Looking at the Future of Work – a great article from Hanneke C. Frese

Reference Article: The Future of Work (in German)

Thanks for Google Translate, I was quickly able to look at Hanneke’s article on the Future of Work.  I was interested because Hanneke is a global thinker, a self-realized professional in human resources, she has a great perspective (European and American) and she gets to what is important for the field.

The bottom line is Human Resources professionals need to own the risk and own the task of preparing the organization for the changes that are already in progress.

• Demography: 
• Aging Society, 50 + Workers, declining birthrate, and an altered composition of the society
• Migration of labor and workers:
• Outsourcing of jobs (where knowledge, skills and the right cost structure exists), diversity in the workplace and in teams, collaboration of different nationalities
• Education, Knowledge and Learning:
• Enhance innovation through knowledge and creativity, employability through life-long learning skills necessary for future markets
• Work Motivation:
• Different motivations of different generations, site staff flexibility, flexible work schedules
• Globalization:
• Exploratory interconnectedness of the world, counter-trend, local culture, intercultural competence in management
• Productivity in the knowledge society:
• Free knowledge (open source), team learning and learning from other disciplines, always something new project teams (group dynamics), knowledge capital
• Technology
• Work in virtual teams, merging, Work and Life by constant accessibility, to make a difference, the new generation’s large experience with computer games, internet, mobile phones.

If Hanneke Frese is correct, and I think she is dead-on, Human Resources managers will have to become adaptive leaders in organizations and bring communication to the table with all the leaders in the organization.  As she puts it: “Get fit on future trends” and lead the organization in communicating the trends across all areas.  She also cautions that different trends affect different organizations differently.  It’s the communications that reveal the opportunities and risks. 

If you want HR to have a seat at the table, “get fit on future trends” and lead.