2013 Trends for the Future Workforce
Trends come and trends go when discussing the future of the workforce. As leaders start to look into the matter it can seem like everyone has an opinion on where the future of the workforce is headed. Should HR be concerned with what the future skills will be needed by the business? Marcia Conner does a great job summarizing these skills. The future workforce needs to master skills in social intelligence, cross cultural competency, new media literacy, and virtual collaboration. With workforces crossing nations, time zones and cultures it is not hard to see how these skills will be relevant.
But maybe examining the future workforce needs to also consider what HR’s mission will be and who HR’s customers are? Accenture completed some research earlier this year on the topic and found that firms need to develop a unified strategy, incorporating both processes and data systems, covering the entire talent spectrum of the firm. Companies need to be able to use big data to examine the talent marketplace and continue to focus on talent mobility issues. The future workforce frequently will bridge disciplines and borders with both contingent and non-contingent labor and management will need to adapt talent policies to engage a stratified and diverse labor pool.
Perhaps HR needs to examine the changing landscape of talent to prepare for the future workforce. The Rand Corporation summarizes some of the current trends and implications as well, and finds shifting demographic patterns of more women in the workforce and a “more balanced distribution by age, sex, and race/ethnicity.” Rand also calls out the Moore's law-esque increasing pace of technological improvements along with continued economic globalization as factors to consider.
All of the challenges discussed center on talent. The need source, engage, develop, and retain talent to maintain a competitive advantage in the future. Firms need to answer specific questions to determine what their future needs will be. Which key processes will companies need to adopt and avoid? Join HCI on November 12, 2013 at 3pm ET for the webcast, How to Adapt Talent Management Solutions for the Future Workforce as we explore the answers to these and other questions.