Future of work and careers – five questions to ask

Tags

automation, future of work

‘Some of the life changing technologies of the next two decades, we predict with confidence, have not yet been invented. Into the 2020s and beyond, we predict the emergence of a second wave of intelligent systems in the professions and work. The number of tasks they can take on will grow, and their execution will be better and quicker.’ (Richard and Daniel Susskind; ‘The Future of the Professions.)

Is technology about to take over human jobs?

EGM Partners, an Australian company, recently released a White Paper, ‘Five Predictions About the Future of Work’ and concluded:

‘Let’s be clear; this isn’t completely about technology taking over jobs. Experience in the 80s and 90s suggests that jobs aren’t lost by the introduction of technology. People’s work changes and they need to learn new skills.’

Project management – on the way up?

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Business, management, project management

Career change? What about Project Management?

One profession that presents interesting opportunities as we move towards the future of work is project management.

The latest research by the Project Management Institute (PMI) makes impressive reading. Their ‘Pulse of the Profession 2017’ survey is the result of extensive global research involving over 3000 senior executives and project managers.

The good news is that success rates have risen; that is, less money is being wasted on unsuccessful projects in the companies that took part:

• Organisations are wasting $97 million for every $1 billion invested in projects – a 20% reduction from 1-year earlier and a lot of this is down to better project management but
• Organisations that don’t invest in proper project management waste up to 30 times more than those that do.

The future of work – actions your company can take now to get ahead

Tags

future of work

Hardly a day goes by without one of the mainstream newspapers or journals publishing an article about the future of work; how and where we will work in five or ten-years time.

Subjects in the last month have included: artificial intelligence, big data, robotics, the Internet of things and generational differences to work and how these will play out.

We think this is an incredibly interesting subject and many writers and researchers believe there is a revolution happening or about to happen.

Five predictions on the future of recruitment

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future of work, recruitment

There’s no doubt that the way we work and the workplace are changing. Indeed, many commentators believe the way we work will change dramatically over the next 3-5 years.

(For those readers who are interested in finding out even more about this fascinating subject we recommend the work of Jacob Morgan; who is releasing some excellent books, videos and podcasts – https://thefutureorganization.com/).

Five predictions about the future of work

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Business, engagement, leadership, Leadership Development, management

There’s a lot of great material being published on the ‘future of work’ – a fascinating subject given the pace of change taking place all around us. Clearly, organisations are facing change at an accelerated rate and struggling to cope and see the way forward.

For example, Deloitte report that ‘companies face a radically changing environment for the workforce, the workplace and the world of work. These shifts are changing almost every aspect of how they lead, support and develop their people.’ It’s technology and the onset of the digital world that are the real issues. There’s no question that things are changing and it’s impacting all of us.

Learning from a world leader in employee engagement

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Best practice, Business, engagement, motivation

‘Business Leaders must raise the bar on employee engagement as increasing workplace engagement is vital to achieve sustainable growth and retaining staff…..‘ Gallup

Research regularly shows that employee engagement has risen to become a key issue on the agenda of senior management. For example, in their Human Capital Survey of 2016, Deloitte find that:

• Employee retention and engagement together are the second most pressing issues on the minds of Global HR professionals – second only to developing leadership skills in their organisations

• 76% of workers are not engaged at work – this means they lack motivation and are unlikely to invest any time in their work other than the contracted minimum

• Only 54% would recommend their company as a place to work.

Five steps to build your Employer Brand and recruit even better people

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Business, recruitment, staff attrition, staff motivation

There’s growing concern about finding and retaining the best talent available. In competitive markets, companies naturally want to make it as easy as possible to find appropriately skilled people who will succeed in their roles. However, getting it wrong can be a costly exercise. For example, research regularly finds that the costs of staff turnover are massively underestimated; not only in hard economic terms, but also in the impact it has on the morale and team spirit of those who stay.

It’s no surprise then that Employer Branding is a concept that is receiving more focus in the leading business magazines.

Five ideas on how to improve the effectiveness of candidate interviews

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Business, recruitment

Research going as far back as 1998 reveals that ‘unstructured interviews’ are a pretty poor indicator of how a candidate will subsequently perform in a job role. Indeed, the analysis by Frank Schmidt and John Hunter,’ put unstructured interviews ninth out of nineteen in a list of the employee selection methods that are the best and worst as predictors of job performance. Work sample and general mental agility tests were the top two indicators; with structured interviews coming third.

Most companies use a combination of selection methods, of course, but almost all view the interview as a key element in deciding which candidate to appoint. However, many of the job interviews that take place are effectively unstructured; with the person conducting them spending little time preparing, thinking about the questions that will be asked or working out the criteria for assessment.

Ten steps to get you started with people analytics in your organisation…..

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Business, Human Ressources

Companies are no longer “stuck in neutral” in their deployment of people analytics. As analytics moves into the corporate mainstream, organisations that are still in the early stages of adopting technology and building teams with data skills risk being left behind.

In the not-too-distant future, it will become impossible to make any HR decisions without analytics. Indeed, analytics capabilities will be a fundamental requirement for the effective HR business partner.

Deloittes: Global Human Capital Trends 2016

HR is at a crossroads. The function needs to change and evolve for a number of reasons:

• Senior managers are much more concerned about talent management and leadership development than ever before
• Employee engagement and retention are CEO priorities
• Traditional HR processes, such as approaches to recruitment and selection and performance management, are going through radical overhauls meaning that HR has to be more innovative to be seen to be adding value.

Your client wants your advice….but more than that they want to think for themselves….

Tags

Business, Consulting

‘Listening is the ultimate core competence’ says Tom Peters. The topic must be back in fashion. I’ve read two articles in the last month on listening; as well as the three chapters from Peters in ‘The Little Big Things.’

The material came to mind a few months ago or so ago. A member of staff at a client site joked that ‘the problem with you people is that you only tell us what we already know.’ If only that was the case.

I suspect most consultants, or professional people, don’t have these skills. It’s quite an art to draw out what the client already knows; to let them think things through and offer an environment for them to do this.

I suppose the difficultly stems from being an expert. After all, you’re being paid to tell it as you see it. A colleague once told me the solution in the car on the way to a new client meeting – isn’t that the expertise the client is paying for?