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What’s on the horizon? Implications for people management
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
Category:
The Future of HR
On Tuesday 13 June, The Work Foundation held a workshop for their network of partners looking at the drivers shaping the employment relationship over the next ten years, following the launch of the third report, The Deal in 2020, from the Future of HR programme. I was pleased to be asked to co-present with Dr Wilson Wong at what was an extremely well attended event demonstrating the high interest in this subject.
The session kicked off with a thought provoking YouTube clip – Did You Know? – which provided a reminder of the speed in which information now reaches us all and how quickly skills and knowledge become obsolete. It’s also all too easy to forget that the likes of Google, Facebook and the iPhone didn’t always exist and to imagine what new methods of communication we will have in the future.
The participants heard from Wilson on the key drivers that will impact the employment relationship as discussed in The Deal in 2020 report: education and skills; environment; technology; labour market; social inequalities; globalisation; economic development. Linking these to different possible future scenarios enables leaders to think about the implication for people management.
I was able to explain how the Department for Work and Pensions had used the research to review and invigorate our People Strategy in a very practical session with our Non-Executive Board and Executive Management Team. The Delphi research content and process helped the participants to identify the specific drivers shaping the Pensions, Disability and Carers Service. We were challenged by the need to be mindful of the external environment and what it might be like in the year 2020. By taking the long-view, we managed to identify a number of people management issues that needed to be addressed immediately and in the next few years. We were able to see the value of knowing what to monitor and the triggers for responding to certain changes that we could envisage. So often it is difficult to look beyond the next twelve months so having the opportunity to take place a frame to the future and understanding how a longer time horizon can affect the operational now was hugely valuable.
The second half of the session saw the participants on the day having the chance to experience the approach themselves, albeit very briefly, and this provoked some very interesting insights and ideas from all sectors represented. Globalisation and technology were seen as having a huge impact over the coming years, with issues such as an ageing workforce, social inequality, the increasing pace of change, how to motivate the workforce being cited as areas of concern.
Plenty of food for thought for this group as we navigated through the future of work.
Dean Morley, Deputy HR Director, Pensions, Disability and Carers Service, Dep for Work and Pensions
The battle of the generations for workplace rewards
Friday, 12 March 2010
Category:
The Future of HR
This week we had the privilege of welcoming Dr Elaine Alden to The Work Foundation’s Research Rumbles where she presented her research on the connections between generational membership (Traditionalists; Baby Boomers, Gen X; Gen Y) and their reward preferences
Wilson Wong
Benefits cheats?
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
Category:
The Future of HR
Last night on BBC1 there were two programmes which presented an aspect of the world of work familiar to millions of people in the UK: seeking it. Both sought to understand the experience of joblessness through the presentation of a small number of individuals currently looking for work in the UK. However, here the similarities between them ended.
Benjamin Reid
Is 'the deal' almost entirely fuelled on trust?
Wednesday, 03 February 2010
Category:
The Future of HR
Is the employment relationship between a person and their line manager almost entirely fuelled on trust? Our second paper on the Future of HR research programme would suggest so. But what is trust?...
Alex Albert
Deal or no deal?
Monday, 25 January 2010
Category:
The Future of HR
Deal or no deal? Is this the question that organisations need to be asking themselves?...
Laura Blazey