How digital transformation can influence career plans
The more mechanical tasks, or those that require data analyses that can be learned using algorithms, can certainly be done by digital resources (Photo: Shutterstock)
Anyone who works in the corporate world has already noticed that digital transformations are happening very quickly in society. And this is having a full impact on companies, on the ways they produce and offer their products and services, and on the ways people purchase and consume.
This phenomenon is not only changing companies (which will have to change even more in the future). It is also transforming the job market and the way people work.
As a consequence, it will also change (and this is already happening) the profile of the workers companies look for, the skills they need to develop in order to be valued by the market and, consequently, the way these professionals build their careers.
This is because new technologies and the profound advances that are already taking place (for example, artificial intelligence and other digital advances) will make it increasingly possible to put robots and software to perform “repetitive” tasks that are done by people today, but that do not require creative actions, deeper or more complex analyses, or even leadership or management skills from them.
Thus, the more mechanical tasks, or those that require data analyses that can be learned using algorithms, can certainly be done by digital resources.
This, however, does not mean that jobs will end, that the job market will collapse, that people will no longer have a role in digital society… as is often trumpeted in a somewhat catastrophic way out there.
Digital systems will still need people for a long time to, for example, create the technologies, make them work, motivate and teach people to use them, and so on. Human creativity to do all of this will, in fact, be increasingly valued.
Not to mention that, in an increasingly technological and changing world, problems, inadequacies, defects, etc. will continue to occur, just as countless business opportunities and consumer needs will continue to exist, which will demand new and creative ideas. All of this will require people who are better prepared to analyze processes, find root causes, promote improvements and create innovative solutions.
In other words, the “executing worker”, who primarily carries out routines and delivers products and services, will increasingly give way to the “improving worker”, who develops new solutions and refines routines. Flexibility and the ability to constantly improve processes, for example, will be, more than ever, some of the characteristics that companies will look for in their employees.
Every worker – from the entrepreneur to the operator on a production line – will need to look at their own work critically every day, seeking to analyze and improve processes continuously, as well as to develop their capacity for productive dialogue with coworkers, with other managers, with suppliers and with customers.
This will certainly bring more and more changes in people's education, in the courses and studies they will have to take, in the way they relate to others and, above all, in the creation of a new mindset, in which workers will have to see their respective jobs no longer as tasks to be done, but rather as daily actions that must each add value for whoever buys that work, and that need to be improved or radically changed at every moment.
This is an important reflection. Both individually, for those who are planning or reflecting on their careers, and for companies, which will increasingly have to hire and prepare teams with a different kind of thinking about the work they do.
