Jobs are Melting into Fluid Work | USC Center for Effective Organizations | John W. Boudreau

This article by John Boudreau points out how traditional jobs will continue to “melt” into more fluid tasks. And since jobs have been the lens through which many HR and Talent practices are driven (from learning, compensation to workforce planning, to name a few), the notion of “fluid tasks” has several implications for talent management strategies and practices. The article provides four questions and lessons for how HR leaders, workers, HR professionals, and policymakers can best prepare for the post-crisis reality of more fluid work. Lesson #2: Fluid work rests on deconstruction and reinvention – speaks to how organizations can benefit from decomposing or unpacking job/roles into specific tasks. Similarly, “workers can be “deconstructed,” seen not merely jobholders, but as repositories of existing and potential capabilities.“ By applying this concept of deconstruction, organizations can better “match melted jobs (tasks or projects) with melted job holders (skills and capabilities) with greater agility. It also provides organizations with greater flexibility in accomplishing specific tasks through various delivery forms, such as contingent workers and automation, to name a few. For another insightful article on this concept, you can check out Dave Ulrich’s article from earlier this year, From Workforce to Work-task Planning.