The rapidly changing workplace, propelled by technology advances and the continued rise of the gig/sharing economy, requires leaders and their employees to be highly adaptable and resilient when facing emerging challenges and capitalising on future opportunities.
The employment landscape is changing
A recent report by Deloitte, ‘The path to prosperity: Why the future of work is human’,1 makes predications about the nature of work in the future. These predictions include that, by 2030, 86 per cent of jobs created will be for knowledge workers (those who ‘think’ for a living, rather than carrying out manual tasks), 25 per cent of Australia’s workforce will be professionals and two thirds of jobs will require soft skills. When combined with changing demographics as a result of the ageing population, it’s not hard to imagine a very different workplace in the next decade or so, with different rules and imperatives for survival and growth than there are today. The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ projections show that by 2031 the proportion of over 65-year olds in the overall population will grow significantly, with a corresponding decline in the working age population (15–64-year olds)2.
