The holidays are here and, ff you are in retail, you are obviously thinking about your sales — and your employees are critical in making those sales happen. You may even be hiring some temporary employees to help out during the holidays or adding more hours to your current employees to help with the workload. Regardless of the time of year, retaining current employees and hiring new ones to match businesses’ immediate needs and future growth is an important part of any businesses’ bottom-line.
But there are some new trends in the workforce that are shaking things up a bit for both employers and employees. Let’s look at what the Harvard Business School is seeing and how these trends may play out.
The landscape is changing for both employers and employees:
- Employees want greater flexibility.
- Benefits might include more expansive caregiving options for children, elder care or even pet care.
- A 4-day work week may move from being a radical notion to the norm.
- Employers want skills.
- It is all about skills and how you can document them in the workplace. Formal degrees may not have the influence they once did.
- The focus on skills also has a new acronym and explanation: “STAR” or “Skilled Through Alternative Routes.”
- Artificial Intelligence or AI that we see being embedded into technology will create opportunities, not dimmish them.
- It may mean that new skills and training time are needed to tap into the AI benefits.
- Job descriptions may need to be revised to include AI skills.
- People overseeing the workforce must have conflict resolution skills.
- Managing interpersonal conflicts will not go away, they will become more complex.
- As the workforce becomes more diverse with a wider range of ages, experiences and cultures, different ways of seeing and doing things will be incorporated into the workplace — and this takes people skills to make it happen!
- Career pathways (think straight multi-lane highway) are more like career exploration adventures (think mountain biking trail) with lots of different moves and options along the way.
- People will come and go in an organization so there needs to be ways to gracefully exist and re-enter so that valuable experience is not lost.
- Older employees may be looking for unique ways to still be engaged but not full-time. Perhaps there are short-term projects where their skills can be used over time?
- Job sharing might be an option for those with caregiving responsibilities.
- People with entirely different work backgrounds may be asked to fill management roles. They will bring a lot of new insights into the workplace, but they may also bring new challenges as they adapt to the workplace culture.
There is some soul searching for both employers and employees on the horizon. Each has to decide what they need and want and then they can get together to find a good fit. But one thing is for sure, we will see changes – that is inevitable!
A productive workforce is a key element in keeping the economy of a community moving forward. As societal issues push and pull on us as individuals and families, we need to make way for new situations and opportunities. Knowing these trends ahead of time allows us to plan and prepare for the next stage of our participation in the local workforce.
More information can be found at: https://hbr.org/2024/01/9-trends-that-will-shape-work-in-2024-and-beyond
