BrightHR produced the ‘A Future That Works’ report with Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management Practice at London Business School; The Hotspots Movement, a specialist research and consulting team and David Smith, a futurologist to gaze into future changes that will affect the workplace. 

As part of the report, five trends were highlighted as the drivers of change; the future of technology, complexity in the workplace, the dimensions of diversity, keeping compliant and disappearing middle skills roles. 

A series of videos have been created to bring the report to life. The videos feature Co-Founder and CMO of BrightHR Paul Harris, and Futurist and co-author of the ‘A Future that Works’ report, David Smith discuss each driver of workplace change in more detail. 

This particular video discusses the disappearance of middle skill roles and the effect on career progression.  

As the workplace changes, job titles and roles will follow suit leaving some middle skills roles in decline. Middle skills roles can include those who are not as highly qualified or with technical expertise. A straightforward career path has become a thing of the past, leaving both companies and employees with a need to creatively think about how to address this.

Companies can navigate the disappearance of middle skills roles by considering adapting career progression models based on promotion with ones based on learning and development which allows employees to enhance and renew their skills.

In-house training and role-specific development allows employees to make lateral moves and ensures access to courses which result in qualifications. Making such changes within your company will also increase the likelihood of attracting top talent.

Download the BrightHR, ‘A Future That Works’ report here.