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WORKFORCE 2020:
How to Make Today’s Ever-Changing
Workplace Work for You
About This Guide
··· WHAT? · · ·
··· WHY? · · ·
The workplace is rapidly changing — from the way we communicate and collabo-
rate to the benefits and perks that attract and retain generations of workers unlike
any other. Only companies that embrace these differences and plan accordingly
will adapt and thrive in the workplace of 2020.
The makers of Bridge, a modern learning and engagement platform that enables
managers across the organization to expeditiously implement training according to
workforce needs while measuring employee sentiment and alignment.
Copyright © 2016
Published by Instructure
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this
or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the
publisher.
Design by Instructure.
Intro · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 1
Out With the Old Ways, In With the New
Wave of Employees (and Working Styles)
Conclusion · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 10
Key Takeaways for Tomorrow’s Workplace
Out With the Old Ways COMPANIES CAN NO LONGER
(SMART)PHONE IT IN
of Business, In With the
New Wave of Employees In case you haven’t noticed, consumers are
(and Working Styles) in constant multitasking mode, whether at
home, work, or anywhere in between. Today,
The Jetsons lied to us. Kinda. None of us are smartphones are permanently attached, acting
commuting to work in flying cars (yet), but as digital Swiss Army Knives for just about
the world we live and work in has changed everything we do (with an actual phone call
dramatically thanks to technology. Gone thrown in on occasion). From iPhones to Uber
are the days of punching in and out, the apps, workers have become used to the sleek
strict 9-to-5, and the attractive pension plan. interfaces and speed of consumer-facing tech.
And they’re never looking back.
The workforce who will man (and woman) the All Work and Some Play
workplace of 2020 are:
›› 1
Millennials are seeking work-life integration
versus work-life balance. These employees Rent-a-cubicle versus revolving door
are interested in careers that allow work and
According to Bloomberg, Pricewaterhouse-
life to coexist and oftentimes blend together.
Coopers (PwC) had an expensive turnover
Mobile plays a huge role in this by allowing
problem. Departing employees said they
employees to always be connected to work.
would have appreciated the ability to work
from home. So PwC decided to turn too
BOOST YOUR SOCIAL STREET little, too late into opportunity. The company
CRED WITH EMPLOYEES AND evolved all of its U.S. offices into co-working
CUSTOMERS: spaces, and gave employees the option
to book workspace as they would a hotel.
›› Implement and communicate a solid social
Employees can now come and go from
media policy. Create an online training
the office as they please, resulting in large
course to outline the specifics of your
financial savings for the company. (Young
company’s social media usage rules.
prospects think it’s “on fleek,” too.)
›› 2
Survey your own employees about the types Creating an employee-centric work
of workplace flexibility that matter to them. environment can alleviate anxiety. So get to
design thinking.
Once you know what they need, implement
fair and flexible remote-working policies. EXCEPTIONAL EMPLOYEE
Clearly communicate these standards via EXPERIENCES ARE NO ACCIDENT
training and readily available materials.
Design thinking is a business approach that
OFFICE SPACE (AND COSTS) uses a people-centric method for handling
ARE SHRINKING problems. Daniel J. Sims, the principal
designer at Procter & Gamble, defines design
According to HubSpot, office space is thinking as a way of coming up with solutions
shrinking. By 2020, the average amount of you would have never predicted. It’s less
space per employee will decrease from 400 design process and more point of view, where
to 150 square feet per person. The increase humans are at the center (and forefront) of
in remote workers will help to eliminate all decisions.
overcrowding in these shrinking offices.
Whereas the recent HR focus may have
For those with shrinking office footprints, it’s been on creating processes that boost
key to create multifaceted office spaces that productivity, design thinking shifts to the
include designated spots to lounge, as well as employee experience.
distraction-free places and rest areas.
What is making your employees stressed out?
Prioritize Your People Is it the constant pings in their email inboxes?
The lack of control over their schedules?
WORKPLACE TREND #2: DESIGN
THINKING Some easy ways your company can use
people-centric logic to solve these
Constant communication with work. More than problems are:
5,000 marketing messages every day. Emails
that can be checked before you get out of ›› Adopt non-email means of interoffice
bed. Today’s employees are stressed at home, communication. Installing a collaboration
in the office, and everywhere else. tool with messaging, archiving, and
search capabilities (like Slack) can unclog
Work stress accounts for the majority of overflowing inboxes and eliminate the
anxiety that Americans experience. Today’s distractions that lead to less productivity.
L&D professionals and managers need to
understand the stressors that affect employees ›› Let employees manage their own time.
and, ultimately, the company’s bottom line. Use apps and intranet portals so employees
can manage their own calendars and
vacation time. Fifty-nine percent of
millennials prefer schedule flexibility and
This job is a prison
autonomy to other work perks like
The American Institute of Stress reports that it’s not overtime compensation.
necessarily the job type that has the most impact
on stress but rather the work environment. Design your design-thinking plan:
›› 3
employees to find similarities. What do
their current managers say about them? Meet your new boss, Ms. Millennial
What are their career goals? Strengths? We’ve all had bosses who have made us
Weaknesses? Create training courses that shake our heads and wish for patience (or
appeal to how these different personas maybe even unemployment). Do your part to
learn and what their professional goals are. save your employees from poor leadership.
More than one in four millennials will become
›› Walk through the training and workday a manager next year. In addition to lessons
experiences. Identify ways to improve on software or job-related tasks, provide
(large and small). Then design onboarding proper leadership training to this next gener-
and training processes around the ways ation of managers, some of whom will defi-
each operates. nitely be younger than their direct reports.
›› 4
Use mobile-responsive training technology to Develop training programs that appeal to
appeal to these new employees, 79 percent of today’s workers:
whom display symptoms of emotional distress
when separated from their phones. ›› Create “snack-size” courses. Design
training courses knowing that workers
Retire the dusty VHS tapes of HR-yesteryear have incredibly short attention spans.
and empower employees to choose their Break sections into bite-sized chunks,
own learning adventure. Three training tiers and incorporate experiential learning to
should be included in your learning model: keep them engaged. Keep your training
interesting by using:
›› Immediate: Performance support and
just-in-time (JIT)/ point-of-need training · Simulations
– When an employee first begins, they
will need immediate training, including job · Anecdotes and case studies, as
basics, company information and benefits. stories resonate
Produce short videos that explain job
responsibilities, or interactive PDFs that · Flipped roles so your employees can
walk employees through key processes. teach the material to co-workers
›› 5
Office Olympics: The WHAT’S A NETWORK OF TEAMS
AND HOW DO YOU GET ONE?
Importance of
Collaborative Teams Create a collaborative working environment:
›› 6
1 3 Running the characteristics make up the best employees.
›› 7
(Company) Relationship “[When you sell employees on the
Status: Disengaged importance of their roles in your company]
People are more likely to generate their
own ideas, to contribute with enthusiasm,
WORKPLACE TREND #6: EMPLOYEE
to keep slogging when it becomes
ENGAGEMENT GAINS TRACTION AS
unpleasant, and also to experience a
A TOP PRIORITY
sense of camaraderie and togetherness.”
— CV Harquail, Scholar & Writer,
RUNAWAY BRIDE EMPLOYEES
AuthenticOrganizations.com
Fewer pension options and weak 401k
contributions make today’s employees less HOW TO (RE)ENGAGE
loyal than previous generations. What is
one of the key ways to keep them around? Find a way to measure engagement, and
Engagement. evaluate your employees often. A few tools
that can help are surveys (Likert scales and Net
The current (and dismal) estimate is that Promoter Score surveys are highly effective),
around 34 percent of U.S. employees are people analytics (usually best supplemented
engaged at work. Why should you care? with a survey), and online reviews (Glassdoor is
anonymous and therefore telling). Remember
ENGAGE ‘EM BEFORE THEY’RE GONE to examine engagement from multiple levels,
including organization-wide, team-wide
Ninety-one percent of millennials expect to stay and individually.
in their jobs for less than three years, meaning
they could have up to 20 jobs over the course Use training as an opportunity to educate
of their careers. They are less loyal by nature, so employees about how they are important to
engagement is a must to keep them around (for the company. Invest time in creating a detailed
a little while anyway). Focus on driving meaning, company plan that lets employees know
purpose, and passion among workers. exactly how they contribute to the overall
mission. When employees feel valued and a
part of a team, they are more likely to stick
Engaged employees rock because they: around when the going gets tough.
Help their companies do better. A Hewitt
Associates survey on employee engagement
PUT A RING (OR FEEDBACK LOOP)
found that organizations with engagement scores
ON IT
of about 65 percent outperformed the total stock
Today, 64 percent of organizations only
market index — even in volatile times.
measure engagement annually. That may as
Like their bosses. Forty-nine percent of employees well be a lifetime for today’s workers, who learn
who are very satisfied with their direct manager and thrive from frequent feedback. Companies
are engaged, while 80 percent who are very that don’t provide consistent performance
dissatisfied are disengaged. reviews risk seeing employees “peacing
out” for better opportunities. Replace annual
reviews with monthly one-on-one feedback
sessions or quarterly “stay” interviews.
›› 8
Employees Feel Right BLURRED LINES
(AND EXPECTATIONS)
at Home
On paper, freelancers, part-timers, and gig
WORKPLACE TREND #7: RISE IN workers may be vastly different. But one
GIG AND REMOTE WORKERS thing is for certain: Your customers expect
a consistent experience, no matter the
TEMPS ON THE RISE employee type. To help manage and train
these diverse and dispersed employees:
Thirty-one percent of American workers are
contingent employees, working as freelancers, ›› Create and deploy training based on
part-timers, or temps. Modern employees user roles and permissions. Outline the
enjoy supplementing their incomes with distinctions between these employees,
additional opportunities, and millennials are and define how their responsibilities (and
known for their side hustles. FlexJobs found benefits) differ. Then create relevant training
that, ideally, one-third of millennials would for each worker type.
want to work part-time supplemented by
freelancing. Moral of the story? Freelance ›› Let your LMS do the heavy lifting. To easily
workers have no desire to commit to a full-time train an array of freelancers, full-timers,
gig. and other classifications, use a learning
management system (LMS) that allows you
HIRING TEMPS HAS ITS PERKS to create custom roles and permissions,
(AND HEADACHES) and only provide access to relevant
training for employees who fall into those
Using freelance workers gives companies parameters.
access to talent they may not be able to
use (or afford) if they work with only full-time ›› Grant easy, 24/7 access through a cloud-
employees, thus enhancing their competitive based LMS. Teach all employees how to
advantage. On the flip side, managing, training, access these materials independently.
and engaging these diverse (and dispersed) Make it as easy as possible for them to
employee types may prove to be a challenge. answer questions about your company
and processes by themselves, whether
it’s through an online knowledge base or
resource library.
›› 9
Conclusion
KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR TOMORROW’S WORKPLACE
›› 10
Bridge is the cloud-based, mobile-first learn-
ing platform that enables managers across the
organization to expeditiously implement training
according to workforce needs while measuring
employee sentiment and alignment.
getbridge.com