14 Workforce of the future: The competing forces shaping 2030 Who leads on people strategy? What does the workforce look like? Organisational challenges • Innovation and people are inseparable in the Red World. • HR does not exist as a separate function and entrepreneurial leaders rely on outsourced services and automation for people processes. • Larger organisations scour the world to ‘acqui ‑ hire’ talent and intellectual property using specialist talent strategists in combination with AI to identify the specialists they want. • Digital platforms match worker with employer and skills with demand. • Performance is all about the end result rather than the process – ‘old ‑ f ashioned’ performance measurement and analysis is rare. • Specialism is highly prized and workers seek to develop the most sought ‑ a fter skills to command the biggest reward package. • Organisations are typically stripped ‑ d own and nimble, supplemented by talent attracted by the next promising opportunity. • A small number of ‘pivotal people’ with outstanding management skills command high rewards. • Like ‑ m inded workers gravitate towards each other, aided by technology, sparking bubbles of innovation. • Projects quickly flourish, evolve and resolve and specialists move rapidly from one to the next. • Speed to market is everything in the Red World – any decision ‑ m aking process or hierarchy that delays innovation is a barrier to success. • While ideas flourish, organisations compete to ‘own’ them. • Innovation creates a high ‑ risk environment; regulation struggles to catch up – but when it does, it impacts unevenly and suddenly. • Workforces are lean but there’s still intense competition for critical skills. Part-time Government employee (66), USA “There’s a lack of loyalty from the company towards the employees. Workers with skills in demand will prosper, those with outdated skills will be abandoned.”