Employment as we know it is fading. Web3-driven ecosystems are transforming work, HR and contributor models for the future. It’s time to rethink the work operating system
“Employment is dead.”
It’s a headline that sounds like a provocation. But according to workplace futurist Josh Drean it’s already becoming reality. The traditional contract-based job – nine-to-five hours, fixed roles, hierarchical teams – is being replaced by something entirely different: fluid, decentralised, tech-enabled ecosystems of work.
And while many organisations remain preoccupied with return-to-office policies, a quieter revolution is reshaping work itself. One driven not just by generative AI and automation but by a new mindset about what it means to contribute value. If you’re still leading with job titles and tenure, says Drean, you’re already falling behind.
Welcome to the work ecosystem.
The employment model is cracking
In our recent podcast episode of Work's Not Working... Let's Fix It!, Drean laid out a case that feels both urgent and inevitable.
"Gallup's latest data shows employee engagement is at its lowest point ever," he says. "There's a disconnect between how employers want to work and how people actually want to work. We're seeing diminishing returns on the old employment structure."
The idea of employment as a contract, trading time for money and fitting people into rigid boxes, no longer aligns with a workforce that values autonomy, purpose and agility. The structures built for industrial efficiency are creaking under the pressure of a digital and decentralised economy.
In its place? A model built not on control, but contribution.
Welcome to the work ecosystem
Drean describes a future where organisations are no longer bounded by org charts and static job descriptions, but built around circles of contributors. At the core are what he calls core contributors – people fully embedded in an organisation. Beyond that are freelancers, part-time experts, project-based workers and even data providers, all connected by shared goals, not contracts.
This isn’t the gig economy, which Drean argues is simply a centralised system with lower overheads. Ecosystem work is different. It’s decentralised by design and powered by smart contracts and peer-to-peer collaboration. And, crucially, it's owned by those who do the work.
Instead of employment people contribute value across multiple entities simultaneously. They move between projects, optimise for skill alignment and build income streams through participation, not tenure. This is already happening in DAOs (decentralised autonomous organisations) where teams form, execute and dissolve around specific missions. The outcome is more agility, more engagement and less friction.
Smart contracts, real trust
Smart contracts are key to enabling this ecosystem to scale. A smart contract is a blockchain-based agreement that executes automatically when predefined conditions are met.
Let’s say you design a logo for a DAO. Once the group approves your work, a smart contract releases payment instantly.
Drean shares the example of TalentPair, a recruiting platform using blockchain to ensure fair commission splits between sourcers, interviewers and placers. Everyone who contributes gets paid automatically.
This kind of infrastructure removes friction and empowers people to work on their own terms..
What this means for HR and people leaders
This shift is both a challenge and an invitation. As Drean says, we can’t keep thinking about HR as headcount managers. The role is becoming about ecosystem design, contributor experience and building adaptive capability.
If work is no longer defined by fixed jobs and linear careers then HR’s purpose must evolve. Key focus areas
- Curating diverse contributors instead of maintaining static teams
- Facilitating upskilling for AI-augmented work
- Managing trust, ethics and transparency in decentralised environments
- Designing compensation models based on output, not hours
- Supporting fluid career paths shaped by projects, not promotions
In this world HR becomes more strategic, human-centred and digitally fluent. "Work is not a contract anymore,” says Drean. “It’s a partnership."
Moving from control to contribution
If the employment model is breaking down what replaces it is clarity around contribution. That means trusting people to own their work, aligning incentives with value creation and designing systems that support self-direction and lifelong learning. It also means letting go of legacy mindsets that equate visibility with productivity and presence with loyalty.
"The best talent won’t wait for companies to catch up," Drean warns. "They’re already opting out of outdated systems and building work lives that work for them."
With AI lowering the barrier to entrepreneurship and smart contracts enabling new models of value exchange, the age of the solo entrepreneur, or as Drean jokes the "billion-dollar company of one", is approaching fast.
The end of employment isn’t about eliminating jobs. It’s about unbundling them.
Work in the ecosystem era will be built around skills, trust and shared purpose, not job titles and control. And while that might feel disruptive it also unlocks a more human, more empowering way to work, one that rewards contribution, enables flexibility and allows people to show up as their full selves. The opportunity is huge but it requires courage to stop managing the past – and start building the future.
✨ You can hear Josh Drean explore these ideas further on the latest episode of our podcast, Work’s Not Working... Let’s Fix It. Available wherever you get your podcasts.