Thanks for attending Brain Hack 22: The Future of Work Symposium. Below you will find your answers to the questions presented during the hackathon segment.
Hackathon Questions and Solutions We we're overwhelmed by all of your incredible answers to the question: ‘What is the most pressing issue facing businesses in the decade ahead?’. There we're such a wide variety of answers and concerns represented, ranging from international relations, to staying relevant as an organisation, all the way to the ever lingering issue of inflation. However, there were some particular trends that were represented more than others… Staffing, Skills & Technology By far the most common concerns presented were those to do with staffing, skills and technology. Finding and retaining talent, filling skills shortages, and adapting to new technologies were what you told us were your biggest concerns about the future of work. With this in mind it was incredibly encouraging to hear some of the innovative solutions presented to these concerns during our Hackathon segment, which were as follows;
Staffing
How do we attract and retain talent, and support the emerging needs of employees?
Your solutions
Define and know your own organisational culture.
Educate your employees to communicate effectively and provide them with assets to become your attraction tool.
Explore and implement different ways to incentivise employees.
Ensuring that staff can articulate your culture so that they can effectively communicate it to other people, in turn, allowing them to advertise your project/ job to other people.
Skills
What new skills will be needed in the decade ahead and how do we train for this now?
Your solutions
Debating and being able to have constructive conversations will be critical for innovation.
Facilitation skills, creating chaos and then being able to facilitate a process to end up with something valuable at the end.
Creative thinking and creativity
Data analysis and analytics. How do we actually analyse big data and take meaning from it?
Being able to constantly adapt and change at a rapid pace.
The ‘old skills’ becoming new again. Communicating properly, empathy, critical thinking, listening, reflecting, interpreting effectively.
Coaching skills to help facilitate other skills and finding the time to prioritise this.
Technology
How do we adapt our organisations to embrace emerging technologies whilst minimising the impacts to our workforce and bottom line?
Your solutions
It must be remembered that while adding new technologies may seem like it will solve an organisations problems, in reality, if not implemented properly it will just cause more problems.
We must ensure that the right people are making the right decisions when it comes to technology. Making sure that the people who will actually be using the technology are involved in the decision making process.
When implementing new technology, it is imperative to understand the needs of the organisation, it's cultures, and its micro-cultures. Don't take a one size fits all approach!
Remember that sometimes technology isn't the answer! Look at technology objectively!
Don't be afraid to fall forwards and don't assume that you're going to get it right the first time.
Move in small iterations and have a culture that accepts failure.
Don't forget to share your journey with us below so that collectively we may learn from and support each other to implement these solutions.