Our changing world of work
Gone are the days of jobs for life. Lamented by many and
remembered by increasingly few. The concept now seems outrageously outdated. To our youth it
appears ‘quaint’ in an old-fashioned way; sort of back there somewhere with black and white
television. It belonged to an era of family certainty and cultural 'givens'.
Many baby-boomer children remember their father (mum didn't work) attaching his
working identity to the company he worked for. "What do you do?",
"Oh, I'm with BHP, what about you?", "Yeah, I'm with Shell!".
It was long term tenure, and Dad was the bread winner. That family sameness
extended across a full span of childhood memories for many individuals who are
in their 40’s and 50’s today. Perhaps in hindsight it was the peak of
industrialized culture in terms of the ‘world of work’.
Trend analysts now describe contemporary life as unchartered waters. Authors such as Salzman & Matathia in their recently updated work titled "Now, Trends for the Future", tell us that today, age-old certainties have crumbled. Known’s such
as normal family, where do babies come from, how old is old, what’s a job, have
all but disappeared. Changes are coming so fast and on such a broad front people
are left bewildered and guessing. This has resulted in a shift in people’s
identity and what they feel is their place in the world.
For most, certainty has been replaced with constant uncertainty. The
world of work is more dynamic and change is constant. Many permutations and
combinations of paid employment now exist. New work opportunities will continue to evolve from
new combinations of multi-disciplinary skills, knowledge, understandings and
technologies. As a result of these changes individuals now face full responsibility for their own career
development. And employers are faced with staff who as individuals, have new
needs and expectations.
In career development language, the era of lifelong
learning has been ushered in. In the world of work 'lifelong learning' informs us that it’s now
individuals who need to consider themselves managers of their own careers and
its necessary and sensible for us all to regard ourselves as self-employed. Old
learning theories have been critiqued; new learning theories have been
added. Narrow trait and factor tests
have been replaced with the need for values and context framed learning
environments.
According to a recently published paper on career guidance the term career has taken new meaning. Career has increasingly broadened from a term that
is synonymous with occupation or job, to be one that represents the
configuration of all facets and roles of an individual’s life. Indeed current
thinking is that all individuals have a career, and paid employment is but
one element of it. Career development is considered a lifelong process and this
process is unique for each individual. Increasing emphasis has been placed on
the process of career development, holism and interconnectedness. www.education.edu.au (Career Guidance
Paper)
The Australian Business Foundation has commented that the commercial world is still adjusting to the shift in staff's new career expectations. Business enterprises are digesting the reality that working
life is simply not homogeneous and stable, but affected by a complex array of
forces for change. They suggest that the challenge for business leaders is to understand that the
new nature of work and their ‘contract’ with employees is not standard.
There are now whole new cohorts of workers with different perceptions and
aspirations for their working life emerging. One size no longer fits all.
Workplace design and flexibility are all open to interpretation and must be
tailored to distinctive circumstances of individual businesses and their myriad
employees.
These expectations are now being framed in policy and new
government legislation. For small enterprises this might yet prove an unwelcome reality. While larger corporations in Australia have been wrestling with
these issues for some years, now it’s the smaller local employers who may
unwittingly be forced into the spotlight.
For instance your local doctors’ clinic was not
traditionally considered a rich learning environment by either Doctors or their
staff. Training and development was rarely a budgeted item and staff certainly
didn’t expect it. It was a bonus if you happened to work for a more pro-active
and professionally oriented clinic. Times have changed.
New accreditation levels has come into play which include assurance
staff have adequate training and development. This will develop new
expectations for both Doctors and their staff. New obligations will be nothing more than another layer of burden and
irritation for a boss who considers staff as solely a negative on the balance sheet. Their cry will be "Just get the right
compliance boxes ticked, and be done with it!" Professionally minded clinics are not likely to embrace it with open arms either, but for them it will simply formalize what they know and do already. Perhaps most significantly, it will begin to affect the thinking
of staff towards their place of employment.
Just
as 2006 ushered in websites where students rate their teachers according to
student perceptions, perhaps the future will contain similar web entities where
practice staff might rate their Doctors and local clinic in terms of their
employment appeal. (a Doctor or Practice Managers very own cyber "Wall of Shame")
"But why would staff bother?" Certainly most won't. But human nature would suggest that some would enjoy firing a cyber dart at their former boss. After all it's anonymous and safe. But in the bigger picture, there will be a more strategic long term motivation, and that is all employees will understand and accept that they must accrue some certified training and develop a portfolio of demonstrated skills to remain employable and current. It will become a simple survival skill in tomorrows employment environment, as individuals pursue their own distinctive mix of work, life and family.
Staff members are now as big a stakeholder, as suppliers and clients in the quality and reputation of the enterprise. Perhaps more than ever before, training and development of a certified nature will play a role in the new world of work for everyone involved in large and small business.
