The Man Machine Conundrum

The double-edged role of tech Machines and technology have become ever more prevalent in their use today and businesses are no exception. But as they reshape the future of jobs, they also prove our biggest bet in addressing future talent problems.

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Ashish walked into the new office briskly, tightening his tie and checking his neatly ironed shirt. It was his first day at his new job and a sense of nervousness pervaded his every action as he made way through the relatively new office complex. He’d received an onboarding email a week prior and had since then been in touch with his recruiter who gave him clear instructions on whom to approach and where. He was also thankful for a regular chat with his manager, being able to speak freely to him to know the scope of his work better.

But he also has other reasons to be nervous about. After spending six years working for an IT firm, he had finally been shown the door. “Workforce restructuring” they had called it. But then spending two years of working with a fintech startup on developing their back-end services, he’d become interested in the world of finance and honed his skills on big data analytics and running nuanced machine learning algorithms in hopes of getting a more structured job. This was finally his chance.

Ashish’s case is reflective of a larger case of job shifts that have affected many across global economies and encapsulates what many have been going through in recent times, albeit in different settings. With skill shifts redefining how jobs are structured and companies fast adopting newer ways of working, job markets across the world is in a state of flux. As the impact of Industry 4.0 rises, job opportunities have been noted to have sharp polarisation between high and low skilled professions—-while the demand for one rises, many low skill jobs are under a threat of getting either automated or taken over by machine counterparts.