Just recently, I had the opportunity to engage in a collaborative career forum part of the 10th Annual Career Jam: Where Experts Forecast the New & The Next hosted by Career Thought Leaders. We discussed megatrends that are transforming the world of work.
In the last while, we have witnessed several industry shifts and job losses in various sectors including retail, food distribution, energy, and automotive sectors that are impacting growth and productivity on a global scale. Approaching 2020, we will continue to see more transformations.
❇️ What can we expect when we look at the new and next concerning labour market trends?
❇️ How do these labour market trends impact our career choices and decisions?
❇️ How do we stay proactive and innovative about our career growth?
❇️ How can we leverage these changing trends to make a larger impact in the workplace, in our careers, while making a real difference?
7 Megatrends Transforming Careers
✅ The New Retirement
✅ Diversity & Bias
✅Generation Z Entering the Workplace
✅ Artificial Intelligence
✅ Remote Work
✅ Positive Psychology & Well-Being
✅Emotional Intelligence
My Takeaways from the Career Jam
❇️ As career professionals, we need to realign our processes and personal brand marketing strategies with these changing labour market trends. My goal is to guide jobseekers to stay informed while championing change.
❇️ One in five Americans aged 65 and older are still working -- the highest percentage in more than a century. Yet 1 million people in the UK aged 50 and up want to work but are unable to find jobs.
☛ Does ageism and unconscious bias play a role? Yes.
☛ Education gaps -- the less educated without a degree are finding it
challenging to stay in the workforce, especially in more
physically demanding roles.
☛ Technology gaps? Some workers are less adaptable to changing
technology. Keeping up with the latest technologies is imperative.
☛ Skill gaps? This impacts the ability of older workers to retain
employment. Refining marketable skills is essential for success.
An aging global workforce can present some challenges to both workers and organizations. In an attempt to save costs, organizations may look to college graduates to fill the gaps. However, organizations could gain a competitive advantage through unleashing untapped opportunities with older workers.
According to Deloitte: “Creating ways for people to have meaningful, productive multi-stage and multidimensional careers is a major opportunity to engage workers across generations.”
❇️ Diversity promotes creativity, innovation, and critical thinking. Yet, we are seeing unconscious biases in hiring. Age, race, and other types of bias are influencing hiring on a systemic level.
☛ How can we address these concerns while working to close the gaps?
The article by Agarwal, Bersin, and others of Deloitte states: "Left unaddressed, perceptions that a company’s culture and employment practices suffer from age bias could damage its brand and social capital."
☛ Consider: How can the different generations, including Millenials, Gen Z, Gen Xers, Baby Boomers, and Silent Generation work together harmoniously while capitalizing on each other's values and approaches?
☛ Perhaps, it starts with reducing our own biases or questioning the validity of our assumptions and beliefs.
❇️ Recruiting and hiring will continue to evolve as artificial intelligence, remote work, and critical skills such as emotional intelligence, digital marketing, and data analytics impact hiring and career growth.
❇️ Remote work is on the rise with an increase of 78% in remote job postings in the last two years.
While this means greater freedom and flexibility, it also fuels salary and promotional opportunity lags and concerns of maintaining brand visibility.
☛ How will leaders need to prepare themselves and their employees to work efficiently in a remote capacity while staying connected?
❇️ Positive psychology and wellness is an integral component in today’s workplaces. Job burnout accounts for $125+ billion in healthcare spending.
More than 65% of employees reporting having felt burnt out as a result of job stress. Work-life balance is becoming a common buzzword and a desired value that many professionals find elusive these days.
☛ Question: How can we redefine our concept of work-life balance and deploy creative strategies for making it work?
Key Tips: Leverage your strengths and understand your weaknesses. Seek support at work. Communicate your needs and set boundaries.
Time to Reshift Our Perspective on Change
❇️ It’s time to think creatively, challenge fears and typical assumptions, and dispel self-limiting myths and beliefs. Experiment with new processes and perspectives, and confidently look towards the new and next.
❇️ As Simon Sinek stresses, let’s start with out figuring our “why” first to determine the “how” and “what”. View more here.
❇️ We need to have a clear career focus while being assertive in attaining our goals and upholding our core values.
❇️ In the midst of fierce competition for the best talent, how can we elevate our skills to stay marketable?
❇️ We will need to evaluate what we read about trends with a discerning eye. This is a time to experiment with new information and implement refreshing ways of doing things while tracking our results.
❇️ Rather than struggling with change due to the FEAR factor, let’s delve deeper to what lies behind that fear to uncover what is working and what needs to be reevaluated. Let's leverage the power of transformation to elevate personal and professional growth and meaning.
I encourage all career professionals to attend the exciting Career Jam each year and champion jobseekers to also stay updated on the #newandnext! The world of work keeps changing and it is sparking empowering transformations!
Think creatively and visualize a new career horizon!
Creative Horizons Communications is a one-stop, award-winning holistic career services firm based in Halton, Ontario. Serving jobseekers of all fields and levels across the globe, we specialize in helping people confidently navigate challenging career transitions using a holistic, intuitive, and innovative approach.