By 2020 and beyond, HR will need to be adept at providing their organisation with more data that could predict and act as foundational decision-making. This says for the need of technology adoption throughout the entire workforce. Yet, not only does the workforce need technology to optimise business performance, they also need to be cautious with other factors, including generational diversity, globalisation, and consumerization.
According to the “Shaping the Future of Work” report, there is a need to emphasise important skills to successfully manage a career. Respondents surveyed in the report believed that changes in the education system and ongoing training provided by companies are by far the best ways to develop skills. Meanwhile, when it comes to workspace demand, more than half of respondents (52 percent) said they want and are able to work remotely with flexible schedules.
See also: The Future Prediction of Global Human Capital
Here are four other factors that will impact and shape the future of work:
It is clear that the world will become increasingly connected over the next 10 to 20 years as the flow of products, services, talent, and knowledge continues apace across developed and developing countries. To compete and survive, a growing number of companies will intensify their efforts to explore new market opportunities and develop business capabilities to take advantage of these markets.
Companies will increasingly depend on building organisational and employee agility rather than relying on periodic change initiatives. Thus, it is necessary to develop the capacity to attract, develop, and retain top-notch talent in emerging markets.
Technology enables employees at all levels to work virtually while collaborating and sharing ideas, not only with each other but also with people outside their teams. Continued advancements in globalization and technology have also turned work into a 24/7 reality which blurs the lines between work- and non-work lives, thus leads to intensifying the pressures and stress on employees with unfortunate consequences for their physical and emotional well-being.
In a world of increasingly advanced technologies, where the nature of work changes with great frequency, traditional approaches to filling jobs internally will give way to more systematic and decentralized approaches to matching talent to work and work to talent. As work is redefined and talent flows increase, new, primarily online approaches to employee development will become necessary to ensure that requisite hard and soft skills are kept current.
Greater access to information, combined with the spread of social media, encourages the development of a consumer mentality in which customers and clients feel empowered to shape their own experiences. At the same time, companies are forced to adapt by customizing their products, services, and solutions. These experiences are being replicated inside organizations as employees, particularly younger employees, come to see “consumerization” and customization as guiding principles on which to base the employer-employee relationship.
In this new model, employees expect a greater say in shaping the content of their assignments, goals, and even work environments such as where and when to work. Companies will find it necessary to cut back on the number of one-size-fits-all policies and practices in their arsenals in favour of greater overall flexibility and, in particular, the capacity to be more responsive to employees’ individual needs and wants. Leaders and managers will find it necessary to improve their understanding of employees as individuals by developing deeper relationships with them and engaging them in genuine dialogue around work, goals, and processes, as well as more personal matters.
Most organizations currently have four generations in their workforce: traditionalists, baby boomers, generation X, and generation Y – and some companies starting to see a fifth (generation Z – those born in 1997 and later). Although there are many similarities across generations and not all members of a given generation are the same, employers will see key differences across generations in terms of working styles and approaches to collaboration, communication, and decision- making, as well as expectations regarding feedback, rewards, and the pace of promotions.
Nearly all traditional HR practices are coming under scrutiny as companies find it particularly difficult to motivate young people and retain this talent long enough to recoup investments in their development. In broad terms, most gen Ys feel entitled to jobs, projects, and experiences that are tailored in a way that they find personally meaningful. As leaders and managers feel the pressure to individualize everything and to coach and mentor (and even to be reverse mentored), organizations will find that some leaders will and can adapt.
Read also: The Future of Remote Work: 4 Challenges to Solve
