SPOTLIGHT: Designing Work Without Jobs With Ravin Jesuthasan and John Boudreau

The Gartner Talent Angle

Drawing on their professional and academic experience, Ravin Jesuthasan and John Boudreau argue the current work “operating system” is increasingly unable to meet the needs of employees and employers. They join the Talent Angle to discuss their new book, Work Without Jobs: How to Reboot Your Organization’s Work Operating System, and the opportunities for HR to shape a new vision for the future of work. Jesuthasan and Boudreau propose a new work “operating system” based on deconstructed work and deconstructed talent that would ultimately lead to a more human-centric approach to work. In their new vision for the future of work, they emphasize the importance of developing capabilities that will enable organizations to redesign and reinvent work and the employee experience.

Ravin Jesuthasan is the global leader of Mercer’s Transformation Services business. He has led multiple research efforts on the global workforce, the emerging digital economy, the rise of artificial intelligence and the transformation of work. Ravin has led numerous research projects for the World Economic Forum including many of its ground-breaking studies on the transformation of work and the global workforce. He is a regular participant and presenter at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos and is a member of the forum’s Steering Committee on Work and Employment. He is the author of the books Transformative HR (Wiley, 2012), Lead The Work: Navigating a World Beyond Employment (Wiley 2015), Reinventing Jobs: A 4-Step Approach to Applying Automation to Work (HBR Press, 2018) and the Wall Street Journal bestseller; Work Without Jobs: How to Reboot Your Organization’s Work Operating System (MIT Press, 2022).

Dr. John Boudreau is recognized worldwide as a leading evidence-based visionary on the future of work and organization. Dr. Boudreau is Professor Emeritus of Management and Organization and a Senior Research Scientist with the Center for Effective Organizations, at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. For 40 years, he has conducted breakthrough research on the bridge between work, superior human capital, leadership and sustainable competitive advantage. His research addresses the future of work and the global HR profession, work automation, HR measurement and analytics, decision-based HR, executive mobility, HR information systems and organizational staffing and development. Dr. Boudreau helped to establish and then directed the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS) at Cornell University, where he was a professor for more than 20 years

Peter Aykens is chief of research in Gartner’s human resources practice. He is responsible for defining research coverage within the practice and building and leading research teams that address clients’ key initiatives. In prior roles at the firm, he spent over 25 years leading research teams focused on banking and financial services strategy, producing numerous studies that addressed business strategy, channels, marketing, customer experience and product issues in financial services. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from St. Olaf College; a master’s degree in international politics from the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth (now known as Aberystwyth University); and a master’s degree and a doctorate in political science from Brown University.