BOC, has been marked by some great Human Resources events, including the Emerging Markets HR Summit in London. The speaker line-up at these events included names like Coca Cola, GE, Kimberly Clark, Monstanto, Essar, ING Bank and many other global brands. Gyan Nagpal, CEO at PeopleLENS, also shared his insights with the audience. imgZine got the opportunity to interview him and learn more about this exciting topic.
You invest a lot of time researching ongoing changes affecting the global talent pool. What will the workforce of the future look like?
1. There is an abundance of global talent
First of all, we have more talent than ever. Which is why I often chuckle when people say talent is scarce. Let’s take a look at the numbers. When Neil Armstrong gazed down on earth from the surface of the moon on July 21, 1969, he looked upon a planet with 3.6 billion inhabitants. Half a century later, sometime in 2013 to be specific, we passed the 7.2 billion number. Consider the significance of this for a moment – it took us 200,000 years since the first Homo sapiens to reach 3.6 billion inhabitants. We then doubled that number in just 44 years – you’ve got to admit that is a very impressive statistic.
2. Career mobility for the individual
Mounting evidence over the last few years shows us that the 21st century employee has changed. Perhaps more importantly, the employee’s relationship with work has changed. Employees are more aware, assertive and empowered. So much so, that employment today is a daily decision. If we combine this trend with another one (i.e. the deliberate depreciation of job security since 1982), it points to a massive erosion of loyalty on both ends of the employment equation. In good years, the best talent is no longer averse to monetizing employment value and moving to the highest bidder. In difficult years, more and more companies look at employee costs as a variable expense. This not only represents a lose-lose proposition in talent terms, but also the data shows that this battle between resignation and pink slip is set to get considerably worse by 2020.
3. We are losing the battle on ageing
Ageing is the most significant macro trend at the moment and compounds the effect of the second trend above. In my book Talent Economics, I profiled the workforces of 45 key countries across the global economy, and showed how they will change by 2020 and beyond. The data tells us that in 32 of the 45 countries profiled, we have already lost the battle on ageing. In other words, the workforce of the future will look significantly different from the workforce represented in current practices, policies and law.
Although a lot of people accept this, but have failed to grasp the true impact on business or education. The current tertiary education system is not geared for reformative learning as an example. In companies too, the whole talent acquisition and development models need a rethink. Current career lattices will have to change to make it easier for mid and late career talent to reboot and switch jobs.
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About the Author: Kelly Verdonk is Communications-Researcher at imgZine. She writes posts and reports on the latest internal & external communications trends, market research and customer insights.
