2003 Trends and Where We are Today

The goal of the article was to identify the main trends of the changes in a workplace for the next 10 years. So, let’s see where we are 5 years later:

1. Email: Web 2.0 offers new ways for collaboration and data processing. The technology went much further than just unifying the information flow in the inbox. Call centers were pioneer-industry.
2. Organized labor – will always fluctuate depending on the economic conditions. With glooming recessing no wonder the unionization rate went substantially up in 2008.
3. Biz Goes to Kindergarten – still a wishful trend. Kindergarten could be a bit too early, but middle and high school in US urgently needs a reform. Little if no progress has been done in that sphere during past 5 years.
4. Going Euro - goes both ways. US takes ideas from Europe just like Europe looks for the standards in US to stimulate the entrepreneurship in the “Old World”.
5. Companies won’t sleep – true to some degree, especially for IT. As an example, it is usual for software engineers to spend a night in the office working on developing a program (inspiration like). However, it is rarely 24/7 and more like a flexible work schedule – work during the night, come in later tomorrow.
6. Artificial Intelligence – still lots of interest and potential
7. The simmering malaise – don’t we all have in our contracts “employment at will” clause?
8. Office design – is very diverse nowadays. “One set up for all” does not work any more. It depends on lots of factors: industry, corporate culture, workforce demographics, etc.
9. Defined Benefits Plans – proved to be false. Less and less companies offer defined benefits plans. The tendency is to the contrary – the majority try to convert defined benefits plans into defined contribution plans.
10. Telework - pretty common today. Still presents some challenges from HR prospective (workers’ comp., engagement, etc.)
11. Consumer-driven health care reigns – it does. With the healthcare inflation consistently outpacing economic, more companies choose to introduce / raise employee contributions. This creates more awareness of the costs among the workforce.
12. Child care – still the same.
13. Help wanted: 10 million workers – still possible to happen. However, the major problem is not only the lower birth rate but the qualifications of the workforce. Again # 3, education reform is needed.
14. Outsourcing – still the same.
15. Recruiting older workers – still an issue. Any HR magazine publishes strategies how to engage and attract aging baby-boomers. Unfortunately, the “quality” of younger workers is not the same in terms of education and experience. Lots of corporations invest into development of in-house knowledge centers to capture and preserve the knowledge of the retiring experts.
16. Mergers – still true. Lots of the failures are to blame for the culture incompatibility.
17. Freelancers and consultants – is very attractive for highly qualified experts. However, the government made 1099 compliance very tricky. Business still risks a lot by misclassifying the employees as contractors. Examples – FedEx, Microsoft, ect.
18. Pay for wellness performance – not much has changed.
19. Spirituality at work – still the same. Some companies, like Google, offer workers to dedicate 25 % of their paid work time to the project that matters to an employee.
20. Women at work – still the same as 5 years ago. Unfortunately, the glass ceiling is still there, and the last elections showed that sexism is still blooming in the “male” job sector.
21. Skills shortage – very true up to today. Protectionism is not an answer… Going back to #3.
22. Security vs. Privacy - security technologies are getting more and more sophisticated every day. However, Patriot Act is scary.
23. Accounting for people – more companies see their competitive advantage in human resources that they have.
24. Universal health care – let’s ask Mr. Daschle. Hope he’s got a good plan.
25. End of HR as we know it – no more paper shuffling, let us contribute to the strategy!