The way we work is changing: colleagues can be the other side of the world, and you can set up a business from a smartphone and be “self-employed”, while dependent for income on an online platform. These are the issues I will look into as chair of an independent review on modern employment that Theresa May is to announce today

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More and more people are their own boss – the 4.8 million UK self-employed are a record. And more work is flexible, with 900,000 on zero-hours contracts and a further 1.7 million in temporary work. Taken together that is around one in five British workers in what are, increasingly unhelpfully, described as “non-standard work arrangements”. Few people think these trends will reverse, and many predict that traditional employment will eventually become a minority pursuit.

We know some of the causes of these changes. Business innovation, technological possibility and lifestyle preferences are combining. By and large, the flexibility is popular. Surveys consistently show that self-employed people are happier with their work than employees. About two-thirds of temporary workers choose to work temporarily, while the same proportion on zero-hours contracts do not want fixed hours; most report that they are happy with their work-life balance. But not everyone’s experience of new work is positive.

There is, for example, a particular problem with job security. While 92% of people consider it to be important, only 65% people think their job is secure, and 15% think it is insecure – that’s around 5 million people wondering if they will be able to pay the bills each month, or what will happen to the mortgage if they’re suddenly out of work. Stress in employment used to be correlated with seniority. Now those with lower incomes are just as likely to suffer anxiety at work.

What’s more, around 6 million people are not covered by the standard suite of workplace rights. Worryingly, that number continues to grow, and it shows how rapidly changing business models and working practices are continually stretching the limits of our employment rules. This is not to say that we need to rip up existing models; current employment rules do work for the majority of people. Indeed, employment in this country is at a record high; we have one of the fastest-growing developed economies in the world and we are flying high in the sectors – such as the creative and tech industries – that benefit most from flexibility in working practices. The question isn’t how we reduce flexibility, but how we can make it work for more people.

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From employment regulations to tax and welfare rules, to public service operating hours, much is still premised on traditional employment. Can government do more to support non-standard workers? Can we strengthen their voice at work and in the corridors of power? Can we explore and promote new forms of enterprise as the distinction between owner, worker, contractor and consumer gets more blurred? And how can we create a virtuous cycle whereby better employment practices and opportunities for career development feed into higher productivity? These are among the questions I will be reviewing.

No government can meaningfully improve the lives of ordinary people without addressing our experience of work. As the Guardian’s John Harris has pointed out, there is a world of difference between the happily self-employed software consultant in Hackney and a worker on zero hours desperate for greater security and job progression, so I want the inquiry to get out and about talking to people from across the country about how their experience of work affects their day-to-day lives. Government can play an important role but this is also about the decisions we make as workers, investors, consumers and citizens.

The world is changing fast, sometimes bewilderingly so, and there is every reason to be excited. But policy has to become ever more adaptive. The government has to think hard about the difference it can make not just by changing laws but by shaping expectations, promoting dialogue and encouraging innovation. As chair of the inquiry I start out with an open mind to the methods of change, but we can all surely agree on the goal: that the fast-changing modern labour market is one that should offer citizens growing opportunity and control.