Aug 2009
The report outlines three worlds of the future, developed during a scenario planning exercise. The worlds we have identified are the Green, Orange and Blue Worlds. Each world has different people management challenges in the build up to 2020. The key themes are:
Green World scenario
We believe that demands for greater transparency and social responsibility in business will be magnified by the crisis and combine with the call for environmental responsibility already present in the green agenda. This will impact many areas of people management, particularly in relation to how people are rewarded.
Blue World scenario
Increased focus on hard people metrics to measure performance and productivity as companies look at a long term reality of having to do more with less. Our Blue World scenario imagines the performance and efficiency culture necessary for global companies (some larger than many individual countries) to succeed within a new order of economic superpowers.
Orange World scenario
The opportunity for radical new ways of working will emerge in our Orange World scenario. We take the concept of outsourcing and globalisation of the workforce to an extreme portfolio working model where people organise their working lives like individual businesses in a highly networked world.
Key messages:
- The millennial generation have different expectations of work and career than previous generations;
- Corporate sustainability and climate change issues will continue gathering momentum and employees will expect companies to respond proactively;
- There will be renewed efforts to restore trust between the corporate world and customers, but also between employers and employees;
- The current once in a lifetime shift in remuneration practices will forever change our notion of performance related pay;
- HR can no longer be a soft discipline - rigorous measurement linked to financial data will be a necessity;
- The health and well-being of the workforce will become much more of a focus for businesses;
- Companies that slashed their training and development budgets during the crisis will regret it - they won't be able to skill up in time when the upturn comes;
- Global mobility of talent will be essential to foster "social capital" in companies;
- Companies will have to accept the implications of social networking technology - the good and the bad;
- Having the right technology platforms to run the business will be essential - customers and employees will demand it; and
- There remains a question mark over the future of the HR function and whether it is fit for the future.
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Read more by downloading our Managing tomorrow's people - How the downturn will change the future of work (pdf file, 961KB) for your reference.
For more information, please visit our global site on managing tomorrow's people.
