21st-Century Work Evolution: Time for Action on a Fresh Employment Compact
In the rapidly transforming world of work, a new social contract is being proposed by the Our Group, an organisation that engages with various entities to fuel opportunity and choice in the increasingly diverse work environment. The Our Group believes that this new social contract will help put all forms of work on an equal footing and ensure secure and sustainable work opportunities for both workers and businesses.
The Our Group's key policy solutions focus on individual, portable, and transferable social accounts. These reforms are central to strengthening the social contract by ensuring workers can build security, access opportunity, and maintain agency over their economic futures despite evolving workplace conditions.
The portability of social accounts allows workers to carry benefits, protections, and entitlements such as healthcare, retirement savings, and training opportunities across jobs and geographic locations. This empowers workers to exercise agency over their benefits and resources throughout their careers, supporting their economic resilience and adaptability as work evolves.
The new social contract also encourages structured, transparent collaboration between employers and workers’ representatives to co-create workplace governance, protections, and shared prosperity. This is meant to rebuild declining social trust and ensure policies are responsive to all demographics, including disparities based on race, gender, and education.
Businesses are envisioned as valuing workers not only as labor providers but also as partners in innovation and success. Metrics for business performance would include worker empowerment alongside traditional measures.
The Our Group has created a dedicated microsite to discuss innovative solutions and gather expert opinions on the new social contract for the 21st century. The microsite serves as a platform for the debate on the urgent need for a new social contract for work in the 21st century. The Our Group's colleagues from around the world are looking forward to engaging in dialogue about this new social contract.
The proposal comes from the Future of Work Initiative by the Aspen Institute, which aims to renew America’s social contract through these new, portable social accounts integrated with new workplace governance and collaborative frameworks. The emerging social contract aims to empower individuals with continuous benefits and protections that transcend a single employer, adapting social support structures for the realities of 21st-century work.
The Our Group's proposal emphasises individual portable social accounts, worker empowerment, labor-business collaboration, inclusive and innovative workplaces, and leadership & policy innovation. These solutions form the core of a new social contract to strengthen worker security, agency, and collaboration in the dynamic landscape of 21st-century work.
[1] Aspen Institute, Future of Work Initiative: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/programs/future-of-work/ [2] World Economic Forum, The Future of Jobs Report 2020: https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-future-of-jobs-report-2020 [3] McKinsey & Company, Jobs lost, jobs gained: What the future of work will mean for jobs, skills, and wages: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-analytics/our-insights/jobs-lost-jobs-gained-what-the-future-of-work-will-mean-for-jobs-skills-and-wages [4] International Labour Organization, World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2021: https://www.ilo.org/weso/publications/bookstore/WCMS_754612/lang--en/index.htm
- The Our Group's proposal for a new social contract in the ever-changing world of work is centered around individual, portable, and transferable social accounts, policy innovations, labor-business collaboration, and inclusive workplaces. This proposal is an essential part of their discussion on the new social contract for the 21st century, as proposed by the Future of Work Initiative by the Aspen Institute.
- This new social contract aims to empower workers by providing them with continuous benefits and protections that transcend a single employer, ensuring secure and sustainable work opportunities in politics, policy-and-legislation, and general-news. The policy solutions focus on fostering worker agency, collaboration, and resilience in the face of rapidly transforming work environments.
