Without a doubt, the labour market has been undergoing a dramatic transformation, and according to the OECD, over half of today’s adults do not have the right skills for emerging jobs. Essentially, we are ill-prepared for the future of work. In this our first episode for 2020, are launching a new series to discuss the future of work. To kick off the conversation, management consultant and advisor, Fabiano Rosa, shares his thoughts on the areas, including, what he understands by the term the future of work, whether the Caribbean can prevent the skills gap from widening, and what should be key priorities in developing countries to better prepare for the changing work environment.

 

This episode is also available in Apple iTunes, Google Play Music and on Stitcher!

In addition to the impact it has had on productivity in the workplace, ICT has, and continues to have, a wider and more far-reaching impact on the workplace. Increasingly, both employers and employees have greater flexibility in their work arrangements, which have been driven by, among other things, the need for better operating efficiency, more competition, greater work-life balance and improved quality of life.

We have all heard the term “The Future of Work”, but we may not necessarily fully appreciate its implications. In addition to transforming the workplace, which in turn should also change our attitude and perspective about work in the 21st century, there are knock-on effects to our education systems, our labour policy, and even our economies. So we want to spend some time this year exploring and highlighting a broad range of issues of which, we in the Caribbean region, should be aware.

Hence, we are launching a new series on the Future of Work, which we will be discussing over the course of 2020. In this our first episode in the series, we want to establish a foundation for many of the discussions that are to come.

Fabiano Rosa

Our guest is Fabiano Rosa, an experienced management consultant, who is also an Information Technology Infrastructure Library version 3 (ITIL® v3) and Green Belt Lean Six Sigma Institute professional. He has worked extensively for companies within the consulting, financial and telecommunications industries in Canada and abroad. Fabiano focuses on business transformational initiatives related to: large scale outsourcing; shared services, third party sourcing risk management; and technology trends within the context of the previously mentioned areas.

He thus brings practical experience to help his clients navigate large scale business transformations and alternative service delivery models reviews where technology is a primary driver for the change and implications to organisation’s operating models.

Originally from Brazil, currently, Fabiano is a Senior Leader in EY’s Advisory practice in Toronto, Canada. However, it is emphasised that the views expressed by Fabiano during our discussion with him are his alone, and do not necessarily represent EY’s position.

Nevertheless, in our first conversation on the future of work, we touched on a broad range of topics with Fabiano, many of which, essentially, may become jump-off points for later discussions during the course of this year. However, some of the questions posed included the following:

  1. A brief overview of how the workplace is changing
  2. What role is technology playing in today’s workplace?
  3. What does ‘gig economy’ mean, and what are some of the implications to today’s workplace?
  4. Can we, in the Caribbean, prevent the skills gap – between our very skilled labour and our unskilled and semi-skilled pool – from widening?
  5. What are some of the skills that would be demand in the future?
  6. Will the trend of decreasing working hours, which is occurring in some developed countries, also be adopted in developing countries?
  7. With the growing focus on work-life balance and quality of life, how might the workplace be affected?
  8. Due to a growing ageing population, what might be some of the considerations and implications to the workplace, and even to our economies?
  9. What Fabiano understands by the term “the future of work”?
  10. What should be the priorities in developing countries, such as those in the Caribbean region, as it relates to the future of work?

 

We would love to hear your thoughts!

Do leave us a comment either here beneath this article, or on our Facebook or LinkedIn pages, or via Twitter, @ICTPulse.

 

Select links

Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise, might be useful:

 

 

Image credits:  Gerd Altmann (Pixabay);  F Rosa

Music credit:  Ray Holman 

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