Zabeen Hirji is the Executive Director, Future of Work at Deloitte Canada and a former Chief Human Resources Officer at the Royal Bank of Canada.

CERIC recently hosted a free webinar, moderated by Magnet Executive Director Mark Patterson, to further explore the themes of Zabeen’s keynote address at Cannexus21, “Building a Future of Work that Works for All.”

The discussion explored some of the key drivers of change in the future of work and how those drivers can be refocused to create a more inclusive labour market. 

Those drivers include:

• Technology: Technology is changing the way we work, but the future of work needs to be centred on technology/human collaboration rather than replacement. 
• Demographics: The workforce is not only more racially, culturally, and ethnically diverse than ever (22% of Canadians identify as a visible minority), but also more generationally diverse than ever.
• Societal Expectations: For businesses, the idea of having social impact and purpose led beyond shareholders will continue to rise.

One result of these significant changes will be a disruption of the traditional pattern of education, work, and retirement. Workers can expect to continuously learn and build new skills throughout their career and regularly transition between roles.

Ultimately, the goal is to build and nurture skills and characteristics like adaptability, communication, collaboration, complex problem solving, compassion, and capacity to learn. Hirji highlights how businesses can collaborate with their current workforce and beyond to build opportunities for learning and adaptation into their organizational structure.