The future of work continues to be a trending subject in the weekly selections. Here are three articles from this week, the first addresses how we can all prepare for the future of work, the second tells how to help students prepare, and the third demonstrates the kind of facility companies seem to be looking at for the future.
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As employers prepare for the future of the workforce, they will face more challenges, according to a new study released earlier this month of 2,700 business leaders and 2,700 employees across the world, compiled by Oxford Economics and SAP.
The Workforce 2020 study found that only 39 percent of workers worldwide are satisfied with their jobs. This means employers will have to shape workplaces that not only fulfill their business goals but also inspire, engage and reward their employees.
Here are five ways employers can prepare for the future of work, from managing employees across different generations to adapting to new trends:
1. Prepare leaders for a diverse workforce.
According to the Workforce 2020 study, only 44 percent of the U.S. executives polled believe their leaders can lead a diverse workforce.
2. Offer more generous compensation and benefits.
Thirty-nine percent of U.S. employees surveyed said higher compensation would improve their engagement and loyalty at work. The study also revealed 84 percent of U.S. employees desire competitive compensation, 75 percent of them want retirement plans and 62 percent seek more vacation time. If employers want to retain top talent, they should focus more on employee compensation and benefits.
3. Prioritize the needs of millennial talent.
More than half of the American executives surveyed hire recent graduates to fill entry-level positions and 35 percent say arrival of millennials in the workforce is having an effect on their approach, the Workforce 2020 study found. Additionally, the study also revealed millennials want more formal training and mentoring to develop their skills.
4. Invest in skills training and ongoing learning.
One of the biggest fears that employees have about upcoming years is that their current skill sets will become obsolete in the workplace. Only 41 percent of employees worldwide said their employer provides opportunities to learn new skills.
5. Use crowdsourced talent.
As businesses begin to shift to offering more services than selling products, employers will need to tap into external talent. The Workforce 2020 survey found that 83 percent of executives worldwide plan to increase use of consultant, contingent or intermittent employees over the next three years.
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Preparing students for 21st-century jobs that have yet to be imagined will require teaching “soft skills” and new teaching strategies, a worldwide study by the Economist’s Intelligence Unit found.
Here are several charts that summarize the findings from the educator portion of the study.
Educators said the best way to help students acquire the skills they will need in the workplace is with “active learning,” in which students are engaged in activities like reading, writing, discussion or problem-solving. That was followed by project-based learning and “cognitive activation,” in which students are encouraged to focus on how they reached an answer, rather than the solution itself.
Educational technology was seen as being a helpful tool, but not a panacea, for addressing the need for workplace skills. Educators indicated that technology could be “very” or “somewhat” effective in supporting the strategies outlined above. Teachers said educational games are the second most effective technology in the classroom.
In schools where teachers are given the most autonomy, the respondents consistently expressed higher confidence in their colleagues’ abilities to teach the skills, compared to those from schools with lower levels of autonomy.
Another topic tackled in the study was the question of how teachers prefer to learn themselves. Here, the strategy of teachers personalizing their own learning took the top spot, although large-group training and project-based learning tied as a close second.
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An industry leading panel of experts discussed their understanding of occupiers’(leasing) requirements and debated what is important to a new generation of workers. it started with an overview of Airport City and its potential as a connected, enterprising business development.
Touching on what firms want from Airport City, Lynda Shillaw, CEO of MAG Property said: “A lot of businesses who are looking at us are interested in campuses. So they don’t want a big monolithic building, they want a series of buildings that can be linked.
Tim Heatley, co-founder of property developer Capital & Centric, said: “We spotted fairly early on that people want experiences and that’s a great way for businesses to attract talent. “From a millennial’s perspective, what they value isn’t just a high pay packet, that’s not what they use as a social cachet, it’s about lifestyle, feeling accomplished, sharing experiences with friends and on social media.”
To address this, Capital & Centric has shifted its focus towards experiential benefits like being greeted by a barista at a cafe bar rather than a formal reception area. “It is about trying to create that third place that is not work and not home,” Heatley adds.
“Flexibility is also important across the generations but what people mean by that varies quite dramatically. “Millennials want the opportunity to travel for six weeks or six months and have a job when they come back. “For older generations it means being able to fit working life around other commitments, like family or secondary care.”
Another game-changer is the use of technology in the workplace and how it has enabled the workforce beyond the constraints of physical space. Rob Mukherjee, head of North West regional business at Vodafone, joined the debate as his firm continue to invest heavily in both physical and virtual environments for workers. With 150,000 employees globally including 1,700 at their Wythenshawe base, they have to stay on the front foot of creating the right working environment, not only to stay relevant but to retain staff in a competitive market.
Spicer agrees: “We are going to see a new seismic shift with the introduction of AI into the work space. “Huge chunks of the workplace will go virtual and the people who are in those roles will not be doing them in 20 years’ time.” Heatley brings the topic back to harnessing technology to measure productivity with things like wearable technology.
Lovell quite rightly points out that “the sharing economy is one of the most disruptive trends going on in the real estate sector at the moment”. “It is changing the whole nature of how people are thinking about workplaces,” she adds. “That’s why, for example, you have the likes of PwC taking significant space at WeWork and that trend will only continue. “People are worrying about over-digitalisation and so that’s why in big corporate spaces you are seeing more emphasis on human colliders in internal space.”
Spicer says, “A great environment, great first impression, brilliant workspaces will all bring people into the organisation, but there very quickly becomes an expectation and it is the fundamentals behind that in terms of the nature of the work, opportunities that you create and the colleagues that you interact with in terms of retaining people.”
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