Are you noticing the changes? Or, are you Freddie the Frog on the stove in cold water? You don’t notice the heat rising until too late; but, if you suddenly get placed in the new
enviroment, the boiling water smarts…big time.
Today’s workplace demands are shaping up like this:
- *2011 is the year starting Baby Boomer retirement. Employers perceive a significant Talent Gap between Baby Boomers and Generations X, Y, and M. PLUS, baby-boomers are living longer and seeing their nest eggs diminish. Result: many Baby Boomers are simply starting new careers.
- Key Finding: 76% of today’s employers perceive a moderate (48%) to significant (28%) Talent Gap between boomers and the younger generations. Boomers have a signifcant edge for new jobs. Employers say that the younger generations lack “results-focus, vision, strategy, integrity, and ethics.”
- An essential worker must have one-to-one relationships with both external and internal customers that keep customers coming back.
- An essential worker must look at EVERY workplace interaction as an opportunity to add value and solve problems.
- Many work remotely so work hours and schedules depend on the geography of the team with whom you are collaborating.
- Technolgy exists to track what you’re workinng on and when, i.e. no boss looking over your shoulder. You must be consistently productive.
- If your job can be done by someone cheaper in a less-expensive locale, your job will be outsourced (dissappear).
- If your job can be put into a manual, it will.
- Be prepared for more changes that move at the speed of the Internet.
- The traditional office environment is disappearing quickly and will largely be gone by 2025.
- Gatekeeper and paper pusher jobs will no longer exist.
- IMPORTANT: Protect your identity while looking for work. Criminal hackers set up “corporate” job-sites and fake job-boards to steal your information. Vet all “out of the blue” calls from Recruiters.
- Career Fairs are going digital and real jobs are coming out of these virtual job-fairs.
What should you do?
- Younger generations can look for leadership-development courses because the boomers that are retiring are leaving holes in management/executive ranks fueling opportunities for the younger to take on greater responsibility.
- Mature generations…you’ve never been in more demand than you are today.
- Both young and mature must develop and nourish competencies in strategic planning, career management, electronic application skill and design. All of you will contribute creative thinking and operational excellence to projects. Networking? Don’t forget to work the Trade Shows.
