The Future of Work is Choice

In last week’s Future of Work in a Connected World blog post, we highlighted the importance of creating an irresistible culture. For our final piece in this 4-part series, we will explore employee choice.

There’s a scene in the film ‘The Hurt Locker,’ in which the main character, Sergeant First Class William James (played by Jeremy Renner), returns from a tour of duty in Iraq to find himself alone in the cereal aisle of his hometown grocery store. As the leader of a U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team, James was confident and decisive—often to the point of recklessness. Back home, staring blankly at row upon row of brightly colored boxes, facing a choice between Honey Nut Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast Crunch, he appears bewildered and helpless. In a way, those two versions of James—the fearless soldier versus the confused civilian—mirror the modern IT department.

HR takes the lead

Not long ago, IT professionals were assured and resolute. They knew their organization’s systems and software inside and out. Employees fell in line behind those tools…or else. But, while IT was busy fighting the old battles, a revolution in consumer technology was happening, toppling the conventional wisdom of single point solutions. Fortunately, seeing IT’s struggle with the new reality of shadow IT and BYOD, HR stepped up and plunged headlong into the fray. According to some of the top HR professionals in Silicon Valley, there’s no going back. They’ve seen the future and that future is choice.

Multiple solutions, a single vision

At a recent Jive panel event about the Future of Work that took place at HanaHaus in Palo Alto, a panel that included the Chief People and HR Officers from Cisco, LinkedIn, Pandora, NetSuite and Jive Software, as well as the VP of IT and Security at SugarCRM came together to discuss, among other things, how much different companies will look in the next five years and beyond. “Everything—the technology and the way we do things—will be about work that has to get done today and then work that has to get done tomorrow,” says Dean Chabrier, the Chief People Officer at Jive Software. The question becomes, “How do we come together and pull apart and come back together?”

The future is choice—and change

“I think that in the future it’s bring your own device, it’s pick your own benefits, it’s pick where you work and it’s pick how you work,” says LinkedIn CHRO Pat Wadors. “The only thing to commit to is the work product that you need to deliver to support the business. So it’s all about choice,” she says. Even the only IT professional on the panel, SugarCRM VP Steve Shead, seemed to concede the future of work to the five HR leaders. “We can’t predict technology further,” he says. “You probably can’t even predict it for a year, because it changes that much.”

Employers get the final salvo

The group agreed that the future won’t only be about employees picking their own solutions—companies will be able to choose from workers across industries and geographies as well. “Five years from now, it’s not going to matter where you hire the talent,” says NetSuite Chief People Officer Kathy Zwickert. “You’re going to be just hiring the best talent for the job, so it doesn’t matter if they’re here in the U.S. or abroad.”

With workers selecting their own flavor of devices, tools and workstyles, business leaders have been forced to redraw the battle lines. To win the talent wars, forward-thinking organizations recognize the need for new leadership and innovative strategies. That means, at many companies, IT’s tour of duty is over and it is HR’s turn to take up the charge.

To learn more about the panelists predictions for the Future of Work, watch the video below.

Thanks for joining us on the Future of Work journey!