In collaboration with Sitra, Verohallinto (the Finnish Tax Administration), Varma, Tieto and Trade Union Pro, Work 2040 deepens our understanding on changes in the sphere of work and encourages all entrepreneurs to organise their working lives according to their own needs and wishes. After the conclusion of this project, Demos Helsinki has continued to research the future of work within the context of, for example, the government report on the future.
The changing nature of work is an ideal magnifying glass with which to research changes in society as the topic affects us all. The theme cuts across all of society and deals not only with jobs and working but also with a wider scope of issues such as social security, taxation, and pensions.
“We see from our working lives how the world is now changing at a very fast pace. The discussion about the changing nature of work is actually a discussion about the future, about how people experience their everyday lives”, Demos Helsinki’s senior expert Johannes Koponen says.
The Work 2040 scenarios were created together with a wide group of stakeholders who all had their own specific starting points for considering the future of work. The partners of this scenario study were the innovation fund Sitra, the mutual pension insurance company Varma, the IT services and software company Tieto, the Finnish Tax Administration and Trade Union Pro. In addition, a significant number of Finnish experts and researchers of work and changes in work were involved.
The viewpoints were collected in workshops and condensed into three future scenarios. These scenarios show the variation of change in the ways of working, different tasks, job profiles and what is perceived as work. The examination also helps to conceive why work is actually important to us.
Organisations and individuals can freely and openly make use of the work scenarios. The results have been used, for instance, as study material.
Following the Work 2040 report, Demos Helsinki continued this research as background material for the Finnish government’s report on the future which was presented to parliament in 2018. The aims of the report on the future included recognising different futures and needs for decision making. According to the central findings in the study, the forms of working and work contracts will diversify, the time and location specificity of work will weaken, the need for lifelong learning will become more acute, and people’s income structure will change.
You can download the Work 2040 scenario report here.
Read the report in Finnish by Demos Helsinki, Finland’s Prime Minister’s Office, and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland: Long-term Policymaking as a Tool Through Transformation – Aspirations for the Future of Work