Reinventing the future of work

Last week, more than 124,000 visitors attended VivaTech in Paris. If, in recent years, the focus was on technology itself, this year’s event confirmed that technology is nothing without the people behind it and that the future of work will change. Key speakers, such as President Emmanuel Macron or Jack Ma from Alibaba, as well as exhibitors, stressed that technology and AI will create jobs, but also change jobs and that the way we work will never be the same.

Capgemini Invent was represented with a big booth and our People and Organization team ran a pitch contest to identify new partners to bring to life what’s next and jointly shape the workforce and organization of the future. Out of 220 applications, six startups had been selected prior to the event based on their level of innovativeness, scalability, possible individualization, and social impact. The pre-selection had to be made among a variety of startups offering solutions ranging from platforms to improve employee productivity by continually diagnosing their digital culture, up to immersive programs that accelerate mobility and secure career change.

Interested in what we believe will influence the Future of Work? Get inspired by a few selected hypotheses:

• Work will become fluid.
• Creativity is the core competency to take charge of own career path.
• Technology has turned education or learning into web of choices.
• Technology allows immediate access to knowledge.
• Diversity is non-negotiable.
• Cities, not organizations, will compete for the best talent.

Claudia Crummenerl, global head of People and Organization opened the pitch contest with a short introduction to our perspective on the future of work. Besides Claudia Crummenerl, the jury consisted of Isabelle Lamothe (P&O Lead France), Maud du Limbert (lead of Global People Hub in France), Mikko-Pekka Hanski (head of Idean Finland) and Marie Beatrice Duval (HR manager at Société Générale). After the introduction, all six startups had the chance to make an impression during a four-minute pitch and a one-minute Q&A.

Blockchain Partner introduced us to their blockchain solution, TIM, a platform that manages internal funding processes by distributing innovation budget within large companies. By increasing employee engagement and idea generation, they want to speed up the innovation process.

XLearn showed us how they shape the future of work by unleashing workforce potential through AI-based matching of employees’ profiles with internal career opportunities. With their SaaS talent management platform, they combine personalized career development for employees, as well as an HR data dashboard for predictive analysis of workforce evolution, internal mobility, and project staffing.

Team EQ presented their Team Intelligence SaaS platform, powered by AI, which helps to make team management easier, scalable, data-driven and more effective. It monitors performance and tracks the impact of team actions. It thus increases engagement by 12% and overall well-being by 27%, which ultimately also leads to 20% higher team performance.

Reverto pitched how they use virtual reality and 360° video to raise awareness of psycho-social risks (sexism, harassment, burnout, etc.) and to train employees to prevent misconduct. Technology supports the learning experience by generating empathy, improving relationships within companies and communities by putting users in the shoes of others.

Braincities demonstrated how they can leverage AI and human capital data to strengthen an organization’s ability to adopt quickly to emerging trends and thereby optimize workforce transformations. For example, together with their client Porsche, they built a customized career planning tool adapted for personal planning and employee development. This helps people to find new opportunities within the company.

Isahit stands out with its social impact. They created the first outsourcing platform for digital tasks to young women in Africa. Those women can earn additional income while supporting organizations, for exmaple by creating data sets for AI to train robots for image or object recognition.

Reverto edged out the competition and won Capgemini Invent’s support for further development of its solution to train managers using Virtual Reality. The Reverto solution and approach won thanks to its uniqueness, especially the idea of putting users in the shoes of others. Its adaptability and scalability to management learning scenarios made a strong point, even if scalability to whole organizations requires VR glasses or cardboards.

Nonetheless, Isahit has won the hearts of all with its socially impactful solution.

We are looking forward to collaborating with all these startups in the future to bring to life what’s next together and shape the future of work!

About People and Organization

Capgemini invent’s People and Organization practice prepares and supports organizations, their leadership and their people for the transition into the digital age, focusing on different stakeholder groups as well as a conducive organizational setup and culture – enabled by our new approach to change management.

If you would like to discuss how we can help you, click here to contact us.