Future of Work

The Future of Work

COVID-19 accelerated changes that were already reshaping the workplace, including digitization, remote working, distributed workforces, asynchronous and virtual collaboration, and reskilling and upskilling. Companies can keep the momentum going—there is an opportunity now to boldly design a future of work that’s based on what the work requires and what talent needs.

Work will never be the same. A June 2021 study from Future Forum (of which BCG is a founding member) assessed more than 10,000 knowledge workers in six countries and found that 93% want a flexible schedule, 76% want flexibility in where they work, and 56% are open to a job change.

As leaders navigate the future of work, they must balance two fundamental goals: to manage the operational challenges of near-term decisions regarding a return to premises and to invest in innovative work and talent models designed to address customers’ and employees’ changing demands. To achieve these goals, organizations must excel in six areas:


Why BCG?

We have developed an integrated approach that enables companies to understand how to prepare for the future of work, expand their thinking from the tactical to the strategic, and redefine the way work gets done.

Shaping the Future of Work

Returning to the Office or Site

As companies bring employees back to the workplace, it’s tempting to revert to old work models. But doing so would be a missed opportunity to redesign work for the way it should be—not the way it used to be.

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PODCAST

The So What from BCG: Why the Way We Work Is Broken

How can organizations recalibrate their outdated approach to leadership, work, culture, and purpose? Deborah Lovich, who leads BCG’s people strategy topic, and Brian Elliott, executive leader and senior vice president of Future Forum, explore.

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify

VIDEO

Architecting the Future of Work

The pandemic has shown companies that their employees can be just as productive working without the former constraints of time and location. Business leaders have the opportunity and imperative to intentionally design the future of work to unleash a new wave of productivity.

Enabling Hybrid Working Models

The question facing many employers is how to create the right models for hybrid working—models that preserve the benefits of remote and flexible work while recapturing the energy of in-person interactions—without unintentionally creating new frictions and inequities.

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The How-To of Hybrid Work

A systematic approach to postpandemic ways of working can capture the upsides of these models while mitigating the risks.

Hybrid Work Is the New Remote Work

Hybrid Work Is the New Remote Work

Leaders should be managing remote working conditions amid the uncertainty of today and prepare for and optimize the hybrid working models of tomorrow.

Your Meetings Aren't Working

The pandemic forced companies to embrace remote work very quickly. This sudden shift—which has now settled into a hybrid work model for many businesses—gave companies an opportunity to reimagine the way work gets done.

Winning the Competition for Talent

One in five knowledge workers is likely to jump to a new company in the next year, and more than half are open to looking for a new position. Meanwhile, companies are rethinking their talent models—including what a “job” looks like. This is about to be the fiercest race for talent we’ve ever seen.

Five Hiring Tips Every Company (And Job Seeker) Should Know

To keep up with a rapidly evolving job market, hiring practices must also change. BCG managing director and partner Nithya Vaduganathan shares how to cultivate an inclusive work culture, inspire productivity, and unleash talent hiding in plain sight.

How to Build a Sustainable Workforce and Improve Job Satisfaction

The pandemic forced many organizations to rethink their working models overnight. Employees, as a result, are reassessing their work lives. BCG's Sharon Marcil discusses how organizations can build a culture that attracts, retains, and sustains the best talent.

Understanding Trends in Jobs and Skills

Companies that understand which jobs are growing and which are disappearing—as well as which skills are increasingly in demand and which are becoming obsolete—will gain a significant advantage over competitors.

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The Future of Jobs in the Era of AI

An in-depth analysis of the US, Germany, and Australia shows how technology will disrupt labor markets by 2030—displacing millions of workers but creating new opportunities as well.

Transforming the Operating Model

Companies are transforming their operating models to enable faster innovation and adaptation using agile at scale, AI at scale, and new ways of working. The best way to redesign an operating model in the postpandemic era? Boldly and quickly.

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Systems Thinking Powers Bionic Success

Why do digital natives grow into the world’s most valuable companies seemingly overnight while the world’s largest legacy companies achieve only incremental digital progress?

BCG’s Partners in the Future of Work

  • BCG is a founding partner of the Future Forum, a Slack-backed consortium that helps companies thrive in a digital-first world.
  • In partnership with Burning Glass Technologies, a leading provider of real-time labor market information, BCG has analyzed 95 million jobs and skills. We use that knowledge, in combination with interviews and in-depth employee surveys, to help clients answer a key question: What is the future of work ?
  • BCG collaborates with Faethm, a company specializing in AI and analytics, to model the effects of new technologies on jobs and determine how the supply and demand for individual types of jobs will change.
  • BCG has also collaborated with the Harvard Business School’s Project on Managing the Future of Work to pursue research that business and policy leaders can put into action as they navigate the changing nature of work.
  • In cooperation with the World Economic Forum’s Future of Work project, BCG has developed a blueprint to help companies assess and manage changes and challenges in the future of work.

Meet BCG’s Future of Work Consulting Team

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