SHRM’s 2006-07 Workplace Trends: Yikes!
I just read the Society for Human Resource Management's 2006-07 Workplace Forecast, and I have to say, I didn’t walk away with a warm, cuddly feeling. While many of the themes are not new, taken together they paint a fairly scary picture of what’s happening in the American workplace.
As author Jennifer Schramm says, “many trends indicate a potential rise in employees’ feelings of insecurity through more intense global competition for jobs, more individuals without access to health insurance and fears about data security and identity theft and the vulnerability of technology to attack or disaster.”
The top workplace trends overall for 2006-07 are:
1. Rising health care costs.
2. Increased use of outsourcing (offshoring) of jobs to other countries.
3. Threat of increased health care/medical costs on the economic competitiveness of the United States.
4. Increased demand for work/life balance.
5. Retirement of large numbers of baby boomers (those born between 1945 and 1964) around the same time.
6. New attitudes toward aging and retirement as baby boomers reach retirement age.
7. Rise in the number of individuals and families without health insurance.
8. Increase in identity theft.
9. Work intensification as employers try to increase productivity with fewer employees.
10. Vulnerability of technology to attack or disaster.
The full report is available through the SHRM website.
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Comments
Scott, I also see a lot of opportunities, too, for associations to assume some of the responsibilities that members are losing as baby boomers retire or that might otherwise be considered for outsourcing, thereby keeping their employee costs down.
It would be helpful if associations could survey their members about their future H.R. needs and then develop value-added services to meet those needs. For example, the National Association of Manufacturers issues a yearly Skills Gap Report that looks at the employment trends and opportunities in manufacturing and always focuses on the gaps in the skills level needed to work in today's manufacturing facilities vs. the education level of those looking for jobs. This is an opportunity for manufacturing trade associations and their foundations to work with local school districts to underwrite generic high school programs or projects to increase skills levels that could be unveiled at various sites around the country. Think how the association would then be viewed by its members?
Great to see an association blog.
Keep it up!
Posted by: Dave Core | August 15, 2006 11:09 AM