The 2020 workplace changes everything

What would you have done 100 years ago as an HR executive? Would you have stopped the progression of the future? Or would you have been a human resource, talent management or learning leader of the future? This may very well be the question of this decade. But companies faced the same dilemma 100 years ago, for instance, when William Klann, upon his return from visiting a Chicago slaughterhouse, walked into the Ford Motor leadership team meeting and announced his discovery of an amazing new method for production lines. He told his story about a “disassembly line”, where animals were butchered as they moved along a conveyor. The efficiency of one person removing the same piece over and over caught his attention. As he reported his idea to Henry Ford and the management team, Ford Motor Company executives found themselves on the edge of a pivotal moment. Several members of the leadership team reportedly were very doubtful. But in the end, they encouraged him to proceed.

Within years, Ford Motor Company would be recognised as the mass catalyst for a new way of thinking about the workplace. Ford Motor Company perfected the assembly line by installing driven conveyor belts that could produce a Model T in record time. This shift in skill, process and motivation took car assembly from eight hours to 93 minutes. Autos were eventually produced every three minutes at Ford Motor Company.

Now, imagine yourself as the leader of HR, Talent Management or Learning for the Ford Motor Company. If you were sitting in that room the day William Klann walked into the room, how would you have reacted? Would you have been excited – and looked at the potential? Or would you have thought of every reason why this would not work and how it would cause trouble for the company?

Getting ready for 2020

One hundred years later – the world workplace is near to the conditions at that monumental meeting. The industrial revolution was the last major change that perfectly impacted workplace motivation, capability and culture. And today – the social and collaboration age is redefining the workplace around the world.

Within the next three years, we will divide HR, talent and learning leaders into two distinct groups. The first group will be “2020 prepared”. They will understand the four sociological and technical shifts dramatically changing the way work is done (these are explained in detail later). The second group will make slow but lagging changes for their preparations. Playing it safe, they will suffer with apathy, mediocre talent and a fight for a new generation of employees. The 2020 prepared group will be rewarded with capability, tools and a motivated workplace. This isn’t the first time that such a dramatic change in the workplace happened. But to find the last time it happened, we have to look 100 years back in history.

Strategic analysts and futurists alike believe the changes occurring in the next nine years, culminating by the year 2020 when half of the world’s working population are Millennials, will be as dramatic a shift as 100 years ago. HR executives need to understand those four dramatic shifts, and what a workplace will look like in the year 2020. If they don’t, it will cause their companies to be left behind.

Embracing change

The first workplace 2020 shift is from the impact of social media. The new social activity is having a dramatic impact in how knowledge, capability and mindset are shared across the world. Facebook is nearing 800 million participants online. One out of every eight minutes of online activity is spent sharing, learning and socialising on Facebook. Internet users spend three times more minutes writing blogs and on social networks than reading email. IBM reports 95% of standout organisations will focus more on getting closer to the customer with social media. And 74% of CIOs see collaboration and communication as a key driver in transforming their organisation. Marketing and IT are driving a social revolution inside their companies, and HR and learning executives are scrambling to either keep up or decide how they will participate in the cultural change.

The second shift is in the rapid change and adoption of technology. Mobile smart phones, tablets and unified communication devices are changing how and when we work. Forrester Research predicts that 50% of the workforce will be doing some part of their job virtually by the end of 2012. Younger generations are demanding to have learning activities on mobile devices. They want their learning to take place instantly and on demand. Email is being replaced with instant messaging, texting and community micro blogging. Gartner, in its 2011 CIO Agenda said the top three strategies for IT this year are implementing cloud hosting, vitalising the workplace and increasing mobile technologies. Yet only 50% of HR leaders have a strategy that includes even one of these technology shifts.

Globalisation is the third shift impacting the capability in the future workplace. The last century has been dominated by economic growth by a few superpowers. Moving forwards, two countries will account for 33% of the world’s population of six billion. China and India, along with Russia and Brazil will account for 40% of the world’s population. Seventy per cent of all consumer growth will happen in these emerging markets. Any company thinking about growth will need strategies to build capability and talent to both serve and be ready to do business in these countries. Large profitable companies from China and India will begin a global acquisition strategy and begin purchasing global companies. They will fuel a fight for talent and new cultures that have been dominated by Western countries for the past 40 years.

The final, and likely the most impactful, shift is that of five generations in the workplace. Starting this year, in the US, on 1 January, 10,000 Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, will reach the age of 65, and begin to retire. That is going to keep happening every single day for the next 19 years. Generation X, which followed the Baby Boomers from 1964 to 1976, is only half the size of the Baby Boomers. There will not be enough ready leaders in that generation to take over the leadership roles. In all locations around the world, the Millennial Generation born 1976 to 1996 is the largest generation ever. For many countries, it is nearly twice or three times as large as Generation X. And they are different. They are the most intelligent generation, the most confident generation and the generation that is likely to stay single longer, be more liberal and have the highest expectations ever from employers.

Are you ready?

When you add up these four major shifts, the workplace will see dramatic changes. Motivations, styles of communication, locations in which we work and even how we work will be very different than ever before.

It must have felt the same way for The Ford Motor Company 100 years ago. Fortunately for them, they adapted, embraced and thrived on the change. Another car company in the early 1800s did not adapt. Brewsters were as upcoming as Ford. But the management team of The Ford Motor Company made a bold decision to be a part of the future. Which choice will you make?

+      Rick Von Feldt is a HR Futurist at www.hrfuturist.com. A former HR and learning executive from Gillette, Dell and HP, he is researching and imagining what the workplace will look like in the year 2020. Rick will be a featured speaker at HR Summit Singapore 2012. During his strategic discussion, “The Future of HR” Rick will highlight the top 14 implications and evolutions HR executives will need to make for the 2020 Workplace.