Future of Work There Will Be No More Recruiting & Retention

Workers and workplaces rejoice! In the Future of Work There Will Be No More Recruiting & Retention

Faith Popcorn predicted over twenty years ago that workplaces would be hubs of people working on specific projects and brought together for periods of time and then disbanded. My research into future of work confirms that this trend is already and has been quietly taking place for over a decade.

Many traditional businesses are not there yet as many have to untangle the systems and structures that have been created to support how business has been done in the past in order to move the business to the future.

In my book The Art of Change Leadership – Driving Transformation In a Fast Paced World I identify the changes that must happen for businesses to be future ready and among them are revamping many systems of the past such as performance reviews, hiring practices, employee happiness approaches and much more.

There is a crashing of reality right now as companies look at finding and keeping good people while conversely good people are looking for companies who are already running a future ready business.

Rapid changes in employees values and lifestyles are causing many highly talented people to seek out companies that offer work from home options, flex time, sabbaticals and more options as it relates to personal freedom.

What does this mean for the future of work and recruiting and retention?

It means that leaders need to look at the impact of robotics and setting up a brand new corporate structure that involves contract work options , group projects for terms of 3, 6 and 9 months to name a few solutions.

Let’s look at robotics ; Alan Murray said 40% of workers will be replaced by robots, which Faith Popcorn has been saying for years. She says, robots will replace practically everything. This can scare people unless we look at the upside of how robots will help us. They will take care of repetitive tasks that do not require human cognition. They will also bridge between the generational knowledge transfer challenge within organizations. Robotics will free up humans for a focus on creativity, human collaboration and more interesting work.

It also means we are creating an ‘on demand’ solution for talent – real time talent solutions for real time projects. In a 2015 Deloitte Human Capitol Trends report it stated that the on-demand workforce offers companies the ability to tap into extensive networks of innovators, technical experts, and seasoned professionals.

What to do now?

1. Look long term when hiring right now – in addition to the skills for the job right now is this a person who could be a future contract/on demand worker?
2. Look for and identify your current talent that are already displaying entrepreneurial tendencies and earmark them for outside the box projects that are not in the normal day to day requirements of their current jobs.
3. Strategize with HR about beginning to shift workforce into a contract/on demand option for employees and measure impact on employee satisfaction, quality of work and customer happiness.