Globalisation
Ten years ago, a video conference was a novel way to conduct a meeting, but today “Slacking”, “Skyping” and even “FaceTiming” are common ways for colleagues and clients to communicate and work. While in 2019 this paved the way for more flexible working methods and cross-team collaborations, this year it’s going to pave the way for global recruitment.
Globalisation of the workforce will allow businesses to access the top talent pools and recruit the best-skilled candidates for a position, regardless of where in the world they are located. This enables businesses to compete on a global scale, increase diversity, boost innovation, and even expand their client base. The challenge for businesses won’t be managing a geographically dispersed workforce, but rather revising their recruitment processes to access international candidate pools.
Mobilisation
It’s predicted that half of the UK workforce will work remotely by the end of this year, thanks to changing attitudes and advancing technology. But when we talk about mobilisation of the workforce in 2020, we’re not just talking about the possibility to work from home.
Talent mobility is set to quickly change the workforce of 2020, producing cross-skilled employees who are more engaged and likely to stay and progress with a company. Talent mobility focuses on growing the best talent by exposing employees to a wide range of jobs, responsibilities and skills, increasing engagement and retention and keeping businesses competitive. Accordingly, flexible working is no longer seen as a perk, but a necessity and standard employee expectation.
Tech
It’s no surprise that technology is on the list of workforce trends for 2020, with advancements forcing businesses to rethink the workforce skills required. In 2019, we saw assisted intelligence take off, helping employees to perform their tasks better. In 2020, we’re going to see augmented intelligence advance, helping employees to perform tasks that weren’t possible before.
This will require a workforce that is willing to work with, not against, technology in increasing performance and business value. Accordingly, companies may need to develop both soft skills to address the limitations of technology, and more technical skills to fully utilise the technology available and plan for the fully autonomous technology ahead.
How can you turn these three trends into business opportunity? Adaptability. By training and recruiting for an adaptable mindset open to change, you and your employees can benefit from a more global ethos, flexible culture, and a business prepared for whatever technology lies ahead.
If you’d like to know more about how your Talent Acquisition team can keep up-to-date on the latest workforce trends, contact us about our in-house recruiter training.
