Haris Ahmed, Chicago Consultant on Changes in the Workforce
Haris Ahmed of Chicago management consulting firm Pragmatium Consulting Group Inc. has helped equip businesses with the tools they need to thrive, grow, and face change. Read his blog below about changes in the workforce.
If you follow this site, you’d know by now that change is something that should not be feared. Rather, it should be welcomed and seen as a tool that can bring about progress. In a previous blog, one type of change that the business landscape has been paying more attention to is environmental change. Climate change, or global warming to be more specific, has posed challenges for growth that should be sustainable and eco-friendly at the same time. Another type of change that businesses should prepare for is changes in the workforce.
Workforce Changes
By 2025, it is estimated that millennials would have comprised as much as 75% of the global workforce – this is significant change that no business can shield themselves away from. As more millennials enter the workforce, more of the Baby Boomers will be on their way out. Some of these Boomers, currently, are holding key positions in their respective organizations, having climbed their way up to Senior and C-level roles. From this event alone, businesses can already derive two action plans.
First, which among the pool of employees are being groomed to replace aging executives? For family businesses that employ a few family members, there should at least be an idea on how to go about the line of succession. Second, HR policies must be reviewed and changed accordingly to the trends and demands of the emerging workforce. Among them are work mobility, flexibility, and work life balance. It’s no secret that millennials hop companies frequently in search of the perfect match. While this is often seen in a negative light by older generations, one must not forget about the limitless opportunities that technology has created for these young professionals. In other words, it’s difficult to demand or even expect loyalty from this age group when they see that there are far greater rewards to launching a startup, for instance, than rendering decades of service to one organization.
Put in another way, changes in the workforce may also serve as a roadmap for growth. Using the same example above, employees are the lifeblood of any business. Some claim it’s service, or the product, or one’s sales prowess even, but all these revert to the quality and talent of employees. If it will become harder to retain talent, given the idiosyncrasies of this age group, what kind of changes can be made to address this? Should there be more room for creativity and innovation? How about diversity on the Board? Are incentive systems competitive enough to lure talent?
Certainly, these are all hard questions to answer without research and preparation. But one thing is clear: changes in the workforce are about to shake up the future of employment and businesses would do well to brace themselves for such change.
Stay tuned to this page to read more from Haris Ahmed of Chicago management consulting firm Pragmatium Consulting Group Inc.