A recent Workforce 2020 report by Oxford Economics warned of a looming talent crisis, finding that many businesses lack the office culture to prepare for the “future of work” and hence, are unable to strategize how they should develop their work force accordingly.
Today, companies are scrambling to manage a more globalized and diverse office environment. They are hard-pressed to harmonize their office policies with the skill sets, work habits and career expectations of five different generations—from aging baby boomers to tech-savvy millennials.
Either way, retaining talent remains a key management issue. And competitive salaries, the report says, is still the top consideration of employees—across all ages—for staying with a job or not.
Interestingly, employees are becoming more concerned about their positions changing or becoming obsolete than being laid off. They want to keep abreast of the latest developments and technological innovations in their respective fields. In other words, they want to continue learning even while working.
However, only 37 percent of Asia-Pacific companies said they were “learning organizations,” indicating that many do not see continuous learning and employee development as a vital business strategy.
Many firms reported difficulty with finding employees with base-level skills, but are reportedly investing very little in implementing in-house trainings. This indicates that the company of the future needs to foster closer ties with educational institutions and become a meaningful partner in lifelong learning.
The future work force (and hence the future company) will also be very flexible. Traditional employer-employee relations are fast giving way to short-term, intermittent and consultancy arrangements. Up to 83 percent of the executives surveyed said that they plan to enlist more of such “flexible” employees in the next three years.
These insights have important implications, especially when technological innovation and social change are fast transforming the world of work. Firms and organizations, along with Philippine labor laws and regulations, need to anticipate such inevitable changes and keep up with the times.
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