Preparing For The Future Of Work: Howard Holton Of GigaOm On The Top Five Trends To Watch In The Future Of Work
An Interview with Phil La Duke
A massive overhaul of job descriptions to align with new ways of working. Future employees want to know a clearer understanding of what a position will entail, the benefits, and compensation.
There have been major disruptions in recent years that promise to change the very nature of work. From the ongoing shifts caused by the COVID19 pandemic, the impacts caused by automation, and other possible disruptions to the status quo, many wonder what the future holds in terms of employment. For example, a report by the McKinsey Global Institute that estimated automation will eliminate 73 million jobs by 2030.
To address this open question, we reached out to successful leaders in business, government, and labor, as well as thought leaders about the future of work to glean their insights and predictions on the future of work and the workplace. As a part of this interview series called “Preparing For The Future Of Work,” we had the pleasure to interview Howard Holton.
Howard Holton is an analyst at GigaOm, and a CISO and Enterprise Architect at a global manufacturing company. He has worked in IT for three decades, the last half in executive leadership, as a CIO and CTO. He has been an engineer, an architect, and a leader in telecom, health care, automotive, retail, legal, and technology. In the last decade, Howard focused on cloud technology and economics, data analytics, and digital transformation. As CTO of Hitachi Vantara, he spent his time developing digital transformation, IT, and data strategies for Fortune 1000 companies and global governments. Howard is also a technologist at heart; passionate about how data science and new technologies can be used to accelerate time-to-market and better serve the customer, now and in the future. Howard has been a trusted advisor and agent of change to a number of organizations, bringing vision and successful execution to internal and external customers alike.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers like to get an idea of who you are and where you came from. Can you tell us a bit about your background? Where do you come from? What are the life experiences that most shaped your current self?
My entryway into the tech world was by chance at the age of 11, after I developed my first software. This experience shaped my life and the career journey I pursued. In my career, I continued following my passion for IT, pursuing different industries from law offices to consulting to education. I’ve lived by the motto “Success pays, failure educates,” and have instilled that into my various career experiences, which has really helped ground and guide me.
What do you expect to be the major disruptions for employers in the next 10–15 years? How should employers pivot to adapt to these disruptions?
COVID-19 has reset society and the future of work in many ways. We are now experiencing the “Great Resignation,” in which workers have decided they are not going back into the workplace as it existed before. For the very first time in industrialized history, employers aren’t fully in control. For example, Apple implemented a hard line against remote work, telling their employees to come back to their campus. Many of their top engineers resigned shortly thereafter. We are now 1 million workers short in the IT industry. The reality is you can no longer rest on the laurels of being the biggest employer in the area. You have to go beyond that in benefits, work-life balance, and a hybrid work environment. So the question we need to ask ourselves is: What does a post-COVID workforce look like? And how do we not only recruit employees but retain them?
The choice as to whether or not a young person should pursue a college degree was once a “no-brainer”. But with the existence of many high profile millionaires (and billionaires) who did not earn degrees, as well as the fact that many graduates are saddled with crushing student loan debt and unable to find jobs it has become a much more complex question. What advice would you give to young adults considering whether or not to go to college?
One of the biggest values of college is teaching you how to learn new things, and instilling you with a passion for learning. However, college isn’t the path for everyone, and it shouldn’t be. There are numerous options for education outside of a college degree, such as pursuing a trade. I’m somewhat biased on this issue, since I didn’t go to college, and learned on the job. I’ve been in IT continuously since I was 11 years old. I was the main breadwinner for my family at the typical college age, and it would have been disruptive to my family if I quit the family IT business and went to college. I didn’t get a college degree, and I’ve still been fortunate enough to hold three different C-Suite titles at three different organizations.
Despite the doom and gloom predictions, there are, and likely still will be, jobs available. How do you see job seekers having to change their approaches to finding not only employment, but employment that fits their talents and interests?
The first question at hand is: How do I find a job? As a whole, most companies are terrible at writing job descriptions and we’re even worse at writing resumes. If you can’t afford a service to do your resume, then have two different friends help you review your resume. If you can find someone with an English degree to review your resume, that’s even better. For every single job you apply for, make sure the key skills that you possess listed in the job description are on your resume. If you don’t take that extra step of preparation, it’s likely that the HR tools won’t advance you forward in the process. Then it’s all about the interview, ensure you have the confidence that matches the requirements for the job. Look at what skills the jobs are requiring, and make sure you are prepared to talk through those areas, so you can stand out.
The statistics of artificial intelligence and automation eliminating millions of jobs, appears frightening to some. For example, Walmart aims to eliminate cashiers altogether and Dominos is instituting pizza delivery via driverless vehicles. How should people plan their careers such that they can hedge their bets against being replaced by automation or robots?
There are several things at play here. First, government regulators have a very specific focus on ensuring that people who are employed, stay employed. For instance, if we look at the issue of federal income tax, in theory, everyone could do their taxes and we wouldn’t need tax preparation software or accountants to help us. Or the government could automate the process and do your taxes for you, and you would only be tasked with approving or disproving them. It would be a drastically simplified system. The biggest disadvantage to that solution is that everyone working in the tax industry would be added to the number of people unemployed, which would be a burden to society rather than a contributor to society.
In making major alterations to the supply chain through automation and/or AI, revenue has to be made up somewhere. So, there’s a legislative as well as a political concern around how much of it do we support, and how do we make up the shortfall, as well as support the people who are now unemployed. Those are places where disruption from automation, robotics and AI is already on the horizon , and we need to have conversations now about how to work through the ramifications .
Technological advances and pandemic restrictions hastened the move to working from home. Do you see this trend continuing? Why or why not?
The pandemic forced us to move people home, and we found that people don’t need to be in an office to be productive and efficient. I personally went from meeting with five CIOs a week to 50 CIOs per week. I didn’t have to travel to their site and shake their hand. Instead, jumping on a Microsoft Teams conference call for a roundtable conversation was infinitely more efficient.
It also really varies by industry. Task line workers have seen greater efficiency, versus information workers who rely on other people to collaborate and communicate. Employers are asking themselves: How do I change my use of space for people to be together for collaboration and communication? The potential exists to look at the world post-pandemic in a very different way. It gives companies the ability to not only hire in a commuting zone, and as a byproduct, the number of candidates available drastically increases. We are finding the companies that are thriving in this “new normal” of work are the ones that have the ability to capitalize on change.
What societal changes do you foresee as necessary to support the fundamental changes to work?
If you ever went to Disneyland and saw Tomorrowland, Walt Disney had a very interesting vision for the future of the world. There were fascinating spaces that were broken down to enable a much more interactive community, and we can learn many lessons from how he reimagined the world. This applies to the shifting workplace we are seeing today, and how it is changing drastically. For example, in my current position, I can work anywhere from any device, within reason. Your home becomes much more of an important space. I used to spend much more time on the road, but now the two environments have collided and shifted the way we work each day.
What changes do you think will be the most difficult for employers to accept? What changes do you think will be the most difficult for employees to accept?
The most difficult one for employees is that health insurance is the most compelling reason for employment in the United States. For most employees, it is a key point in their decision-making process for job selection. Employees should be able to afford health insurance, and employers should be providing quality options. Additionally, employers that don’t offer any health insurance, should reassess how much they are offering for compensation packages. Finally, there is the larger question of: What would happen if we shifted to universal health insurance instead? No human should have to declare bankruptcy because of medical debt, and a new system would benefit us all.
The COVID-19 pandemic helped highlight the inadequate social safety net that many workers at all pay levels have. Is this something that you think should be addressed? In your opinion how should this be addressed?
When I look to the smartest economists in the world, the one issue that hasn’t been solved yet is minimum income. The fact is this is the wealthiest country in the world, but we have the least amount of empathy. We’re the least empathetic in how we write and pass laws, and how we care for the poor. We need to raise the minimum standard for everyone and lift everyone up. That includes a safety net — healthcare, minimum income, and so on. I think it’s a necessary change.
Despite all that we have said earlier, what is your greatest source of optimism about the future of work?
COVID-19 has shown a lack of workers’ rights, and we’re finally having a conversation about what’s acceptable in the workplace. We’re short hundreds of thousands of employees worldwide, so we need to address better ways of retaining employees. For instance, MacDonald’s is looking for employees and their starting pay is $18/hour, but they cannot recruit or retain enough employees. It’s not actually a money thing, it’s a lack of appreciation for employees in the workplace. Simply adding money isn’t going to solve the problem. We have to improve their positions. We’re overdue for these conversations. Until the pandemic began, we haven’t been able to have these conversations with employers in a very meaningful way.
The fact that the office has remained the same since 1950 is also a problem, but I’m beginning to have more optimism in the technology industry in particular. We’ve shifted more of a focus towards the individual. I had ta conversation recently with an organization discussing how we may not be able to demand everyone comes back to the office right now. Because of the pandemic, these conversations are finally coming about more readily than before.
Historically, major disruptions to the status quo in employment, particularly disruptions that result in fewer jobs, are temporary with new jobs replacing the jobs lost. Unfortunately, there has often been a gap between the job losses and the growth of new jobs. What do you think we can do to reduce the length of this gap?
Part of the problem was that everyone is looking at trends in recent history. People expected the stock market to crash, and people expected it would be a very long recovery. The initial reaction was to do layoffs as much as we could, and then they tried to bring people back when the market ultimately didn’t crash. As a result, we have seen a huge number of workers just saying “No” to coming back to work with the “Great Resignation” currently occurring.
People have been questioning the future of work, and now we are seeing the gig economy expanding. Add to that the millennials’ lack of connection with traditional value chain. The priorities of the younger generation are no longer on your job giving your life so much meaning, but instead focusing more on the living, or quality of life, outside of work. We should work to live, not live to work. The job market is really uncertain at the moment, and there’s no clear path forward. That’s going to demand employers to meet candidates where they’re at.
Okay, wonderful. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “Top 5 Trends To Watch In the Future of Work?”
1. A massive overhaul of job descriptions to align with new ways of working. Future employees want to know a clearer understanding of what a position will entail, the benefits, and compensation.
2. In the next decade, we will see new leased space in the office. The office won’t be consumed in the same way, and we will see higher rates of collaboration and virtual spaces.
3. Employers will need to meet their employees’ needs in order to remain competitive. This includes improved work-life balance, hybrid or fully remote work options, better benefits, paid time off and more.
4. There will be a new definition of how we measure employees to better suit the changing work environment.
5. Finally, I expect a resurgence of unions, or something similar, so that workers are getting the rights they deserve.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how this quote has shaped your perspective?
My favorite quote is: “The boss has the title, a leader has the people.” This speaks to the core of how I aim to lead. From the front and recognizing that I am the servant of my people. If I’m not enabling them, then I’m not adding value.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why?
I’d like to have lunch with any living, former president since they arguably have the most nuanced and complex job in the world. We only get to see such a small facet of it. I’d love to have a real conversation with them, and it’d be a very different conversation depending on the president.
Our readers often like to follow our interview subjects’ careers. How can they further follow your work online?
Feel free to read my research and upcoming reports on GigaOm’s website: https://gigaom.com/analyst/holton-howard/
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this. We wish you continued success and good health.
