3 ways tech companies and governments can prepare for the future of work

This article is co-written by Vincent Tjendra, associate vice president of product at Tokopedia.

In August 2018, Vincent and I flew to Cordoba, Argentina to represent Indonesia as the country’s official youth delegates to the 2018 Y20 Summit.

Vincent, who is the associate vice president of product at Tokopedia, was the head of the Indonesian delegation. I, on the other hand, am a doctorate student in the University of Warwick. I research about informal worker voice and collective actions in the digital age. Previously, I worked with the global policy team at US ride-hailing firm Uber, covering engagement and partnerships with the Indonesian government.

With technology background and interest in issues surrounding the future of work, we were humbled to represent Indonesia’s youth and contribute to the diversity of perspectives at the summit.

Here are some of the insights we gained.

Embracing technological changes and ramping up competitiveness

Like it or not, change is inevitable. But at home in Indonesia or abroad at the Y20 Summit, we found that discussions around the future of work are often peppered by paranoia over potential job loss and other labor concerns related to automating, downsizing, and restructuring the workforce.

As youth delegates and tech professionals, we know that fear is not an accurate measure of potential, nor it is a good basis for policy-making. When it comes to creating policies associated with new technologies, we believe that the countries that focus on early adoption will reap the most benefit.

The lessons we learned from Argentina suggest that governments and the tech industry can work together on three foundations to harness the potential of human resources: education, sustainability, and inclusivity.

Education: Preparing the workforce for future demand

History shows that new technologies may not only retire some jobs but also create new ones. In an article, philanthropist Melinda Gates wrote that the introduction of spreadsheet software in 1980 resulted in the loss of 400,000 accounting jobs in the US and the creation of 600,000 customer service jobs in its aftermath. Similarly, new technologies such as the platform economy, ecommerce, and artificial intelligence may create new economic opportunities for workers.

In Indonesia, we’re already seeing a shift towards entrepreneurship and self-employment. Data from Statistics Indonesia – locally known as Badan Pusat Statistik or BPS – shows that there’s a 17.6 percent increase in the number of entrepreneurs nationwide from 22.7 million in 2006 to 26.7 million in 2016.

In 2016, BPS stated that the platform economy had helped alleviate unemployment in urban areas by offering additional income opportunities that workers could not access otherwise.

These alternative opportunities suggest that we need to rethink the ways in which we can help prepare the future workforce to take advantage of technology. We need to set up a transition plan so that the existing talent can fill the looming skills gap.

At the summit, we recommended that G20 governments include cross-cultural and diverse identity education, including social and interpersonal skills, in their national curricula.