HYBRID WORK AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE As Covid subsides, deep-seeded changes to the workplace expand. Two of the most important drivers – hybrid work arrangements, and Artificial intelligence (AI) are also closely interrelated, and of profound importance to the future of the public service. With respect to hybrid, recent collective agreements for federal public servants mark an historic inflection point. The Treasury Board mandate for a minimum of two days a week on site (or 40-60% of weekly hours) is now being implemented, with flexibility and enshrined commitments to continuance and ongoing dialogue. BY JEFFREY ROY GOVERNING DIGITALLY 20 / Canadian Government Executive // Summer 2023 A CRITICAL INFLECTION POINT: Many workers welcome at least a partial return to the office, pointing to the power of in-person interactions to spur innovation and creativity. Indeed, prior to the pandemic, governments at all levels invested significant resources into innovation labs and other creative spaces. Others contend however, and not without emerging evidence, that with the right tools and platforms, much of this collaboration can now be done virtually (and potentially in more open, inclusive and effective manners). A hybrid world is not fully remote: the term itself implies novel alignments of inperson and virtual processes to empower workers, while also accounting for collective requirements and outcomes. Hybrid implies give and take, as the emerging workforce development challenge for modern organizations is to devise human resource and digital infrastructure frameworks that enable workers to define their own path. Such a path implies an optimal mixture of in-person and virtual experiences that best corresponds with a person’s physiology, professional duties, and family and personal responsibilities. If that were not enough, AI is taking the world by storm – promising to eliminate large swaths of human workers, before possibly wiping out all of humanity itself. IBM has already announced plans to end hiring
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