I’ve identified a number of themes and trends employers and others would be wise to pay attention to this year and beyond. If your organization is not prioritizing these issues, this may come back to bite you and impact your bottom line.
Success and sustainability are the number one mantras for any organization these days. Keep these trends and themes in mind to meet your organizational goals and purpose.
Because this is a lengthy topic I will break this into several parts, posting one for the next few days.
Here is Part 1 of the Top 5 Workplace Trends to Watch in 2011
Stagnation & Lack of Innovation
Organizations that don’t prioritize the need to continue to attend to the learning, knowledge and development of innovation in their fields are going to be at a significant disadvantage over others that do.
Headlines are trumpeting the recouping of job losses that happened over the past couple of years during the recession. You have to dig deep behind the headlines to see reality though.
Numbers out of Statistics Canada suggest that BC has led job losses across Canada. In the last two months BC has lost 21,000 jobs, 9,000 in January 2011 alone. Part-time jobs lead over full-time. Lead sectors for job growth are low paying service industry jobs.
My networks are expansive and draw from many different areas of industry, the social and community services, the business world, personal and professional groups. A fact pattern I’m seeing is that there is a tremendous amount of employment insecurity for young and mid-career workers alike. Continuing employment is no longer a guarantee in any sector and this is deeply impacting the culture of today’s workplaces.
Skilled and educated workers with years of experience are getting laid off, often with no notice and are out looking for work in one of the most challenging job markets in which trades and resource sectors haven’t bounced back. Mid-level managers are also seeing more layoffs as employers look to find “efficiencies,” a softer descriptor than budget cuts.
Mid-career and new employees are finding career development is often an illusion, or it is being impacted by the numbers of Baby Boomers who are remaining in the workplace longer due to their own needs and interests.
I’ve worked in the public, private and non-profit sectors. In spite of hype about career and professional development at the time of hiring and later on, I’ve seen that the vast majority of jobs have no growth opportunities. Most organizations have a finite amount of career development opportunities for their employees, which means, the majority of employees who are hired will stay in the same job, year after year.
All of these dynamics and more are leading to many workplaces being stagnant, unfulfilling and frustrating places for many employees trapped in a Groundhog Day existence day after day. With staffing cuts, increased workload burdens, stress and lack of career development on the horizon many of today’s employees stay in their jobs to collect their steady pay cheque, while keeping an eye on the job postings.
Staff morale and employee engagement are key organizational factors that do not appear to be at the top of the list for many employers, whose eye on the bottom line is impacting their long-term vision and development of organizations.
When employers engage in these activities in a superficial way and do not actually do anything constructive with employee feedback, disconnect and disengagement become very real impacts throughout the organization. This provides the impetus for workers to consider whether the grass is greener elsewhere, especially younger employees who are often the drivers of innovation and fresh ideas in organizations.
Tomorrow, we'll be looking at Part 2 - Workplaces Issues
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