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

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.