The Emergent Work Force

Spherion Corporation is a large staffing and recruiting company.  They've been doing worker survey's for the last decade focused on what workers are looking for from their employers.  The most recent report is about 1 year old, but I found it both interesting and relevant.

The focus of the research is what Spherion calls "emergent workers".  These workers make up almost a third of the workforce and, according to the report, as a group they are embracing "a new attitude and mindset towards career and the employment contract."

Emergent workers tend to have the following work related values:

1. They believe they are in charge of their career.
2. They believe they should be rewarded based on performance not tenure.
3. They are drawn to environments with frequent change and excitement.
4. They want the opportunity to contribute at a high level.
5. They son't want to be bogged down by rule, regulations and micro-management.
6. They are interested in work/life balance.
7. They are less driven by job security and safety.

Emergent workers tend to be high performers, but harder to keep happy than traditional workers.  While the study says that emergent workers are spread across all demographic cohorts, our research indicates this description more broadly fits Gen Y than other groups. 

One of the interesting conclusions of the study is:  "Emergent workers won't fret if their employer doesn't embrace these values or offer such an environment, they will simply leave."

Comments

[NievesLorraine22]

Every body acknowledges that life is high priced, nevertheless people require cash for various things and not every person earns big sums cash. So to get fast loans and just small business loan should be a correct way out.

[Chris Moander]

Based on this knowledge, how do you think employers will tend to respond? Should we expect employers, in the short term, to attempt pounding these square pegs into traditionally round holes? What about the risk of allowing inexperienced employees with lofty notions of themselves access to powerful, decision-making roles?

I recognize that these employees are already in the workforce, but I'm curious about (1) employer responses and (2) the net effects of employing these indivudals on businesses generally and specifically

[Tom Hood]

Steve,

Great post! We are seeing these trends all over the place in the CPA profession where we deal with a well-educated workforce that is technologically savvy. Clearly requires us all to rethink how we structure our organizations and manage oour talent. I have been blogging about this topic a good bit over at http://www.cpasuccess.com