During the 12th Forum of Human Resources “Trends and Good Practices in the service of people”, Martin Padulla, Founder & MD of staffingamericalatina talked about the Future of Work.

The Forum included Valeria Bohorquez, Director of the Career Business at Mercer; Maria Constanza Quiñones, HR Director of SAP Argentina; the lawyer specilized in Labor Law, Marcelo Aquino; and the specialist in organizational change, Jorge Fernandez Belda.

Martin Padulla was emphatic regarding the opportunity Argentina has for being amidst a period called demographic window of opportunity. The country has a larger share of working age population than of depending population (elderly adults and children). This period ends in 2035 and the major challenge is to get working age people to start working.

The key is to start working right now for the future of work, as in a very short period 75% of the workforce will be millennial, and the picture for this group of people in Argentina shows serious deficiencies in terms of training for work.

Technology is generating massive social and economic impact. Our lives are filled with disruptions that are quickly transforming jobs and leading to the demand of new skills.

The exponential development of robotics and artificial intelligence leads routine work, including both manual and cognitive jobs, to disappear.

Artificial intelligence is even promoting human intelligence.

History teaches as that, in the long term, more and more people will work, but they will tend to work more in the production of services instead of in the production of products.

The country that produced five Nobel Prize winners, experienced a strong rupture of its education in a historical time that demands building solid and resilient knowledge societies.

There is a gap of competences, capacities and skills. Formal education must be complemented with training based on the demand. We must teach people to work and we must do so from a concept of work that is in accordance to the 21^st century. The organization of labor is becoming flatter and more collaborative. The traditional structure no longer adapts to the way people live and think.

Companies need to change if they want to endure. The enterprises of the new economy grow quickly, they are more dynamic, flexible and achieve being global without being large.

The future depends of the capacity of societies to provide suitable collective answers, and manage and accelerate the processes of change in a positive way. The method is tripartite social dialogue.

The dialogue between education and labor must be strengthened; different forms of formal work must be encouraged; a greater commitment towards training of skills and competences based on the demand must be made.

The country with the largest number of robots every 10 thousand employees is South Korea; However, it has a 3.7% unemployment rate. The country bet on education, based on technology, English and skills. South Korea was poor 30 years ago, while today it generates more inventions than the entire region of Latin America.

Development can be reached. We must start working today for the future of work, in order to develop the workers of the future.