FOLLOW UP TO OUR TEN YEAR WORKPLACE STUDY
Last month we announced the release of our ten-year workplace study. Every day we receive a steady stream of thoughtful feedback on our findings. The feedback has focused on four themes:
The Real New Economy Workplace Is Nasty, Brutish And Short
The new economy was never about dot coms with magical business models.
Still, the economy has been transformed over the last decade by profound
responses to globalization and technology. The resulting real new economy
is one of highly interconnected erratic markets and unpredictable
resource-needs. Employers must be lean, flexible and highly efficient----which
means ongoing downsizing, restructuring and reengineering. The new watchword
is "productivity," getting more and better work out of fewer people. The
incredible productivity increases of the last decade have come, not from
technology alone, but also from increased human effectiveness. Employees
experience less "down time," more job related stress,
increased job requirements, and constant pressure to improve.
"Generation X" Trends From The 1990s Have Become Mainstream
In the early 1990s, when Generation Xers first appeared in the workplace,
Xers were viewed as disloyal employees unwilling to pay their dues and
climb the ladder. Xers demanded immediate gratification from employers and
this was seen as a youthful aberration. It turns out that the "GenX"
employee-attitude was a vanguard response to the transformation in the
workplace. It was an accident of history: Largely unaware of the changes
underway, Xers were responding naturally to a workplace without the myth of
job security. The Gen-X workplace revolution was never about casual dress,
desk-massages, astronomical pay, foosball tables, and pizza. But the
revolution was very real. In just ten years, workers of all ages have lost
confidence in the old-fashioned career path and traditional norms of
success.
These Trends Are Stronger (Not Weaker) After The Downturn
Many analysts expected the "free agent" trends to abate in the economic
downturn. Instead, the trends have broadened and intensified: People of all
ages and at all levels realize that they are "free agents" because they have
no other choice. In the real new economy, it's every person for
him/herself. Without credible long-term promises from employers, employees
no longer labor quietly and obediently. Rather, most employees work
anxiously to take care of themselves and their families and try to get what
they can from their employers----one day at a time.
Supervisory Managers Are Now The Lynchpins Of The Workplace
Supervisory managers are stuck in the middle, forced to negotiate the
competing interests of the employer and employees.
Supervisors are under pressure to increase productivity and
quality. At the same time, average spans of control (the number of
employees officially reporting to each supervisor) are increasing. With
growing responsibilities, supervisors must drive performance every day,
while trying to accommodate the needs and expectations of an increasingly
diverse workforce. Supervisors on the font-lines will either make or break
your organization.
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Winning the Talent Wars® |
102nd Edition - September 30, 2003 COPYRIGHT, RainmakerThinking, Inc.® http://www.rainmakerthinking.com |