A FUTURE OF THE WORKPLACE AND THE WORKFORCE
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apid innovation is becoming highly essential to the survival of an organization in today’s hypercompetitive business environment. This has led to the emergence a new kind of creative workforce. These highly sophisticated workers will in turn demand an
environment that attracts them, satisfies their needs, and provides an incentive to stay.
The work environments provided by companies in the past were increasingly unsuited to evolving patterns of work and inhibited workers from performing to their full potential. An effective workplace today or in the future must allow a natural and efficient sharing of
knowledge. As increased knowledge sharing leads to enhanced productivity, improved quality, and accelerated innovation.Freedom,
autonomy and flexibility will define the future of workplace. And employers will have to listen. Gen Y, roughly defined as those born
between 1983 and 2000, will make up more than 40 percent of workforce by 2020. To many of these, workplace culture is as important
as salary. They see the workplace as a very important factor and values it as a place of learning and development. They prefer a work
environment where they can emotionally engage themselves, a space where they socialize with other co-workers and a space which
supports their health and well-being.
Now, all this translates into a different type of employee and colleague we are likely to have. They have a strong work ethic when the
job is right and an ability to learn rapidly and adapt – making Generation Y employees highly valuable assets. But the “right” job should
have some Generation Y-specific expectations and aspirations. It should be both interesting and fun, provide flexible hours and location
to allow for the blending of work, socializing and recreation, and involve opportunity for praise and validation.
Generation Y employees are ambitious and are anxious to move up the corporate ladder quickly, sometimes even without becoming
competent in their current skills which often lead to loyalty deficit and frequent job hopping (leapfrogging phenomenon).
24 • Designfreebies Magazine • www.designfreebies.org