Influential Trends
Exploring and analyzing Trends with an open mind and a high degree of curiosity allows us to consider and identify the general direction in which an idea or technology is moving.
Closely related are Influencers which are those individuals, trends, or events that have the power to affect behavior, often without a direct or immediately apparent effect.
The question then becomes where, who, when and how significant will the effect be. And, how will it ultimately affect the future of talent and your company’s sustainable, competitive advantage?
We've explored a number of trends and influencers over the past few years and will continue to ferret out those things that will affect talent practices the most. Following are a few trends and influencers we've observed, discussed, immersed ourselves in and to a large degree have seen impact the future direction of talent management.
Shift from Transactional to a Market Model
Traditional approaches to recruiting, developing and retaining talent are organized around a transactional model that is no longer sustainable. By moving to a market-based model that involves personalization, individual choice and community engagement companies are seeing positive outcomes.
The Rise of "You"
Personalization, customization, service science, and all of the technologies that allow individuals to "have it your way" are part of the "you" trend that we are immersed in today.
All of us enjoy an unprecedented amount of choice in today's economy.
For example, we have a range of choices in what we buy, how we buy it, and the level of service we want. We can go to a small retailer and get very personalized service for a price. Or, we can bargain for want we want over eBay and get no support at all.
We have many options on how we send messages to people ranging from traditional stamped mail (snail mail) to email, instant messaging, and SMS.
We even have more choices in how we work than ever before. We can become a regular employee, work as a contractor, farm ourselves out through a placement firm, collaborate as a sub-contractor, or become a consultant. This is a range that has never existed before.
Yet, recruiting remains staid and inflexible. We demand people fit boxes and fill holes we have designed rather than find ways to let people showcase their skills and competencies so we can see what fits our needs. We dictate and tell. We don't provide the flexible, personalized experience that we get in other aspects of our lives. And this makes our work much more difficult than it needs to be.
Ubiquitous Connectedness
Almost everyone is connected almost all the time, almost everywhere. Imagine a world with no radio, television, Internet, or telephone. That was the world of your grandparents for much of their lives.
We are "uber" connected and this has an impact on all aspects of our lives. We can now learn how to do almost everything over the Internet. What is still missing is deep discussion about why we would want to do something and how it makes our lives better.
As talent experts we need to explore what brings meaning to people's lives and why they would want to work for our organizations. Once we have convincing answers to those questions we can recruit, develop and retain people with ease.
Collaborative Communities and Social Networking
Network mapping tools are growing more sophisticated, organizations are figuring out how to leverage them for productivity, and as a result this trend will continue to grow and become a more significant part of everything we do. With the rise of "You Power," individuals are not just being tracked by the tools, but are using, contributing to and developing these tools themselves.
Myths about the "New Generation" are Misleading
Millennials were raised with different assumptions than previous generations:
Work = Learning
Work = Opportunity for service and community outreach local and/or global
Millenials bring different life experiences and expectations that have been influenced by their affinity for technology. Expectations of transparency, voice and community don't disappear when they enter the workforce. They also have begun to see themselves as global citizens and have a broader, more inclusive outlook toward things businesses tend to silo like diversity.
Multiple generations in the workplace community are creating unique challenges, value disparity and leadership complexity.
As four generations come together in a working community their values and expectations have varied. The pace of change and degree of competition in business has also made it more challenging to leverage the richness of this new community to organize around collaboration and innovation and meet expectations.
Virtual Distance
A distributed workforce model is not uncommon to find in many organizations and we believe there will be and should be more. While its not surprising to see virtual distance present challenges when geography is involved, it is almost as common to find it within the same geography and the same physical location. The causes and impact of growing virtual distance impedes collaboration, results in disengagement and ultimately attrition.
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