What does the future hold for the Canadian workplace in 2017? Can we learn from predictions in the United States and abroad? Understanding the trends and being among the first to act can be crucial to success in business anywhere, but who has a crystal ball? One group is upbeat and says, “2017 promises to be one of the most interesting and fast-pace workplace years on record.”² Another warns that companies are facing an “unprecedented threat of disruption, due to shrinking talent pools in many sectors, and employee expectations that are changing.”³ Which is right?

A New Vocabulary for Fundamental Change

For insight, bh turned to the web to find out what some of the largest international organizations were saying about workplace trends for 2017. In brief, it is clear across all trends, the workplace is in flux. Moreover, the changes that are coming or are here, are not just changes in degree. They represent fundamentally different ways of looking at work and workplace issues and have inspired what for some, may be a whole new vocabulary. Here are five terms that have been gaining traction in the last while and have been used to describe what is likely to happen in 2017:

• People/Talent Analytics – a data-driven approach to people related issues in areas such as recruiting, performance evaluation, leadership, hiring and promotion, job and team design, and compensation.

• Gig Economy – an environment in which temporary positions are common and organizations contract with independent workers for short term engagements.

• Workforce Fluidity – a more fluid, flexible and dynamic way to work, where workers have more choice in how they approach tasks, opportunities for advancement are less linear, and workers define themselves in a more personalized, holistic way.

• Generation Z – for most, the cohort after the millennials (post-millennials), not yet well-defined but typically born between the mid1990s and early 2000s. Statistics Canada, which does not recognize millennials, defines Generation Z starting with those born in 1993 while Randstad Canada includes those born between 1995 and 2014.

• Boomerang Workers – people who return to work for a former employer.  

The Trends – A Consensus

For a more specific taste of what to expect in 2017, bh surveyed predictions of five companies, selected at random: Fast Company,¹ Kelly Services Canada,² MRINetwork,³ Pomello,⁴ and Ultimate Software.⁵ Since there isn’t space here to include everything they predicted, their main points appear here under six headings. Overall, there is broad consensus in most areas, with shades of difference in some and in one or two cases, specific disagreement. To review the trends for yourself and reach your own consensus, follow the links under References below. Meanwhile, in alpha order, here is our take on what the experts think will happen in 2017:

• Benefits and Compensation

There is some agreement that non-traditional benefits and corporate perks are less popular, even passé.^1,4 Companies are advised to focus on basics such as health insurance [in the US] and paid time off.¹ Millennials want “effective mentoring” and “effective collaboration” in the work place. Young employees also “care less about take-home pay than the ability to work at a place that reflects their core values.⁴

At the same time, there are predictions that salaries will rise and the gender wage gap will narrow, both in response to the shrinking talent pool.^1,3

“For every job opening in 2008, there were 40 applicants. By 2016 … the number of applicants for every open position had shriveled to 1.4.”

US Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Survey, cited by MRINetwork³

• Candidate/Employee Experience

Strengthening the employee experience will be key in 2017 – “organizations must invest in creating a great experience for their employees at work.”⁵ Employee engagement targets will morph into employee experience goals and HR teams will find ways to “strengthen the employee experience.”⁴ Employers who put employees first will help to improve productivity and create “a culture that is more cohesive, provides more opportunities for idea sharing across the company, and ultimately is more enjoyable.” ³ It will be important to recognize that work is becoming more fluid and that culture will shape the employee experience.⁵

In a challenging employment environment where corporate reputation is important, two organizations focused on the need to enhance the experience of both job candidates and employees.^2,3

“Nearly 60% of job seekers have had a poor experience as a job applicant, and 72 percent of them have shared that experience on an online employer review site.”

Workplace Trends study, cited by MRINetwork³

Similarly, employee reputation will play an important role in the ongoing uptik in the boomerang economy, as workers who have left a company return later bringing with them knowledge of the company’s culture. Even as social media can hurt an employer’s reputation, it can also allow employers and former employees to keep in touch.³

“… 85% of HR professionals say they have received job applications from former employees, and 40% say their organization hired about half of those former employees who applied.”

Workforce Institute at Kronos employee study, cited by MRINetwork³

• Generation Shift

The generation shift from boomers to millennials and now Generation Z was a direct or indirect factor in almost all the predicted trends. However, the arrival of Gen Z in 2017 was specifically cited as a trend. As a group, they may be different, having chosen not to go into deep debt to attend university but to enter the workforce as “diverse, highly motivated and aspirational” workers who are “eager to learn” and looking for “jobs that offer professional development and solid career paths.”²

At the other end of the spectrum, the retirement of baby boomers is predicted to mean more than the loss of a group of employees but to signal significant changes to how the workplace is organized and what happens there, including leadership style.

“This year [2017], more than 3.6 million executive leaders [in corporate America] are set to retire …. Leadership will emerge in other forms because Millennials often believe you don’t need a title to be a leader.”

MRINetwork³

• Gig Economy

The status of the gig economy was the one area where organizations had differing views. In two cases, independent work was predicted to grow, but from slightly different perspectives – because highly skilled professional and technical talent opt to be independent meaning that companies must adapt to include free agents,² or because more companies hire “on-demand” to meet their goals – e.g. to solve problems or cut costs.³ At the same time, another organization believes that the gig economy will slow down for three reasons – the gig economy has been declining and is not growing as much as people think, gig work is based on demand and dries up in times of less demand, and gigs have to be simple, discrete projects which may not be suited to the needs of today.¹

“The fastest growing jobs today are ones that require human creativity, flexibility, judgment and ‘soft skills.’ …  These are exactly the kind of jobs least likely to function well in a gig economy platform.”

Andrew Chamberlain, chief economist, Glassdoor, cited by Lydia Dishman, Fast Company¹

• People/Talent Analytics

All organizations agreed that the use of people or talent analytics will grow in 2017. The rise of “big data” is a phenomenon that has “transformed everything from product design to finance.” Data science is also regarded as a tool that can transform HR, even for companies that don’t have formal HR departments.¹ In 2017 people analytics will be applied in new ways and 2017 prediction models will help companies achieve better hiring outcomes, optimize organizational structures and reduce attrition, while organizational culture surveys will help management “clarify their vision.”⁴ Expressed differently, “companies will make more use of people analytics to engage and retain employees.”²

“New diagnostic and prescriptive analytics tools will support manager development on a day-to-day basis – ushering in a new era of humanized people “management.”

Cecile Alper-Lerroux, Workforce Trends, Ultimate Solutions⁵

• Technology

On the one hand, the advancement of technology is predicted to continue to disrupt the workplace – making some “specific skills and even occupations obsolete.” As a result, companies must continue to ensure they have the skills they need to adapt “by hiring new workers or upskilling existing employees.”² In contrast, others see that while routine jobs will be most affected by automation, mass layoffs are unlikely. In most cases, workers need “to build skills that are complementary to technology – learning to run the machine, not doing the same work the machine automates.” ¹

“… the number of jobs that can be fully automated by adapting currently demonstrated technology is less than 5% [and] … could go as high as 20 % in some middle skill categories…. About 60% of all jobs have at least a third of activities that could be automated…”

McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), study of 2,000 work activities in 54 countries, cited by Lydia Dishman, Fast Company¹

Is there a crystal ball?

Having surveyed what the experts have said, is there a verdict? Certainly, it is possible to confirm that workplaces are changing, in part because work is changing and in part because the generations are shifting. In such conditions of flux, it is inevitable that employee benefits will also change. It is also crucially important for providers and employers to stay ahead of the curve, be in touch with the nature of the employee experience they are offering and sensitive to their workplace culture. As for which of the alternatives will prove most accurate, it may be that both are right: fast-pace change is interesting but it also disrupts. Perhaps it is a matter of perspective. Is the glass half full or half empty? The answer may come in 2018. bh

References

^1. Fast Company. These are the top 5 workplace trends we’ll see in 2017

www.fastcompany.com/3066605/the-future-of-work/these-are-the-top-5-workplace-trends-well-see-in-2017

^2. Kelly Services Canada, Top eight workplace trends to expect in 2017

www.kellyservices.ca/CA/Business-Services/8-Workplace-Trends-for-2017/

^3. MRINetwork [Managers Recruiters International Inc.]. Six top workforce trends for 2017.

mrinetwork.com/articles/industry-articles/six-top-workforce-trends-for-2017/

^4. Pomello Blog, 2017 HR trends forecast, published