Former Chief Innovation Officer for the US Department of Labor Addresses Public Service Professionals on the Future of Work

On Thursday, August 24th, over 80 public service professionals joined Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Chike Aguh, former Chief Innovation Officer at the US Department of Labor, for a virtual 60-minute workshop on the future of work. The workshop focused on addressing the challenges and problems facing public service professions, the advancements that have been made in response to these obstacles, and included a discussion about emerging technologies, the legacies of industrial-era practices, the potential impact of new technologies and artificial intelligence on the workforce, and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

During his time in the Biden Administration, Aguh led efforts to use data, emerging technologies, and innovative practices to advance and protect American workers. These efforts included creating the department’s first enterprise data strategy, serving a pivotal role in the $2B modernization of the nation’s unemployment insurance system, piloting the nation’s first workforce scorecard, and serving as the DOL’s designee to the National Space Council. In addition to his work at the Burnes Center, Aguh, is a Senior Fellow and Ecosystem Lead at the Burning Glass Institute and Senior Advisor at the McChrystal Group.

At the outset of the workshop, Aguh took the time to acknowledge public service professionals, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Quoting Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar - who paraphrased Winston Churchill in his remarks on the pandemic - “Never will so many ask so much of so few”, Aguh expressed his admiration and thanks to those attending the workshop for continuing their work during a time of great global uncertainty. Aguh also recognized that as we come out of this pandemic, public service professionals will be expected to rise to the challenges that follow and be conscious of the pandemic’s impacts on the future of work. 

Framing the challenge

Aguh outlined the challenge that is “ the future of work” by highlighting two examples of industries that are rapidly changing as the capabilities and application of technology expand: autonomous vehicles and loan officers.

Autonomous vehicles are predicted to be present on our roads by this year, changing the landscape of public transit, commercial trucking, and private car ownership. Chike asserted that according to the data, autonomous vehicles are projected to create at least 800 million dollars of economic benefit when fully deployed and 3.3 million Americans who currently drive for a living will be displaced from their job by 2040.

The second example was the current role of ‘Loan Officer’, a once ubiquitous, white-collar profession that might be rendered obsolete by predictive analytics and algorithms. While Loan Officers once were solely responsible for deciding whether an applicant received a loan or not, their job has been reduced to using a computer that can make a more precise actuarial decision. Aguh explains that their role has now become account management, customer acquisition, and sales.

The following points can be concluded from these two examples 

1. A large number of jobs and professions may cease to exist due to new technologies and automation caused by the expansion of AI.

2. Existing jobs and their responsibilities will change dramatically because of the implementation of new technologies. Current job holders will not be able to perform these new responsibilities without the correct response and training.

What is the work of the future?

Aguh explained that not all jobs are susceptible to automation and new technologies, but jobs that are physically dangerous or monotonous are most at risk for replacement by robots and computers. McKinsey and company predicted that by the year 2030, 33% of jobs could be fully automated and 60% of jobs could have one-third of tasks automated by the same year. There has already been a steady increase in the number of jobs that require substantial digital skills since the year 2000. 

Will there be enough work for everyone?

Aguh highlighted the two schools of thought on this challenge. Those who are optimistic about the outcome of automation make the point that we have faced similar upheavals with the industrial revolution and the creation of the service economy, and in those cases, more jobs were created than destroyed, and our role is to ensure that people are able to do the new jobs. A good example of this is the creation of the ATM, which allowed the retail banking industry to do more valuable tasks instead of bogging them down in simple banking tasks. Those who are pessimistic about the outcome of automation state that this is a different and unique juncture, where the speed of change is faster than any previous revolutions, and that these technologies are able to envelop larger swaths of the economy, including white-collar jobs which will significantly decrease the amount of work available.  Aguh asserts that there are likely truths in both schools of thought. 

Addressing the challenge holistically: five questions we must answer 

Aguh asserts that in order to tackle this challenge, we must focus on the ecosystem as a whole and address 5 specific questions. 

1. Where are the current and future jobs? Which skills are required to do these jobs? We need to be granular about what the occupations currently are and map them against future trends, and we need to be precise about what is achievable and who we are designing these systems for.

2. How will workers of the future be prepared for these jobs? We need to consider more complex, human, and powerful skills like emotional intelligence, problem-solving, and time management, beyond looking just at the technical skills that jobs require We need to explore options to hone and teach these skills, such as the apprenticeship movement which encourages learning by observation and cultivating practical skills that can be emulated, and virtual reality training as developed in the case of Tailspin during the pandemic. 

3. How will the work and workers find each other? The majority of job postings are not widely shared. We rely on hiring people in our circles instead of those who are the most capable to do the job, which means that we are not filling positions with the best candidates. We have to expand our hiring circles to those in communities that we are unfamiliar with, with whom we have never met, and whose challenges we have never dealt with. How do we invest in these communities and spread awareness? How do we remove barriers to employment?

4. How do we support workers through this process? We need an“economic trampoline” system, in which we support workers through periods of unemployment and set them up to excel in their next roles. 

5. How do we ensure that workers are protected, dignified, and advancing once on the job? How do we make sure people are not discriminated against for their identity? How do we make sure people are compensated for their time and work? How do we make sure people have advancement opportunities in their careers and have mobility to grow? How do we make sure this is a job that people actually want to do? We have to focus on improving the quality of jobs for those in them. 

Implications for the public sector 

In the final section of the workshop, Aguh outlined the following takeaways and opportunities for the public sector:

1. Invest in skills over pedigree - Lean into hiring based on skills and growth instead of a college degree. Previously, college degrees have often served as a simple way of separating and sifting through mass numbers of job applicants. Going forward, institutions should be precise and accurate about what skills the job requires and create means of assessments to test for those.

2. Great teams are not born, they are made - We invest too little in the career and professional development of our people in the public sector.

• Strategic development is no longer a luxury, it is necessary for any successful public sector team. 

3. Great leadership is required for hybrid work - Successful teams must be clear on strategy, key performance indicators, and accountability, rather than simple in-person monitoring of attendance.

4. Leverage new technologies, do not run from them - New technologies can relieve burdens on employees and free them up for higher-value work. Automation, chatbots, and generative AI are some of these tools that save hundreds of hours of mindless and repetitive work We should pilot and scale these relentlessly. 

Feedback 

In feedback from participants after the workshop, 95% of respondents said they would recommend this training to a friend or a colleague. Here’s what our participants had to say about the workshop:

“Very timely topics and subject matter and discussion are highly relevant to and insightful for a cross-discipline group of my colleagues.” 

“It was engaging, and the theory was accompanied by multiple examples.”

“This was so informative.  Excellent information with the presentation moving at the right pace. Kept me interested and caused me to think.”