With the prevailing global crisis, what is your personal opinion on how the future of work will affect your business operations?

The future of work will be fully digitised. Smart cities would be accelerated realities than visions, riding on industrial revolution 4.0. Digital transformation is accelerated with cloud adoption on the increase.

According to you, which emerging technologies will be most crucial and relevant to the dynamic changes at work?

There will be an increase in digitalisation efforts for complete paper-less systems and an acceleration in cloud collaboration platform adoption as employees go mobile. Emerging technologies in the realm of Cyber-Physical Systems such as Industrial IOT will also be most relevant to automation with remote supervision and oversight.

How do you think change management and HR policies will cater to the needs of employee welfare and engagement to effectively adapt to the future work culture?

HR would want to better engage employees and build identity and cohesiveness in a virtualized format, digitizing more work processes including the adoption of digital signatures as well as provision benefits to support secure work from home including the purchase of workstations to be based at home.

What are the main challenges in evolving into the future of work operations with respect to WFH, Remote Work and Virtual Employees formats?
Cyber security threats have increased multi-fold with WFH as the boundaries of the corporate network get extended beyond office buildings into less-protected digital homes. With the increased attack surfaces, hackers are targeting hastily established but misconfigured cloud setups, badly secured VPNs and weakly designed authentication systems as they are increasingly exposed to the Internet.

How do you suggest organizations will deal with business confidentiality, cyber threats, safety and security concerns which are crucial factors for the changing work operating models?
Adopt a risk-optimisation approach towards cyber threats. One of the foremost activities that organisations should perform is to address social engineering attacks which is the primary modus operandi for advanced persistent threats. Having the right security mindset and adequate cyber hygiene awareness inculcated into employees is an important foremost layer of defense. The acceleration into a cloud-first strategy also entails careful risk management prior to leaping into the cloud as cloud-based breaches increase alongside. A holistic risk management program needs to be in place ranging from enhancing risk identification to adapting key risk indicators.

How do you feel attendees will benefit from Future WorkTech Forum?

Attendees will gain better awareness and insights into learning about and protecting against the cyber threats of the Future Work new normal in a risk-optimisation approach, from protecting your personal privacy to securing your work collaboration platforms.

With the prevailing global crisis, what is your personal opinion on how the future of work will affect your business operations?

In my opinion, organisations across industries will need to redefine the way they operate to increase productivity and achieve cost efficiencies. They will need to adapt their processes, culture and systems to enable business continuity and resiliency. Offices will transform into simple meeting places where face to face meeting will need to happen for strategic or critical projects. Employees expect to conduct their responsibilities outside their office, which mean they will require seamless access to corporate applications as well as collaboration tools using any device and from anywhere.

According to you, which emerging technologies will be most crucial and relevant to the dynamic changes at work?
Covid19 played a critical role in accelerating digital transformation, particularly in developing markets. Automation, cloud, and as-a-service models are quickly becoming the new norm and are changing the way employees work, collaborate and deliver value to their end customer. As organizations are rethinking their business models in house technology team’s contribution, will lie in the value they deliver to the business versus in the services they deliver.

How do you think change management and HR policies will cater to the needs of employee welfare and engagement to effectively adapt to the future work culture?

In my opinion, change starts at the top of every organisation. For an organization to adopt to the new way of work, companies should adapt their culture, processes and systems. A change management program will need to be put in place and supported by the board of directors that encompasses various work stream covering people, process and technology across the various functions of a organisations. People across the organisation will need to contribute to the change if we expect them to adapt their behaviors and way of working.

What are the main challenges in evolving into the future of work operations with respect to WFH, Remote Work and Virtual Employees formats?

The challenge in my opinion is how to deliver an engaging employee experience to maximise productivity effectively without jeopardizing the security posture of your organisation critical assets.
In addition to technology, companies will need to adapt their culture and processes where trust and accountability will take precedents over physical presence and, number of hours spent in the office.

How do you suggest organizations will deal with business confidentiality, cyber threats, safety and security concerns which are crucial factors for the changing work operating models?

Companies will need to redefine their cybersecurity strategy to enable digital adoption and to build trustworthiness with their end uses, employees and partners. In fact, digital business has inverted access requirements, with more users located outside of an enterprise than inside. The borderless enterprise must be protected at all modern entrance gates. This extends from the network edge and the corporate firewall outward to mobile applications and the cloud, and inward to every employee and every device.

Trust lies in every market relationship. People buys from people they trust. Cybersecurity breaches can have a detrimental impact on a company’s reputation. In fact, the conversation around security is shifting from being perceived as a IT risk to a business risk and to a competitive differentiator that will enable confident decision making and growth

To ensure business continuity, CIOs need to initiate a digital trust framework that goes beyond preventing attacks and that enables organizations to resiliently rebound from adverse situations, events, and effects. As a result, CIOs need to enhance their visibility and resiliency by focusing on delivering 4 key cybersecurity outcomes: Vulnerability, Identity, Trust and Threat Management”

How do you feel attendees will benefit from Future WorkTech Forum?

For a long time “The Future of Work” has been a concept. Today it is the reality. companies that do not adapt will eventually disappear. They will lose their competitive advantage and struggle in attracting and retaining talent. There is no right or wrong answer. The key is to listen, engage and share lessons learned that will benefit other peers. Future WorkTech offers the right platform for likeminded to share their experience and contribute to shaping the new way of work.

With the prevailing global crisis, what is your personal opinion on how the future of work will affect your business operations?

The future of work will primarily require 2 things. Firstly, the technology. As business operations will depend more and more on technology, it is important that the new technologies can be easily adopted by the majority of employees. Secondly, the data security. Work from anywhere also means that the data will roam outside of your corporate network and policy-based and technological measures should be considered to secure your business data.

According to you, which emerging technologies will be most crucial and relevant to the dynamic changes at work?

Clearly within our sight right now is the collaboration platforms that allow the employees to work with internal and external parties using different types of form factors (e.g. mobile, tablet, computers) and across diverse work setups. These platforms should also be designed with zero-trust model to isolate business data within trusted environment and total transparency to boost integrity among the employees.

How do you think change management and HR policies will cater to the needs of employee welfare and engagement to effectively adapt to the future work culture?

The acceptance of future work culture is the most important key. Organisations should imagine a realistic work culture that is contextualised with their nature of business or industry. Certain industries like tech or consulting can have better tolerance towards work mobility compared to industries that require on-site presence such as banking or production. Once they have the clear picture then only, they can design their change management plan and new HR policies. The benefits for employees might also need a review as the uncommon benefits such as unlimited holidays, full remote working, device or internet allowance could weight even more than bonus, medical or car allowance to attract talents.

What are the main challenges in evolving into the future of work operations with respect to WFH, Remote Work and Virtual Employees formats?

I would say data security. As the data roam outside of the corporate IT network, different approach has to be used to ensure the data remains secure.

How do you suggest organizations will deal with business confidentiality, cyber threats, safety and security concerns which are crucial factors for the changing work operating models?

Organizations should think how to make the security level of their IT networks more mobile. When we talk about remote working, we’re talking about decentralization, diversification and extension of office environment. The security controls that corporations have put in place in their office IT network lose their grip when employees work from home. The challenge that all corporations have to answer is how to hold the grip regardless of the locations of their employees. Again, I’m a strong supporter of zero trust model and on top of this, I also encourage that corporations to start seriously giving privilege to cloud-based IT management and security solutions.

How do you feel attendees will benefit from Future WorkTech Forum?

Very timely as I believe many corporations are strategizing their plan to cope with the new normal and this forum would seed some ideas for them.

With the prevailing global crisis, what is your personal opinion on how the future of work will affect your business operations?

This is a really interesting, exciting and challenging time for any organization. Obviously many organizations and jobs have been put at huge risk by the impact of the pandemic, but for those looking to the future, a choice needs to be made over whether to focus on adopting some of the changes that recent events have enforced and accelerating future strategy, or attempting to get back to what was previously ‘normal’ as quickly as possible. At MAT Studios, we always aim to work at the forefront of progressive working practices, so we’re driving hard to adopt and adapt in our business. If this can happen so fast in 2020, who knows what could be next. Be ready!

According to you, which emerging technologies will be most crucial and relevant to the dynamic changes at work?

There are key emerging technologies, but realistically, those which create a holistic and integrated platform to enable work and organizations will always be better than any single solution. There are so many individual technologies out there, covering everything from collaboration to storage, communication and productivity, but the key thing is taking a step back and mapping what your organizations really needs to achieve and the best possible structure for enabling its people to thrive. From there, shortlist platforms and technologies, then look to integrate them, automating linear tasks where possible to allow the humans in your organizations to focus on the human elements. I have some strategies and recommendations, but rather than write an essay here, I’m always happy to share if people want to talk!

How do you think change management and HR policies will cater to the needs of employee welfare and engagement to effectively adapt to the future work culture?

For a number of years, people like me have been promoting the idea of change as a constant, rather than a series of once-off projects. We need to rethink our organizations to be as lean and adaptive as possible, with the flexibility to innovate and iterate fast. In an evolving world, that means constant change is inevitable – it’s part of organizational evolution. The importance is the focus. People (customers or employees) remain the focus of any organization and providing your teams with the tools and structure to do their best work at any time should always be the strategic priority. When people thrive, the organization thrives too!

There is now so much data connecting wellbeing with productivity, creativity and how forcing people to work in rigidly structured ways is counterproductive. The secret is starting with freedom, then creating the absolute minimum possible structure required by the parameters of the business. Don’t start with control, then add tiny freedoms, that will always fail – change your thinking!

What are the main challenges in evolving into the future of work operations with respect to WFH, Remote Work and Virtual Employees formats?

Let’s take a different look at this question. The greatest challenge is a resistance to change from leadership and a hesitance to give up control. It requires a fundamental rethinking of the employee-employer relationship and will only work if the right people are employed by the right organization in the first place. With global employee engagement rates around 15%, we know that we’re starting from a position where there’s a long way to go. The risk is that this will seem too hard and many organizations won’t invest in the journey.

How do you suggest organizations will deal with business confidentiality, cyber threats, safety and security concerns which are crucial factors for the changing work operating models?

Technology will underpin all of this and offers improvements in all of these areas when adopted and integrated effectively. The key to working with the right technology providers is to ensure that they have these contingency plans in place and that you adopt their technologies in a careful, integrated and secure way. Incrementally adopting individual platforms and leaving gaps between them increases risk. Design for your organizations as entire coherent ecosystems, don’t just adopt with a scattergun approach. Most importantly though, remember, no other organization is the same as yours, so create an approach that is designed solely for you, not an off the shelf solution to something so important.

How do you feel attendees will benefit from Future WorkTech Forum?

The Future WorkTech Forum puts all of this on the table for discussion, with experts who are already doing it, researchers who are discovering trends and innovators who are pioneering in new trends. From design to adoption, to change management and so

With the prevailing global crisis, what is your personal opinion on how the future of work will affect your business operations?

Future business world is impacted by three fast changing factor i.e ever increasing Technology Revolutions, growing role of Artificial Intelligence and Covid19 disruption. Many current business models, processes and human value creation is likely to become redundant. Many jobs will be extinct and many new ones will emerge requiring a totally different set new competencies and skills.
Future of work and organization success will depend on leaderships ability to quickly adopt to the New Norms and be flexible to change at the fastest speed.

According to you, which emerging technologies will be most crucial and relevant to the dynamic changes at work?

Organizations ability to harness and leverage the new technology will heavily depend achieving excellence in connectivity and speed of data management . Ability to benefit from the big data will be a great contributor.

How do you think change management and HR policies will cater to the needs of employee welfare and engagement to effectively adapt to the future work culture?

HR will have to take a proactive leading role in Change Management. They will need to achieve success in the interest of organization survival. The new slogan they need to internalize and build in organization DNA will be “No Change – No Organization”. Leadership and employees mind set management will be the toughest challenge for everyone.

What are the main challenges in evolving into the future of work operations with respect to WFH, Remote Work and Virtual Employees formats?

WFH due to Covid during last few months has brought many learning lessons and challenges. The future is going to see WFH as a reality and optimization of balance between WFH and actual need and utilization of the office space. Remote Work and Virtual Employees will have similar problems requiring creative solutions from the HR Leadership

How do you suggest organizations will deal with business confidentiality, cyber threats, safety and security concerns which are crucial factors for the changing work operating models?

Cyber security challenges are a reality today and will continue to be a growing challenge in the future. It will be like an unending war between hackers and the software engineers. Organizations have to continually keep reviewing the cyber security effectiveness frequently and keep enhancing the security capability.

How do you feel attendees will benefit from Future WorkTech Forum?

The Future WorkTech Forum provides a unique opportunity for the business organizations, the leadership teams, the HR gurus and all the participants to open their minds about the challenges and opportunities to benefit from the emerging challenges and creative solutions that they need to be aware and adopt quickly for the success of their organizations.

With the prevailing global crisis, what is your personal opinion on how the future of work will affect your business operations?

Working in the flexible workspace industry puts us in an interesting position because during times of economic instability, many businesses turn to flexible workspaces to help them cope with downsizing or restructuring of their teams. Particularly with this current crisis, we are seeing businesses begin to re-evaluate their workplace strategy; the openness to employees working remotely is increasing significantly, however conversely the importance of the office has never been more obvious. For The Executive Centre, we see ourselves as a strategic partner to all of these businesses that are trying to future-proof their business by using flexible workspaces to reduce CAPEX costs and lease terms, and to build agility into their portfolio.

According to you, which emerging technologies will be most crucial and relevant to the dynamic changes at work?

Video conferencing tools will become an essential system for every business. The ability for workers to connect, communicate and collaborate remotely is more important than ever before, and having a platform that allows for information sharing, “face to face” interactions, and that facilitates remote collaboration has readily become a focus for major corporates. In addition, providing employees with secure and highspeed WiFi networks to ensure they are able to do their work efficiently at home will also be crucial.

How do you think change management and HR policies will cater to the needs of employee welfare and engagement to effectively adapt to the future work culture?

Businesses will begin to incorporate ‘remote working’ policies into their official employee handbook, enabling employees to work from home or other remote locations without fear of judgement. A larger focus on mental health and wellness will also take place, ensuring that even if employees are not allowed to come into the office, that they still feel connected to their colleagues and to the company, that they still receive mentorship from upper management, and that they feel secure that not being physically present in the office will not negatively impact their career growth or reputation within the organisation.

What are the main challenges in evolving into the future of work operations with respect to WFH, Remote Work and Virtual Employees formats?

The main challenge is overcoming the pre-conceived notion that working from home/remote working means employees are less productive. Organisations must change their perspective so that they’re able to empower employees to be as motivated when they work from home as when they are in the office. At the same time, working remotely challenges the work-life balance concept as suddenly the barrier between work and home disappears. Employees need to make a conscious effort to still separate their ‘work’ time from their ‘life’ time to avoid burnout. Last, the connections/relationships formed as a result of face to face interactions is challenged here, so an even greater effort must be placed on creating alternative channels for employees to connect with their colleagues and upper management.

How do you suggest organizations will deal with business confidentiality, cyber threats, safety and security concerns which are crucial factors for the changing work operating models?

A greater focus on creating secure, fast, reliable networks that employees can access remotely is something businesses should start investing in now. One of the challenges of WFH is that not everyone has the infrastructure in place to be productive, and much of the time that has to do with network stability and security.

How do you feel attendees will benefit from Future WorkTech Forum?

The ability to learn from experts about the strategies they are implementing to future proof their business will hoping be inspirational for organisational leaders and will help them build resilience into their own workplace strategy. The opportunity to network with global professionals will also be hugely valuable, especially right now when everyone is looking for new business opportunities but are limited in terms of travel.