Attracting and retaining tomorrow’s workforce

With skilled individuals at a premium, understanding the nature of tomorrow’s workforce is increasingly important for businesses in the region.  A recent study undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers set out to build a picture of the future workforce. Nearly 3000 graduates from China, the UK and the US (all soon to start work for the world’s largest professional services firm) were asked about their expectations of work and careers. The findings give a valuable insight into the minds of ‘millennial’ professionals and also reveal far-reaching implications for the future of people management.

The report, Managing Tomorrow’s People: The Future of Work to 2020, shows how organisations need to adapt to the demands of a rapidly changing world and pushes companies to ask themselves hard questions about how they are going to attract, retain, motivate and move the people they need in the future.

The headline findings show that tomorrow’s workers expect their employers to behave responsibly. They expect to use foreign languages in their job and to work across international borders far more than previous generations. They do not, however, expect flexible hours and home working, despite the continued efforts made in this area by both the government and employers.

With an increasingly mobile and global workforce, it is perhaps unsurprising that more than a third of the UK respondents expect to be using a language other than their English at work which challenges the common perception that learning languages is in decline in UK universities. Some 90% of Chinese graduates believe they will use a language other than their mother tongue.

In terms of the business sector’s efforts to become more socially responsible, this is a key factor for young graduates in the US, with 90% saying they will actively seek out employers whose approach to corporate social responsibility reflects their own beliefs. However, the UK response is lower but still significant at 71%.

Employers should be encouraged by the fact that the portfolio career is a myth according to the findings of this report. Some 78.4% believe they will have a modest two to five employers in their careers, reinforcing the point that stability and certainty is still the first choice of many. For employers this is a strong indication to put structures in place to nurture new talent, with a view to retaining people in the long term.

It is said the future is not just a place we go, but a place we partially create. The challenge for employers is to create a platform for employment and talent management brave enough to look beyond the mid-term and focus on what kind of organisation they want to be fifteen years from now – when today’s new recruits will be leading those businesses.

The resources that big companies will be competing for most of all in the future are people with the right skills, but there is a worrying lack of board-level thinking on how this challenge is to be met, especially given the dramatically changing expectations of the future workforce.

Companies who do not ensure the viability of their people pipeline will find themselves in trouble or even extinct over the next two decades. Those who survive the ‘talent crunch’ will work to get the employment deal right on an ongoing basis.

Contact details
Email: Robbie Wigley-Jones
Tel: +44 (0)121 265 5584