Rajat Joshi
101

Dear Professional Associates,

This is the most amazing article I've come across in

recent times. Mind you the author has penned this in

1998 and was at that time looking at ten years ahead

to explain the scenario. At this point of time we are

just three years away from the time stated and how

true it is till now.

One can only look at this piece in awe and salute

Floyd Kemske for what a wonderful visionary he is.

Sit back read and enjoy, while you prepare yourself

for the future...

60 HR Predictions for 2008

By Floyd Kemske

The top 10 predictions in Workplace Flexibility,

Global Business, Work and Society, Workforce

Development, Definition of Jobs, and Strategic Role of

HR.

Workplace Flexibility

Collaborative cultures will be the workplace model.

Creative employment contracts will support more time

off, flexibility in hours and work location,

technological job aids and more pay at risk with

significant upside potential.

Company intranets will become a major tool for

communication, training and benefits administration;

HR will play a leading role in developing this

important tool.

Intelligence through knowledge transfer capability

will separate the best employees from the rest.

Employees will have more and more choices about work

arrangements, allowing them to meet their individual

needs.

Work hours scheduling will become less important as

organizations focus on performance and results.

Company facilities will become "virtual" through

work-at-home, telecommuting and outsourcing.

The workweek will be less structured—employees will

still work 40-plus hours, but at varied times and

places other than the office.

Legislation will lead to greater portability of

health, welfare and retirement benefits.

Free-lance teams of generic problem solvers will

market themselves as alternatives to permanent workers

or individual temps.

Global Business

The role of corporate HR will change to that of

creator of overall values and direction, and will be

implemented by local HR departments in different

countries.

Technology, especially the Internet, will enable more

businesses to enter the global marketplace.

HR professionals will have advanced acumen in

international business practices, international labor

laws, multicultural sensitivities and multiple

languages.

HR professionals will need to be knowledgeable of

other cultures, languages and business practices to

help their companies find and enter more markets.

HR people will have to understand other cultures and

help people work with, and transfer among, various

cultures.

Megaglobal business alliances will grow in number and

scope, requiring great finesse on the part of the HR

professional.

There will be an explosive growth of companies doing

business across borders, and it will be the most

significant change for the economy in modern times.

Cultural understanding and sensitivity will become

much more important for the HR professional of the

future, whereas multiple language ability isn’t going

to become a necessary competency.

The continued emergence of a world marketplace will

require development of an international workforce.

Small teams of HR professionals will focus on

providing performance improvement consulting services

to a variety of locations around the world.

Work and Society

Family and life interests will play a more prevalent

role in people’s lives and a greater factor in

people’s choices about work—there will be more of a

"work to live" than a "live to work" mentality.

Employees will demand increases in workplace

flexibility to pursue life interests.

Dual-career couples will refuse to make the sacrifices

required today in their family lives and more people

(not just women) will opt out of traditional careers.

Families will return to the center of society; work

will serve as a source of cultural connections and

peripheral friendships.

Workers will continue to struggle with their need for

work/ life balance, and it will get worse.

Integration of work with quality-of-life initiatives

will create solutions to problems formerly seen as the

responsibility of government.

Community involvement and social responsibility will

become part of an organization’s business vision.

"Cocooning" will become more popular as workers look

to their homes for refuge from the pressures of a more

competitive workplace and depersonalized society.

Just as defined-contribution plans have begun to take

over from Social Security, companies will take on

responsibility for elder care, long-term care and

other social needs through cafeteria-style benefits

programs.

Those people who refuse or are unable to adapt to new

technologies will find they’re working harder and

accomplishing less.

Workforce Development

Lifelong learning will be a requirement.

The focus of training/learning activities will be on

performance improvement and not just on skill

building.

Employees with varied skills and competencies will be

valued more highly than those with a depth of

expertise in a single area.

Problem solving and decision making will become a

required curriculum with practical work problems as

the training medium.

Training will be delivered "just in time," wherever

people need it, using a variety of technologies.

Companies will demand constant personal growth, and

employees will respond positively to higher

expectations.

It will not be possible to survive in the workplace

without basic computer skills.

People who can learn new skills/competencies quickly

will be highly valued in a faster changing world.

Team projects and special assignments will be a major

factor in personal development.

As the computer-savvy generation is more assimilated

into the workforce, employees will become much more

productive in complex tasks and less dependent on

other people and departments.

Definition of Jobs

Organizations won’t pay for the value of the job but

for the value of the person.

Versatility will be the key factor in determining

employee value with strategic thinking, leadership,

problem solving, technology and people skills close

behind.

Compensation systems will be linked to business

outcomes.

All jobs will require higher levels of computer

skills.

Positions will be organized in teams focused on a

task, not organized around a hierarchy.

Positions will be defined by the competencies needed

to be performed.

Employees will be more independent, moving from

project to project within their organizations.

Many jobs will be redesigned to be much broader in

scope, especially in management positions, resulting

in leaner head counts.

Employees will be increasingly measured by how much

value they contribute to the business, not by whether

they fulfilled predetermined objectives.

Work will be more challenging, and jobs will become

increasingly complex.

Strategic Role of HR

Successful HR departments will focus on organizational

performance.

HR’s value will be to have the right people ready at

the right time: recruiting leaders to join the

company’s mix of talent and keeping the "bench" full

of enabled, competent workers.

The focus of the HR function will be human capital

development and organizational productivity; HR may be

renamed to reflect this.

HR will evolve from strategic business partnership to

strategic business leadership (driving change and

results, not just monitoring them).

A key HR role in the future will be multidisciplinary

consulting around individual, team, business unit and

corporate performance.

Managers will grow to depend more and more on HR

professionals as they realize that good people

management can be the strategic advantage in the next

decade.

Leading change will become HR’s greatest contribution

to the corporation.

More and more businesses will use HR as a strategic

partner.

HR will have a "seat at the table" as part of the top

management team and report directly to the CEO in most

companies.

A key HR role will be managing increasingly scarce

human and intellectual capital.

Workforce, January 1998, Vol. 77, No. 1, pp. 50-51.

Cheers,

Rajat

From India, Pune
Rekha
14

Hi Rajatji, Amazing...very good posting.....infact we are observing / feeling the same in our today’s scenerio. tke cre
From India, Delhi
Rajat Joshi
101

Hi Rekha,
Yes, you are right..these r coming true in today's scenario..
Also it means that we have to perk up to meet these challenges in donning the role of strategic HR in real terms & contribute to Company's bottomline...
Cheers,
Rajat

From India, Pune
shaki
1

Dear Rajat, Long time you didn’t post anything? Why? :?: :?: :?: Bala, Leo, Ajmal Bhai also? :( Please keep posting, we need your support. :) Regards,
From Malaysia, Ipoh
satyavegi
1

nice one ajat very nice to see the present senerio way back in 1998 article good to see things as predicted .now i feel how it will be in 2018 satya vegi
From India, Mumbai
hbnath_2006
Hi Rajat, It’s really a nice informative article which fills in lot of energy for the aspirants in HR like us.Thanx for ur info. Regards, Badari.

monishapep@yahoo.com
8

Good Morning Rajatji, I found this post very benificial to implement & size up the HR dept properly in any company. Regards, Mona
From India, Mumbai
Moushmi
5

Dear Mr.Rajat,
Its indeed a very good posting. All what is said by the thinker is happening in current situation. I wonder , what will be the scene after 6-7 yrs. If, like this we come to know now, we all HRs will be pre-prepared for the same, isn't it ?
Regards
Moushmi

From India, Mumbai
maria
hi rajat!! thanks for this great article!am working on my summer internship right now...and am experiencing most of what is mentioned there!so much for 2008...! regards maria
From India
amandeep
hi very nice posting Mr Rajat , for people like me who are just entering in HR field . Knowing how Hr will likely to be in future we can upgrade ourself . r`egards Aman
From India, Delhi
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