Twitter proved that it’s capable of working with only 30% of its workforce… does that mean that most companies are paying for “extra fat”, with many employees slacking around?
When employees are not performing, managers usually have two options:
1. Help them improve,
and if that doesn’t work -
2. Replace them.
But now there’s a THIRD option…
What happened in the past decade with lots of easy money and investments pouring in, many companies over-hired, just because they could, with most of the workforce (relatively) unproductive, even during the best of times.
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So now we get to the opportunity!
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The future of work relies on being able to use the best tools and talents for the job required.
In every company I worked with, I always emphasized replacing any manual and tedious work by either automating it or outsourcing it.
What I predict will happen next, is that even projects that are not just manual or tedious, but require creative, technological, or operational high-quality solutions will be outsourced as well.
This is already happening thanks in part to the Covid pandemic, which forced many organizations to change to hybrid mode and work from home, which enabled hiring talents from outside their normal geographical area (side note; one of the 3D companies I founded 15 years ago was almost fully hybrid).
In Quentin Tarantino's movie “pulp fiction”, Harvey Keitel played “the wolf” – he was called to solve an urgent problem, came in, got it done, and left.
I see the same thing happening with organizations, where the most important/urgent/expensive projects will be outsourced to specialized consultants that have their team of creatives/developers/artists, that come in, deliver, and leave until the next problem or project arises.
The benefits of these are huge, as there are no overhead costs of salaries, compensations, long and tedious hiring processes, no need for coffee, lunches, massages, and other expensive perks in the office, and of course, being able to save office rent space, electricity, etc.
The future of work is changing, organizations and management will have to adjust their mindsets to rethink their structure to be lean and agile and deliver the best solutions for the tasks.