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The New Workforce: Five Sweeping Trends That Will Shape Your Company's Future By Harriet Hankin ( AMACOM )
Release Date: 2004-11-05
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Product Description
Dramatic trends are already in motion that will force organizations to do some major rethinking about their relationships with their employees. The New Workforce outlines five of these crucial developments, and describes how they will affect critical HR policies and programs in the very near future. The book considers the implications of ever-increasing life (and work-life) expectancy, new household types including same-sex partners and "Mr. Moms," the Baby Boom "Echo," widening diversity, and employee demands for greater emphasis on spirituality and social responsibility in the workplace. The New Workforce addresses such concerns as: How can we deal with the conflicting needs of four generations of employees? What changes must we make in our benefits coverage? Our pay policies? Our management training efforts? Do we need new recruiting and retention strategies? Why should the company care about employees' personal values and beliefs?
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 Not bad - the political feminism is a bit much ( c5rupert )
It was going so well until she had to add her input on how the government should legislate a 2 woman minimum on corporate boards. I'm a true capitalist so to hear someone propose government intervention in todays business climate is quite a turnoff.
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 The Paradigmatics of the Multi-Generational Workforce ( mach1936 )
As the subtitle correctly indicates, Hankin focuses her reader's attention on "five sweeping trends that will shape your future." She devotes a separate chapter to each (Chapters 1-5). I especially appreciate the "virtual timeline" she includes in Chapter 3 (pages 48-49) which lists several generations and indicates the key influences on each:
The Silent Generation (born 1922-1945): The Great Depression and the New Deal; World War II; the Holocaust; Hiroshima; radio and films.
The Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964): Vietnam War; assassinations of JFK, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy; placing a man on the Moon; Watergate; impact of the Cold War (e.g. bomb shelters); television; women's liberation; sexual revolution; environmental concerns (e.g. Green Party, Exxon Valdez).
Generation X (born 1965-1076): Demolition of the Berlin Wall; Challenger disaster; Clinton sex scandals; skyrocketing growth of the stock market and an abundant economy in the 1980s and 1990s; 24-hour, live news coverage; the dot-com economy; high-tech start-ups.
Baby Boom Echo (born 1977-2000): Oklahoma City bombing; Columbine High School massacre; Y2K; Internet, WWW, and e-business; September 11, 2001, terrorists attacks; corporate scandals (e.g. Enron); video games; instant messaging.
Then, in Part II, Hankin examines the impact of the five major emerging workforce trends on human resources. Specifically, the impact on HR policies and procedures, recruiting, compensation and benefits, and learning and training. Her proposed "Formula for the Future" stresses flexibility, respect, and "tons of communication." In an Appendix, Hankin provides a survey which will help decision-makers in all organizations (regardless of size or nature) to prepare themselves for "the new workforce." Hankin offers a brilliant analysis of how and why each generation has been influenced by its predecessors as well as by events within its own portion of the "virtual timeframe."
Of even greater interest and value to me is her analysis of the differences -- in terms of values, priorities, and preferences -- between and among members of various generations, differences which create both different challenges and different opportunities for them as well as for those who supervise them. Perhaps Hankin agrees with me that one cannot motivate another person but one can activate and nourish, perhaps even inspire self-motivation in others, as history's greatest leaders have. Obviously, mutual respect and trust must be earned. Also, everyone involved in a given enterprise should be flexible as well as united, especially when responding to a crisis. The healthiest human communities are those which have certain non-negotiable values. Everyone involved understands what conconstitutes inappropriate behavior, for example, and there is zero-tolerance of it. Hankin is dead-on when asserting that it is imperative to have an understanding of the generational differences between and among those who comprise "the new workforce."
Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out Leigh Branham's The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave: How to Recognize the Subtle Signs and Act Before It's Too Late, Lois J. Zachary's Creating a Mentoring Culture: The Organization's Guide, Gary Harpst's Six Disciplines for Excellence, Bill Jensen's What is Your Life's Work?: Answer the BIG Question About What Really Matters...and Reawaken the Passion for What You Do, and Lynda Gratton's The Democratic Enterprise: Liberating Your Business with Freedom, Flexibility and Commitment.
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Thought-provoking, Educational: Well worth your time. ( roger@herman.net )
Human resources executives are naturally concerned about what's coming. Part of their job is to prepare for future workforce and workplace needs and advise senior leaders regarding appropriate strategies. Those senior executives are also beginning to wake up and smell the trends. The smart ones are hungry for the insights that will empower them to lead their organizations boldly into the future.
Harriet Hankin, president of a benefits design consulting and administration firm in the Philadelphia area, brings corporate experience, an ownership role, and the perspective that comes from serving as an objective consultant to corporations. She's obviously done her research in order to present key trends and their impacts.
The book is organized into two sections: The Five Major Emerging Workforce Trends and The Impact of the Trends on Human Resources. Hankin selected five trends; as a futurist by profession, I see a number of others on the horizon. Selecting the more influential trends can always be challenged. This book addresses Longevity, More Varied Household Types, Generations, Diversity, and Trust, Respect, and Ethics.
The book is written in an almost conversational style, with stories and anecdotes that flavor the text and make the book even more readable. Hankin includes some information which, while it may not be right on target from a serious business perspective, broadens the reader's appreciation of the issues raised. The depth of the author's research comes out in the notes at the end of each chapter. Readers interested in gaining even more knowledge about a topic Hankin discusses will easily be able to follow her research path. Call-out boxes and charts fit well into the book design, enhancing the value for the reader.
In the second section, Hankin shares a treasure chest of ideas that employers may apply. There are enough ideas in these pages to keep a human resources staff busy for quite a while! Among the valuable features I appreciated is a list (on page 181) comparing the kinds of reward priorities that will be preferred by various generations.
A helpful appendix offers an outline for engaging employees in a future think tank experience to help prepare tomorrow's workforce. A comprehensive index makes it easy to find what you're looking for if, as I expect, you'll want to go back to this book for repeated readings and considerations.
As a qualifier, I am author of "Impending Crisis: Too Many Jobs, Too Few People," a book on the coming shortage of skilled workers. The issues we concentrate on as workforce futurists, are well-addressed in "The New Workforce." If you're in management or human resources-or moving in that direction in your career, read this book.
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An Easy-Read Must-Read
This book was great. Especially for a business book, it moved quickly and was packed with important and insightful stuff. I liked the readable style and personal experiences that the author shared.
The book also went beyond sharing the facts and provided lots of ideas for dealing with what the future workforce will demand.
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A Must Read
This is a fantastic look into the future of the workforce and is a must read for anyone who owns a business or works in human resources or personnel departments. In fact, this is also worth reading by anyone who works in a mid-size to large company, since all companies will soon be forced to deal with the trends that the author identifies in this book and the information will undoubtedly be helpful to any employee. The book is a pleasure to read with both personal and professional anecdotes interspersed with the author's prescient thoughts on a subject in which she is an expert. Thoroughly enjoyable.
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Addiction
