Women's Role in Society and Other Demographic Trends

Here's an interesting talk given by Anne Manne about the role of women in society and work, called Love and Money. Whether you agree with her views or not, it raises some important questions, the answers to which will ultimately affect the way in which employers will need to think about patterns of employment and support for childcare. A core of the argument revolves around the difference between the right to equality at work versus the compulsion that women should be at work and the implications of decisions around that for the next generation of workers (many of whom will be reared by child-carers rather than parents). It's a longish piece (around 50 minutes) and only for those who can listen with an open mind. Definitely not for those with no interest in having their ideas challenged.

Continuing on the theme of demographics, there is an argument that we are all getting too anxious about the pending reduction of numbers of people in the workforce, because increases in productivity rates (which even at the lowest levels increased at an annual rate of 1.5%) will compensate for a big chunk of the reduction. Also, we are neglecting to see that the impact is likely to positive in terms of rising wage levels, reduction in the number of lowest paying jobs, reduction in pollution and freeing up of land.

In both cases, it means that organizations need to be planning strategically for the workforces they will require in the future - not just focusing on year on year recruitment plans.

Why Would You Ever Leave?

How do people ever get to focus on their work at Google? This video clip of Google's Zurich office environment, posted on the BBC website, won't give you the answer, but it will give you a sense of what the combination of money and open minds can provide. Old distinctions between work, play and home seem to have disappeared. Who cares about having the corner office, when you can fight over who gets to use the slide between floors?

Employee value propositions don't seem to be cutting it

It seems we are fighting an uphill battle in improving workplace satisfaction. Americans increasingly hate their jobs, according to a report by the Conference Board. Even worse, the young aged under 25 years have the most negative views and those aged 45 to 54 are the second most dissatisfied groups. If you want to increase your chances of meeting someone who is happy in their work, start with the clergy and then move onto the helping professions (not including doctors, who it was recently reported in the UK seem to regret becoming members of this formerly esteemed profession).

I wonder if there is an inverse correlation between the extensive efforts being put into defining 'employee value propositions' and the rate at which satisfaction declines? It is certainly a buzz phrase at the moment, but seems in danger of falling into the trap of many of the old quality management and culture change programs of the past - lots of good words, but not much to back them up.

Surely, at a time when the demographics mean that the supply of well qualified, highly talented young people is declining and that young people's expectations from the work environment and their careers are changing, more substantial effort needs to be made by companies to bridge the gap between words and deeds. Starting with the CEO may not be a bad idea, given the power and influence they can exert - one survey indicated that only 2% of people found them to be 'very trustworthy'!

A better understanding of the trade-offs people make when they come to work - with the kind of detailed segmentation that political analysts and marketing professionals do to understand voting and consumer spending patterns - might not be a bad place to start.

If you're looking for a book that attempts to address this issue, try Firms of Endearment

Demographics and the Millenial Generation

It's hard to ignore the massive influence that demographics are going to have on changing patterns of market demand and the way business will get done. With developed and developing nations fighting for talent and many countries unable to attract and absorb immigrants at a high enough rate to make up for the shortfall in young people for their economies, business is going to have to have to come up with some creative solutions about how to source and organize talent.

As if simple demographics weren't making it hard enough, there are also the changing expectations of the 'millenial generation' to deal with. Work patterns, career planning and development, reward strategies, modes of communication, organizational structures and workplace environments are all going to be radically different within the next decade. The combination of macro-economic forces at the global demographic level, plus leaders in most companies that don't even have the millenial generation as an agenda item, points to us heading for a set of clumsy and haphazard responses to these issues. The answer won't be to copy companies like Google, who have the money to recruit the cream from around the world and create work environments that companies with normal earnings can't afford. Instead, maybe we should be looking for answers in countries like Singapore who have made a head start in thinking about how to make up for population shortfalls and new businesses established by millenial generation entrepreneurs.

David Foot at the University of Toronto is a good source on demographics, if you want facts, figures and thinking on the subject.

Millenialgeneration.org keeps track of insights on the millenial generation debate.

CEO appointments break through national glass ceilings

Following slowly behind the lead shown in the UK premier football league, it seems that companies are increasingly appointing non-nationals to head up their companies on the basis of 'best person for the job'. The NYT reports that, although the majority still recruit from in-country, a growing number look outside, as in Duran at Carrefour. The article provides more examples and some facts and figures for those who are interested.

Systems thinking - old is not necessarily out of date

Researching for an article I came across an essay by Senge and Sterman published in Transforming Organizations by Kochan and Useem back in 1992. It was about the importance of seeing the organization as dynamic rather than the more static perspective of many strategy folk. Research has shown that managers have a bad habit of chopping and changing strategies when things don't seem to be going well, change many variables at once and are not good at articulating underlying rationales for what they are doing. Senge encourages the use of systems thinking as a way to surface assumptions, and learning laboratories to simulate conditions and map, challenge and improve mental models. It's striking how many instances of poor foresight, coupled with 'irrational exuberance' have played out in the political and corporate worlds today. Maybe a little more attention to the possibilities of systems thinking and the lessons of research into group behavior might have helped avoid some of the problems we are now facing.

http://www.amazon.com/Transforming-Organizations-Thomas-Kochan/dp/0195065042/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212520416&sr=8-2