The Future of Work at Ambition's 'Chairman's Lunch'

Last week, we hosted our annual “Chairman’s Lunch” at the exclusive Eight Members Club alongside Ambition’s Chairman and Co-Founder, Nick Waterworth, who flew in from Sydney, especially for the occasion.

We were delighted to be joined by 20 senior leaders from our professional services clients whose roles and experience comprised CFO, Marketing & BD Director and Partner positions across Law, Accountancy, Advisory, Consultancy and Property firms.

With so many leading minds in one room, we took the opportunity to discuss the Future of Work.

Here are a few sound bites from the discussions:

New graduates are changing jobs more frequently than ever

Ambition’s data shows that new graduates have twice as many jobs in their first 5 years compared to the mid-80s.

We discussed the demands of managing, developing and retaining a workforce that is constantly changing.Today’s employees want quicker development and progression and an environment that prioritises technology, innovation, flexibility and wellness.

As line managers and business owners, we noted that we have to be incredibly skilled and adaptable at managing this generation of employees. With other factors such as companies being less hierarchical and the arrival of generation Z, we need to have the desire to keep learning and developing ourselves to manage successfully in these environments.

We also felt that both L&D and Human Resources will play a bigger role in driving employment choices and in supporting the running of firms and their people.

Automation and A.I

We spoke a great deal about digital disruption and the changing nature of roles and skills in professional services. Whilst there are many unknowns, we felt technology would, overall, play a positive role in the development of workforces in professional services.

However, with a continued focus on technology, does that block us from developing other more critical skills such as empathy and interpretation?

Furthermore, with the ability to work more and more remotely, does that inhibit our ability to learn, develop and train our future workforces if we're not in close physical proximity with one another?

It was a great event with some highly interesting discussions between courses and incredibly, we managed to avoid mentioning Brexit!

Nick, Nicky and the Ambition team would like to thank everyone who attended and participated in the discussions.

If you are a senior leader working in Professional Services and would be interested in attending one of our future events, please get in touch.