3 Trends That Businesses Need to Know as We Emerge From the Pandemic

There are some obvious trends that have resulted from or have been accelerated by the pandemic. Among these are remote work, the Great Resignation, stress/burnout, growth in e-commerce, and automation/digitization.

There are 3 others that you may not have considered that will impact the world of work going forward.

1. The Skills Gap - The skills gap is the difference between the skills required for jobs in your organization and the skills employees actually possess. According to McKinsey, 87% of companies worldwide say they either already have a skills gap or will have one in a few years. With the influence of the pandemic, it is said that the skills gap has turned into a "skills canyon". As it relates to the skills gap, many think of hard skills such as trades and digital skills. However, the skills gap also includes soft skills. In fact, a whopping 60% of managers believe employees lack critical thinking and problem-solving skills with communication, teamwork, and leadership not far behind. What can you do? You probably aren't going to be able to hire your way out of this problem. You can begin to address this issue by conducting a skills gap analysis and then crafting a reskilling strategy that develops the hard and soft skills needed for your business.
2. The Great Sansdemic - The U.S. is suffering from the beginning phases of a sansdemic ("without people"). By 2028, it is predicted that we will have a deficit of 6 million workers - although it kind of seems like that now:) Contributing conditions exacerbated by COVID include record numbers of baby boomers retiring; record low labor force participation; declining fertility rates with the lowest in history from 2010 to 2020; and significant wealth being handed down from Boomers to their children possibly resulting in less future labor force involvement. What can you do? I wish I had the answer to this one. It will be important to develop a positive culture in your organization with competitive wages and benefits because it seems that it may get harder and harder to attract and retain talent.
3. Changes in Workforce Demographics - With more Boomers retiring and Generation Z entering their late teens and 20s, the makeup of the U.S. workforce has shifted dramatically. Almost 50% of the workforce is now made up of Millennials and Generation Z. And the younger generations generally have some differences in what they want from work. Real-time feedback, the latest technology, coaches rather than managers, and career paths to name a few. What can you do? Organizations should quickly get up to speed and adapt engagement strategies to best meet the needs of Millennials and Gen Zs as they will very soon make up the majority of the workforce.

We keep hearing about "resetting normal". With these trends, it is going to be critical to focus on developing, retaining, and engaging your employees. Great talent is going to be hard to find and important to keep!

If you have any questions or need HR guidance or assistance, please contact me at [email protected].