4 Pilots & Proposals in the last 4 months have laid the foundation to quietly usher in an Era of Employee Empowerment
4 pilots, proposals & progressive trends that transpired over the last 4 months have laid the foundation to quietly usher in an era that is likely to be more equitable & empowering for employees.
It can drive a more balanced, fair, upwardly mobile and productive life that enhances our quality of lives.
For now though, as we start 2023, we are experiencing a dichotomous economy; one with mixed signals and yet unique opportunities for the workforce.
Interest rates have risen sharply; capital isn’t flowing into investments as freely as it used about 18 months ago and yet inflation is still experiencing record highs.
Whilst there have been over 200,000+ tech layoffs globally over the last year, the US added over half a million jobs in January 2023 alone and its unemployment rate is at a historic low at 3.4%; Singapore’s current unemployment rate stands at a healthy 2% too
Many economists started the year with fears of a recessionary environment but the retrenchments seem mostly isolated in the venture-backed tech space and haven’t impacted the broader economy ~ perhaps it’s a reversal of the excesses built up in the sector during the pandemic?
Whilst it’s still early days in 2023 and most employees would be guarded and cautious about short to mid-term prospects, there are a few emerging global trends that can be potential game-changers for people and the broader labour markets in the longer run:
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US has proposed to ban non-competes in employment contracts as they have found it to suppress wages, hamper innovation, and inhibit talent mobility & entrepreneurship
FTC’s Lina Khan believes that “the freedom to change jobs is core economic liberty and to a competitive, thriving economy”.
Not only is this bill expected to increase employee earnings but also close racial and gender wage gaps by a significant degree.
Wage gaps are further likely to be closed through salary range disclosures, which have become mandatory in many states in the US and are being experimented by many private ventures.
Pay transparency is expected to drive higher parity in incentives amongst racial and gender minorities and help companies become more inclusive, fair, and equitable.
From 2024, even in Singapore, public-listed companies will need to disclose the entire remuneration amounts for directors and CEOs so that investors can transparently assess if a company’s leadership is appropriately incentivized.
The 6-month global 4-Day Work Week pilot has been a tremendous “win-win” success with none of the 27 participating companies, who enjoyed a 38% year-on-year growth, leaning towards or planning to make a U-turn to the former 5-day work routine; likewise about 97% of the participating workforce agreed with the above preference.
We may not be close to John Keynes’s near century-old prediction of a 15-hour work yet but we are likely to be halfway there!
If this paradigm shift gets adopted globally, this could be a big stride forward for nations and economies to address the global challenges of people resorting to workaholism to avoid dealing with mental health challenges and giving people the bandwidth to invest time in relationships, that have been proven to be the biggest predictor to long term health and happiness as per Harvard’s largest longitudinal study on leading a ‘Good Life’.
If implemented well, it could further allow economies to distribute and allocate work to larger segments of the population, via full-time, part-time, hybrid, or even remote opportunities ~ thus bringing larger segments of the population into the workforce and further reducing direct and indirect unemployment rates.
Whilst there has been a lot of chatter over the last few months around AI & the GPTs automating and taking away human jobs, historical trends and some early research indicate that this is unlikely to be true.
Just like textile mills, calculators, washing machines, computers, and other machinery did not reduce the net number of jobs but created net new economic opportunities, these fascinating, intelligent technology trends are likely to do the same albeit demanding all of us to be flexible and upskill to capitalize on the new opportunities.
Parkinson’s Law states that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion; likewise, every minute saved through AI & automation will find new utility and we are likely to find new opportunities to fill up that void.
Hopefully, in the process, we learn to master these new tools and put them to good use to solve relevant & meaningful problems for the world and learn to be better problem solvers through critical thinkers and advance the progression and evolution of our race.
In the VUCA world that we live in, it is nearly impossible to forecast and predict how the economy would shape up in the coming year or two but safe to say that some of the aforementioned technology & regulatory experiments, proposals, and changes have the potential to make tectonic shifts in driving better balance, equity, inclusion, fairness in our societies and help us lead higher quality, dignified and productive lives in the coming decades.
These transformative steps would allow societies to make significant progress in directly addressing UNSDG Goals #3, #5, #8 & #10 and also help companies to live up to their renewed purpose of catering to all stakeholders, beyond just shareholders.
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References:
- https://www.computerworld.com/article/3685936/tech-layoffs-in-2023-a-timeline.html
2. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-02-07/what-s-happening-in-the-world-economy-don-t-fret-about-the-tech-layoffs
3. https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/wave-of-tech-layoffs-fails-to-dent-historically-tight-us-labor-market-74009839
4. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/01/ftc-proposes-rule-ban-noncompete-clauses-which-hurt-workers-harm-competition
5. https://www.npr.org/2015/08/13/432122637/keynes-predicted-we-would-be-working-15-hour-weeks-why-was-he-so-wrong
6. https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/30/business/4-day-work-week-results/index.html
7. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/02/chatgpt-ai-detector-machine-learning-technology-bureaucracy/672927/
8. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/sgx-mas-companies-disclose-exact-salaries-payouts-directors-ceos-tenure-limit-3197371
9. https://sciencenorway.no/opinion-researchers-zone-society-culture/no-the-new-ai-chatbot-chatgpt-wont-take-your-job/2126710
10. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/harvard-happiness-study-relationships/672753/
