the future of knowledge work - crni.crn.com/custom/.../future-of-knowledge-work-place... · the...

Executive Summary

The world is changing dramatically in ways that will have a significant impact oneveryday life. By 2025, the explosion in world population and automobile ownership,as well as urbanization trends, will make physical travel even more complex andtime-consuming. In contrast, technology will continue to shrink, disappearing intothe fabric of our lives, eventually becoming so small that it will be embedded in ourclothes and environment.

Yet even while technology increasingly disappears, the influence it has on each of uswill increase dramatically, fostered by cloud computing and massively expanded useof personal data.

mode of employment will look morelike a gun for hire (contractor) thanemployment structures of the past.

3. The location of work will varywidely. Offices will serve as tempo-rary anchor points for human inter-action rather than daily travel desti-nations. Office as a service (OaaS)will become a strategic tool to landemployees in the right place at theright time.

4. Smart systems will emerge andcollaborate with humans. This willchange the nature of work anddrive a reimagination of work con-tent and process.

5. A second wave of consumerizationis coming via services. This "servi-cification" will usher in changes tocorporate IT organizations in a waythat is more impactful then the firstwave of consumerization. The mag-nitude and speed of disruption willbe propelled by short software

Tim Hansen

[email protected]

Intel Corporation

Companies with a ClearVision for the Unfolding

Trends Will Have anUnprecedented Opportunity

to Excel in a DramaticallyDifferent Landscape

The Future of Knowledge Work An Outlook on the Changing Nature of the Work Environment

The Future of Work

This paper identifies trends likely to shapethe future of work and provides the readerwith information and ideas to imagine thefuture that is rushing toward us.

It grew out of a Workplace of the FutureSummit held at Intel in Haifa, Israel. Re-lated research within Intel Labs, in addi-tion to significant external research, hasprovided the source material for theconclusions drawn.

The content of this paper is focused onchanges likely to impact global compa-nies with a large number of knowledgeworkers, though many observations willapply more broadly. Key ideas include:

1. Defining an employee on the cuspof a transformation. Employee atti-tudes and expectations for flexibili-ty will influence where, when, andhow people work.

2. Dynamic and agile team structureswill become the norm. The default

White PaperWorkplace Transformation

mailto:[email protected]

development cycles and quick andsimple wide deployment of servicesand apps. Hardware changes drivenby the iPhone* and iPad* in the firstwave of consumerization will seemlong-lived in comparison.

The way people work will change, as willthe attributes of employment.

The Changing World

The world is changing dramatically, bothexpanding and contracting in ways thatwill have a significant impact on every-day life. Old models of work, already influx, will seemingly dissolve as newmodels rise in their place.

People working in 2025 may view today'swork life as differently as we perceive theoffice life of the 1800s. Technology will bea major force of change, but the agents ofchange will be the innovative knowledgeworkers who envision, articulate, and im-plement the technology.

Companies with a clear vision for the un-folding trends will have an unprece-

dented opportunity to excel in a dramati-cally different landscape. As we move to-ward 2025, there are forces at work whichwill have dramatic impact to the worklandscape.

Compute So Small, It's Everywhere

Computing power will evolve withMoore’s law, becoming so small that it willeasily be stitched into the fabric of ourlives (and our clothes) in a pervasive andengrained way. This will result in an ex-plosion of devices that will mesh together(Figure 1). By 2020, it is estimated thatthere will be over 50 billion devices con-nected to the internet.1 In essence, we willbe living inside a computing planet. Eachperson will access a myriad of devices ona daily basis. Cloud computing will enablethese devices to intelligently communi-cate and collaborate. Imagine, for exam-ple, an automated message from homeadding milk to the shopping list becausethe refrigerator recognized that the car-ton was almost empty.

More Congestion, Less PhysicalMobility

In contrast to the shrinking profile ofcomputing, human population, urbaniza-

Contents

Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

The Future of Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

The Changing World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Compute So Small, It’s Everywhere .2

More Congestion, Less PhysicalMobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

The Changing Workforce . . . . . . . . . .3

Knowledge Jobs Shape WorkplaceOpportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Emerging Smart Systems Collaboratewith People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Employees Expect High Flexibility . .5

Cloud Computing Speeds the Paceof Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Personal Data via the Cloud ChangesOur Relationship with Technology . .7

The Second Wave of Consumerizationin the Enterprise: Servicification . . . .8

Employment Models are Transforming:Big Changes on the Horizon . . . . . . . .8

Work Environments are Optimized forthe New Location: Everywhere . . . . . .9

Optimized Office Location Planning:Office as a Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Hybrid Office Configurations are Shape-Shifting Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Virtually Being There . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Figure 1. Computing power will easily bestitched into the fabric of our lives, leading to anexplosion of devices that will mesh together.

2

The Future of Knowledge Work

Figure 2. World population will have tripledfrom about 3 billion in 1960 to 9 billion by2042. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau InternationalDatabase)

centage of workers from varied sourcesincluding contract pools, academic col-laborations, open innovation challenges,and crowd-sourcing.

Workers on both ends of the age spec-trum will increasingly be involved in thework force. According to the WorldHealth Organization, mature workers willbe physically capable of working intotheir mid- to late 70s. 9 It is also likelythat organizations will tap the energy,enthusiasm, and insight from bright highschool and college students. In the U.S.,this will translate into a social phenome-non not yet witnessed: five generationsworking side-by-side (Figure 4).9

Knowledge Jobs Shape Work Opportunities

The shift in workforce demographics willalso be influenced by a larger issue: thechanging skill and knowledge levelsneeded to find and keep a job in an in-creasingly competitive global economy.Though there is still debate on the spe-cific definition, knowledge work is gener-ally seen as work that most uses humanintellect, creativity, and analytic skills.

Popu

latio

n (B

illio

ns)

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

2020

2030

2040

2050

Year

3 Billion4 Billion

5 Billion6 Billion

7 Billion

8 Billion9 Billion

-tion, and automobile ownership are allexpected to grow explosively. Today'shuman population of approximately 7billion is forecast to grow to 9.5 billionby 20502, with 75 percent of the world’spopulation expected to live in cities and50 of those cities having more than 10million people. About one billion cars onthe road worldwide today may grow tofour billion by mid-century.3

The amount of physical space we havewill become ever more congested, withour ability to move physically from onelocation to another increasingly complexand time-consuming.

Without thoughtful intervention, com-mute times—already significant in manycities around the world—will continue torise. New strategies will need to addressthe negative health outcomes and over-all decrease in life satisfaction that re-sults from longer commute times.5, 6

There is a real opportunity for technologyto ease the human burden in this regard.Solutions such as smart transportationsystems, autonomous cars, and richertelecommuting options could all con-tribute to meaningful changes.

The Changing Workforce

Economic wealth is expected to shiftover time from west to east with thegrowth of the world population. Edu-cated knowledge workers from the east,especially China and India, will form anever-larger percentage of the availableworkforce.

Projections for the U.S. labor force indi-cate there could be 14.6 million newnon-farm payroll jobs created between2008 and 2018. Assuming no major im-migration changes, there will only beabout 9.1 million new workers to fill thepositions. The basic issue in the U.S. isthat there are fewer young people to re-place the aging Baby Boomer generation.This will leave a gap of approximately 5.5million workers.7 Europe is facing similarchallenges (Figure 3).

Europe and the U.S. will need to tap newand underutilized resources to fillknowledge worker jobs. These may in-clude a greater percentage of matureworkers, women, students, transientworkers, and immigrants. Globally, busi-nesses are likely to recruit a larger per-

3



Emerging Smart Systems Collaborate with People

While a growing percentage of the pop-ulation shifts towards knowledge jobs,the rise of smart machines and systemswill also make an impact. Humanity is onthe cusp of a major transformation in itsrelationship with tools. In the nextdecade, smart machines will enter theoffice, factory, and home in numbers we

Knowledge workers represent thefastest-growing talent pool in most or-ganizations. Approximately 48 millionof the more than 137 million U.S. work-ers are knowledge workers.11 As a re-sult of the expected impact oftechnological innovation, knowledgeworkers will have an unprecedentedopportunity to shape the future and in-fluence societal change.

Trends are already indicating that a growingnumber of jobs will require a significantlymore complex set of interdisciplinary skillssuch as problem solving, judgment, listen-ing, data analysis, relationship building, col-laborating, and communicating withmultinational co-workers.

Knowledge jobs are growing two-and-a-half times faster than transactional jobs,which involve fewer conceptual duties.

4

Figure 4. For the first time, five generationswill be in the workplace at the same time.(Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics employ-ment projections)

Figure 3. The U.S. will be the first to face theBaby Boomer tsunami, with Europe and Asiafollowing closely. The rectangles show theyear with the highest percentage of the pop-ulation in the pensionable age (60 to 65) inthe respective countries. (Source: UN WorldPopulation Prospects)

Percentage of Population Aged 60 to 6510

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

12015 2020 2025 2030 2035 2040 2045 2050

Hong Kong

Austria

Belgium

France

Germany

Switzerland

UKUSA

HungarySpain

Turkey

ChinaItaly

Thailand

Five Generations in the Workplace

Gen 2020: Born after 1997Millennials: Born 1977 - 1997Gen X: Born 1965 - 1976Baby Boomers: Born 1946 - 1964Traditionalists: Born before 1946

Gen 2020 Millennials Gen X Baby Boomers Traditionalists0% 20% 40% 60%

2020

2015

2010

2005


5

skills will be increasingly valued as hu-mans use data to create unique insightscritical to decision-making. This trendwill also necessitate workforce trainingand transition plans for workers im-pacted by the automation shift.12

Employees Expect High Flexibility

As the composition of the workforce shifts,so do the attitudes, wants, and expectationsof employees. There are indications thatboth young and mature workers want sig-nificantly more flexibility in work times,schedules, and locations to pursue othervalued life activities. Social responsibility isbecoming a significant differentiator as em-ployees expect their company to provideopportunities to contribute in a meaningfulway to societal good (Figure 5).14

It’s a small step to imagine other do-mains that could benefit from similarsystems. A legal-based smart systemcould be implemented to expedite theprocessing of patent applications, whichhave increased by more than 50 percentover the last decade and are signifi-cantly backlogged. More valuable still,this same system could improve thequality of application review, provide ac-tionable recommendations to juniorstaffers, and reduce gaming of theprocess. Investment bank fraud systems,corporate expense tracking, and per-sonal finances are other examples.

The new partnership between humansand machines will open opportunitiesfor people to focus on uniquely humanstrengths. High-level "sense-making"

have never seen before. They will be-come integral to production, teaching,combat, medicine, security, and virtuallyevery domain of our lives.

As these machines replace humans insome tasks and augment us in others,their largest impact may be less obvious.Their very presence among us will forceus to confront important questions:

• What are humans uniquely good at?

• What is our comparative advantage?

• What is our place alongside thesemachines?

We will have to rethink the content ofour work and our work processes in re-sponse.”12

There are already leading indicators ofhow these new smart systems will work.IBM’s Watson* is one such example. In anongoing collaboration with the MemorialSloan-Kettering Cancer Center in NewYork, IBM is working with a team of on-cologists to teach Watson how to diag-nose tumors and suggest treatments.Watson can ingest more data in one daythan any human could in a lifetime. It canread all of the world's medical journals inless time than it takes a physician to drinka cup of coffee. All at once, it can:

• Review patient histories

• Keep an eye on the latest drug trials

• Stay apprised of the potency ofnew therapies

• Adhere to state-of-the-art guide-lines that help doctors choose thebest treatments13

Watson can then suggest a range of po-tential treatments by confidence level,providing doctors with an effective toolto more efficiently help patients. Becausesystems like Watson can continually in-gest an enormous amount of recent andrelevant data, the system itself will out-strip a human’s ability to keep currentwith all relevant information.13

Figure 5. Social responsibility is becoming a significant workplace differentiator. (Source: Cisco Connected World Technology Report)


6

Increasingly, job flexibility and remoteaccess are valued more highly thansalary considerations.14 A full 69 percentof employees polled in a Cisco survey in-dicated they believe it is unnecessary tobe in the office to be productive. And 60percent of students polled believed theyshould have the right to work remotely,with a flexible schedule.14

The definition of an employee may alsochange significantly as knowledge work-ers look to bounce part-time betweentraditional corporate roles, cultivation ofentrepreneurial opportunities, pursuit ofsocietal contributions, and leisure activi-ties. Employees may request—and insome cases, expect—flexible schedulesto accommodate their lifestyles. Thesemay include partial work weeks, time-shifted hours, and time-on and time-offscheduling. While it is still uncertainwhether knowledge workers will havethe power to require this flexibility fromtheir employers, if supply imbalance pro-jections hold true, marketplace condi-tions would likely provide workers withthat opportunity. Contract-like workmodels could become a more popularand dynamic way to assemble successfulteams. In-sourcing models may be usedto create a priority retainer on valuabletalent, giving those employees flexibilityto take on outside endeavors in ex-change for their availability at criticaljunctures. Progressive employers lookingto recruit and keep top talent are likely tobe the first implementers of a highly flex-ible work environment.

Studies show that while employees wantever greater flexibility and opportunity,they will also want a direct engagementwith their company. Interaction shouldreflect a more personalized understand-

vide a transition point to empty or thinoffice space.16 Thin office space occursas people and computing infrastructurecan be decoupled from specific long-term physical properties. The prolifera-tion of data warehouses will enablecorporations to centralize computing tolarge offsite facilities or to dynamicallyuse external cloud services (e.g., AmazonCloud*) for needed compute capability.The movement away from office build-ings containing data centers and tech-nology infrastructure will provideopportunities to create office locationstrategies that are agile and transientand can be more focused on human-centered usage.

Cloud computing is also a significant dis-ruptor behind the swift creation and imple-mentation of new business opportunities.Almost overnight, a small startup con-sisting of a few employees can develop anovel concept and deploy it globally. So-cial media platforms can be used to con-struct a Web presence that appearsestablished and allows a startup organi-zation to compete against large corpora-tions in an unprecedented way. Thecloud enables organizations to crowdsource, data aggregate, collaborate, andplay at extreme scales from the micro tothe massive.12

Penetration rates for new Web sites andapps enabled by cloud computing arestaggering (Figure 6). The Draw Some-thing* app from OMGPOP had 15 milliondaily active users just eight weeks afterdeployment. Over two billion drawingswere created in the first six weeksalone.18 If you put these numbers in con-text it is simply stunning. It took radio 38years, television 13 years, the Internetfour years, and Facebook* 3.5 years eachto reach 50 million households.19,20

ing of the employee.15 As technologyevolves, employees will come to expecttailored corporate services that will rec-ognize them individually and proactivelyoffer suggestions like a friend would.Imagine a corporate coach service ableto recommend:

• A specific job training curriculum

• An increase in retirement savings

• Potential tax consequences of aplanned stock exercise

The expectations of the future workforcewill also be shaped by the differing atti-tudes of each generation of workers. Thiswill present unique challenges in the waypeople relate, interact, and collaboratewith each other. Productivity will behighest for employers that can find inno-vative techniques to unify their multi-generational, multi-national workforce inpursuit of organizational objectives.

Cloud Computing Speeds the Paceof Innovation

Cloud computing will shape the future ofwork in at least three significant ways. It will:

• Change the way companies planphysical office space

• Provide an ability for unprecedent-ed agility and speed in the deploy-ment of new concepts, regardless ofcompany size

• Usher in changes to corporate ITorganizations in a way more impact-ful then consumerization

New technology will have a dramatic ef-fect on how and where work is done. Theaccelerating adoption of mobility, andthe migration to cloud computing, pro-


7

Personal Data via the Cloud Changesour Relationship with Technology

The World Economic Forum has pre-dicted the emergence of a new personaldata economy which will provide highvalue in the use of personal data.21 Peo-ple will have consistent access to theirown personal knowledge repository. Thecloud will facilitate sharing and tying ofthis personal information across com-puting devices that will litter the land-scape. Personal data will be able toinhabit any available device authorizedto assist the user. Imagine every comput-ing device working cooperatively with usbecause it can become temporarily pos-sessed of our digital persona.

For example, digital agents working onour behalf could:

• Coordinate the myriad of daily activ-ities for a busy family

• Help arrange common meeting timewith friends and loved ones

• Seamlessly track shopping needs

• Have products delivered to ourdoor at the right time

Like a life coach, these agents could helpus understand how we spend our timeand manage our expenditures and fi-nances, remember social interactions,and recall frequent activities. Digitalagents may also help us plan specificgoals and respond reliably to questionslike, “Where did I leave my keys?”

New digital agents and digital assistanceservices will likely use methods to ana-lyze individual data, make recommenda-tions, and often act on our behalf withlittle or no intervention. Instead of askingquestions to a Siri*-like service and wait-ing for a result, we will find ourselves un-expectedly delighted by the actions thathave been taken on our behalf. As withany relationship, trust will need to bebuilt through positive interactions overtime. Frequent incidents of delight willultimately lead to moments of unex-pected surprise (Figure 7).

Our relationship with technology will shiftfrom obsession with mobile gadgets towanted experiences that our personal datamake possible. This will enable unparal-leled life flexibility, introspection, productiv-ity, social interactions, and convenience.

Figure 6. “It took about 75 years for the tele-phone to connect 50 million people. Today, asimple iPhone* app like Draw Something* canreach that milestone in a matter of days. Inthe last 10 years, the rate of adoption of newtechnologies has accelerated at a dizzyingspeed. Can we keep up with it all?” (Source: G.Kofi Annon)


8

The Second Wave of Consumeriza-tion in the Enterprise: Servicification

Changes in the consumer landscape willspill over into the workplace as employ-ees increasingly want the flexibility to in-tegrate the best life-changing consumerservices into the flow of their work life.Digital agents that facilitate unprece-dented personal life convenience will ini-tially be obstructed from becominguseful in the work environment due tocorporate security barriers. Many em-ployees—especially the Millennial gener-ation—view work and life as intertwinedand want all-the-time access. They willfind this situation untenable. This willdrive the second wave of consumeriza-tion, which will include servicification,the need to integrate, adapt and adopt,or enable access to consumer-basedservices in the enterprise. The trend willresemble the corporate consumerizationtransition that occurred with smart-phones and tablets, but the impact willbe much more expedited and disruptivefor IT organizations.

shift toward dynamic employee staffing.Projects and programs would be identi-fied to meet specific business objectives,with teams forming dynamically in re-sponse. People needed for projects andprograms will be drawn from varied re-source pools based on their skills, inter-ests, and availability. Instead of strictalignment to a corporate organizationalstructure, employees would be able toprovide benefit across corporate businessboundaries. Contributors could comefrom multiple geographies and, in someinstances, drawn from outside the com-pany to fill gaps for specialized skills.

Talent marketplaces that provide a way tomatch skilled employees to programs,projects, and tasks are one such ap-proach. Projects could be listed in an ex-change that would match organizationalneeds to employee skills and interests. Atalent marketplace could provide moreopportunity for employees to stay en-gaged and challenged while enabling acompany to make best use of its re-sources. Since project durations may varysignificantly, the employee could find new

The magnitude and speed of disruptionwill be propelled by short software de-velopment cycles and quick, simple widedeployment of services and apps. Hard-ware changes driven by the iPhone andiPad in the first wave of consumerizationwill seem long-lived in comparison.

Nimble companies will define strategiesto quickly harness the new consumerservices and integrate them with work-related services as a way that makes em-ployees more productive. Imagine apersonal assistant aware of both homeand work calendars that can adjust anemployee’s day based on that knowl-edge. Workplace-based analytic engineswill interact with employee-provideddata to seamlessly suggest (and change)benefit coverage for major life eventssuch as the birth of a child.

Employment Models are Transforming:Big Changes on the Horizon

The knowledge worker supply imbalanceis likely to cause several organizationalchanges. One of the most dramatic is a

Figure 7. Frequent incidents of delight willultimately lead to moments of unexpectedsurprise.

Willingness to Act without Intervention

Delighted with ResultTr

ust i

n Re

sult

Positive Interaction with Agent

Surprise Me

Moving Toward Vibrant Agents


9

opportunities once existing projectswere complete. In a marketplace ap-proach, employees could rotate fromproject to project instead of from organi-zation to organization. The role of amanger in this type of environmentwould shift towards coach, counselor,and facilitator.

Creative work models like open innova-tion and crowd sourcing are likely to be-come more prevalent. The traditionalmodel for innovation—which has beenlargely internally focused and closed offfrom outside ideas and technologies—isbecoming obsolete. Emerging in its placeis a new paradigm, open innovation,which strategically uses both internaland external sources of ideas and takesthem to market through multiple paths.22

Crowd-sourced models use a distributedproblem-solving approach to tap into largepools of people with unique skills, each ofwhom can contribute to a final solution.

Employees will have more opportunitiesand flexibility. Also, the definition of anemployee is likely to shift. Individualsmay choose to invigorate their careers bybeing part-time employees for somecompanies and held on retainers for spe-cific skills by others. They could chooseto become entrepreneurs for a period oftime, or to participate in open innovationchallenges that use their unique skills.The Millennial generation in particular islikely to want frequent shifts betweendiffering work modalities.

Employers will consider expanding theiruse of talented part-time resource poolsto more quickly add specialized skills, fillneeds for constrained skill sets, or to pileon large and diverse sets of people tomore quickly innovate.

In a world where employees frequentlytransition to new job opportunities witha myriad of companies, and employers

companies use social technologies, veryfew are close to achieving the potentialbenefit from them. McKinsey predictsthat a shift that moves single-threadedcommunication to social media can re-duce the time employees spend onsearching for information by as much as35 percent.23 Once the corporate con-sciousness is captured and searchable,more people can be working from thesame set of assumptions and information.

Work Environments are Optimizedfor the New Location: Everywhere

While it is likely that workers will increas-ingly be spread geographically andacross time zones, colocation will still berequired to fulfill the human need to es-tablish connection with coworkers, buildrelationships and trust, and provide op-portunities to grow as a team throughsocial interaction. Colocation is also im-portant because it is known to spurknowledge spillover, serendipitous inter-actions, and innovation.24

The competing forces of worker frag-mentation and human colocation sug-gest a coming paradigm change. In somecases, this will mean new methods forestablishing and building rapport viatravel to a common location (temporar-ily) at project inception, and at periodicintervals. In other cases, technologycould help fill the gap virtually. Regard-less of the location, businesses will wantto proactively optimize the work environ-ment where people meet to best facili-tate productivity.

Three strategies are likely to emerge,aligned with work location:

• Optimized office location planning

• Hybrid office configurations

• Virtually being there

source people from widely distributedand external sources, more flexible intel-lectual property models will be needed.Rewarding invention without stifling in-novation will be an increasingly signifi-cant issue to resolve in the coming years.

Compensation systems will need tochange to accommodate the new workmodels. Employee compensation is likelyto be more closely tied to results pro-duced rather than hours worked. Humanresources departments will need to con-sider new methods for identifying, as-signing, and tracking the completion ofdeliverables while incentivizing organiza-tional teamwork. In some cases, employ-ees may choose to distribute a portion oftheir compensation to use other employ-ees as subcontractors. Employees willexercise more control over work selec-tion, work load, and salary.

Training, education, and employee devel-opment nurtured by employers could bea strategic differentiator to foster em-ployee allegiance and grow employeevalue through educational opportunities.Mentors and training systems couldproactively identify courses and projectsto build worker skills. In an environmentof worker scarcity, creating a path togrow worker knowledge will help ad-dress future needs and help connect em-ployees to their company.

Changes in how people collaborate andcommunicate are also starting to takeshape. An evolution from directed one-to-one conversation (e.g., email, phone)to multi-point communication (e.g., en-terprise social networks) is projected toyield significant productivity gains. Theglobal distribution of employees—andcorresponding time zone differences—require efficient methods to work asyn-chronously. A McKinsey Global Institutereport notes that while 72 percent of

10


Optimized Office Location Planning:Office as a Service (OaaS)

Real estate costs today represent formost organizations the second biggestoverhead after salaries. This is nowunder scrutiny as companies grow inheadcount without expanding theirsquare footage.25 The location of the of-fice will be much more dynamic in thefuture and require more consistent plan-ning. Population and urbanization trendswill more negatively skew commutetimes, influence the use of satellite of-fices, and be a determinant in the loca-tion for permanent locations. Proximityto air travel hubs will be an importantconsideration to cope with an increasinggeo-fragmentation of the employeebase, and to minimize travel time whenworkers come together. Dynamically cre-ated project teams co-locating to tem-porary sites is likely to rise as a way todrive team cohesion, especially in theearly stages of new projects.

Leased, rented, and multi-companyshared office (temporary) formats areexpected to be more prevalent as a wayto address capital and operational ex-penses, provide flexibility for team colo-cation, and facilitate broadercross-company collaboration. Officeswill serve as temporary anchor pointsfor human interaction rather than dailytravel destinations. Temporary locationsmay be used on a daily, weekly, ormonthly basis. Where permanent loca-tions are used, they will increasingly bestructured for ease in reconfigurationand use. Office as a service (OaaS) willbecome a strategic tool to land employ-ees in the right place at the right time.OaaS will use both internal and externalsites, consider travel requirements, andaddress a robust set of logistics and col-laboration needs over varying timeframes. Imagine a work location thatcould be unique for each project. Afterformation of a project team, one of the

and decisions would automatically bedocumented and summarized so allpeople would be free to concentrate onthe topic rather than the process of ar-ticulating what occurred.

The end goal would be a configurable phys-ical environment interwoven with technol-ogy that enables productive work based onthe needs of the individual and the success-ful collaboration of groups of people.

Virtually Being There

Companies will use a myriad of hiringpractices, travel, and colocation strate-gies to enable teamwork, trust-building,and serendipitous innovation. But thekey to addressing workforce fragmenta-tion over the long term is most likely tobe solved by a technological innovation.

Virtual colocation is expected to includea combination of technologies that willenable people to be virtually presentwhen they can’t be there physically. Suc-cessful virtual solutions would allowpeople to feel and interact as if theywere sitting in the same room, provideambient sociability, and enable betterunderstanding and trust building. Capa-bilities such as virtually sketching ideasor sharing 3D physical models across adistance would provide rich interaction.These solutions would ultimately en-courage the unanticipated moments thatoccur when people are able to bumpinto, hang out, and connect personallywith others. This would not be the sim-plistic two-dimensional video confer-ence systems in place today, but a set oftechnologies that would provide a richinterpersonal experience.

Given the likelihood that team membersmay need to travel more frequently toco-locate physically (at least during proj-ect inception), the same type of rich in-terpersonal virtual solution could also bea significant factor for homing from

first tasks would be to schedule an of-fice location.

Hybrid Office Configurations areShape-Shifting Spaces

Once workers arrive at the office, em-ployers will want optimum worker pro-ductivity. Physical space will beconfigured based on the type of task, therole of the job, and even the personalityof the worker. In some cases, this willmean open environments designed forgroup collaboration and opportunisticencounters. In other cases, it will includeprivate areas that allow for quiet thinkingor heads-down engineering.

Sometimes, the physical configurationwill be based on job types requiring spe-cific space and equipment (e.g., hardwareengineering or testing). Other times, theconfiguration may be based on an un-derstanding of the differing personalityand psychology of people (i.e., introvertsversus extroverts). Fluid locations—suchas those on short-term lease, cross com-pany hoteling models, and virtual com-muting—will also influence newconfiguration methods. Many companiesare already configuring activity-basedwork environments. The sophisticationof these solutions is expected to rise.

Regardless of the physical configuration,an adaptive compute workspace will in-creasingly understand and tailor the en-vironment (e.g., compute, displays) to thepeople and situation of the moment.Imagine a local environment that is acti-vated by a personal digital assistant onbehalf of each participant. Collaborationmaterial (e.g., video, audio, documents)would appear for group work sessionswithout the need to search. Individualworkers would be able to use the com-pute environment at each location inconcert with their mobile digital assis-tant to complete their job. Meeting tran-scription, identification of key points,

11


work. An interactive experience that pro-vides ambient sociability with familymembers while away on travel wouldease some of the angst employees expe-rience while away.

An increase in the geographic dispersionof coworkers, and a shift toward man-agement by results, are two trends thatcould spur increased travel to facilitatethe human-human connection. However,this trend is likely to diminish over timein direct correlation to the fidelity of vir-tual solutions that become available. Asthe virtual medium enables robust inter-personal interactions, the need to bephysically present will lessen.

Summary

Over the coming years, there will be sig-nificant changes to the way we socialize,interact, play, and work. This paper hashighlighted some of the significanttrends that appear on the horizon andoffered a view of potential changes.Some of these changes will come as aresult of global environmental factorssuch as world population growth. Manyothers will be driven through technologi-cal innovation.

New challenges on the horizon presentquestions to resolve:

• What type of work model shouldbe used to manage knowledgeworkers?

Human resources processes and guide-lines will need consideration to maximizethe use of the knowledge worker, and toprovide employee flexibility and choice.New models for performance evaluation,compensation, and time off could be cre-ated to foster collaboration and innova-tion. Employee satisfaction will becomean important barometric guide.

The location for work will increasingly bevaried as workers are spread over alarger geographic landscape. Telecom-muting and working on the go are likelyto become the norm with the spread ofmobile technologies and the increasingexpectation by workers to work re-motely. Optimizing office location andconfiguration will be another importantconsideration.

In short, a technological change tsunamiis rolling towards us that will wash awaymany previous perceptions of the world.The way we work will be swept into thisnew reality, and the knowledge worker ispositioned to be the primary agent ofchange. Astute organizations will seeand embrace these trends and aggres-sively plan for the new landscape.

For more insights, research, andreports, and to connect with yourpeers and IT experts at Intel, visitthe Intel.com IT Center(www.intel.com/itcenter).

• When workers are increasingly dis-tributed in far-flung global and mul-tiple physical locations, how doeffective interpersonal relationshipsform and grow?

• How will technology and peopleconsiderations impact the locationswhere people come together?

• How can the office environment beconfigured for the best productivityof the worker?

• How will organizations source thebest workers and cope with differingattitudes across a five-generationworkforce?

Against a backdrop of worldwide socialchange, and as technology facilitatesbroad global socialization, the need forhuman connection and understanding ofdiffering viewpoints will become morepressing. Travel and temporary coloca-tion, especially at project inception, mayprovide an anchor for human relation-ships until the fidelity of the virtual experi-ence approximates being there in person.

Employee identification, cultivation, andretention will be a strategic focal point.Development of person-centric humanresources systems could help keep em-ployees engaged and engendered totheir company. They could also be acompetitive advantage in retaining em-ployees. Those systems would integrate,adapt, and use the coming wave of per-sonalized consumer services.

Thanks to Liad Bareket (Intel HR), Tony Salvador (Intel Labs), Chris Shockowitz (Intel IT), Tom Stroebel (Intel Labs), Phil Muse (IntelLabs), Steve Power Brown (Intel HR), and Linda Kiehne (Intel IT) for their contributions to this white paper. Special acknowledge-ment to Nirit Cohen (Intel HR), Liad Bareket (Intel HR), Shlomit Izhaky (Intel HR), and the Intel Israel HR team, who hosted the Work-place of the Future Summit in Haifa, Israel. The seed for many of the ideas in this paper were facilitated by their innovative efforts.

http://www.intel.com/itcenter


INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH INTEL® PRODUCTS. NO LICENSE, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, BY ESTOPPEL OR OTHERWISE, TO ANY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTYRIGHTS IS GRANTED BY THIS DOCUMENT. EXCEPT AS PROVIDED IN INTEL’S TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF SALE FOR SUCH PRODUCTS, INTEL ASSUMES NO LIABILITY WHATSOEVER, AND INTEL DIS-CLAIMS ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY, RELATING TO SALE AND/OR USE OF INTEL PRODUCTS INCLUDING LIABILITY OR WARRANTIES RELATING TO FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE,MERCHANTABILITY, OR INFRINGEMENT OF ANY PATENT, COPYRIGHT OR OTHER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHT. UNLESS OTHERWISE AGREED IN WRITING BY INTEL, THE INTEL PRODUCTS ARENOT DESIGNED NOR INTENDED FOR ANY APPLICATION IN WHICH THE FAILURE OF THE INTEL PRODUCT COULD CREATE A SITUATION WHERE PERSONAL INJURY OR DEATH MAY OCCUR.

Intel may make changes to specifications and product descriptions at any time, without notice. Designers must not rely on the absence or characteristics ofany features or instructions marked “reserved” or “undefined.” Intel reserves these for future definition and shall have no responsibility whatsoever forconflicts or incompatibilities arising from future changes to them. The information here is subject to change without notice. Do not finalize a design with this in-formation. The products described in this document may contain design defects or errors known as errata which may cause the product to deviate from publishedspecifications. Current characterized errata are available on request. Contact your local Intel sales office or your distributor to obtain the latest specifications and beforeplacing your product order. Copies of documents which have an order number and are referenced in this document, or other Intel literature, may be obtained by calling1-800-548-4725, or by visiting Intel’s Web site at www.intel.com.

Software and workloads used in performance tests may have been optimized for performance only on Intel microprocessors. Performance tests, such as SYS-mark and MobileMark, are measured using specific computer systems, components, software, operations and functions. Any change to any of those factors maycause the results to vary. You should consult other information and performance tests to assist you in fully evaluating your contemplated purchases, includingthe performance of that product when combined with other products.

Copyright © 2014 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. Printed in USA JW/SS/0514 Please Recycle

1. “Cisco Connected World Technology Report 2011,” (http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/ns1120/CCWTR-Chapter1-Report.pdf).

2. Geo Hive Population Statistics (http://www.geohive.com/).

3. Green Car Congress coverage of Bill Ford, "Blueprint for Mobility" (http://www.greencarcongress.com/2012/02/billford-20120228.html).

4. “World Population Graphic 1950 – 2050,” U.S. Census Bureau, June 2011 Update (http://www.census.gov/population/international/data/idb/worldpopgraph.php).

5. “Stress that Doesn't Pay: The Commuting Paradox,” The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 2008, Alois Stutzer and Bruno S. Frey (http://commonsenseatheism.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Stutzer-Frey-Commuting-Doesnt-Pay.pdf).

6. Relationship between commuting and health outcomes in a cross-sectional population survey in southern Sweden, BMC Public Health, 2008, Erik Hansson, Kristoffer Mattisson, and Jonas Bjork, per OlofOstergren and Kristinia Jakobsson (http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/11/834).

7. “After the Recovery: Help Needed, The Coming Labor Shortage and How People in Encore Careers Can Help Solve it,” Barry Bluestone and Mark Melnik, Northeastern University, 2010 (http://www.en-core.org/files/research/JobsBluestonePaper3-5-10.pdf).

8. “United States Faces Retirement Tsunami,” graphic courtesy of Allianz, January 2011, data courtesy of UN World Population Prospects, 2008(https://www.allianz.com/media/responsibility/documents/demographic_pulse_retirement_tsunamis_all_over_the_world.pdf).

9. “Are You Ready to Manage Five Generations of Workers?” Jeanne C Meister and Karie Willyerd (http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2009/10/are_you_ready_to_manage_five_g.html).

10. “Multiple Generations @Work: What Should You Do Differently?” posted by Jeanne Meister, November 03, 2009, New Learning Playbook (http://newlearningplaybook.com).

11. “The 2020 Workplace: How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop, and Keep Tomorrow’s Employees Today,” Jeanne C Meister and Karie Willyerd, May 2011.

12. “Future Work Skills 2020,” Institute for the Future for the University of Phoenix Research Institute (http://apolloresearchinstitute.com/research-studies/workforce-preparedness/future-work-skills-2020).

13. “IBM’s Watson is Learning Its Way to Saving Lives,” Jon Gertner. October 15, 2012, Fast Company (http://www.fastcompany.com/3001739/ibms-watson-learning-its-way-saving-lives?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+fastcompany%2Fheadlines+%28Fast+Company%29).

14. “Cisco Connected World Technology Report 2010” (http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns1120/index.html#~2010).

15. “Voices from the Inside: Key Intelligence from 2011 IT UX Research with Employees,” Intel Corporation (http://www.intel.com).

16. “Agility at Work: Adopting the Corporate Six Pack,” Phillip Ross (http://www.regus.presscentre.com/imagelibrary/downloadMedia.ashx?MediaDetailsID=365).

17. Reaching 50 Million Users Graphic. G.Kofi Annan,(http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&sa=X&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS383US383&biw=1296&bih=977&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=1JXFShTfv9e71M:&imgrefurl=http://www.gkofiannan.com/&docid=gF07nbULdXx6tM&imgurl=http://getfile2.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-05-01/dHpkqtJuqhbDICguEpzGlJhwrtcxpGEvjqnabynuBFodAGwHBqzamIcpuyDb/reach50million_gkofi-annan.jpg.scaled1000.jpg&w=1000&h=619&ei=iPlgUILJD43oiQLEiYCYBA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=433&vpy=429&dur=2733&hovh=178&hovw=286&tx=107&ty=203&sig=101351832358428417249&page=1&tbnh=120&tbnw=193&start=0&ndsp=33&ved=1t:429,r:28,s:0,i:162).

18. “How Draw Something Drew 50 Million Users” (http://www.getelastic.com/how-draw-something-drew-50-million-users-infographic/).

19. Digital statistics (http://digital-stats.blogspot.com/2011/04/it-took-radio-38-years-to-reach-50.html).

20. United Nations Cyberschoolbus (http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/briefing/technology/tech.pdf).

21. “Personal Data: The Emergence of a New Asset Class,” World Economic Forum Report, 2011 (http://www.weforum.org/reports/personal-data-emergence-new-asset-class).

22. “Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology,” H.W. Chesbrough, 2003.

23. “The Social Economy: Unlocking Value and Productivity through Social Technologies,” McKinsey Global Institute report(http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/mgi/research/technology_and_innovation/the_social_economy).

24. “The Importance of Proximity and Location,” Maryann P. Feldman, Barak S. Aharonson, and Joel A. C. Baum. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto(http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CFQQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fadvancingknowledge.groups.si.umich.edu%2Fdrafts%2FFeldman-MF%2520im-portance%2520of%2520proximity%2520and%2520location-revised.doc&ei=6HTbT4G1G-ao0AGiqYW_Cg&usg=AFQjCNH1LoyQC-BKary9HdSMm13jsLFOIQ&sig2=bWBVdfsbraj0iB9yJ0Nktw).

25. “Agility@Work: The Impact of Six Forces on the Way we Work,” UNWIRED Research, Mark Dixon and Philip Ross. 2010.

26. Brian David Johnson (Intel Futurist), Intel Workplace of the Future Summit, May 2012.

27. “Five Trends that Are Dramatically Changing Work and the Workplace,” Joe Aki Ouye, Ph.D., Knoll Workplace Research (http://www.knoll.com/research/downloads/WP_FiveTrends.pdf).

28. “10 Pinterest Infographics: Visual Explanations for a Visual Social Network” (http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33078/10-Pinterest-Infographics-Visual-Explanations-for-a-Visual-Social-Network.aspx).

29. David Arkless (Manpower Group's President of Corporate and Government Affairs), Intel Workplace of the Future Summit, May 2012.

30. Philip Ross (CEO of Cordless Group), Intel Workplace of the Future Summit, May 2012.

31. Greg Lindsay (Author of "Aerostropolis: The Way We'll Live Next”), Intel Workplace of the Future Summit, May 2012.

32. Dr. Tony Salvador (Director of Experience Insight Research, Intel Labs), Intel Workplace of the Future Summit, May 2012.

33. “Activity Based Working: The Hybrid Organisation: Buildings,” Philip Ross.

the future of knowledge work - crni.crn.com/custom/.../future-of-knowledge-work-place... · the...

Documents