How will we work in future?

Professor Hans-Jörg Bullinger is an expert on the future of work – and the work of the future. The Pres­i­dent of the Fraun­hofer Society knows what it will take to attract moti­vated employees to produc­tive jobs in the years to come

Why do we need to change our image of work in the first place?
Because we have to take into account trends in society regarding pros­perity, working time and the rela­tion­ship between work and leisure. More­over, tech­nology gives us an entirely different set of possi­bil­i­ties. With today’s infor­ma­tion and commu­ni­ca­tion tech­nolo­gies, the need to keep employees confined in one building to ensure commu­ni­ca­tion and the flow of infor­ma­tion no longer exists.

However, the confined space is also being broken up in another, more metaphor­ical sense: will anyone work at the same company from appren­tice­ship to retire­ment in future?
Surely not in the way it was in the past. Things may be a bit more conser­v­a­tive in certain regions, as they are at ebm-papst, for example. There, models of career paths that start and end at the same company will continue to exist for some time. In that case, though, the change takes place within the company: employees switch between depart­ments or loca­tions.

What, then, is the face of the work of the future?
Tomorrow’s work will be less constrained by time and space. To put it most clearly, in the past, the idea was to work in a defined place at a defined time. For those who work in what are still called office jobs, the idea in future will be: “Work where and when you want!”

Is the service-oriented society the ideal means to this end?
Purely in terms of numbers, two-thirds of all employees in Germany already work in the service industry. However, we delude ourselves if we think that we can just cut each other’s hair and deliver pizzas to each other and live happily ever after. We absolutely need value creation from produc­tion. In my view, to give that up would be the biggest mistake we could make.

Can these two aspects be recon­ciled?
Yes, in what are known as “hybrid” prod­ucts that combine a phys­ical product with a service. The result is that the customer obtains more overall benefit: not just a mate­rial product, but consulting, plan­ning and service from a single source. There­fore, I am convinced that in future, produc­tion-based compa­nies will behave more like service providers.

By outsourcing produc­tion to low-wage coun­tries, do we lose inno­v­a­tive strength?
That is a danger. I think it’s a fairy tale to believe that we can develop in Germany and produce cheaply abroad. Surely, in some cases offshoring is neces­sary from a produc­tion cost stand­point. However, the majority of posi­tive offshore moves are made out of compa­nies’ desire to get closer to their markets. There, the compa­nies adapt their prod­ucts to the respec­tive market. As a result, a portion of the product-related devel­op­ment will surely also relo­cate to these coun­tries. On the other hand, compa­nies are also moving to Germany and devel­oping here.

How can the faster pace of society and increased health conscious­ness at the work­place be recon­ciled?
The faster pace is very much related to the fact that the world has been made small by commu­ni­ca­tions tech­nolo­gies. Devel­op­ment times are becoming ever shorter and compa­nies still depend on inno­va­tions to succeed in busi­ness. To stay compet­i­tive, they have to present an increasing number of new prod­ucts and services in an ever shorter time. This does not auto­mat­i­cally result in more health prob­lems, but in prob­lems of a different nature. Infor­ma­tion gath­ered by the German Statu­tory Acci­dent Insur­ance insti­tu­tions show that illnesses such as spinal column injuries arising from heavy phys­ical labour are no longer as common as they once were. Today, psycho­log­ical and psycho­so­matic illnesses caused by increased time pres­sure are more preva­lent. In this regard, compa­nies will provide balance, and will have to consider issues such as how they can provide their employees with relief phases in jobs with little time pres­sure.