20 Trends that Will Shape the Next Decade: Part One – Demographic Trends
Part One of a four-part series on the future of work and the trends impacting contingent workforce management focuses on demographics. This series will select perspectives contained in the comprehensive “2020 Report – 20 Trends that Will Shape the Next Decade” and other corroborating sources.
The 2020 Report was produced by business and financial software company Intuit in collaboration with Emergent Research and the Institute for the Future and Emergent Research. Built upon more than five years-worth of compiled data, the Intuit 2020 Report provides a detailed look at the trends that will influence how small to mid-sized businesses will evolve in this new decade. Not all the trends identified by the report are relevant to contingent workforce planning and management. But those that do provide insight into what industry watchers should expect.
The first of the demographic trends identified by the Intuit report is perhaps the most relevant to how business organizations address talent acquisition, management and administration. “Digitally Savvy Kids Grow Up and Change Everything” says the report. Gen Y and Gen Z are well-known as quick adopters of technology and heavy users of social platforms. These young workers expect recruitment to occur in the online space. They also look to social platforms for reputational information on potential employers. Most importantly, they’re as comfortable building technologies as they are using them and will be integral to the IT workforce across many industries. This viewpoint is corroborated by a PriceWaterhouse Coopers study on Millennials which this blog covered in this earlier post.
“Baby Boomers Gray, but They Don’t Slow Down” says the next trend in the demographic portion of the report. The workforce management industry’s embrace and integration of the “Gig Economy” and other tech-driven, non-traditional labor channels provides mutual benefit for hiring organizations and Boomer workers alike. There are significant benefits to fielding a multi-generational workforce as the nextSource Blog wrote about in this recent article citing data from the “State of the Workforce Report” published by BenefitExpress. “
Booz & Company says 870 million women globally will enter the workforce and/or start their own businesses – the report says, “It’s a She-conomy” trend. nextSource, a recently certified member of WBENC (Women’s Business Enterprise National Council), understands that diversity is the future of effective workforce management.
The Globalization driven by the younger, tech-savvy generations and the entry into the workforce of diverse labor elements around the world adds to the mixture of cultures in business and beyond. US Dept of Labor statistics from January 2020 show the growing diversity of the US workforce and its expanding global composition. The Intuit report aligns with this data noting, “Cultural Fusion Brings Global Tastes to Local Markets” and the diverse composition of the modern workforce illustrates this fact. Effective workforce management programs and service providers like MSPs, SOW firms and even traditional staff supplementation companies are ahead of this curve, with many already taking steps to recruit in international markets as they follow the talent where it emerges.
Clearly, demographic trends are highly influential over the strategies used by workforce management professionals to achieve and retain a competitive edge in a rapidly evolving global economy. Staying abreast of demographic trends is essential to success for businesses of all sizes. For consultation on how to prepare for the Future of Work, speak with a workforce specialist today and embrace the demographic trends. Visit the nextSource Blog soon for Part II – How Social Trends Impact the Next 10 Years of Workforce Management.
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