The year 2025. The global population has surged by another billion people. The new middle class are flooding into cities and bringing traffic to a standstill with their shiny new cars. Travel is not just a hassle; it’s impossible. Young, talented workers have enormous bargaining power as the retiring baby boomers leave the largest talent gap in history. And supercomputers, so small as to be nearly invisible, are embedded all around you.
Late last year Intel published, The Future of Knowledge Work, a whitepaper resulting from extensive internal and external research and a Future of the Workplace Summit held in Haifa, Israel.
Intel notes the inarguable trends in a growing global population, urbanization, and automobile ownership which will continue to make physical travel more time consuming, expensive and an impossible hassle. At the same time computing power continues to grow exponentially, while becoming smaller and smaller.
These counter trends will lead to a dramatic reshaping of the workforce, and the workplace.
Workers Demand “High Flexibility”
As I discuss in my employee engagement book, We, the work-life balance movement is dead. It has been a failure for companies and individuals alike. What will replace it is the “work-life” blend. The fight to recruit Millenials will become fierce as more and more baby boomers retire. More important than money, “high flexibility” will be a primary motivator. To lure top talent companies will begin to offer time-shifted hours, frequent sabbaticals, and results-only work environments (ROWE).
Work from Everywhere
Workers will be spread across many time zones and even countries, and yet the social and knowledge sharing benefits of co-location will require new strategies for aligning work locations.
- More numerous satellite offices will serve as temporary anchor points for worker interaction, but not necessarily as daily destinations
- Independent co-working spaces and multi-company project spaces will thrive as companies try to more efficiently manage capital costs
- Always-on video will facilitate ambient sociability with colleagues in other locations
Consumer Tech Drives Enterprise IT
Already a growing headache for IT departments, the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) trend will grow. After fighting the good fight for standards and locked down closed systems, more and more companies are letting workers use their own devices to connect with work systems. Mac or PC, doesn’t matter. Blackberry or iPhone, your choice. The next decade will just continue this trend as innovations in software and apps come from the consumer side and are demanded by workers in the enterprise.
As a company leader, will you be prepared to manage remote teams?
As an employee, are you ready for the work-life blend?
The year 2025. Will you be ready?
----------------------------------
Kevin Kruse is a NY Times bestselling author and keynote speaker. Get more success and tips from his newsletter at kevinkruse.com and check out keynote video clips. His new book, Employee Engagement 2.0, teaches managers how to turn apathetic groups into emotionally committed teams.
