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21st Century Workplace Trends and Skills for Success

What workplace trends can we expect to see in the 21st century???
 Reduced Workforce Due to Downsizing
o Corporations are operating in the “lean and mean” mode. This means downsizing their workforce by cutting many middle management positions and introducing technology wherever possible.

 Reduced Workforce Due to Outsourcing
o Using technology so prevalent in this Information Age, work tasks and projects can easily be outsourced to other countries. Work can now be sent via e-mail and file exchange to countries where a large educated populace is willing to work for less than the American minimum wage.

 Reduced Workforce Due to Automation & Robotization
o If the work tasks are routine, they can be computerized and robotized, making it possible to have work progressing around the clock and to produce products that are the same quality Monday morning as on Friday afternoon.

 Increased Customization
o Another trend is customization and customer involvement in design of products. This practice avoids having inventory that never sells or gets outdated and requires space for storage.

 Increased Hiring of Temporary Employees
o This “just in time” workforce allows a corporation to operate with a small, elite, technologically sophisticated core of employees and hire contingent workers who come in on an as-needed basis.

 Increasingly Diverse Workforce
o The percentage of the workforce made up of women and people of all kinds of diversity – age, race, ethnicity, sexual preference, religious preference, and levels of disability – will continue to rise.

 Globalization
o Corporations now face world wide competition for their products. Products comprised of many parts may be manufactured in many different places and assembled in still a different place. Such products may then be sold anywhere in the world; their manuals are provided in multiple languages.

 Fewer Corporation: More Internet-Based Businesses
o The growing trend is to sell more goods and services over the Internet.

 Flexible Workplace and Long Distance Collaboration
o The combination of the laptop computer, the cellular phone, the fax machine, the Internet, and the transfer of files, often via wireless with technology, makes it possible for motivated workers to work almost anywhere.

 Emphasis on Sills Development rather than Job Selection
o Individuals will increasingly outfit themselves with an array of skills and will focus less on which occupation to enter and more on where to use their skills next\as they transfer them from short-term assignment to another

 Increased Need for Continuing Education
o Computer skills and occupation-specific skills will need constant updating; thus, we will never “finish” an education.

Skills for Success in the Workplace of the 21st Century
 Completion of at least two years of education beyond high school. A vocational-technical program, a two-year community college degree, or a four-year degree, with the word COMPLETION being critical.
 Good Communication Skills. The ability to write clearly with good syntax and grammar, to speak with good English skills, and to communicate clearly with others is important.
 Computer Literacy. Good knowledge of how to use the internet to find needed information, word processing skills, and comfort with electronic communication is key.
 Interpersonal Skills. The ability to get along and work cooperatively with real and virtual co-workers and supervisors. A greater percentage of individuals lose their jobs because they lack this ability than because they lack job-specific skills.
 Self-Management Skills. The understanding that you are responsible for your own life – its decisions and outcomes.
 Career Management and Transition Skills. The knowledge and capability to follow a process of career planning and to cope with transition when it occurs.

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