and your team prepare for an uncertain future with greater Digital Intelligence, bringing us closer to an answer of what the future of work will be like.
1. Are Business Analysts Ready for the New Digital Era?
As we entered the fourth industrial revolution, where humans work side-by-side with machines, there was a huge influx of digital workers. In Innotech Today, we discussed how business users must attain new digital skills to effectively supervise these workers, driven by the rise of robotic process automation (RPA) software robots and the two ways to prepare our workforce for the new digital era: advocacy and access.
2. Onboarding Your Digital Workforce
With the explosion of RPA last year, many companies still saw many RPA projects fail to fully deliver on their promise. We learned that we need to onboard digital workers appropriately and keep a close eye on their performance to ensure they are being used to their full potential. In Chief Executive, we talked about ways to make sure your digital workers are skilled for their jobs.
3. Coronavirus Pandemic Reveals the Need for a Broader Digital Front Door
Last year, we saw that healthcare facilities and providers around the country experienced COVID-19 differently and continue to. The crisis has led many healthcare leaders to evaluate how they can decrease the need for physical services while maintaining the quality of care and providing individualized services. On HIT Consultant, we discussed the new front door of the healthcare system and how a digital strategy is no longer a nice-to-have.
ABBYY Timeline is a cloud-based platform that delivers continual operational insight to healthcare providers. Learn more here.
4. AI and Automation Enabling Remote Working During the COVID-19 Crisis
Enterprise Talk interviewed Ivan Yamschikov, AI Evangelist at ABBYY, about the levels of digital transformation CIOs need to survive the current climate; how leaders that are ahead of the curve stay in front and monitor employees’ productivity and performance at home; investment in automation and how it’s directly linked to an organization’s ability to survive the pandemic; how companies can be resilient in the future, discover where processes are broken, and enable employees to be empowered and self-responsible; and more.
5. Will COVID-19 Change Opinions About Automation Adoption?
On ITProToday, we talked about how, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, there has been some evidence that automation adoption to keep businesses operating in unusual times will have to happen in bursts. The coronavirus pandemic has created business circumstances that require creative solutions, and some of those solutions have come via automation – showing that the solutions needed to continue business right now are speeding up digital transitions in a variety of fields.
6. Knowing WFH Preferences Key to Employee Recruitment and Retention
When organizations listen to and understand their workforce’s preferences about what type of work environment drives motivation, productivity, and work satisfaction, it enables them to create a work culture in which employees are engaged, which is especially vital during times of disruption and fundamental change. In our ReadWrite column, we discussed how organizations that are agile, able to adapt quickly, and create engaging work environments that motivate their employees and attract the best talent will be well-positioned to lead in the new era of work.
7. Want to be a Leader in the Digital-First Era? Upskill Your Workforce
The pandemic has led to a new global remote workforce, pushing companies to find innovative ways to increase operational efficiencies and streamline workflows. Social distancing has prompted many organizations to explore new digital channels, innovate service delivery models, and entirely reimagine the way in which they serve their customers. In doing so, it set a new standard for the skills their workforce required. However, these skill sets are in short supply. The world of work as we know it will never be the same. But are employees ready for the future of work?
8. It’s Time to Upskill Your Digital Workforce
How smart is your digital workforce? Many organizations are now deploying digital workers, or software-based labor that emulates human job roles by performing end-to-end activities using AI-based skills. But leaders are quickly finding out that these software robots cannot automate more complex tasks involving unstructured documents.
In this Forbes article, we discuss how decision makers within enterprise Centers of Excellence need to look at upskilling digital workers and automation platforms with the right capabilities so that DX initiatives have a real impact.
ABBYY Vantage provides new skills for the digital worker that deliver intelligence and business value. Learn more here.
9. How Task Mining Can Turbocharge Your Productivity
With a rush to reset priorities, rethink the way our customers wish to engage, and acknowledge hybrid working with many staff likely to never return to traditional office settings, executive teams face a problem. Our Analytics Insight thought leadership piece shares how task mining offers considerable advantages for all modern organizations.
- How can we still manage and monitor performance?
- How can we continue to drive efficiencies in our processes and systems?
- How can we boost the productivity of workers when they’re remote?
10. Six Professions That Should Get Their Own Robot in 2021
According to recent statistics, the pandemic has resulted in 41 percent of companies turning to artificial intelligence and introducing new digital ways of working. Bill Galusha, Director of Product Marketing at global Digital Intelligence company ABBYY, explains on Innovation & Tech Today the impact of the change and shares which employees will likely be getting a bot as their new co-worker.