Future Trends – What Will Businesses Look Like In 20 Years

SF Group are going to take a look at the five trends outlined by futurist Jacob Morgan in his book, ‘The Future of work’, which could shape our jobs and how we get them in the future. Will this be social and smart?

New behaviours /
Most people these days lead very public lives, sharing their photos, likes and dislikes, and most importantly their work history online. Feedback and comments on any social media site are instantaneous and it might soon be this way for job applications too.
Fast, real time feedback on all job applications might be idyllic for recruitment companies and applicants in theory but this isn’t arguably the best process. This way seems very rushed and designed solely around procedures and tick boxes on work experience and education rather than attitude, personality and whether they are the best fit.

Collaboration and sharing are elements which all companies have now implemented into their websites and social strategies, and this openness is only going to increase. Social media and the internet now influence almost every element of work and the way we gain it, and impact every future trend listed here in one way or another.

Mobility /
Mobility is also said to increase in the future. We already have remote networks and devices that allow us to connect to work systems from outside the office, so it’s hard to imagine how this could happen. Will the future workplace change so that everyone works from wherever they want, and video conferencing almost entirely takes over from traditional business meetings?

Globalisation /
If companies are to become more mobile, this will have a direct influence with the globalisation of organisations. Companies are expanding their operations internationally, and boundaries that once existed have been eradicated. For example, you might be working in Birmingham with clients based in Hong Kong – and you might not ever meet the people for whom you’re working.
Globalisation is also having an impact on recruitment now and it could develop even further in the future. Applying for jobs internationally will surely become a more commonplace, but the biggest change could be that people will not be required to move abroad once their application is successful. The new behaviours and mobility trends indicate this is the way things are going.

Millennials /
Millennials are those who reached young adulthood around the year 2000 and have attitudes, ideas and values that are influenced by their tech-savvy lifestyles. An entire generation has now grown up with technology at its core, and this is going to be represented in the workplace dramatically. All businesses will have to adapt to not only attracting talent to work for them, but appealing to millennials with their products and services too.

With millennials making up more and more of the workplace companies will have to adjust to their demands. Training and development will also become more mobile and social.

Technology /
The thing that makes all of these future work trends possible is smart technology. More and more things in our daily lives are now fuelled by the cloud, automation and big data. We have more insight than ever before into how a business can interact successfully with its customers, and also how recruiters can find the right person for every role.

To conclude, the future work trends are both social and smart and anyone who shares these attributes is surely to have great success throughout their working life.