TALK 04
The future of work, and what it asks of employers
Work is changing faster than the contracts, policies and structures built around it. Employers who think ahead will be better placed than those who adjust one policy at a time.
WHAT THE AUDIENCE LEAVES WITH
01Several possible futures for work, and what each would ask of an employer
02The decisions on roles, skills and leadership that hold up whichever future arrives
03How to develop talent and keep a shared culture as the shape of work changes
Most of the structures around work were designed for a different era. The employment contract assumes a fixed role, the office assumes people in one place, and the career assumes a ladder climbed at a steady pace. AI, flexible working and changing expectations are pulling at each of these at once, and many employers are responding one policy at a time, without a view of where it is all leading.
This talk looks ahead. Over the next decade, work could take several shapes. In one future AI mainly makes existing jobs faster. In another the idea of a job itself changes, and work is organised around tasks, projects and teams that form and dissolve as they are needed. Each is plausible, and the talk takes them seriously enough to see what they would mean for the people inside an organisation and for the leaders responsible for them.
What holds up across all of them is a small set of decisions about people. Roles need to be designed so that they can change as the work does, rather than redrawn every time a new tool arrives. The skills and judgement a business depends on have to be protected deliberately once routine work moves to machines, and that means finding new ways to bring on talent when the entry-level work that used to train people is disappearing. Leaders will be managing teams that are part human and part machine, spread across places and time zones, and judging contribution by something better than hours and presence. Underneath all of it sits the hardest task, which is keeping a sense of belonging and shared purpose in an organisation whose shape keeps changing.
Dr Jackie Nagtegaal is a futurist with a PhD in futures studies, a lawyer and a founder, and has built and led organisations of more than 300 people. She brings futures thinking to the practical questions of running an organisation.
FORMATS
Keynote, 30 to 45 minutes
Leadership or board briefing
Workshop for HR and people teams
SUITS
Boards, leadership teams, HR and people directors, business conferences
SHAPED TO THE EVENT
Length, format and emphasis are agreed with each organiser.
ENQUIRIES
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