This year has featured some important advancements and trends in the digital workplace, such as the explosion of mobile and increased adoption of social enterprise tools. Now it’s time to look ahead to 2014. An article from Forbes.com highlights several trends for the upcoming year, three of which deserve special mention.
- Freelancing: Companies have much more flexible workforces and are increasingly relying on freelancers. A third of Americans are currently consultants, contractors or freelancers, and such workers are expected to outnumber full-time employees in six years, Forbes.com reports. But how do you incorporate freelancers into your environment so that they get up to speed quickly and are productive? In some respects, it’s no different from onboarding any new employee, as you need collaboration solutions that make integrating freelancers with your internal team as easy as possible. Even though they’re freelancers, they still require access to necessary documents and intellectual property that enables them to be productive.
- Changing demographics: Forbes.com notes that within five years, 18 percent of baby boomers will retire, and millennials will comprise 36 percent of the workforce next year. Organizations have to find ways to capture and preserve baby boomers’ deep pool of tacit knowledge before they exit the workforce. From best practices to project debriefs, tools should be in place that make it easy to capture more of that information so that all of your knowledge assets don’t disappear when baby boomers walk out the door. Also, keep in mind that younger employees are less reliant on forms of communication like email than on newer ways to collaborate. That’s why organizations must think about demographic changes in the workplace. It’s important to consider new forms of communication that are attractive to millennials.
- Constant job searching: The competition for the best and brightest talent is something organizations must continually think about. What they invest in and deliver to employees reflects on the values and culture of the organization and its reputation in the outside world. Employees are looking for organizations with cutting-edge tools and flexible work arrangements, both key benefits of a digital workplace. This is important when you consider the propensity of today’s workers to jump ship. A total of 48 percent of millennials conduct job searches while at work, the Forbes.com article reports, and 73 percent of workers have no qualms about looking for a new job before leaving their current employer.
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Source: Forbes.com, October 2013
