PwC | Middle East

Work of the future: Is your organisation prepared?

Technology is already changing the way we work and the work we do. We predict this will continue until technology and work become a seamless environment.

Our study looks at the impact of technology in two categories:

Organisational planning
How humans and AI will interact in their work

Readiness for Work of the Future

The Middle East respondents felt less prepared than globally in 70% of the areas across the two categories.

Planning for the future

The way we work in the future will be the result of complex, changing and competing forces. Technology has been a major driver of this development and will continue to be so.

Q1: We use a scenarios-based approach to plan for multiple visions of the future.

Q2: We use sophisticated workforce planning and predictive analytics.

Q3: We develop our technology, workforce, location/real estate and tax strategies in a coordinated way.

Brains and bots in collaboration

Automation, including robotics and AI, is advancing quickly and has the power to not only change the types of jobs we do, but also how many jobs there are and how much we value them.

Risk Rating for Brains and Bots in Collaboration

of respondents say HR leaders have a depth of understanding and insight into the technological landscape.

Recommendations

Stakeholders across the business landscape should recognise that preparing for the work of the future can not be done in a simple step, nor does it center solely around the introduction of technology. Robust preparation pivots around three actions:

Getting the basics right - ensuring that your employees can manage their time and have a strong work ethic
Leveraging technology - being prepared to invest in technology to improve business processes and increase efficiency
Disrupting your processes to do entirely different things - giving employees the time and space to innovate and explore new ideas

Evolve workforce planning to improve prediction of future skills requirements and to adapt to a more flexible and fast moving talent market. This should be done regularly, at least once a year and consider people’s work preferences (e.g. location, style, pattern) to develop a model that has a greater degree of alignment to employee preferences.
Develop new national capability across multiple sectors in a way which is future proofed to a great extent than legacy industries in more well established sectors the West. Organisations should consider not just how to develop quickly but how to do so in a way which will cater to the work and workers of the future in order to capitalise on this opportunity.
Work proactively with educators to align course design with labour market needs and promote opportunities such as internships and industry placements.