There are a number of ways to describe the digital revolution inwhich we find ourselves. The World Economic Forum describe it as‘The Fourth Industrial Revolution’1. MIT Review label it ‘The Second Machine Age’2. And The Economist identify it as ‘The Age of AI’3.The terms may be different, but the impact they’re describing – an expansion and a blurring of the virtual with the physical world – isvery much the same.

The fluid workforceInsights on leadership, talent, diversity and the future of work.

Phygital as thefuture of workBy Marc Alba

PART I

The lines between what is physical (or actual) and digital (or electronic) lessen by the day. We live in a hybrid world and what was once firmly virtual now seems much more ‘real’. In reverse the physical has an overlay of virtual characteristics and technologies. The two are becoming ever more interwoven.

By any objective measure, it’s an evolution that’s been underway for decades. The personal computer and the World Wide Web brought interaction with the virtual into the home in the late 20th century. In the early 21st, with the arrival of smartphones and ubiquitous connectivity, the barriers between physical and digital came down further. Social interaction went through a particularly radical and notable change – so much so that nowadays, for many people, the online social space feels more ‘natural’ than face-to-face conversation.

It’s an upheaval that’s certainly not confined to infrastructure or domestic life. The rise of ‘phygital’ is shaping the workspace and workforce itself, and the implications for leaders are considerable.

Hybridity has expanded again in recent years, spurred by booms in a whole range of technologies - AI, robotics, ML, IoT, edge computing, 4G / 5G, VR, and digital twin computing, to name a few. Innovations powered by these tools are pushing virtual deeper into traditionally physical territory. Cities are evolving into smart cities, factories are becoming smart factories and homes are becoming smart homes.

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The future of workCHAPTER 4

“Social interaction went through a particularly radical and notable change – so much so that nowadays, for many people, the online social space feels more ‘natural’ than face-to-face conversation.”

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The way we workThe virtual world is flourishing in business – from virtual assistants, digital coaches, and robots, to drones, chatbots, and autonomous vehicles. Technologies like these are shifting employment away from more mundane and repetitive activities into skilled, creative, and social pursuits.

This work is, even when completed by humans, becoming ‘less physical’; less physical in the sense that work is often not completed in the office but remotely. Workers are also ‘less physical’ in the sense that they are no longer anchored to their employers.

Workers have in some senses becoming digitised – deconstructed into the knowledge, skills, and experiences they can provide. This deconstructed talent is supported by the internet and an emergent crowdsourcing model that connects employers with freelance employees.

Where we workThere’s also the workspace itself to consider.

Agile methodologies have grown over the last decade to bring much greater flexibility to business strategies. This fundamental change in approach is being mirrored in the office where a new kind of environment is emerging in which the digital and physical become intertwined.

Phygital offices are a natural by-product of the growing Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem that is both responsive and intelligent, and the applications are numerous. IoT technology can be used to:

THE FLUID WORKFORCECHAPTER 4: The future of workPART I: Phygital as the future of workBy: Marc Alba

“Workers have in some senses becoming partially digitised – deconstructed into the knowledge, skills, and experiences they can provide.”

Wikipedia served as a proof of concept back in the early 2000s for how an organisation can successfully harness the benefits of crowdsourcing on the web. Thousands of online crowdsourcing initiatives have cropped up since then, and dedicated crowdsourcing platforms have given the space a further burst of growth in the last few years. Riding the coattails of a World Wide Web that has truly gone worldwide, there’s now greater access than ever before.

For both employers and employees the timing of this crowdsourcing boom couldn’t be better. Employers currently find themselves in a constant struggle for talent and overwhelmed by complex immigration rules that can make it difficult to access human capital from abroad. Crowdsourcing allows companies to operate more efficiently and scalably, and enables them to easily bring in experts across the different geographies.

It meets the needs of employees too. Workers today crave greater flexibility in the way they work, the ability to expand and develop their skills in new ways, and the chance to work on more diverse projects.

Improve security through automation of cameras, sensors, microphones, and access control systems.

Improve productivity through the presence of virtual assistants, which have already proved popular in the home.

Bring people together. Whether workers are in New York, London, or Tokyo, videoconferencing, instant messengers, and other collaboration tools have the power to connect people in one simple place: online.

Appeal to digital natives. As far as the youngest workers are concerned it’s actually what they’ve come to expect and what they enjoy in their work surroundings.

Create energy savings through automatic adjustment of the lighting and heating. Building management systems that include these capabilities have existed for some time.

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References1 Article, ‘The Fourth Industrial Revolution: what it means, how to respond’ by Klaus Schwab, The World Economic Forum, 14 Jan 2016, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond/

2 Article, How to approach the second machine age, by Zach Church, MIT Review 6 March 2018, https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/how-to-approach-second-machine-age

3 The Economist

Use-cases are only likely to increase in future. On the one hand, the rise of an IoT office will make it simpler to quantify almost everything that goes on there. That will mean greater efficiency, but leaders shouldn’t be entirely incautious about it all: new, unforeseen challenges may arise. Staff may not like being monitored by a particular ‘smart’ technology’, and care will need to be taken as to how the data generated by these systems are hosted and analysed.

THE FLUID WORKFORCECHAPTER 4: The future of workPART I: Phygital as the future of workBy: Marc Alba

The future of workOrganisations will need to keep pace as the workforce and the workspace lose their former physicality and move into a hybrid model. It’s an evolution that, although inevitable, businesses across the board have been relatively slow to adopt.

The benefits of ‘phygital’ as far as innovation, productivity, and flexibility are concerned are immense, but it’s now up to leaders to form the backbone of the push towards that goal. Those that don’t may be left behind by the pace of change.