An Interview with Andrew Spence

Andrew Spence

Workforce Futurist

Key Topics:Future of Work, Work Technology, Designing Organisations

Location:United Kingdom

Bio:

Andrew Spence is a Workforce Futurist, Global Speaker, Writer and Work Technology Board Advisor

He is also an experienced independent management consultant specialising in building people-centric organisations.

Andrew has recently featured in Onalytica's Who is Who in the Future of Work report.

How did you get to become an expert in your key topics?

I have always been curious about technology and organisations. I did a Masters’s in Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence a long time before Siri and Alexa. Rather than do a PhD studying brains and neural networks, my 1st job was as a management consultant with Accenture in London. I became fascinated by how people work in organisations and this led me to work closely with the HR function and transformational programmes. Fast forward some 20 years and thirtysomething global change projects and I now spend my time obsessing about how we can make work better.

What sub-topics are you most passionate about?

My passion is to make work better. On my travels, I have been lucky to see great ways of working where teams of people are empowered to achieve great things. I have also seen too many sad cubicles, organisations doomed to fail, and under-utilized talent. I believe we can make work better to enable more people to reach their potential. The areas I focus on to do this are building a new infrastructure for work, designing great organisations, improving decision-making, using digital credentials, DAOs and technology to enable self-organized teams.

Who influences you within these topics?

I am influenced by those who not only have visionary insights about how the world is changing but are also show people how to build new infrastructure. I am particularly interested in Web3 developments in the work domain.

What challenges are brands facing in this space?

Employer brand is being challenged by the demand from a much more diverse set of workers. Individuals are working through platforms, as freelancers, in collectives and this makes employer brand more important than ever. Increasingly workers will work for an employer under different employment contracts and potentially many times in a career. So it is important to maintain good relationships with all potential workers and customers.

What do you think the future holds in this space?

My research on the impact of blockchain on future work, published with the Blockchain Research Institute in 2018, made a number of hypotheses about the future of work. This included a liquid workforce able to move contracts and projects more easily, and less need for very large organisations.

If a brand wanted to work with you, which activities would you be most interested in collaborating on?

I publish Workforce Futurist Newsletter, which had over 30,000 views in its first year. I plan to build on this with collaborations in different media and formats including video, podcasts, and training. I am writing a book this year on web3 careers and the future of work. I am an accomplished public speaker, pre-Covid, I spoke to more than 12,000 people at Global events in Australia, Singapore, the USA, the UK, France, Netherlands, China, and Italy. My advisory work is with leading work and HR technology companies, think-tanks, and employers.

What are your passions outside of work?

I love learning new things and I’m currently learning Portuguese.

What would be the best way for a brand to contact you?

Email.

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