London, 8 OCT 2007 — Tomorrow’s workers expect their employers to behave responsibly. They expect to use foreign languages at work and to work across international borders far more than previous generations. They do not, however, expect flexible hours and home working, according to new research published by PricewaterhouseCoopers today.
Nearly 3000 graduates from China, the UK and the US (all soon to start work for the world’s largest professional services firm) were asked about their expectations of work and careers. The findings give a valuable insight into the minds of ‘millennial’ professionals and also reveal far-reaching implications for the future of people management.
Over a third of the UK respondents expect to be using a language other than their English at work which challenges the common perception that learning languages is in decline in UK universities. Some 90% of Chinese graduates believe they will use a language other than their mother tongue. The USA is the home of the most idealistic top young graduates with 90% saying they will actively seek out employers whose corporate responsibility behaviour reflects their own. China is not far behind. The UK response is lower at 71%.
The portfolio career is a myth according to this survey group. Some 78.4% believe they will have a modest two to five employers in their careers, reinforcing the point that stability and certainty is still the first choice of many. An average 5.5% of respondents expect to have more than ten employers through their careers, but this number is as high as 11.5% for Chinese women.
Only 5% on average believe they will be working mainly from home. This is as high as 7.4% in China but remains a meagre 0.6% in the UK. Some 75% of respondents overall expect to work regular office hours.
The report, Managing Tomorrow’s People: The Future of Work to 2020, shows how organisations need to adapt to the demands of a rapidly changing world and pushes companies to ask themselves hard questions about how they are going to attract, retain, motivate and move the people they need in the future.
PricewaterhouseCoopers used the scenario planning methodology pioneered by Shell in the 1970s*, for the project. They project three possible future scenarios for work. In one, business is king, one is ruled by the themes of social responsibility, and in the other, informal networks continually supplant any attempts at global domination.
The role of people management and human resources is examined in detail in each of these ‘worlds’. In the first scenario, competition for the right people is fierce and companies are forced to extreme lengths to get the people they want by providing increasingly sophisticated benefits packages. Through these, employees can be tied-in by ‘lifestyle dependency’ deals where the company picks up part of the tab not only for childcare and pension provision but also transport, food and even accommodation. In the second, employment law drives responsible employer behaviour and in the last scenario, HR as a discrete function has become completely obsolete.
Michael Rendell, partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, said:
“It is said the future is not just a place we go, but a place we partially create. The challenge for employers is to create a platform for employment and talent management brave enough to look beyond the mid-term and focus on what kind of organization they want to be fifteen years from now – when today’s new recruits will be leading those businesses.
“The resources that big companies will be competing for most of all in the future are people with the right skills, but there is a worrying lack of board-level thinking on how this challenge is to be met, especially given the dramatically changing expectations of the future workforce.
“Companies who do not ensure the viability of their people pipeline will find themselves in trouble or even extinct over the next two decades. Those who survive the ‘talent crunch’ will work to get the employment deal right on an ongoing basis.”
Notes to Editor:
1. For further information, materials or to download the full report Managing Tomorrow’s People: The Future of Work to 2020 go to www.pwc.com.
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2. Comments from leading human resource managers as featured in the report.
- Michael Poulten, Personnel Manager – Reward and Benefits, Tesco Stores
Do you expect the role of people management and consequently the HR function to change radically by 2020, if so, how?
Answer: ‘HR will continue to increase its alignment to the business, with greater accountability for delivering specific corporate objectives. This will result in a greater need for HR to quantify itself in respect of how we deliver against the bottom line. We will also need to prepare ourselves for a new generation entering the market place. A significantly more mobile generation with differing expectations from an employer, and we will need to adapt to reflect this.’
- Hanspeter Horsch, Associate Director, Human Resources, Semiconductor Europe GmbH
What steps is your organisation taking in order to be ‘people ready’ in tomorrow’s world?
Answer: ‘Our search for talent is now a global search. The competition for talent will only increase further.’
- Keith Murdoch, Remuneration and Benefits Manager, British American Tobacco
Do you expect the role of people management and consequently the HR function to change radically by 2020, if so, how?
Answer: ‘HR needs to ensure it is fit for purpose in order to be proactive and maintain or develop its influence in the future.’
- Peter Johann, Director Global HR Management, BASF
In your view what will be the biggest people challenge facing your organisation over the next decade?
Answer: ‘Diversity is a huge challenge, but also a great opportunity. Getting diversity right will be a critical future success factor for us.’
- Hughes Fourault, Global Head of compensation, benefits and international mobility, Société Général
What steps is your organisation taking in order to be people ready in tomorrow’s world?
Answer: ‘We are developing an employer brand reflecting our identity as an employer and promoting our long term commitment with our employees.’
3. Scenario planning is a tool developed by Shell in 1970s and is still used extensively by the company today. The company credits this methodology as one which meant they were more prepared for the oil crisis on the 70s than other energy companies. Scenario planning projects possible future ‘worlds’ which enables the development of contingencies for each. Scenario planning questions singular reliance on economic forecasting as history and change is often driven by the impact of leftfield, unpredictable events. eg, 9-11, the invention of the internet, the collapse of the US sub-prime mortgage market.
4. One of the hard lessons of the recent past has been that skills are not as fluid as businesses would like. The dream that masses of highly qualified workers are going to flood western labour markets and plug skills gaps has not materialised. Economies like China and India are developing at such a rate that they are soaking up the vast majority of domestic talent available. Work PricewaterhouseCoopers has recently carried out for the European Commission shows that, even within a common economic market it, people do not move that readily – a least not the people with the skills and experience that multi-nationals would like. Companies need to work harder at recruiting the right people and hanging on to the talent they already have.
5. Initial work on the scenario planning methodology was done at the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilisation, SAID Business School, Oxford with Dr Angela Wilkinson, Director of Scenario Planning and Futures Research. Website:
www.martininstitute.ox.ac.uk
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