Future Work: How Businesses Can Adapt and Thrive in the New World of Work

The way we work is overdue for change. Businesses want to increase efficiency and attract the best talent and skills. The new workforce wants a fresh deal. Aided by technology, companies now have the tools to boost output and cut costs, to give employees more freedom over how they work, and to contribute to a greener economy.

But many organizations are slow to realize this. They cling to a rigid model of fixed working time and presence better suited to the industrial age than the digital age.

This is bad for business. There is ample evidence that trusting people to manage their own work lives, whether individually or in teams, pays off. Organizations that measure and reward people by results, rather than hours, benefit from higher productivity, more motivated workers, better customer service, and lower costs.

Future Work sets out the compelling business case for a change in organizational cultures and working practices, drawing on a unique international survey and dozens of examples of innovative companies making the transition. It explains:
• Why current flexible work arrangements fail to achieve the business benefits of a wholesale shift to an autonomous work culture
• Why future work requires leadership styles that play to female strengths
• Why offices of the future will be meeting places rather than workplaces
• How managers can help virtual teams to collaborate and ensure that technology is our servant, not our master

It takes bold leadership and a break with old habits. But future work will not wait for those who fail to grasp the opportunities now.

ALISON MAITLAND is a writer, speaker and conference moderator specializing in leadership, gender and work. A former long-serving Financial Times journalist, she is co-author of the prize-winning book Why Women Mean Business. She has been researching and writing about corporate culture and the changing workforce since the late 1990s, including eight years as FT Management Writer. She is Director of The Conference Board's Council for Diversity in Business and a Senior Visiting Fellow in the Faculty of Management at Cass Business School, London. A frequent conference speaker, she also regularly contributes articles to the Financial Times and other media.

PETER THOMSON is an acknowledged authority on the changing world of work and its impact on organization culture and management practices. He is a regular speaker on the future of work and, as a director of Wisework Ltd, advises clients on creating a corporate culture which supports new working practices. He is a Visiting Executive Fellow at Henley Business School where he was Director of the Future Work Forum for 16 years and he is now Research Director for the Telework Association. He spent the majority of his professional career in HR/Personnel and was head of the HR function in Digital Equipment when the company pioneered new working practices.