Workforce of the Future

Welcome to the new world of work

In an increasingly digital world the way we work is changing. Organizations must adapt and address the workforce challenges of today to future-proof their business and build their workforce of tomorrow.

Factors contributing to this phenomenon:

The rise of technology

Automation and enabling technologies are rapidly evolving, dramatically changing how organizations conduct business. But tech is only as good as the leaders who identify its opportunities, the technologists who deliver it and the people who work with it every day.

The upsurge of hybrid working

Now more than ever, people have more choice around how they work, creating a more flexible and mobile workforce. Organizations are reassessing their capability to support hybrid working longer term at the same time as delivering an enhanced employee experience.

The mismatch of skills

CEOs are worried about the skills employees have and those needed now and for the future of work. The transferable skills that organizations need—creativity, problem solving, digital acumen and leadership—are those that help their people think, act and thrive in a more unpredictable and rapidly digitising world. Digital skills are only part of the story.

An uncertain market

Market uncertainty has driven the need for organizations to transform. Increased pressures to be productive, reduce costs and focus on employee well being means companies must transform their workforce strategy and HR function to future proof their organizations and drive innovation.

Building your Workforce of the Future

You need a new approach—to create a digitally enabled organization with the right mix of skilled and adaptable people, aligned to the right culture and with the right mindset and behaviours to power your business.
The Workforce of the Future is about building business resilience, maximizing human potential and creating sustainable values and impact. Our cross-functional professionals empower teams across your business to work better, faster and smarter with leading edge people analytics, technology, insights and training tailored to your business.

Here’s how we can help:

Create a workforce strategy

A comprehensive workforce strategy is increasingly more important and creates the path to a more engaged, skilled and sustainable workforce. Create a modern workplace that puts employee experience at the core.

Upskill your people

Upskilling is more than just training. It’s about gaining the knowledge, skills and experience for new and transformed roles, and being equipped to participate and adapt in an increasingly digital world. Our approach to upskilling creates a workforce with the right mix of skills, aligned to the right set of behaviours and with the right mindsets to power a business through citizen-led innovation.

Reimagine your office of the future

By aligning the workforce, technology and real estate investments with the business goals and objectives, we help you reinvite how and where work gets done. Creating an environment that supports new ways of working with the right physical spaces and technology.

Transform your HR function

Get strategic business value from your human resources function. We help you look ahead at the data-driven HR function you’ll need in the future—and fix today’s challenges.

Bridging the leadership divide: A workforce strategy of the future

We’re in a pivotal historical moment: the dynamic between employees and employers is radically, and possibly irreversibly, shifting. This is evidenced in part by the great resignation, but more broadly by decreasing tenure and increased attrition.

Learn more about how the workforce is affected

Workforce of the Future

Findings and insights

Our world is changing and digitizing at an almost unprecedented pace, bringing with it new insight. We’ve conducted a series of surveys to take the pulse of business leaders and employees across the country and around the globe. Explore the findings to understand how Canadians are feeling about the world of work and gain insights into next steps for organizations as we move into the future together.

Explore our Workforce of the Future Surveys

How to start upskilling

The digital revolution requires a skills revolution. The skills revolution is about helping people build their digital awareness, understanding and skills to fully participate in the digital world — and it needs to start now.

How do organizations upskill?
How is PwC reaching those at risk of being left behind?
How can businesses, governments and institutions work together on this complex issue?

How do organizations upskill?

Organizations are transforming their workforces to drive productivity, innovation and growth. Upskilling is key. It’s about anticipating the right skills for the future, laying the cultural foundation, delivering modern upskilling programmes, and building a learning and development function with the right EdTech to deliver a vastly better return on upskilling investment.

Find out how we can help you upskill

How is PwC reaching those at risk of being left behind?

The digital divide is already a significant global problem and is at risk of getting worse if we aren’t successful in helping those currently excluded from the workforce and the next generation to build the right skills. We are working to reach those where the need is greatest:

Explore our community initiatives

How can businesses, governments and institutions work together on this complex issue?

Solutions to the challenge of upskilling will need to be developed at the local, regional and national level, and no one organisation can do this alone. Government leaders and policymakers need to ensure that citizens have the knowledge to participate, and they themselves have the knowledge to drive discussion on the future of technology and regulation. Institutions, such as those that make up the education system, need to digitally transform themselves and at the same time provide services that are fit for the future.

The need to upskill is a complex problem that will require decision-makers — educators, national, regional and local government administrators and business leaders — to come together. If you would like to find out more about what we at PwC are doing, get in touch.

Preparing everyone, everywhere, for the digital world

Our three-year commitment to upskill Canadians

It’s become increasingly apparent that one of Canada’s most pressing challenges is the growing mismatch between the skills people have and those needed for the digital world. That’s why we’re committing $150 million over the next three years to upskill our 7,850 people to be future ready and to share their knowledge to support clients and communities.

In addition to upskilling our own people, we’re also committed to providing digital upskilling to 1 million people and NPOs across Canada to help them maximize their potential.

Learn more

28% of Canadian workers say their employer is addressing shortages in skills by upskilling their workers.

Source: PwC’s Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey

Digital products to support your workforce transformation

Whether you're a new business, a medium-sized company, or a large enterprise, our suite of proprietary solutions will help you automate workforce tasks, facilitate employee learning, and improve the employee experience and change management workflow.

Active Workforce

Your employee experience platform delivering on the future of work

Engage, empower and inform your workforce through your existing chat technology. No new software, no new workflows — all new efficiencies.

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Change Navigator

Helping you drive more effective change

Change Navigator is a digital workbench that enables teams to analyze change impact, build a best-fit engagement plan, track progress on rollout metrics, and manage a portfolio of change initiatives across the enterprise.

Learn more

Discover more

Delivering extraordinary results through your people

New organizational, talent and human resource challenges are being faced as business leaders wrestle with global growth, skills mismatches, disruptive technology innovation and the tests of risk and regulation.

Creating possibility through digital transformation

As organizations work to address the challenge of increased customer expectations created by the rise of digital innovation, it’s time to rethink business by investing in customer experience and embarking on the path toward digital transformation.